[Gift] Seasonal | Skeletons in the Basement | The Source

He moved in the corridors of the facility as if he had been there before. Carefully letting his tail sway behind him but not hitting anything as he passed by. There were doors on every side of the hallway. Most of the rooms were trashed and didn’t carry anything of interest. He had made sure to check them. Most of them only had dust and broken items. Nothing he had any use for. One room was filled with only clothes, like boots.

One of the rooms however he did meet two other dinosaurs in. They too had been curious about the rumours of horrifying things that dwelled in liquid tanks at the basement of the facility. One of the dinosaurs, a lightbrown, feathered Albo called Pontiac, had been the first one to introduce himself to Amarellius. The other dino, also a big Albo but much darker than both Amarellius himself and Pontiac, had at first only looked at him. Judging him from the corner of the room but eventually introduced himself as Adair. 

“Don’t worry, don’t worry.” He’s not as stern as he looks.” Pontiac had joked. “He just takes a bit of talking to warm up. Then he’s friendly.” Pontiac made room in the room in case Amarellius wanted to enter it. He didn’t see anything of value and remained in the hallway.

“So you’ve heard the rumours as well?” Amarellius asked, as he glanced closer at the room, only confirming the lack of things. 

“Yes.” Adair's answer was short and to the point. He didn’t seem like someone who wasted time on niceties when they were in unfamiliar territory. Unlike both Pontiac and Amarellius. “I don’t think we’re far enough yet though. From what I heard you have to go far into the basement to find those rooms.”

“This room looks more like some sort of food room.” Pontiac added. “Although, there wasn’t much food left and I am unsure if any of it is edible.” 

Amarellius looked down the dark hallway. 

“If you both don’t mind. We never know what we could meet down here, I’ve heard all sorts of horror stories about these rooms. Do you want to travel together for the time being?” 

Adair nodded quite fast. Faster than Amarellius thought he would. 

“The more the safer, or how that saying goes.” Pontiac nodded. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything of interest in this room.” He added as he moved carefully to the door. Amarellius backed away from the doorway to let him pass. 

“I don’t think we will find anything in any of these rooms.” Adair said thoughtfully. “I think our best bet is to just peek inside and if we don’t see anything mysterious we should keep going.”

“That is a good point.” Amarellius nodded. “If I was hiding secrets I would do it as far in as possible.” 

Pontiac nodded as he took the lead down the hallway. “You are both making perfect sense in my ears. Let’s yell out if we see anything, otherwise we keep on walking.”

That’s what the three of them did. Most rooms had been ransacked by this point, there wasn’t any need to stop at any of the rooms. But eventually they found themselves at the end of the hallway and a big door took up most of its wall. All three of them stared at it for a few minutes before Pontiac took the first step inside, followed by the other two Albos.

They were met with tanks of green liquid. Some had even started turning slightly brown around leaking cracks as the air had seeped in. 

“Well, I think we got the right room.” Pontiac looked amazed as he turned around the room. Adair immediately walked up to the tanks and peeked inside of them as if he knew what he was looking for. 

“I heard the secret lies in these tanks. But we have to find the right ones.” 

“Did you hear what secrets?” Amarellius added with a hint of curiosity. Adair shook his head.

“He didn’t want to tell me. Said I would believe him even if I did. I had to experience it myself or something like that.” It added a heavy feeling to the room, those few words. Amarellius and Pontaic looked at each other before checking some of the other tanks. 

It wasn’t until a slight yelp could be heard as Amarellius backed away from the tanks that they found out what the secret really was. 

“Is that a--?” He couldn’t finish his question as Adair and Pontiac joined his side, looking into the massive tank that stood in one of the corners of the room. 

“That’s a dinosaur.” Pontiac confirmed. 

“Is it alive?” 

“I hope not.” Adair answered heavily, not making the terrified feeling easier for Amarellius. 

“Why would anyone do this?” Amarellius didn’t go for a second look at the tank but instead moved his gaze around the room. “Does this mean every single tank in this room have or has had a dinosaur in it?” He shook his head. “I don’t believe it.” 

They kept going through the room, even though Amarellius rarely moved from the middle of the room. Clearly this had been too much for him. He regretted following his curiosity this time around. As Pontiac and Adair didn’t seem to want to leave the room he eventually bid them farewell and left them to their curious selves as they made sure no dust was left unturned in the room. He himself didn’t care to clench his curiosity anymore. It had been enough. A little more than enough actually. 

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