The Girl With Metal Claws

To Let Go

MERAKI

Garry walked up to the door and ran his hand through it till he got hold of a doorknob. Carefully, he turned it and pushed the door outwards but it didn't open.

The door wasn't closed anymore but it seemed like something was placed outside the door that would prevent the door from opening. As the opening of the door widened in the process, more light entered the tunnel. The light brought in a faint smell of old paper and wood.

Garry kept on rattling the door, trying to get it to open but it didn't move.

"That's why I told you to break it down," Meraki said, glancing at Garry as he stepped back. Backing up, he charged at the door and pounded the door with his shoulder.

A clatter sounded from the other side of the door. Garry repeated it, pushing away the obstruction binding the door.

Five times, he jabbed the door once again and the door cracked open a little more. But right after that, a loud noise of a heavy object capsizing sounded and everyone stepped back, cautiously.

After the thud, everything was back to silence.

Garry held out his hand and pushed the door forcefully open till it was enough for people to pass through.

Meraki walked inside the square room. She saw a shelf that had fallen on the foot of the door. She understood that the door was supposed to be hidden. And to hide it, a shelf was placed right in front of the door to make it seem invisible.

One by one, everyone occupied the small space.

Every corner of the little room was stacked up with shelves and numerous files, papers and documents stacked up haphazardly. Another door stood at the opposite side of where they entered from. She felt like everything was a maze and they were just going round and round.

But the question was, where did they reach?

Meraki walked towards the door and clutched the handle. Then she pulled it open and peeked outside. Suddenly, her heart almost stopped, her eyes wide open as she withdrew herself, shutting the door.

"We're done," Meraki said, gasping.

"What did you see? Where are we?" Garry asked, walking up to her.

"At the.. police station," she said and the hopelessness started settling back in their faces. They couldn't go back anymore but neither could they walk into the police station, planning to escape.

~

They waited.

Meraki didn't have the patience to wait anymore and she knew that neither Elliott nor Jack would know where she was. The only way was to...

She got up starting to look through the shelves, searching for anything she could. She went through several files, reading the titles in her mind and cluttering them together.

She gathered all those files and started looking through them. Reading. Trying to do something, anything.

The Timmy Jones case. The Warehouse fire. The 46 Street m******e. She looked through the rest and picked up the file titled, "The Exorcism of Peter Marcus."

As she flipped through the pages, she realised that she couldn't understand a word it was saying. The terms used and the event descriptions, nothing made sense. She skipped them one by one till her eyes fell on a name.

"Glendell Detective Agency," Meraki read. Then her eyes trailed to another word, "suspended".

She raised her head and immediately understood that she wasn't mistaken. It really was the detective agency she was working with. She had no idea what was going on, yet she knew she had been wronged.

Meraki folded up the papers and tucked them in her waist belt. She threw away the cover file in the waste bin next to the shelves.

Garry had been watching her all along. He quietly got up and walked to the shelves. Then, he crouched down and took out the cover file from it. Under the cover file, the waste bin was filled with papers. But Garry stuck his hand in and took out the first bunch of paper.

That's when Meraki noticed it.

The papers were titled "Phoenix" in big bold letters.

"Hold onto it," Meraki said. She saw Garry rolling his eyes at her, all of a sudden. She turned away from him, she always knew he was a cranky human on the inside even if she didn't know him too well.

Sitting inside would be like inviting death. So Meraki decided to meet it halfway and head-on. She handed one of her guns to Garry to protect themselves. No questions asked.

"Don't be your usual self, use your brains out there," Garry said, clutching the grip of the gun. Meraki wanted to talk back but she decided otherwise. They were all dead anyway, let the poor man have some fun.

Again, Meraki was pulling the door open. She looked in front to spot a few desks in sight but no one was around. She could see the Westwood Central logo posted on the wall but it held no significance anymore.

She exited the room, walking into the short corridor with her gun pointed low. She kept her ears open for anything alarming. The desks and chairs were scattered and broken glass covered the floor. But there was no sight of anyone alive.

Meraki shuddered once she turned to face the work area. She took a few steps back. The walls were stained with blood and deep scratch marks. Even her eyes trailed down, she saw people. Dead.

Once again, she found her hands uncontrollably shaking. The gun threatened to fall off her hand and her eyes turned fearful. She started taking quick breaths as she kneeled on the floor.

The police were just outside the entrance and as Garry told her, she had also located the stairs. They were most likely to be on the second floor, she thought.

Crawling and making her way to the other side of the room, hiding behind the desks, she had to see lifeless people and get her feet drenched in drying blood. She tried to not breathe and not feel, but everything was right in front of her eyes. She tried not to believe it.

She stood up, hiding against the wall. She turned her head and stared right at the staircase in the corner. Meraki ran to it, suddenly having no sense of hesitation. Garry had told her the outlet of the building and she just didn't have to go out of her way.

She walked up, fast-paced, deeper into the eerie silence. The second floor looked dim, as the devastation after destruction. She stood in the long corridor, a series of rooms on the left end and a large metal door on the right.

Meraki stood there, deciding whether her fate would be a little easier on her. That's when she started hearing the soft clanking of metal from the right. Alerted, she c****d her gun.

She flinched as the metal door started creaking open. The door cracked open and suddenly, a hand fell on the ground. And with that, a person emerged crawling on the floor. He tried pushing himself out of the door.

Meraki froze when he saw the man, struggling to escape and she ran to him. She pushed open the door, lighting up the pitch-black space. She held onto Jack and helped him up on his knees. He was drooping, almost unconscious, and bleeding from the side of his head.

She hesitated as she tried getting him to stand up. She held him up and Jack stumbled.

"Heavy..", Meraki murmured.

"THERE!" Someone yelled as a bunch of footsteps sounded climbing up the stairs with the familiar rattling of guns.

Quickly Meraki pushed herself back, dragging Jack with her. They entered the dark confinement and quickly shut the metal door with all their strength.

"Jack! Jack! Where's Elliott? Look at me!" Meraki asked, her skin crawling at the danger she had fallen into once more. Jack couldn't say anything but his hands moved and he pointed at the opposite side.

The police were searching the rooms and anytime they'd find Meraki and the other two. She had to make it quick.

As she walked ahead, crossing the jail cells and human carcasses, she saw a flickering light in one of the cells. She slowly opened the gate of the cell and entered the moist floor. She crouched down and picked up the flickering torchlight and pointed it in front of her.

Meraki gasped hard, horrified and shivering. She looked at a man lying on the floor in an orange uniform. His body was disfigured, drenching the floor red but he was smiling, eyes wide open.

Just in front of him, lay Elliott. His body looked still and his face was covered in his blood. She fell on the floor, having no clue what she was supposed to do.

The footsteps were too close to bursting through the metal doors.

Meraki moved to Elliott and held him by his shoulders. Then she held onto the last straw as she shook him vigorously. She could feel her eyes burning with tears and the desperation to hold onto her life.

"Please! Wake up! For god's sake!" She shouted.

Suddenly, a creak sounded from behind her. Startled, she looked back to see Jack. He had stumbled his way to the jail cell and he was kneeling on the floor. He huffed heavily.

"There.. there's a way," he said. Meraki got up and helped Jack up as he supported himself on the wall. "Try to walk properly."

Meraki crouched down and picked Elliott up. He had a thinner frame which made it a little easier to take him away. She sighed with relief as she realised that Elliott was breathing. She put his arm around her neck and started walking away with him.

Jack pointed in front of him. Meraki had the flickering torchlight in her hand and she pointed it that way. She saw another huge metal door. Two metal doors on each side of the jail area. Behind one was the police and behind the other was... Freedom.

"It's locked," Jack said, shaking his head in desperation.

Meraki looked at the passcode keypad on the door, glowing faintly. She took a deep breath and realised that she might know a way to escape it.

She remembered the files she had gone through in the room where she left Garry behind. She remembered seeing various pins and trying to memorize them. What good would it do if she didn't put it to use?

Before she could think, her hand extended out towards the keypad and it worked unconsciously while typing in the pin. The eight-number pin was inserted and her hand hovered over the enter button.

They pressed it. Nothing happened for the first ten seconds but then, a clack sounded.

The door opened.