The way to the forest wasn't as long as I thought. It took us maybe 10 minutes before we got to it. There was a dirt path leading to the darkness of the Forest with a sign with a bajillion warnings on it, one of them being about bears.

On the way to the building Philip was leading the way. I hesitated before taking the first step on the path, my gut was screaming at me to not enter, it was a weird feeling that I had to swallow. The group didn't seem as talkative inside the forests, neither was I. The tall dark trees loomed over us as I slowly realised why it was called the Black Forest, in the parts where the trees were the most dense it was almost completely pitch black, even during the day. The thought of being alone in there at night send shivers down my spine.

Before I could creep myself even more out we already arrived at said abandoned building, and okay, I might have doubted Philip before but what was in front of us wasn't just a building, it was almost as big as a mansion. It looked like almost half of it was destroyed, some of the bricks were missing and all windows were broken. Although as big as a mansion it didn't look like a house. The big old fashioned chimneys suggested it was probably a small factory before.

"There it is.", Philip turned to us.

"Looks creepy.", Lola commented.

Rudoslav didn't seem surprised by its size, he and Philip probably were there before. Nathalie just had a blank stare, once again masking herself. I swiftly made my way to the entrance and the group quickly followed. The front door was quite tall and looked like it was about to fall over in any second. Philip creaked the door open, it was pretty dark inside, the only light that lit the room was the sunshine coming through the broken dirty windows. That place looked like you were going to get lung cancer from just walking in. There was dust and dirt everywhere and the huge staircase in the entrance was missing a few steps. That building was definitely abandoned, and for a very long time. 

Lola immediately started coughing uncontrollably and sneezing like crazy. "Is it safe to go in there? The whole place looks like..."

I stopped listening and just walked inside.

"...and she's just walking in.", Lola coughed.

The wooden floor creaked with every step I took. I half expected the floor to collapse as I stood there in the middle of the entrance room. The bricks and stones on the walls filled with cracks and dust. I couldn't shake the weird feeling I got as I stood in there. The cold atmosphere combined with the warm sunlight hitting my face was such a whiplash. It felt surreal.

"Fifi, if anything happens to you during school hours the school will have to pay instead of your insurance.", Nathalie called out, clearly not happy with me.

Was that supposed to convince me to get out? Like I cared who paid for the hospital bill. Usually the agency took care of that. 

But her comment did make me think: "Since your father funds the school does that mean that technically he will have to pay?"

She scoffed: "Yes!"

I immediately turned back around and started walking further into the building. Nathalie quickly followed me, probably feeling responsible for me, and the rest followed her soon after. The staircase seemed the most interesting to me so I hopped on it and started walking upstairs, trying to avoid the missing steps or the ones that looked like they were going to crumble under my weight.

"Where are you going?", Philip smiled as Lola was dramatically hanging onto his arm like the floor was going to collapse in any second.

I shrugged and kept going up: "Since we're here I might as well look around."

I saw Nathalie mumble something under her breath before reluctantly following me up the stairs. She gestured to Philip before walking further: "Make sure you guys stay together. We'll be right back."

We both got upstairs where it was even darker than on the ground floor. The hallways were long and moved into each other. It would be a wonder if we didn't get lost in there. I picked a random hallway and Nathalie followed me. I turned to her and started walking backwards: "You know, you don't need to follow me."

"Yes, I do and look where you're going."

She quickly flipped me around to make me face where I was walking. She really was quite bossy. Unlike with Lola the dirty rooms didn't seem to bother Nathalie as much, to be honest I thought that she would react like her. Be absolutely disgusted and terrified, but instead she just kept her head high and walked like she owned the place. When it got too dark to see she just took out her phone and turned on her flashlight, totally unbothered.

Every room connected to the hallway was either empty or was missing the entire floor. We got to the end of the hallway, there was a wooden door and as I tried to open it it seemed totally jammed. Damnit. I thought that I might find something cool there but it seemed like the only thing noteworthy about that place was that it didn't collapse already.

"It's locked.", I noted, a bit disappointed.

"What are you even looking for?"

I shrugged, not really sure myself: "A criminal?"

She looked at me, not really getting what I meant. Not like she needed to. Before I tried going back I tried to open the door again, it seemed pretty weak. Maybe I could kick it open. I wasn't particularly strong, maybe if Philip went up with me he could have been able to open it. 

"Do you know how to lockpick?", I wondered.

Nathalie just stared at me and rolled her eyes, clearly wanting to turn back. I watched as she walked over to the door and just pulled the hinges out with ease, with a light pull the door came off the frame.

"Or you could do that."

She just scoffed and walked in. I quickly followed her and what met us on the other side was a narrow and very steep stone staircase.

"It probably leads to the attic.", she said, her voice echoing up the staircase.

"Huh, looks... creepy."

"We can turn around if you want."

"You're getting funnier with every second."

I quickly, and looking back a bit carelessly, walked up the stairs. On the top it looked like there was once a hatch door that was now gone. The hinges were still there and a place for a lock, but besides that you could just jump in. The attic was so dark I literally couldn't see anything, there were a few spots in the roof where the sun slightly peaked through but not enough to light the room. Nathalie finally came up with her phone and the first thing that caught my eye was a small table in the corner with... wood on it? They were thick wooden sticks that didn't look as old as other wood in there. Nathalie handed me her phone and took one of them.

"Looks like an unfinished spear.", she mumbled while inspecting the one in her hand.

"How do you know?"

She looked over at me with an expression that just screamed overconfident. She just flipped the one over and showed me the end of it, it was slightly pointier.

"Why would someone need that?", I scoffed.

They were pretty long, like a meter or so and they weren't thin ones either. If I hadn't know better I would have thought they were some sort of extremely long table legs. 

Before she could answer me a weird high pitched noise came from the darkness behind us. We looked at each other before slowly turning around. I don't think we even exchanged a word before I decided to slowly walk towards the noise. I flashed the light everywhere but there didn't seem to be anything there. Just before I wanted to turn to Nathalie and laugh it off the high pitch noise echoed through the attic again, this time it seemed like it was above me. I swiftly flashed the light at the ceiling and suddenly something launched at me. I quickly managed to move away but just as it was going to attack me again Nathalie swung the long spear and hit it so hard it flew right back into the darkness.

"Are you okay?!", She huffed.

I quickly flashed the flashlight into the darkness again. There it was, the thing that attacked me now laying on the floor, it twitched and squeaked. It was then that I recognised that "the thing" that launched at me wasn't a thing but...

"A bat!", I gasped and quickly added: "Damn Blondie! You're a Bat murder."

She didn't seem as enthusiastic as I was. More annoyed at the thought of being called an animal murder, or maybe more concerned with the fact that she did indeed hit an animal (in self defence). But it was kind of nice, not the bat abuse, but her reaction to my comment, I finally found something to annoy her with. 

"Please tell me you're up to date with your vaccines."

I look at the bat laying on the floor and back at Nathalie. I just nodded back. She scratched her neck and mumbled: "Good, good... we still should get a shot."

"We don't need a shot.", I sighed.

I just walked past the bat and further into the attic, trying to ignore her educational speech on why shots are important when coming in contact with wild animals. She just sounded like a Wikipedia page.

I expected to maybe find more bats but what I didn't expect was to find the wooden floor dirty, not dirty with dust you could say that about every room in that building, but dirty with something solid and beige in color. I kneeled down and as I touched it I quickly realised what it was and called Nathalie over.

"Hey, Bat slayer!"

She looked over at me, not impressed in the slightest.

"He's not dead, you know? Just... temporarily immobilised.", she gestured to the bat.

"Right, whatever, look. It's candle wax."

She leaned over, her thick locks flowing down her shoulder like they were made for it, what products did that girl use? As she turned to me I quickly turned to look at the wax again. I should really stop staring at people.

"Seems like it.", she admitted.

"You know what Mr James sells?"

She thought for a moment before sighing: "Fifi."

"Maybe this is connected."

"You're suggesting that a random robber stole candles from Mr James' shop, went all the way up here, lit them, took them away and left wax on the floor."

Well, with the way she said it it sounded unlikely. Before I could comment on her blatant dismissal of my theory her eyes widened as she spotted something on the floor.

"What's that?"

She took her phone out of my hand and pointed the light at something near the wax. A small burned off piece of paper with two bright white... things on top of it. I chimed closer and as I realised what it was I suddenly jumped back, bumping into Nathalie making both of us fall on the floor.

"Hey!"

"Those are teeth!"

She looked over my shoulder and sure enough, on the paper were two teeth with dried blood on the roots. It looked like someone pulled them out or something. However they got there, it was gross. I moved away from her and without looking away from them she asked: "Are those human?"

"Do I look like a dentist to you? How should I know?"

"We should get out of here.", she quickly stood up.

Before standing up I looked back at the paper. It seemed like something was written on it, and it wasn't like I was about to pass on the chance of being a detective. I leaned in closer and carefully slid the paper from under the teeth, making really sure I didn't touch them. 

Nathalie still called out: "Fifi!"

"What? It's just paper!"

"I'm not letting you touch my phone again."

Whatever. Like I ever would need to touch it again, it probably cost more than some cars. It wasn't like I wanted to increase the chance of dropping it and having to pay for it.

The paper was mostly burned but you could still see a tiny symbol right by the corner, a thin star with six points and small details inside. Looked a bit like a religious symbol, just more mystical. I walked over to Nathalie, hoping she would recognise the symbol. She seemed like someone that would at least read about those kinds of things.

"Ever seen that before?"

She tilted her head and thought for a moment before shaking her head: "No."

Her tone sounded like she was surprised she didn't recognise it. I guess I was right, she did probably read about different symbols. Wouldn't surprise me if she knew the pi numbers by memory. I looked back at the piece of paper and smiled: "I think we have a mystery on our hands, Bats."

"Please don't call me that."

"What? Bats? It's cute."

"No, it's not.", she sighed, now really done with me.

Suddenly something creaked behind us Nathalie immediately pointed her flashlight towards the noise. It was Philip.

"Are you guys okay? I heard screaming."

Screaming? I wouldn't say we were that loud, well maybe Nathalie was. Definitely not me. Nathalie looked over at me and back at Philip.

"Philip? Didn't I tell you to stay with the others?"

"Well, they already kind of went their own ways, so..."

"What?!", she gasped.