Chapter Text
The building loomed ahead of her. The faded, cracked letters on the sign read "C&A," eaten away by the cruel passing of time. The glass doors and windows were boarded up, but the work was messy and rushed as if someone had been desperate to seal this place away in a hurry.
"Weird," Abigail breathed out, her shoulders slumping heavily under the weight of her fatigue. She lifted her phone, her fingers hovering over the screen for a hesitant moment before she pressed record. "Well guys, looks like I found another abandoned building. I don't really know what it used to be, but it's definitely giving horror movie vibes, so..."
She paused, scanning her surroundings. No cars. No movement. There was only the wind brushing through the trees.
"Yeah, this is one of the creepiest buildings I've seen," she said to the camera, "and I've seen a lot of creepy-ass buildings."
Taking a deep breath, she held it in and stepped closer to the entrance. The wet gravel crunched loudly beneath her feet as a soft rain began to freckle the ground. One of the boards nailed across the door hung loose, creaking in the wind like it had been violently ripped open by someone else. That shouldn't have made her feel better, but it did.
She crouched low, maneuvering herself underneath the jagged wood. The moment she crossed the threshold, the air changed. It grew freezing cold, and the comforting sigh of the wind was cut off instantly. Abigail flicked on her phone's flashlight. The beam cut through the heavy dark, revealing rows of dusty desks, overturned chairs, and old 90s monitors that had long gone black. Papers riddled the floor, soaked with age, their edges curled like burnt leaves.
As she walked deeper, she swallowed hard, her eyes darting through the shadows. It was so quiet she could hear her heartbeat quickening in her ears. Something felt inherently wrong.
"This is actually crazy," she whispered. The silence sliced through her voice, making it echo strangely. "It's like everyone just left... and never came back-"
A sharp rustling sound erupted behind her. Her chocolate brown hair whipped around as she spun toward the noise, her breath hitching tightly in her throat.
Nothing. No one. She was completely alone.
Her heart pounded so violently it felt as if she had swallowed it. "H-hello?" her voice cracked. No answer.
Her foot hovered in the air for a second too long as she contemplated her next step. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself forward toward the room where the noise had originated. Deep down, she knew this was stupid. Cliché. The kind of thing a horror movie protagonist does right before something kills them. Still, she proceeded, her flashlight scanning the empty space.
There was nothing there, but this room looked different from the rest. It was less abandoned, almost maintained. At the far end, a door stood slightly ajar. A faint, electric buzz hummed from inside.
Abigail hesitated. "Fuck... I'm incredibly dumb for doing this," she muttered, already walking toward it.
The door creaked loudly as she pushed it open. The smaller room contained only a single desk and a chair. Resting on the desk was another vintage monitor, and next to it sat a VR headset. It didn't look modern, nor did it match anything she recognized; it was oddly simple, and smaller than a normal headset.
Abigail lowered her phone slightly, staring at it with furrowed brows. "What is that...?"
She set her phone down on the desk, angling the flashlight upward so it bathed the room in a ghoulish glow. Slipping her fingers underneath the headset, she lifted it. Abigail cocked an eyebrow, examining it closely. Right in the middle of the casing was a warning sticker she recognized instantly: a laser symbol.
"Why would a VR headset need a laser warning...?" she mumbled. She turned it around, but where the screen should have been, there was nothing, just more of the same grainy, white texture that covered the rest of the body.
She hummed, her hands gripping the sides tighter. "I wonder..." she whispered.
She brought the headset toward her face. For a fraction of a second, her hands twitched with doubt. But she puffed her chest out with false determination and swiftly pulled it over her eyes.
Inky blackness swallowed her. The headset cut off her vision entirely, but for half a second, reality violently shifted. Bright lights flashed, bold colors exploded, and loud music roared in her ears and then it vanished. Her breath caught. A terrifying sensation washed over her, like something... or someone... was being ripped out of her soul.
She quickly jerked the headset off of her face, throwing it back onto the desk without hesitation. Stumbling backward, her heart slammed against her ribs. The room was exactly the same dusty, cold, and faintly buzzing. Nothing had changed.
Except her.
Her hands shook violently as she watched the headset, terrified it might come to life. Her stomach twisted. A strange pressure built behind her eyes not exactly pain, but the sensation of a heavy memory trying to force its way through a locked door in her mind.
Backing away slowly, she kept her eyes glued to the device. Then she turned and bolted, nearly tripping over her own feet. It was only when she reached the main hallway that she realized she had left her phone behind.
She skidded to a stop, looking back at the dark room. She contemplated leaving it, but a deep, sinking instinct told her that the footage she just shot would be vital. Groaning, her face contorting in fear, she spun on her heel and ran back. Going back into the room, her phone was right were she had left it. She quickly snatched the phone off the desk and dashed back toward the exit, her heavy footsteps cracking against the hard, industrial carpet.
Reaching the exit, she swerved and ducked to thrust herself back under the boarded-up door. Her foot caught on the threshold. The ground rushed up to meet her, and she slammed down hard, her palms skidding across the jagged gravel.
Her flesh tore. Panicking, she scrambled backward on her hands and knees, the cold rain stinging the fresh, bloody tears in her skin. She forced herself up, stumbling blindly through the downpour until she finally burst past the front gate.
'I'm Safe.'
The tension snapped, leaving her knees weak. A shuddering breath escaped her lips a tiny, fragile thread of relief just as the true agony of her scraped limbs finally began to burn.
"Fuck," she breathed, looking down at her hands and knees. Abigail hissed through her teeth as the pouring rain washed her blood away as quickly as it spilled out. Clenching her trembling fists, she pursed her lips, turned away from the nightmare, and headed toward the main road.