Bridge Of Solitude - Volume 1 Chapter 5 Infiltrating The Forsaken Lair

After her little stunt in the sports hall, Margaret’s pace dropped heavily. By the time she made her way to the next stop, halfway across the campus, she was tired and breathless. Walking on one good leg proved to be more difficult than she expected.

And as she checked her watch, she breathed out a tired sigh. It was already close to forty minutes since the start of the game, which means in addition to already missing History, she will be missing another class now. She had originally planned to finish her quest by this time, but life was so full of surprises.

And Margaret’s hatred for surprises grew much stronger after that day.

At this moment, Margaret was looking at an old building enveloped in a brooding aura. It was a small and simple red bricked building with a triangle roof.

The nearby plants and weeds were overgrown and creeping up the building from the edges. The large wooden double doors in the center were shut tight, and the carved designs on it were chipped off in places. The big vertical windows on both sides were similarly closed, the glass tinted with a dirty hue of black, grey and yellow.

It was obvious from the construction style that it was one of the oldest buildings on the campus. But this place was famous for entirely another reason.

It was the discarded chemical lab.

As to the reason why Margaret was here? After careful consideration, Margaret concluded that there was no way her ‘Game Masters’ would dare to venture into the western corner of the campus just to play with her. In fact they might not even have considered that place at all. So the chemical lab was the logical answer to the second clue.

At least she hoped it was, because even if Margaret doesn’t want to admit it, she was definitely not brave enough to step into the western corner of the campus.

Now, as she stood in front of that chemical lab, she just wants to turn around and run away as far away she can. Although the chemical lab and the old library were both abandoned buildings with their share of rumors and stories, this was definitely not a place Margaret wanted to visit.

And unlike the tragic, heart touching story of the old library, the story of the chemical laboratory was a bit more of a horror movie plot.

It was said that, this was a personal lab of a professor who was obsessed with chemicals to the point of madness. He would often conduct various dangerous and forbidden experiments without any regard for safety.

As such, one day while he was conducting one of his experiments, things went wrong and caused a terrible explosion, the shock waves were said to have rocked the whole campus.

It was rumored that the crazed professor who somehow survived that accident still visits the lab at nights to conduct experiments in seclusion. And those who were unfortunate enough to encounter him will disappear without any traces. Some even say that his maniacal laughter and angry howls could be heard occasionally.

Margaret hung her head as she let out a dejected sigh. Well, no point in dawdling around now. Since she’s here already, she should just get it done and over with quickly.

She hopped on her good leg and climbed up a couple steps before walking towards the large doors. She tried to push them open, but they were as tightly shut as they appeared.

Margaret silently stood in front of the double doors, with a hand under her chin. Then she started to look around carefully. She hopped to the window beside the double door and tried to pry it open. But despite using all her strength, it did not budge. Then she tried all the windows on the both sides of the doors one by one. The result was the exhaustion of her remaining energy and dirt on her palms.

Yet Margaret didn’t plan on stopping there. She turned and hopped towards the side of the building. And then she repeated the same things here with all the windows. After trying four windows, she now stood in front of the last window. And just as before, she pulled it with all her might, but the window flung open very easily, although with a low creaking noise. Since there was no resistance, Margaret lost her balance and fell back.

That was the second time Margaret fell that day. But she was still happy nonetheless, because her guess proved right. There was a way in.

Margaret got up on her feet and slowly approached the open window. The inside was surprisingly well lit because of the large skylight in the roof. She pushed the window wide open and slowly climbed inside, despite a little discomfort. Now her palms, sleeves and her jeans were all covered with mud and dirt.

The floor was littered with tiny glass pieces and dust. As Margaret took a step inside, she was immediately welcomed by a couple of rats, who ran away from their uninvited guest. She gasped in fright but stopped herself from screaming and carefully surveyed the place.

The walls lost their original color, with large gloomy stains and patches all over. The air contained a faint odor and there were numerous cobwebs dangling at the corners of the walls. The lab now seems to serve as a store room of sorts as it was filled with damaged and old useless furniture. There were a lot of broken chairs, tables and other unused furniture piled on top of each other.

Margaret slowly took a few more steps inside while being cautious of the big scary lizard on the top corner of the wall. Then her eyes spotted one of her property, and the prize of this round.

In the middle of the pile of furniture, under a broken chair, lying on the floor was her black multipurpose pouch. If not for its large size and the red zippers, she wouldn’t have found it so easily.

Since she located her property, next step was to retrieve it.

Margaret walked towards the mass of old furniture and bent down on her knees on the dusty floor. She slowly squeezed her hand inside through the gaps between the various broken things and tried to reach the pencil case. However, despite her frantic efforts she still couldn’t get close enough to grab it. After trying for a few times, she realized she had to find another way. And just as she was retracting her hand, an exposed nail on the surrounding furniture got stuck onto her sleeve. Before Margaret even realized it, she heard the sound of fabric tearing apart.

By the time she became aware of what was happening, there was already a tear on her cardigan sleeve. Margaret stared at the tear with a disbelieving gaze and a slightly open jaw. The next moment she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before exhaling a disappointed sigh.

Then she quickly shook off the self-pity from her mind and stood up, looking around for something. She hopped around the pile of junk, and came back with a thin wooden stick. It was an L-shaped piece broken off of a chair.

She then squatted down again and slowly inserted the L-shaped wooden stick into the hill of old furniture. She used it to drag the pencil case closer and when it was within her reach, she dropped the wooden stick and grabbed her pencil case. This time Margaret paid close attention while pulling her hand out, so as to avoid further damaging her cardigan.

As she got her hand and the pencil case out from the pile, she immediately stood up and hopped towards the window before climbing down.

Despite finding her property and successfully finishing this round, Margaret wasn’t happy in the least. It was not because of the increased throbbing in her ankle or her ruined cardigan, but because her pencil case was rather light.

Margaret walked far away from the old lab before sitting down on a small grassy hill. She brought out her pencil case and pulled the zip to open it. And inside was only a small piece of paper. All of her stationary items must be in a trash bin somewhere in the campus.

Margaret let out a mock laughter as she read the words on the paper.

[Final Round: Hall no. 7, C-Wing.]

Its not a clue but the direct address to the next location. They finally ran out of brain power to write a decent clue? Margaret snorted.

And she was already feeling colorfull. Not colorful, but color-full.

Hall 7 in C-Wing was the Art room.

Truly a grand stage for the Grand Finale.