χ Ѫ
>Enter.

Clover kneels down, nuzzling the dog for a bit, before whispering in its ear. The dog gives a low growl in confirmation, and begins warily pacing forward to the entrance. As soon as it nudges the door open wider, the stench intensifies.

The three girls gag in unison, having to cover their noses with their shirts. The dog bares its teeth, staring into the darkened office pointedly.

…It’s dark. Even Clover’s eyes can’t see all the way to the back. Slowly, ever so slowly, the four advance into the darkness.

Chairs and flowery patterned pillows are scattered across the floor. A long couch is overturned onto its side. The sound of buzzing surrounds them. A grossly wet thump as something distant falls to the floor causes Samantha to jump. Even as their eyes slowly adjust to the darkness, all they can see are fattened flies, lazily floating through the air. The cloud only grows thicker as they move further into the office.

Their trek seems to take an eternity. Shattered picture frames of smiling girls and broken flower pots line their path as they travel deeper and deeper into the abyss.

…Eventually, they reach their journey’s end.

All this time, Lorene hadn’t really believed it. She was rationally capable of accepting the strange girl’s words, that there could theoretically be a murder, and a dead body for them to theoretically see. But still, some part of her mind doubted. Lorene had never really seen a corpse before. Death was still in the realm of midnight news reports and far-off fairy tales. It was just a tall tale, meant to scare children. It wasn’t something that actually happened, here in the real world.

Staring up at that bloated corpse, hung up against the wall with thin red strings, as innumerable maggots and flies swarmed the flesh, feasting away, and cold glassy eyes stared back down at them obliterated any trace of that doubt.