'Hello?' Cindy breathed. She pushed the dark door open further and played her flashlight's beam around the entranceway to the apartment above her own. She'd been surprised to find it open; she had known it had been vacant for a while, but she'd just assumed it was locked waiting for a new tenant to move in. Occasionally she could hear someone from the building's staff moving around, or cleaners doing the carpets or something, but she figured it would normally be locked aside from that. Whoever had been here last must have left it open.
Stepping cautiously into the apartment, Cindy looked around. She'd come up here to find the source of a leak that was starting to drip into her room downstairs - at first, she'd thought someone had left a tap on up here, or maybe that the toilet had sprung a leak, but so far nothing indicated any dampness or leaking. She couldn't hear any dripping, but that wasn't because it was silent. In fact, something very odd was filtering through the dark to her ears, and it was putting her on edge. The muffled sound of whispered speech - as though a group of people were speaking softly to each other - was floating through the air from somewhere inside the apartment, and Cindy was trying to resist the urge to get truly weirded out.
Probably just some kids up here drinking and playing D&D,
she thought to herself, though her gut refused to accept it as an answer. She crept around the entranceway's corner and shone her torch across the empty kitchen. Everything seemed to be off, but the whispering was a little louder now. She crossed the room, heart pounding in her chest, and turned into a hallway. Back here was the main living area and the bedrooms.
She had to push open the door from the kitchen, which was almost fully closed, and doing so revealed even more of the strange whispering sound, along with some new ones; that of what she seemed to recognize as TV hum, and a soft crackling - a little like pots of water on a stove. She shuddered involuntarily, but she was committed now, so with a confidence-reinforcing shake, she went on.
Walking up the hallway, Cindy started to locate the source of the sound - all these rooms were shut, but as she approached, she detected that the noise was coming from the living room. Thinking, she put the room somewhere roughly above her leak downstairs, give or take a few meters, which was at least a sign that she was nearing what she'd come here to find. Steeling herself, she approached it, flicking off her flashlight and pocketing it, preparing to open the door on whoever was inside. Perhaps it was some kids doing it where their parents couldn't find them? Perhaps it was a homeless bum? Maybe it really was some gamers running their weekly orc slaying sessi-
A hand shot out from the darkness behind her and clamped around her head. Cindy jumped, but the hand's accomplice had snaked around her arms, and caught off guard as she was, she only bounced on the spot. The hand pinched her nose and pulled tight, so any exclamatory noise that would have escaped her died before it could be heard.
'Hello,' her attacker breathed. Evidently, he had come out from the bedroom directly behind her - the door was well oiled, and he had been silent. Then again, Cindy chided herself in a corner of her mind, she
had
let herself get distracted by what could be behind this door and forgotten the possibility of something hiding in any of the others.
'Scream, and I will put this knife through your stomach.' It said it so surreally, like someone had been making a suggestion or reminding her of something. Another pair of arms appeared, one going around Cindy's neck, the other holding something hard and cold against her side. It was the flat side of a blade. There was nothing surreal about that; she felt the physical fear as her body tried to pull away from the danger. Her heart pounding against her ribcage, Cindy's eyes went as wide as the doorway, in time to take in the sight of a hooded figure as he stepped out from behind her. When the hooded figure inclined its head, waiting for a response, she nodded vigorously, fear surging through her veins at the thought of even this minor disobedience resulting in a wound opening deep in her soft flesh.
'Good girl.' it said. The arm relaxed around her neck, and she sucked in air, on the verge of hyperventilating despite the looseness of the grip. Terror gripped her body and kept her compliant as the hooded man took the doorknob and turned it, gesturing politely to enter.
'I'm glad you have taken it upon yourself to join us, my newcomer,' the figure said, walking inside the living room. The person holding Cindy started to move, and she had no choice but to lead them, deeply aware of the blade pressing firmly into her side. 'I had been wanting to send someone down to collect you into our fold for some time, but unfortunately lost - or should I rather say,
claimed
- our primary target for this somewhat
later
than we had intended, and so she was not yet ready to begin her work for us.'
As they walked, Cindy entered the room proper, and got her first good glimpse of what was inside. It took her a bit to fully appreciate the scene before her; at first, all she could see was a line of televisions, all pointing into the room away from her. A bright pink-white light washed the back wall, and Cindy couldn't make out what might be on those screens from just the reflected glow.