Previous: Spirit of Mystery Part 5
It was a surprisingly normal looking first floor. There were a few rows of chairs in the waiting room against the walls, and a receptionist behind the counter on the far side. There was one guy practicing lines for what sounded like a commercial in the waiting room, with what he heard of their commercials, it was surprising to see that they practiced at all.
Rhys and Jena walked toward the receptionist until she pulled his arm off to the side, near some of the chairs.
Jena: Alright, hold it, what exactly were you planning to say?
Rhys: Well, I was just gonna go to the elevator.
Jena: What? Are you crazy? They don't just let kids waltz into their building and let them roam free. We need a security clearance of some sort.
Rhys: Well, we could just be here for a radio show or something.
Jena: Maybe we should have scheduled something with someone. I don't think a plan off the top of our heads is going to fly here. Maybe we should go ask Dr. Willow if she could help us-- [Looked over toward the receptionist.] What is Duskull doing?
Both of them looked over to see the receptionist was still typing on her computer as Duskull came in close to her, and she didn't notice until Duskull was directly in front of her.
Receptionist: WAH! [Fell backward in her chair.] Oh my God! What is that thing!? Help me! Someone help me!
Duskull: Duuuuuskull?
Rhys: Come on! [Grabbed Jena's hand and they hurried over to the stairwell, followed closely by Duskull as they cleared enough out of sight.]
The two of them hurried up the stairs a little ways up until they got to about the fourth floor. They caught their breath for a moment, leaning down a little, only to look at one another to notice that they were very close. They turned around to act casual.
Rhys: Nice work, Duskull. That was quick thinking.
Duskull: Duskull?
Jena: Now, which floor are we going to?
Rhys: Not completely sure. We'll have to search them all.
Jena: [Slapped the back of his head.] You ARE crazy! I am not searching all seven floors! We need--
They heard a noise from downstairs, the door opened, and there came a female voice, and judging by the hysterics, it must have been the receptionist. They moved to the wall to move out of sight, while Duskull went through the wall.
Receptionist: It came at me, scared the life out of my soul and came here to the stairwell! Please, take care of it for me!
Male Voice: Righto ma'am, I suppose security can be used for ghost busting, right Rusty?
Rusty: Groowwwwlithe!
Jena: [Whispered] Growlithe?! We need to hide!
The door closed, but it was quite clear that the security guard was starting to ascend the stairs, as well as Rusty the Growlithe. The pair of trainers started to ascend as well, only with a greater sense of urgency. That was when Rhys looked to the left and saw a light switch, and then he stopped. Jena looked back at him, and saw him eyeing the light switch. At first she was confused, but then he turned it off, and the whole stairwell went dark.
Rusty: Growlithe!
Guard: Gah! Mr. Ghost?! What are ya doin! You'd better turn that light back on right now and come out with whatever ghostly appendages you have, put'em up!
Rhys: [Put his hands over his mouth in a hollering motion] Duuuuuuuuuskulllllll!
Guard: Eh?! Okay, this is getting creepy! Rusty! Use Fire Spin and light this place!
Both of their eyes went completely wide, and they looked at each other.
That was when a gigantic burst of flames went up the stairwell's midsection and lit the whole place. Both Jena and Rhys went into the fifth floor doorway, and hid to the side of the doorway so that they were not in the window's view. Both of them pressed themselves against the wall. Jena's head was close to Rhys's chest, and she could hear his heart going at a fierce rate. They panted, and waited for the guard to go by their door.
Jena: [Whispered.] Is he gone?
Rhys: I think so. We can stay here a minute, I don't think he'll be coming here for a while, I think we spooked him.
Jena: Good, because this is getting weird.
Rhys: Yeah, it is.
That was when Rhys looked into the floor that they were on, and saw that all of the lights were out in the hallway. The halls were completely blank white, but darker than ever, as the windows were covered by blinds that allowed very little sunlight through. The doors along the hallways had editing rooms, recording studios, sound mixing rooms, meeting rooms, and all of them were dead silent, and all of the lights were nonexistent.
Jena looked around at all of the floor, and saw that even the air was still and stale. The stagnant atmosphere of that place made her skin crawl to a horrible extent.
Jena: This is the place.
Rhys: Yeah, it is. [Pulled out a flashlight and turned it on. He began to walk down that long hallway with her.]
All of the rooms they passed had windows, and all of them were very still, they tried to turn on the lights, but none of them worked. In fact, none of the electronics worked.
Jena: They might have turned off the circuit breakers in the maintence closet. I think I saw it [She turned to her left and saw that the room she saw there was gone.] What? That's weird. That room was right there.
She turned back to Rhys, and in the darkness, for a moment, she could only see the back of his head. His entire head turned all the way around toward her, and he had no face.
She backed up against the wall, hard! That was when the Rhys dummy fell to the floor, his head shattering into a million pieces, and then beginning to melt. As it melted, the floor began to sizzle. She screamed, backing away from it fast as she slid along the wall, and gazed at whatever it was that just occurred, as she was having a very hard time telling her brain that it really did happen at all.
That was when she heard something rolling across the ground. She looked down the hallway to see a pokeball working its way toward her.
It stopped with the white half downward and the button on the front lighting up. It flashed open, and the energy inside burst out and took form.
Houndour: Grrrrrrrrr! [It growled, and sent a serious chill down Jena's spin as it gazed at her with two glowing, red eyes.]