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    Xavier peers out across the street at his work. The office building and attached parking garage was back towards downtown, and the buildings were fairly small and cramped on the corner of the block. There was one lone light left lit on the second floor, but the area otherwise looked empty. No broken windows to torn open doors, although there was another entrance into the attached garage that they couldn''t see from here.


    Tucked into an alley across the street, they watched to see if anything moved. The trip over had been nerve wracking. On the way, they had passed by the park at the edge of his neighborhood. A skittering sound that made him think of spiders drew his attention to the park. Moving away from it he peered into the darkness of the park, thinking of the bearcoon. But the park was pretty open and didn''t appear to be hiding any monsters to jump out at them.


    But as he had stared into the park as they walked by, he had seen an odd warping of the air over by the gazebo. While the park was dark he was still able to see through it better than he ever had prior to tonight, with the same dim illumination that he had noticed since he woke up after the first fight. The air in front of the gazebo twisted and pulled in on itself, as if something was tugging on it from the other side or it was flowing down a drain.


    For a brief moment his sight had shifted, depicting an overgrown forest scene, covered in a thick webbing that resembled spider silk was was coating everything visible as if they had been poured on rather than spun over it. A massive spider like creature sporting an extra pair of legs had reached down and rolled something over in the webbing before spraying it with more webs that steamed with a blue vapor as a moaning noise escaped the webbing briefly, before his vision had returned to the park.


    He shudders, shaking off the memory and refocusing on the office complex across the road from them. Balere''s foot shifts behind him, the sounds of small pebbles shifting underfoot loud on the eerily quiet street. There was usually some form of traffic through here, even at night. It was close enough to downtown to get the occasional passerby, but not tonight. The silence was deafening.


    "I''m tired of standing in this alley and I don''t see anything. Unless either of you thinks we should wait longer, lets get this over with and see if we can get inside?" He turns and looks over his shoulder at Balere and Gareth crouched behind him. Gareth had pulled out a monocular and was staring at the office as well, but put it away as he started to stand.


    "I haven''t seen anything," Gareth replied. "But that light concerns me, especially if its not normally left on. Something could have gotten in. At the least it draws attention to the building."


    Nodding, he looks at Balere "Not that I am aware of anyway. Granted I am not usually the first one here. You good?"


    "Yea, just tired." She stands and brushes her knees off. "Lets do this."


    Hefting his makeshift shield and hammer, he starts off across the road towards the parking garage entrance. Might as well check that entrance, plus since the building still has power, his keycard should work to get them into the building. Better than standing out in the open on the road while they try to get past the front door lock. That one had an actual lock and lockpicking was never a skill he had picked up. Felt dirty, even if there were good reasons to know how. Plus the garage would be far easier to flee from if they ran into something than the interior of the building.


    Stepping up to the dark entrance of the garage, he peers into the first floor of the garage. No cars. Well, except for that dusty piece of crap that has sat in the corner for the last 2 years. Management must know something about it, nothing was ever done about it despite the garage only being used by the company. Not even any decent lights in here, just a couple of dim domes that barely illuminated directly under them let alone the rest of the garage.


    "You two able to see in here? I have been able to see like dimly since I got knocked out earlier, but didn''t think to bring it up with everything else going on."


    "Yea, almost like trying to see by a nightlight since I summoned that thing."


    "Same, since bearcoon exploded. Useful, and the least of the weird shit tonight, but I wonder how?"


    "No clue, but happy to abuse it." Stepping into the garage and not seeing anything moving around he starts forward before pausing. "Do we want to check upstairs or just try to go inside? It''s just an open top floor."


    "Probably just go inside, are there windows upstairs that look onto the garage? We could just cheat and check it out from inside if so." Gareth chimes in, never looking away from the ramp up.


    "Good call, lets not bite off more work than we need to tonight." He advances across the first floor, stepping up to the large metal door set into the wall that was shared with the office itself. The blue paint across its surface was chipped and weathered, no effort having been put into maintaining it recently. Why bother, when the only people to regularly see it were employees. Fishing in his pocket, he pulls out his keycard and presses it up against the reader, wincing as a loud chirp echoes out from the reader as it detects the card. There is a brief pause before the light on the reader turns green and the thunk of the magnetic lock disengaging comes from the door.


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Step 1, easy. Probably a bad sign given how the night is going." He mutters under his breath before moving to the door and cautiously pulling it open as Gareth trains his rifle on the opening entry. Gareth nods as nothing comes into view and Xavier spins around the door, bringing his shield up in front of him, feeling vaguely like he was playing a video game. Probably best to not have that thought. I get stabbed by something and its not going to feel like a video game.  In front of him, a hallway leading deeper into the office for about 40 feet, door splitting off occasionally and dead ending into another. Immediately to the left, a set of stairs that lead to the second floor.


    "Balere, can you watch these stairs while we check the rest of the floor? Anything dangerous shows up have your friend squish it or run." He glances at her as she nods with a scared look on her face. "We will come running if anything happens. It will be alright, and then we can take a break." Rather keep an eye on Gareth, don''t know him yet. Not that he has done anything concerning yet... Speaking of.  "Gareth, make sure that door clicks shut behind you, last thing we need is something wandering in behind us."


    Gareth nods and pulls the door shut behind him as Balere moves to the base of the stairs and begins to watch them as if she expects the stairs themselves to attack her. Maybe they will, won''t be the weirdest thing tonight. Close to it though.  Xavier chuckles for a bit before moving to the first door and popping it open. No room in the hallway to let Gareth get a good sightline into it. Breakroom, but of a mess with chairs pulled out and scattered around and several napkins on the table, like someone had a meal and didn''t clean up after themselves. No window to the outside thankfully.


    Next two doors were bathrooms, which were quickly cleared as well, finding nothing hiding in them. The door to the next room was locked, the placard on the door labeled "Security". That door was always locked, but they should probably play it safe and find a way into that door eventually. The last 4 side rooms on the hallway were admin offices, apparently untouched since the people that work in them had left at the end of the last workday. No windows there either, thankfully. At least the core of the first floor is safeish.


    "We can be seen from the outside for everything else in here, so keep an eye out the windows as well as we move into the next area." Gareth nods as he squares up behind Xavier, gun pointed over his should. I really hope he doesn''t have to use that here. I''ll wish I was deaf.  Xavier pushes the door open, peering out into the back of the reception area. The receptionists phone lay scattered across the desk like it had been dropped in a hurry but no noise came from the headset. Looking around the front area, the doors was shut and no windows were broken in. Stepping around the receptionist''s desk he confirmed the front doors were locked shut. "I think someone has been here, though maybe one of the employees given the fact everything is still locked up."


    "Found out the phones are useless it looks like. Think they fled? Or maybe they are the source of the light upstairs." Gareth replies while looking into the other offices that led down one side of the open space out here one by one, and closing the doors behind him.


    Xavier shrugs. "I wouldn''t mind finding another person alive in this insanity. But I guess we will find out. Probably by walking face first into them. I''m not going to go calling for anyone until we know its safe in here. Anything that way?"


    "Nope, all clear. Some of your coworkers are slobs."


    Xavier chuckles. "Yea, unfortunately. Hopefully its not one of them that''s been through here. Lets get back out of sight." He turns back toward the door leading into the back when a thump echoes through the room from the ceiling. He freezes, looking at the ceiling where the sound had originated from. "Definitely something or someone upstairs. Great..." He sighs and continues back toward the door, waiting for Gareth to pass him and closing it behind him.


    Back down the hallway, he finds Balere standing in the corning of the stairwell staring up it. "Did you hear that? The thump? Something is upstairs! I heard it!" The panic in Balere''s voice was palpable as she stares up the flight of stairs.


    "I heard it. Stay behind me, lets go see what it is. Might be one of my coworkers. We found the phone in the front off of the hook and someone left the breakroom a mess. Be ready anyway."


    Creeping up the stairs, at the top he finds the hallway lights upstairs turned on, flooding light into the stairwell. Someone or something is scared of the dark.  Peering out into the hallway, he sees more signs of someone here, a bag left in one corner, with a cell phone discarded next to it. No sign of the person though. To the right he sees an office with the door open, lights on and shining out into the dark outside. Stepping over, he peers cautiously into the room, and seeing no one turns the light off and closes the door.


    Heading to the next door he pauses before turning back to Balere near the stairs and pointing at the lights overhead and then the switch on the wall next to her. She nods, turning the lights off. The top floor had a ring hallway that ran around it separating the exterior offices that had windows, and the ones for the drones that were clustered in the middle of the floor and didn''t have windows. No reason to flash a light in each one when he popped the doors.


    He made it about halfway around the floor, popping the exterior offices and confirming nothing in them, while Balere and Gareth followed behind, keeping an eye on the interior offices while he worked. From behind, he heard another thump from one of the interior offices and spun, leaving the door he was about to open closed. Peering at his group to make sure they were ready he crept over to the door, took a deep breath and pushed the door open.


    From within he heard a female screech as the face of Laura, the front desk receptionist jumped into view, her face contorted into a rictus of panic and she slammed into him, pushing him back slightly as he absorbed the impact. He felt a hot sharp pain in his side, and he looks down to spot the handle of a knife protruding from him side.


    Well, that''s not good.