IN THE STORAGE ROOM(2)

The dark room didn't faze her rather it was the undying feeling of fear in her heart. She tried to move slowly and carefully down the stairs and once again, she regretted not bringing her phone with her.

As soon as she got to the bottom of the stairs, she was relieved that the little room was dimly lit by a single flickering bulb in the middle.

She scanned her surroundings carefully trying to get a mental picture of the place just in case the situation called for her to escape.

She frowned when she could find nothing else but a switchboard in the room, though the whole place was still filled with boxes just like the upper room.

'As big as this hotel couldn't they make a better storage room rather than this with such low-class taste?'

She forgot her problems momentarily and didn't spare a chance to ridicule the owner of the hotel who happened to be Claire's father.

She finally took slow steps away from the stairs but stopped immediately to take off her stilettos. After that, she feather-walked around the room checking for any passageway of any sort.

She sneezed as the whole place was filled with dust and stuffy too. She almost had difficulty in breathing but she ignored it.

After a while of endless searching, she stood still and continued scanning the room for what seemed like minutes, and then the frown that marred her beautiful face deepened.

She found nothing out of the ordinary which was so weird. Unlike the time at the party, she had been here for minutes now and still, nothing happened.

'But I got a text to meet that person here...Did I go to the wrong place? or...wait!!'

She gasped when something dawned on her and with her shoes tightly clutched in her left hand, she hurried back to the upper room but careful enough not to miss her steps on the staircase.

The minute she got to the upper room, she hurried to find the door but only to be greeted with the sight of it locked. And to make matters worse, the door had an automatic lock system. She couldn't open it no matter how much she tried.

With a panicked heart, Kiaraa tried to feel the wall to at least find a place to input a password but she felt nothing and her heartbeat quickened at the realization.

She was caught between laughter and tears. She was looking for a place to type a password forgetting the fact that she had no idea what the password was and then she thought she could hack it and once again forgot the fact that she didn't bring her phone with her.

She closed her eyes in exhaustion as sweat droplets trickled down her forehead.

'I just hope that silver-haired dude finds out that I've been gone for too long now.'

Unlike the time at the party, she felt quite scared maybe because she couldn't apply martial arts which she was trained properly for. She had no one to fight with this time rather she was left confused.

Why lock her into a room? Were they trying to make her die here out of starvation?

She didn't know what event was going to play out here any time from now, all she knew was that she was locked up in a storage room full of boxes.

Wait...boxes!!

She hurried over to one of the boxes and tried to open it when something caught her eyes from afar and she impulsively paused in her action.

Her breathing felt shallow all of a sudden as a flicker of bright red and orange flames flashed in her eyes. The sight she dreaded the most...

Unknowingly, she took a slow step back.

'Fire...'

She didn't know how that word managed to cross her mind which had been thrown into chaos. The loud pounding sound of her heart resounded heavily in her ears which was the only sound she could hear from the room aside from the flickering sounds of the flame before her eyes which was growing bigger with each passing second.

She stared unblinkingly at the fire coming from the lower room with a frightened gaze. Her feet trembled and her eyes shut tightly as she held her breath.

With clenched fists, she slowly but frighteningly stepped back continuously until her back hit the cold door.

She felt sweat droplets trickling down her face and then to her neck. Her breathing turned ragged and her chest heaved up and down as she tried to take in air into her lungs but she coughed loudly as the smoke got into her lungs instead of air.

She closed her eyes tightly and her face contoured. She could see vivid images of a burning house in her head. Her throat felt parched and her whole body trembled in deep fear.

In her head, she could hear loud screams of a young girl. It felt so vivid, so real as if the scene was happening right in front of her.

She opened her eyes hastily to dispel the frightening images and voices only to be greeted with the sight of the approaching fire.

Her breathing stopped and both her hands found their way to her head. Even with her eyes wide open, she could still hear the panicked voices of different people but the girl's screaming resounded more in her ears.