Taking Care of Reno
Chapter 10: Ghost Stories
“… and when he woke up, he found himself in a bathtub filled with ice! And his…”
“Yeah, we know, Reno… His kidney was gone,” Elena interjected before the redhead could finish. Reno glared at her in the darkness of the Turks’ private lounge, and let the flashlight he was holding under his chin drop to his lap.
“Geez Elena… spoil the ending, why don’t ya?” he muttered.
“We all KNOW the ending! That’s the oldest story in the book!” Elena retorted.
“So? It’s a classic,” Reno replied.
“… It’s lame, Reno,” Rude said, adding his two cents on the matter. Reno folded his arms across his chest.
“Fine… I suppose you can do better?” he snapped. But Rude didn’t have the opportunity to answer the challenge. Without warning, the room was illuminated by the harsh glare of overhead flourescent lighting, and all three Turks jumped in surprise, turning toward the door.
“Gaahh! Little warning next time, yo!” Reno yelled, squinting in the unexpected brightness.
“Dare I even ask?” Tseng said with a sigh as his gaze fell upon his fellow Turks, all seated in a circle on the floor of the lounge.
“It was Reno’s idea, sir…” Elena explained, “Since Halloween is tomorrow, he thought it’d be fun to tell ghost stories… er… seeing as we’re not on assignment at the moment… sir…”
“Not the one about the stolen kidney, again,” Tseng snickered, rolling his eyes, and strolling into the room, taking a seat on the arm of the overstuffed sofa that sat against one wall.
“It’s a CLASSIC!” Reno insisted, irritably.
“It’s an urban legend that’s been around for decades. And not a very convincing one, at that,” Tseng replied, “You do this every year, Reno. If you’re going to make us listen to your so-called ghost stories every Halloween, you might at least try telling one that we haven’t all heard a dozen times for a change. I’d be willing to bet you don’t even KNOW any decent ghost stories…”
“Yeah? You challenging me?” Reno asked with a smirk.
“What if I am?” Tseng replied, feeling a bit more playful than usual and cocking an eyebrow at the redhead.
“You’re on, boss-man,” declared Reno, “You and me… one story each. Elena and Rude pick the winner.”
“Mmm… And what’s the prize?” Tseng asked, smiling slightly.
“… Good question,” Reno replied, thinking for a moment, “Ok… if I win, you take my place next week when the President goes to give his speech in Junon…”
Reno had been dreading that assignment from the moment it had been handed to him. Not that it was anything difficult, but the President’s speeches were notoriously long-winded… and boring. And Reno would have to sit through the whole damned thing…
“And if my story is superior to yours?”
“Name it,” said Reno.
“No alcohol for one full week,” Tseng said, smirking at the expression that came over Reno’s face. Were it not for his friend’s already-alabaster skin, he would have sworn the man had just gone a shade or two paler… which, of course, was the entire point behind Tseng’s “prize”.
“What’s the matter, Reno? Losing confidence?” Tseng goaded him. Reno scowled at him.
“Fine, if that’s what you want. Not like you’re gonna win anyway…”
“We’ll see,” Tseng replied, as he twisted around and flicked off the lights.
———-
Tseng graciously allowed Reno the priviledge of going first. Elena and Rude sat across from the two of them, much more eager to hear whatever demented tale Reno’s mind might concoct, now that his favorite after-hours hobby was on the line.
“Alright…” Reno began, “The story I’m about to tell you is true. It happened years ago, when I was just a kid…”
You all know where I grew up. The slums… not exactly a pleasant place most of the time. Oh, yeah… I could tell ya stories. Stories that’d make your skin crawl. I grew up in Sector 2… and let me tell ya, it was the worst of ’em all. Sector 2 was where the lowest of the gutter trash ended up when they were run out of the more respectable sectors. Real fucked up place. You had your decent people, of course, but a lot of scum besides. And that sent most of the good people runnin’ for the hills… or for one of the other sectors, at least. But me, I toughed it out there in Sector 2 for a good long while. Me and a few friends of mine. I was probably somewhere around twelve or thirteen when it all happened.
One day, dead of winter, kids just started disappearin’ all over the sector. No one knew what happened to em’. ‘Course, it was nothing strange for a kid or two ta go missin’ every once in a while in that place… but this was different. Whole bunch of ’em all a once, and no one saw what happened to any of them. ‘Course the first thing people thought was that it was some pervert, grabbing up kids and carrying ’em off somewhere to do who knows what to ’em. So parents started watchin’ their kids like hawks…
That didn’t stop it, though… Kids kept disappearin’. Lot of kids down there with no parents, or parents that just didn’t give a rat’s ass if they came home or not. Those were the ones that went missing after people started to take notice. It went on like that for more’n a month, and then… it just stopped. Just like that. And no one knew why. None of the kids ever came back, but no more went missin’ either, and eventually people stopped worryin’ about it.
“Oh give me a break…” Elena groaned, rolling her eyes as she cut him off, “That’s how that stupid movie about the disfigured lunatic living in the sewers starts out… You know, the one that came out LAST WEEK?”
“… It is not!” Reno protested. Mentally, he was smacking himself… he’d never pegged Elena as a fellow fan of low-budget slasher flicks. What were the odds that she’d gone to the same movie he had last week? Elena snatched the flashlight from the redhead’s hand, and passed it over to Tseng.
“It’s your turn, sir…” she said, ignoring Reno.
“Hey! I wasn’t even done yet!”
“… I don’t think it’s much of a contest at this point,” Rude noted.
“Oh yeah?” said Reno, “We’ll just see. He’s still got to come up with something scary, yo!”
Tseng smiled a thin smile, and began to speak in a low voice.
———-
“My story is a little different. I don’t spend my off-duty hours studying the subtle nuances of cliche horror movies. They’re not frightening in the least to someone who knows what fear is really about. Everything I am about to tell you is the truth… and if any of you doubt it when I’m through, you’re welcome to look up the incident report for yourselves. You’ll find it in the Turks Archives, in my own handwriting.”
Have you ever wondered why no one… not even members of the Turks… is permitted on the 14th floor? Oh, we tell the employees that it’s a private area, only accessible by the highest level security clearance. Most people think it’s some sort of lounge for Shinra executives. But that’s not the real story. The fact is that the 14th floor has been sealed for the last nine years.
Obviously, it all happened before any of you were even being considered for promotion to the Turks. I myself had only been one for a few short years. The 14th floor used to be part of Shinra’s archives. It’s a literal maze of floor to ceiling shelves, drawers, and filing cabinets that once contained vast amounts of company data awaiting entry into the computer databases, unused equipment, unclaimed personal property… thousands of items and files, all waiting to be sorted into their proper places at some point. In fact, it was so maze-like back then, that’s what quite a few people called it… The Maze.
Walking onto the 14th floor was akin to venturing into the unknown. It was almost disturbingly easy to simply vanish into the Maze… and even easier to get lost. The people who worked there knew it all like the back of their hand, of course, but anyone else wouldn’t have a chance.
“Yeah, yeah… so when’s this get scary?” Reno muttered. Elena elbowed him.
“Just wait,” Tseng replied.
As it happened, the 14th floor had it’s own ongoing drama amongst the employees. A love triangle, you might say. A shy, and somewhat disturbed young man named Haru Ishaboda was at the heart of it. As near as I was able to piece together after the fact, Mr. Ishaboda was… enamored… with one of his female coworkers. A woman by the name of Andromeda Marcus. She, however, was apparently involved with another young man named Noah Richardson.
One night, quite late… several hours after I’d gone home for the day, actually… I received a call from Veld…
“Veld was head of the Turks before Tseng,” Reno interjected, noting Elena’s somewhat confused look.
“Ah, yes, that’s right… You wouldn’t know Veld, would you,” Tseng replied, “He was killed… oh, about four or five years before you joined us.”
“Killed my ass. Terminated was more like it,” Reno muttered.
“Enough, Reno… or would you prefer a lecture on the history of the Turks rather than listen to my story?”
“Uh… no.”
At any rate, I received a call from Veld. There had been a murder on the 14th floor. Noah Richardson was dead, and the killer was very likely hiding somewhere in the Maze. The floor had been sealed off, but the security guards on the nightwatch didn’t dare go after him in there… and when I got there, I could understand why.
Even in my short time as a Turk, I’d seen things… horrible things… that would make most people turn away in revulsion. But the sight that greeted me turned my stomach. My partner at the time, Artemis, was as hardened as they came, but even he was shocked.
The man had been stripped, disemboweled, and castrated… his heart had been cut out, and…
Tseng paused, and shook his head.
“On second thought, I really don’t care to go any farther into the specifics. Let’s just say it was the singularly most disturbing and horrific thing I’d ever seen… HAVE ever seen… and leave it at that.”
Reno and Elena exchanged a wide-eyed glance. Coming from someone as unflappable Tseng… that was something. He cleared his throat and continued.
Our initial plan was to wait for backup. More Turks had been called in and would be arriving shortly, and the killer had literally hundreds of places to ambush us from. And if he was one of the employees who worked on the floor – as we suspected he was, given that 14 was virtually ignored by anyone who didn’t work there on a daily basis – he would have the added benefit of knowing his way around.
But then we heard it… a shrill, desperate cry for help. It sounded like a woman’s voice, and suddenly our pursuit of a deranged killer had become a hostage situation. Artemis and I made the decision to go in after the killer. I’d only ever had cause to visit the 14th floor once prior to that night… and I hadn’t ventured far into the maze. Artemis had only ever gone a bit farther in than I had. Despite our best efforts, we were lost before we even realized it.
But by then, we could hear muffled cries coming from deeper within the rows upon rows of shelves and cabinets. We followed it as best we could, but by the time we found the source it was too late. It was almost as if he knew we were coming. Miss Marcus was on the floor, bleeding badly from hundreds of cuts all over her body. She looked me in the eye as her life faded away. Ishaboda was standing over her with a knife. His eyes were glazed over like a madman… And he was laughing.
Even as we took aim at him and ordered him to drop his weapon and surrender, he was laughing. And he kept laughing as he stabbed himself in the heart. He laughed until his dying breath a few moments later.
“Ok, so the guy was nuts,” said Reno, “Big deal. Disturbing, yeah… but not really scary.”
“I’m not finished yet,” Tseng replied, “I still haven’t told you why the floor remains sealed, even now. You see, afterward, the scene was cleaned up immediately. No one was told anything about what had happened that night… the mysterious disappearances of Richarson, Marcus, and Ishaboda were explained away with some story, and the rest of the employees of the 14th floor went about their daily routine, none the wiser…”
But things were never the same on the 14th floor. It began with minor incidents… a worker tripping over something that wasn’t there… files falling from the shelves for no apparent reason…
Soon, however, it progressed to far more sinister occurances. One young woman was nearly crushed when one of the shelving units toppled over. And if you ever saw one of those things, it would be fairly obvious that they DON’T just fall over. Other people claimed that when they were working late they could hear crying… sometimes even screaming coming from somewhere deep inside the Maze, but when they followed the sound they could never find it’s source. One man heard someone laughing behind him, and was so disturbed by the sound of it… even moreso when he discovered that no one was there… he applied for a transfer to another department.
Soon, no one was willing to work on the 14th floor, and so the files and equipment were carted off to other parts of the building, and the floor was sealed… permanently. Only the President, the Vice President, and myself have access… and quite frankly, I have no intention of ever using it.
Reno rolled his eyes.
“Right… You’re telling me the 14th floor is haunted?” he said, smirking, “Please.”
“Believe what you will,” Tseng shrugged, “The incident is, as I mentioned earlier, recorded in the archives of Turks case files. Case #1027-9, if you’d care to read it for yourself.”
“Oh, come on…” Reno snorted.
“Read the case file if you don’t believe me,” said Tseng, shrugging indifferently, “It’s all there in black and white.”
“… Tseng wins,” Rude intoned. Elena was nodding in agreement. The leader of the Turks chuckled.
“If I recall correctly, the deal was no alcohol for one week, yes?” Tseng added, goading the younger man.
“H-hey! Wait a minute!” Reno tried to interject… but it was too late, and he knew it. Resigned to his fate, he sighed and buried his face in his hands.
“I hate you all.”
———-
The next morning was a Friday. No work the next day meant that Reno could have enjoyed a night of drunken Halloween fun… were if not for losing his little bet with Tseng the evening before. As an entire week of sobriety loomed before him, Reno couldn’t help but feel a little dejected, even today, his favorite holiday.
It was so very unfair. The only reason Tseng’s story had be even remotely scary was because he claimed it was all true. Reno knew better. There were no such things as ghosts, and even if there had really been a murder on the 14th floor once, he doubted that it was as dramatic as Tseng claimed. Of course, Elena had bought into it, hook, line, and sinker.
‘Well,’ Reno thought, ‘If Tseng’s gonna ruin my Halloween with that lame story of his, at least I can prove that it’s a total fake.’
And with that thought in mind, he set off toward the Turk case file archives.
Unfortunately when he got there, he suddenly realized that he’d completely forgotten the case number. The archives were huge, containing files that went back more than 20 years. Files on every incident the Turks had ever handled… With a groan, Reno realized that it could take days to find the file without its reference number. He could always ask Tseng for it… but then he would have to admit what he was up to. No way would Tseng want to see Reno prove that he’d made the whole thing up… He’d probably find some menial little task to keep him busy for the rest of the day just to keep him out of the archives.
So that just left a manual search. Current cases were all neatly organized in the company’s computer database. But older cases? Something from nearly ten years ago? The computer records didn’t go back that far. Not for the Turks archives, at any rate. Generally once a case was closed by the Turks, it was quietly swept under the rug and never mentioned again. Shinra had never seen the need to digitally archive the massive backlog of case files the Turks had generated over the years.
“Well… Guess I’ve got some reading to do,” Reno sighed, “Let’s see… Nine years ago, he said…”
Luckily, the archives WERE organized enough that one could find something if one knew generally when it had occurred. Reno headed towards the filing cabinets towards the middle of the room, reading the dates on the fronts of the drawers. He finally found the year he was looking for, groaning upon discovering that said year took up three full cabinets and part of a fourth, each as tall as he was…
As he was reaching for the first drawer, he heard the door open behind him.
“Shit!” he hissed, ducking out of sight. Tseng was the only one who ever came in here… he was the only one besides Elena who gave a crap about paperwork, and as a rookie, Elena didn’t have to worry about keeping up the archives. The last thing Reno needed was for Tseng to catch him in the act of debunking his ghost story when he was supposed to be catching up on his own paperwork.
But the footsteps that followed the opening of the door were definitely not Tseng’s… They were much lighter, and more delicate. Unfortunately, Reno didn’t have a clear view from where he was hiding. As silently as he could, he crept around the corner hoping that whoever it was wasn’t heading his way.
It seemed, however, that luck wasn’t on his side today. The footsteps were heading straight for him… and he had nowhere to go.
‘Ah, hell… If I’m gonna get caught anyway, might as well make the most of it…’ he thought to himself, and as the footsteps reached the row of cabinets he leapt out, shrieking like a madman.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” a female voice squealed, and the figure before him back-pedaled several feet before stumbling and falling flat on her backside with a soft thud… at which point, Reno burst out laughing.
“God DAMMIT, Reno!” a very peeved Elena shouted from the floor, “You scared the hell out of me!”
Reno grinned and offered her his hand. She took it and he helped her back to her feet.
“Sorry,” he said, though he didn’t sound the least bit remorseful.
“What are you doing back here, anyway?” she asked.
“I could ask you the same question…”
“W-well, I… Um…”
“Ha! You didn’t believe Tseng’s story either! Admit it. You were going to look it up.”
“… yeah,” she replied, glancing down at the ground, as if she had no right at all to question the validity of anything Tseng said.
“Great… finding the file will go a lot faster if there’s two of us looking… I’ll take the first cabinet, you take the last, and we’ll meet in the middle.”
Elena rolled her eyes.
“Or we could just open the drawer with the files 1020-0 to 1030-9…” she replied, pointing to the marked drawer.
“… Or we could do that.”
“You forgot the case number, didn’t you?”
Reno shrugged and opened the drawer.
“Remembering menial shit like that is what rookies are for…” he said with a grin, “So… uh… what was that number again?”
Elena sighed and leafed through the tabbed files until she found the one she was looking for, and pulled it out, handing it to Reno.
“Awesome,” he smirked, and flipped it open.
———-
“I still don’t buy it,” said Reno.
“But… but it was all there, just like Tseng said…” Elena replied. Their little trip to the archives hadn’t worked out quite as Reno had planned. Instead of debunking Tseng’s “ghost story”, the two Turks had found the file, just as he said, with an account of the events of that night just as Tseng had retold them.
Along with some very unsettling photos of the crime scene that made Elena glad she’d skipped lunch.
“I’ll bet he planted the file,” Reno grumbled, “I’ll bet he had the whole thing set up from the beginning. He knew I’d go looking for it after I lost the bet. That’s got to be it…”
But he wasn’t quite so sure of that now.
It was starting to get late. Normally, Reno would have been heading home for a beer or two, followed by some Halloween mischief, followed by another beer or two. But now, not only was he stuck honoring his bet, he was annoyed as well. There was no way he was actually going to believe the 14th floor was haunted.
“Why would he do that?” Elena said rolling her eyes.
“… I have no idea,” Reno conceeded, “But there must be some ulterrior motive behind it.”
“Or maybe it really did happen, and maybe the 14th floor really was sealed off because it’s haunted?”
“Oh, please,” said Reno, “Don’t tell me you’re gonna start buyin’ into this…”
“W-well…”
“Ok, there’s only one way to settle this,” Reno proclaimed, “We go up to the 14th floor and spend the night.”
“W-WHAT?!” Elena squeaked, stopping in her tracks.
“Even if the part about the murders is true, there’s no such thing as ghosts. What’s the matter ‘Lena? Chicken?” he replied, smirking.
“N-no… of course not,” she replied.
“So let’s go,” said Reno.
“What? Now?”
“Heh… no time like the present,” said Reno, “Besides… it’s Halloween. If I can’t drink, I damn well still plan to enjoy it. Even if that enjoyment comes from watching you freak out.”
Elena glared at him.
“Come on, ‘Lena…” he goaded, “You know you’re curious. And it’s not like you’re gonna be up there alone. I’m goin’, too.”
“Is that supposed to be reassuring?” she quipped. Though it wasn’t as if she had big plans for tonight. All she ever did on Halloween was hand out candy to trick or treaters, or go to the occasional party. A little Halloween adventure was certainly tempting. Besides… if she backed out, Reno would never let her live it down.
“Alright. Let’s do it,” she said at last.
“Really?” Reno replied, looking somewhat surprised. He grinned, “Sweet.”
“Um… But Reno… how are we going to get onto the 14th floor? It’s sealed.”
“Just leave that to me. Meet me in the lounge in an hour,” he said, and disappeared down the hall, leaving Elena behind to wonder how he was planning to get into an area that only three people in the world had access to…
———-
He was late.
Elena glanced at her watch again, just to confirm it. He’d said he’d meet her in an hour. It had been nearly two, now. What was taking him so long?
Maybe RENO had been the one to chicken out. She giggled quietly at the thought of teasing him about how she’d been the one who was brave enough to show up… how she’d waited for him, totally committed to going through with their little plan… how he’d been too scared. Her amusement was short-lived, however, as another thought occurred to her. What if this was just yet another joke at her expense? Maybe Reno had no intention of showing up. Hell, he was probably laughing his ass off somewhere, or worse, watching her to see just how long she’d wait here for him. Just as she was about to start looking around for hidden cameras, the door opened.
“Yo, ‘Lena! Ready to go?” Reno called, peeking into the room.
“Where were you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Heh… sorry ’bout that. Took a little longer than I thought,” he replied.
“What did?” She was curious now… Had he really managed to get them access to the 14th floor?
“Had a little chat with Rufus. It took some convincing… and a few other things… but he finally gave me his access code for the floor.
“A few other things?” Elena queried.
“Uh… I’d rather not get into that. Let’s just say that it didn’t involve sexual favors, this time,” Reno replied, “You comin’ or not?”
She was going to question him further on the details… but Reno was already back out the door and striding down the hallway. Elena scurried after him, following him to the elevator.
“What do you mean… it didn’t involve sexual favors THIS TIME?” she blurted out as she caught up to him.
“Loooong story,” Reno said, “And it ends with me in bed with Rufus’ girlfriend at the time’s mother. Ugh…”
He shuddered at the memory, and hit the button for the 14th floor. The panel prompted him for a restricted access code, which he punched in.
“But why…”
“You seriously don’t want to know,” he said, cutting her off before she could weasel any other details out of him. As the elevator descended, the two Turks fell silent. Night had fallen, and by now most employees had gone home. Of course, the Shinra Building was never truly empty, but the closer they got to the deserted floor, the more the tension grew. Finally, the car stopped and the doors slid open.
———-
One thing was certain. No one had been here in years. The air was stale and somewhat musty. Reno flicked on the flashlight he’d brought and shown its beam into the looming darkness.
“Ladies first,” he said with a half-smile, inviting Elena to take the first step into the deserted room.
“I… don’t think so,” Elena said quickly. Reno shrugged and stepped out himself. Elena hesitantly followed him.
“Ah, this isn’t so bad,” said Reno, swinging the light around to get a better look at their surroundings, “So let’s see…”
He turned back towards the elevator and searching the wall. About twenty feet door the corridor, he found a light switch and flipped it on. Above the two Turks, rows of flourescent lights buzzed to life.
Elena had to admit, there wasn’t anything all that creepy about the place now that it was properly lit. Aside from the layer of dust that coated every surface, it looked like just about any other hallway in the Shinra Building.
“So… now what?” she asked, glancing over at Reno.
“I guess we should do a little exploring,” he replied, heading toward the only opening in the wall of bookcases that separated the elevators from the rest of the floor. As they passed into the main part of the floor, Elena began to see why the place was once known as the Maze.
Even though the shelves were now empty, they were an imposing presence. Paths created by the bookcases and cabinets snaked off in all directions, and most were so tall that even Reno couldn’t peer over them. The two Turks rounded a corner and found a small grouping of desks nestled into a corner.
“Man, would I hate to work here,” Reno muttered. Elena agreed. Not only could she not see anything beyond her immediate surroundings, she couldn’t even see the elevator anymore. What was more, they hadn’t even gone that far, and she was beginning to feel disoriented.
“Heh… lost already?” Reno taunted.
“Of course not,” she replied, flushing slightly.
“Good, cuz my sense of direction sucks,” he said. For a moment, Elena felt a small twinge of panic, but one look at Reno’s face and she could tell he was just teasing her.
“Well, then you better not wander off… because I’m not going to come looking for you if you do,” she retorted, and with that, she set off deeper into the Maze. Reno snickered and followed.
Though she had started off confidently enough, it wasn’t long before Elena wasn’t so sure of herself. The more turns she took, the more turned around she felt. She thought she knew the way back… but she was no longer as certain of it as she’d been a little while ago.
“Heh… well, we’ve been up here almost two hours now. You seen any ghosts?” Reno asked.
“Not a one,” she replied. Reno leaned against a nearby desk and lit up a cigarette.
“There’s no smoking in the building, you know,” Elena commented.
“You gonna rat me out?” he smirked, “Besides… it’s not like anyone’s gonna notice here.
Suddenly, something clattered loudly to the floor elsewhere in the Maze, breaking the still silence that had surrounded them. Both Turks jumped.
“W-what was that?” Elena whispered.
“Dunno,” Reno whispered back, snubbing out his smoke on the edge of the desk, “Probably nothing.”
“… Then why are you whispering?”
Reno glared at her, and motioned for her to follow him as he set out in the general direction the sound had come from.
———-
“Has Elena left already?” Tseng asked. He’d been working late. It appeared that Rude had been as well.
“Don’t think so,” he replied, motioning to the coats that still hung on the hooks near the door. Four in total… which meant that Reno was still hanging around the building, as well. Knowing him, he was probably off playing Halloween pranks on the night shift.
“Hmm… Odd. Usually when she stays late, she’s not too difficult to find. I was going to ask her if she’d care for some coffee, since I was heading for the cafeteria anyway.”
Rude shrugged.
“I don’t suppose you’ve seen Reno, either?”
“No.”
Tseng sighed.
“What do you suppose they’re planning?”
———-
Reno stood with his back against one of the larger filing cabinets, ears straining to catch the slightest sound. Elena, too, was on high alert… but all was silent in the Maze. Had they just imagined it? The two Turks had been still and silent for nearly five minutes and hadn’t heard any further noises.
Reno had just opened is mouth to voice his thoughts to Elena, when a shrill, but muffled melody filled the air. He bit back a cry of surprise and jumped back, looking around for the source, his hand instinctively going for his weapon. Elena, on the other hand, screamed and tried to scramble for cover, only to trip over the office chair directly behind her.
“Ah, fucking hell… You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Reno muttered as he realized that the sound was far from unfamiliar. Feeling utterly foolish, he reached into his jacket and pulled out his PHS, flipping it open as he did so. The sound stopped.
“Yeah, what?” he said into the handset.
‘Reno? Where are you?’ Tseng’s voice, tiny over the small device, inquired.
“Just havin’ a little fun,” Reno replied.
‘Whatever it is you and Elena are up to, just know that I’m ready for it,’ the Turk leader intoned.
“Heh… Little paranoid, eh, boss?”
‘Reno…’
“Just FYI, me n’ ‘Lena are doing something much more interesting than plotting against you, bossman,” Reno said, smirking, then flipped the phone closed and turned to Elena, “That ought to worry him a litte… uh… You planning on staying down there all night?”
“N-no,” she replied, staggering back to her feet and shoving the offending office furniture away.
Her heart was still pounding.
“Geez, ‘Lena… it was just the phone. Don’t act so weak,” Reno said with a roll of his eyes, tucking the PHS back into his pocket.
“Yeah… well… It scared you, too,” she countered.
“True. But I didn’t scream like a little girl and fall flat on my ass,” Reno snickered. Elena punched him in the arm.
“Ow!”
———-
“Ha… Midnight, and still no ghost,” said Reno, looking smug, “I knew it was all bunk.”
Elena stifled a yawn.
“So can we go home already?”
“Giving up so soon?”
“Reno… this is boring,” she replied. And it was true… The initial novelty of being someplace that they weren’t supposed to be had long ago worn off, and even their earlier scare, which had netted them a hearty laugh, was becoming a distant memory. The truth was that this was just an vacant floor. Aside from the somewhat disturbingly claustrophobic sensation of being isolated within the winding paths formed by the shelves and cases, it just… wasn’t scary anymore.
“… Yeah, I know,” he finally relented, “Guess tonight was kind of a bust, huh?”
Overhead, one of the florescent tubes flickered and then went out with a soft clink.
“Hell, maybe we ought to go before we’re stuck wandering around in the dark trying to find the damn elevator until morning,” he chuckled, “Wanna hit someplace for a late dinner and head home?”
Elena nodded.
“So… I hate to say it, but, uh… Any idea which way is out of here?” he asked.
“Real funny, Reno,” she replied.
“Actually, I was being serious…” he said, laughing lightly, “I have no idea which direction we came from at this point.”
Elena rolled her eyes. Of course, she supposed that it really shouldn’t surprise her. Reno, after all, had once managed to get them lost during their mandated ‘punishment’ on a small island north of Midgar… and that time he’d had a map and compass, for crying out loud!
She turned 180 degrees and started off down the corridor… only to stop after a few dozen steps. This didn’t seem quite right.
“Um…”
She turned back and took the path that opposite direction. Next to her, she heard Reno snickering.
“Ok, fine!” she shouted, “So I don’t know where we are, either!”
“Not a problem,” said Reno, “Just need a better vantage point…”
He turned to one of the studier-looking shelving units and began to climb the empty shelves. Though the stretched from floor to ceiling, they were open on both sides. It took some peering this way and that once he was high enough, trying to see around the other shelving units, but eventually his eyes settled on what he was looking for.
“Ha… That-a-way,” he said triumphantly, pointing towards the openning to the hallway that led back to the elevator. Unfortunately, as he did so, he felt the shelves beginning to tip.
“Of course…” he groaned, knowing exactly what was coming next.
“Reno!” Elena shouted in alarm as she dove out of the way. The shelves came down with a series of crashes, sending up a cloud of dust as they hit the floor. The redhead, not having time to remove himself from harm’s way, did his best to shield himself. Not that it was going to do much good… if he ended up under this thing, it was gonna do some damage.
Thankfully, his luck seemed to have decided to give him a break just this once. Reno slammed into the floor hard, landing flat on his back and cracking his head against the hard tile. The shelves, however, landed on top of a nearby desk, leaving him some space underneath.
“Reno?! A-are you ok?” Elena asked, coughing in the dust cloud.
“Ow.” He rubbed the lump that was forming on the back of his head.
“Reno?”
“Why is it whenever you’re around someone or something nearly kills me?” he replied, sounding somewhat strained.
“Are you hurt?” Elena asked.
“Nah… I’m fine.”
Elena quickly climbed to her feet, and brushed herself off… but as she moved to help her fellow Turk, the entire 14th floor was suddenly plunged into darkness.
“Oh, wonderful…” Reno commented from the floor.
“What’s going on?” Elena asked, concern mounting. She couldn’t see a thing. There was no light at all.
“Heh… no one’s turned the lights on up here in almost 10 years. Something probably blew out,” he said, “Dammit!”
“Now what?”
“Lost my flashlight,” he replied, patting his pockets. He heard Elena moving toward him in the darkness.
“Ahhh!” she suddenly cried out, and Reno heard a loud thud about a few feet away from him.
“‘Lena?!”
“S-sorry… I tripped.”
Some shuffling as she got to her feet, and then…
“Yo! Watch where you’re stepping!” he shouted, pulling his hand back from underneath her foot.
“Sorry!”
She moved closer to him… and subsequently kicked him in the thigh.
“Ow! Dammit, Elena!” he growled, finally clamboring to his feet.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry…” she muttered.
Reno felt her fingers latch onto his arm, tight.
“Geez, ‘Lena… let go. Ya don’t have to cut off the circulation.”
“Huh? Let go of what?”
“My arm,” he replied, suddenly realizing that Elena’s voice had come from the opposite side as the fingers that were locked around his wrist. He instinctively jerked away, free hand flipping his mag-rod out. Electricity crackled from its tip as he swung at whatever the hell it was that had ahold of him. In the miniscule light that resulted, he could have sworn he saw a pair of glittering eyes staring at him, but they seemed to vanish the moment he spotted them, and the grip on his wrist was quickly relinquished.
“Reno! What the hell are you doing?” Elena shouted.
“Fuck… There IS someone up here!” he ground out. He’d dismissed the sound they’d heard earlier… especially after Tseng had given them both that little scare by deciding to call them at the worst possible moment. He figured it was just something they’d knocked loose on their way in and left it at that. Now he was pretty sure that wasn’t the case.
Reno didn’t like this. He couldn’t see and inch in front of his face. He had only a vague idea of which way was out. And now, on top of all that, he had to deal with a potential threat.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said in hushed tones to Elena. Trying to stand their ground and fight under these conditions was insanity.
“Right behind you,” Elena replied. Reno started to move in what he hoped was the direction of the elevator. Elena stayed close. From a distance, the pair suddenly heard what sounded like muffled crying. It was faint at first, but gradually became louder and more distinct… and then, a scream. A scream like nothing either of them had ever heard. Reno felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as a chill ran down his spine.
“Reno…”
“Keep moving,” he hissed. He was sweating, now, and didn’t even know why. He’d been in more than his share of tense situations, but something about this just felt so very wrong. All, he knew for sure was that he and Elena need to get out of there. Now.
It was just about that time that he heard the footsteps.
———-
“It’s been hours, and nothing,” Tseng said, more to himself than to Rude, “What could be…”
As if on cue, his PHS rang, shaking him from his thoughts. He pulled it from his jacket pocket and flipped the handheld open. He’d been waiting for the call.
“Tseng here,” he said. Rude glanced up at him, curious who would be calling on the Turks so late. ‘Rufus,’ Tseng mouthed in reply interpreting the other man’s gaze. Rude raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, sir… Good to hear,” Tseng said into the phone… his voice sounded almost amused.
“… What’s up?”
“I’ll tell you on the way,” he replied, cryptically.
———-
Reno stopped in mid-stride, ears straining to pick up any sound. It wasn’t hard, however, to pick out two sets of footsteps behind him. One was Elena, obviously. Which meant the other was…
“Oof!”
Elena, who had been hurrying to keep up with Reno’s longer stride slammed into him from behind. Reacting quickly, Reno spun, grabbed her by the arm, and felt his way to the nearest corner, pulling her along with him. Thankfully, Elena seemed to understand, and kept silent. The two Turks stayed there, hardly daring to breath, as the footsteps carried on past them.
“Now what?” Elena whispered, once she was certain their mystery guest was out of earshot.
Frankly, Reno wasn’t sure. They couldn’t see, they couldn’t be sure where the person who’d been following them had gone, and they had only a vague idea of which direction they needed to be moving in.
Reno opened his mouth to reply, but didn’t get the chance as laughter filled the air. It began as a deepy, throaty chuckle, but soon escalated into gleeful, near-hysterical laughter. It seemed to be coming from all around them, growing louder and louder until the entire 14th floor seems to vibrate with it. The shelves rattled, and odds and ends toppled to the floor.
“Run!”
The Turks bolted, hoping that they weren’t far from the elevator doors. Elena could feel something clawing at her jacket. Suddenly, a narrow slit of light appeared out of the darkness, slowly widening.
“The elevator!” Elena gasped, half out of breath. She and Reno sprinted the last few yards, and practically threw themselves through the doors, nearly trampling the car’s occupants to the ground. As the doors slid closed, Elena could swear she saw eyes watching them from the darkness beyond… such a look of menace she’d never seen.
The elevator began to descend, and she was suddenly being helped to her feet.
“Are you alright?”
“Y-yes… I think so,” she replied, though she was still out of breath, “Oh! Sir, it’s you!”
Tseng… and when she glanced in the other direction, she realized that Rude was there as well. Tseng nodded curtly, and glanced over at Reno, frowning.
“What in Leviathan’s name were you two thinking? Didn’t I TELL you that the 14th floor was sealed for a reason?”
“What… the hell… was that?” Reno panted. By now, he was using Rude to pull himself off the floor.
“THAT was the reason,” Tseng said simply. Finally, the elevator reached its destination, and the Turks disembarked.
“This is some kind of fucked up Halloween trick, right?” Reno asserted, still not willing to admit that just maybe there really were such things as ghosts. He narrowed his eyes at the Turk leader, “How’d you know we were up there, any way?”
“Reno, not everyone if as obsessed with Halloween mischief as you are. As for your whereabouts… It was Rufus,” Tseng replied, “I’m afraid he ratted you out, and told me about the ‘favor’ you did for him. Speaking of which, you and I are going to have a little chat Monday morning and the appropriate use of company video equipment…”
Elena glanced suspiciously at Reno.
“Just what WAS the favor, anyway,” she asked.
“Trust me. You’re better off not knowing,” Tseng replied. Reno simply grinned, but it quickly faded.
“So… wait. If this wasn’t something you two came up with, then what…”
“Maybe next time, when I tell you that my ghost story really happened, you’ll believe me,” the Turk leader intoned.
———-
It took a several more minutes, but eventually, Tseng and Rude convinced their overly-curious compatriots to head home for the night. Tseng was certain that the evening’s events would have some very interesting effects on their dreams that night.
The elevator doors had barely closed behind Reno and Elena when the second car began to descend… from the 14th floor. Tseng turned toward the doors and Rude strode over as well. The doors silently slid open.
“I trust you enjoyed yourself, sir?” Tseng asked.
“Hmm… well, aside from very nearly being on the receiving end of that blasted weapon of Reno’s, I have to admit… I’m glad you included me in this little plot. When you decide to play a joke on someone, you go all out,” Rufus said, smirking slightly.
-fin-
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