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The next few weeks were a blur.
Amalia spent all of her free time investigating the mystery of the warehouse. She scoured the internet for any hints on Oneiros, or the warehouse.
"Nothing at all", she told Jake. "It's like it never existed."
"So you found an abandoned warehouse full of spooky stuff and secret rooms from a company that doesn't exist."
"I know it sounds absurd, but-"
"Oh, no, I was just remarking on how cool it is. Please go on."
Amalia smiled. "I know we haven't reached the end of it, though. That lab we found can't be a dead end."
"What makes you say that?"
"I... don't know. But I know. I don't know how I know, but I know. I've never been more sure of anything in my life."
"Wow. Well, if you're that certain, what choice do I have but to believe you?"
"Yeah, you better."
Jake laughed. "How are you planning to find the rest of it though? Whatever 'it' is."
"I'm... not sure. I'll go to the warehouse a few more times and try to figure it out."
"Are you sure? Don't you think it's a little dangerous?"
"You've seen how quiet that alley is. I don't think there's a risk of getting caught."
Jake shrugged. "Well, if you're certain."
"And this is where you come in."
"Me? You want me to go with you again?"
"No, I want you to be my cover story. I'll tell my mom that I'm at your place, so if she calls, be sure to pick up and tell her I'm there and doing good."
"Wow. You really have everything planned out." Jake looked out into the distance, thinking. "... alright. I'll do it, on one condition."
"What is it?"
"Actually, two conditions. First, if you find anything cool in there, I want to be the first one to know."
"Of course."
"And second. If you find yourself in any sort of danger, call me IMMEDIATELY and I'll let your mom know where you are."
Amalia grinned. "Look at you, being all responsible."
"I am the most responsible cover story you could ever hope for, I'll have you know."
"Heheh, you sure are."
"Do we have a deal then?"
She nodded. "Deal."
---
Amalia slipped in through the window and looked around her. Still empty. No signs of life, other than the lights inexplicably still being on.
She walked over to the door at the very back of the warehouse. She typed into the keypad: 1-3-6-4. The door opened.
She climbed onto the cargo elevator, rotated the button and pressed down on it. It whirred and creaked, and slowly started its descent.
She once again found herself in the middle of a room lit up by bright fluorescent lights. The large circle and cross symbol on the wall pulled at her attention. She stared at them for a moment, before turning away and starting to rummage through the electronic equipment.
The shelves were full of all sorts of tools. Some she recognized, like drills and thermometers. Some others were a complete mystery to her. Another shelf had many different kinds of circuit boards, some with smaller components sticking out of them. Nothing in there looked like a key, or a device that might open a door. Or a secret passage. Or anything.
She once again walked over to the symbol on the wall. The spot where the two lines of the cross met had a little indentation in it. She ran her fingers over it; maybe she could fit a small cube of some sort in there? But she hadn't found anything like that.
Amalia took a step back, looking at the whole symbol. It baffled her. Maybe it was the Oneiros logo? No, it couldn't be, it wasn't on the board printed outside the building. What could it mean? She rubbed the side of her head.
Maybe...
Amalia left her backpack on the floor, opened it up, and took out her binder. She flipped through her landscape and fauna drawings, getting to the more abstract shapes. Triangles, squiggles, hourglasses, something that looked like a bird if you squinted...
A circle with a cross through it.
She looked up at the wall. Then down at her drawing. No doubt about it, it was the exact same symbol. But what did it mean?
As if by instinct, she lifted her finger and drew the shape in the air in front of her.
She found herself a little surprised when nothing happened. Of course nothing happened. Why would it? What would even happen?
'Lux'.
The word popped into her mind, unpromped. Lux. Light. The symbol of light. Light, light... She went over to the shelves. Did she see a flashlight before? No, nothing like it. She returned in front of the symbol. She felt around the inside of the indentation. The top of it seemed to be made of a smoother material, like glass.
She took out her phone, activated the flashlight on the back, flipped it over and inserted it into the indentation.
Immediately, she heard a mechanism activate, and she quickly pulled her phone away. She could hear gears spinning behind the wall. Slowly, it opened up right down the middle of the cross symbol, leading into a hallway, and a set of stairs.
She couldn't turn back now. Amalia took a deep breath and stepped through the opened passage. She walked down the hallway until it lead her into a wider room, with strange machines beeping and lighting up all around her. But what drew her attention wasn't the machines.
A girl with pink hair was hanging from the wall.
She took a few steps towards her. This was the same girl from her drawing. Somehow. But as she approached, she noticed it wasn't a girl at all. It was closer to a... mannequin? Her joints were clearly made of metal, despite how life-like her face was. Amalia cautiously reached forward and touched her skin. That confirmed it: she wasn't a human. No human was that cold.
Amalia took a moment to inspect the girl a bit closer. She seemed to be hanging from a set of cables plugged into her back. There was a large screen right under her; it was backlit, clearly powered on, but there was nothing on it. A little plaque right above the screen read 'SHELL'. Probably an interface of some sort.
Try as she might, Amalia could not make sense of any of the other machines in the room. Plenty of buttons that did nothing when pressed, levers she couldn't pull, and light patterns that meant absolutely nothing to her.
What was she going to do now? Just leave? There had to be something more. Looking at the mannequin made her feel uneasy. She couldn't just leave the girl like that. But it was just a mannequin, right? Plus, what could she even do? Was she really just going to unplug it, leave it on the floor and leave? No, that didn't feel right. There had to be something. Something she was missing.
Something...
Amalia took a step closer to the monitor.