Tower 5

Cole's walk to the lookout tower is rather relaxed. The closer he got, the less buildings there were until he found the dirt path. On treading along the path he can notice deer tracks randomly crossing from the dense bushes and trees. The area around the lookout tower is cleared out but it's still heavily secluded from everything. It's a rather simple tower with support beams and a wooden staircase spiraling around its exterior. Out in the clearing however is a gray fenced transformer and random copper wires running up from the ground to the sides of the tower.

Cole makes his way up the stairs with a huff, "One hell of a hike to make just to get home."

The wooden boards creak as he heads up to the same door he had unlocked before. Only now it's slightly ajar. He raises an eyebrow and heads through the door.

Ahead of him is a stay feral cat that has hopped onto the desk and pushed some random papers off. It turns to see Cole and meows. Cole sighs and puts the bags down near the door then attempts to pick the cat up. The cat has messy and dirty fur as it purs some. He takes the cat outside and sets it down then closes the door and locks it.

With the room closed up it's fairly quiet without any wind from outside. Cole starts looking through any drawers. There's a desk with three drawers and a closet beside it. In the first drawer is a pocket knife, an opened pack of zipties, a pot holder, and a can opener.

He raises an eyebrow and opens the next drawer. Inside are a few bags of dehydrated food and a bottle with a water filter. On opening it the drawer seems a bit more shallow than it should be. He looks underneath the drawer to find a panel that can slide open.

Cole slides the panel open while being extremely careful. It opens to a small compartment with something in it within grasp. He hesitantly reaches inside to grab it. He pulls out a small silver key.

Cole glances around at the room while holding it. On looking closer he sees the closet door has a small lock on the handle. Cole walks over to the closet and attempts to use it to unlock the door. It unlocks as the door opens.

It's a small broom closet but with a metal folding chair leaning on the wall with red stains on it. A few cut zip ties lay on the ground as well as a basket with cleaning supplies. A few shelves are above the chair with a small medicine kit and a few syringes beside it.

Cole stares blankly at it for several seconds then quickly closes it and locks it while muttering, "Fuck...you know what I saw nothing, I'm not getting into another mess."

Cole puts the key in his pocket and searches the room for the radio

He sees a portable radio sitting on a charging dock next to a weather alert radio. He grabs one of the radios and turns it on to find it's in perfect working order. Then under the stacks of papers and books on cryptids, he finds an old map the size of the desk. It has many different marks on it including the location of each tower. Five towers all surround the town and are each marked with a number. Only one of them is circled in red and is the tower he is currently at, tower 5.

Cole's eyes make a shutter noise as he takes a picture of the map, then presses the talk button as he speaks, "This is... tower 5? I think someone's been using this place, it was supposed to be empty."

There's a pause before he hears someone speak over the radio, "This is tower 1 to tower 5, are the locks still in tact?"

Cole checks if the locks are still intact. All seven locks all look in tact but he can see a worn out part of the wood where an eighth lock used to be on the door.

Cole presses the talk button as he responds, "This is tower 5 to tower 1, the eight lock is missing, I'm gonna leave the tower to go find Rosey and alert her."

Another voice speaks, "No need tower 5. She has a radio. Tower 2 to Rosey, come in Rosey."

Cole waits for Rosey to respond while tapping his foot.

After a moment he hears Rosey's voice over the radio, "I was eatting, what was that?"

Tower 2 responds, "Tower 5 go on."

Cole sighs and presses the talk button, "This is tower 5, this tower has evidence of a recent resident along with missing the eighth lock."

Rosey sounds confused, "Just the bottom lock???"

Cole presses the talk button, "Afirm."

"And all of the others are functional???"

Cole checks and makes sure the rest of the locks function. Cole presses the talk button, "Tower 5, locks are operational."

Rosey huffs, "Is there anything else in there? Like you just said evidence of a recent resident? What's in there? Like laundry? Or like food?"

Cole looks around the room as he presses the talk button, "Tower 5, papers about cryptids, something in the closet that will not be discussed over this net."

Rosey responds, "not be discussed?... it isn't glitter is it? Am I being framed right now?"

Cole sighs and presses the talk button, "Tower 5, negative"

"You a magnet?"

Cole groans and presses the talk button, "Tower 5, I am not a magnet."

"Then why were you negative?...are you depressed?"

Cole presses the talk button, "Tower 5, my emotional state is none of your business I was stating negative as in no"

Rosey scoffs, "Then just say no sour britches. So what's in there?"

Cole groans in annoyance, "Tower 5, not saying over this net for legal reasons."

"ITS GLITTER ISN'T IT?!? IM ON MY WAY."

Cole sighs in annoyance and unlocks the closet and opens the door, then stashes one of the syringes from the upper shelf in his jacket.

Another voice on the radio mumbles, "Glittergedon." Cole closes the door and locks it. He then starts collecting most of the papers and puts them in a pile. Soon after he doesn't hear her steps but rather just sees her ears peeking up over the edge of the window and walking to the door with a rapid knock. Cole turns around and sighs as he opens the door.

Rosey steps in as her eyes dart around the room, "Where's the glitter?"

Cole groans in annoyance, "There's no fucking glitter." Cole walks over to the closet as he starts to unlock and open it.

Rosey leans over some to get a better view as she sees the chair and zipties. She looks up and sees the syringe as well and scoffs, "Well that sure is not glitter but it'll still be a nightmare to wash..." she seems to be thinking for a moment.

Cole folds his arms as he waits for her to finish thinking.

Rosey nods, "I mean, the blood looks really dried and old." She walks in and grabs the chair. She then walks to the front door and steps out onto the balcony before tossing the chair off the side. She dusts her sleeves off and smiles, "There! Delt with."

Cole stares at Rosey with concern, "Uhuh..."

Rosey walks back in, "And seeing as most of the locks are in tact I don't see any reason to go flipping around at people about this."

Cole sighs, "Whatever, I guess it is dealt with." Cole tries to glance outside to see the time.

The sun is almost setting. Rosey walks back in and starts picking up the broken zip ties, "Now was there anything else of concern?" She then tries to reach for the syringe and jumps a few times. But it's no use. She's far too short.

Cole gestures to the papers on the ground, "The papers that were here when I showed up?"

"If you could toss that syringe off the side later for me..." Rosey catches her breath before stepping out and looking towards the papers. She grabs the first few with her free hand and inspects them.

Cole raises an eyebrow, "I won't be doing that, that's evidence for the police."

"They're probably too busy with robberies to care about something that's happened ages ago. But if you wanna report it, have at it." Rosey tosses the zipties off the edge and continues reading the papers, "And as for these I don't particularly care about the whole cryptids thing going on. It's all just lies anyways." She sets the papers down on the desk.

Cole nods, "Right... well uh I guess that's all," Cole gestures towards the door.

"Well are you reporting so I know if this tower is getting more visitors?" She walks towards the door.

Cole seems suspicious, "I will be reporting it to the police, this is incredibly concerning."

"A bit of a goody two shoes then I see, I see. Well enjoy your little play date!" Rosey giggles to herself before heading out the door and down the stairs.

Cole rolls his eyes as he glances at the room again. He realizes he never searched the last drawer and finds a singular bloodied phone. He sighs and attempts to turn it on. It has 30% battery left and looks a bit old. Cole finds it has no passcode but a decent reception. The phone's background is default with little to no apps on it.

Cole decides to look through the contacts. He finds one contact named, "Don't Pick Up." No other contacts exist. Cole raises an eyebrow but decides to look through the pictures.

He only finds a few photos. One is an image of grass and small white flowers with heavy motion blur. Another shows an odd angle of one of the walls in the watchtower. The last image is a screen shot of the phone's contacts. They look exactly the same as they do now except the battery shows 98% battery and the time is listed as 5:28

Cole checks the date on the phone and the date of the pictures.

The screenshot is the earliest, dating back to August 2020. The image of the wooden wall is from September 2020. Lastly the blurry image of the flowers is from November 2020.

Cole checks the phone number for the contact before he tosses the phone on the desk and pulls the syringe of blood out of his pocket. The syringe itself is filled with bright red blood. He pushes some of the liquid out onto his fingers and wafts some of the smell over to himself.

He gets a strong smell of cherries as his vision faintly turns red but only for a few seconds. He also gets a brief rush of violent thoughts.

Cole shakes his head as he huffs, "Not... not gonna smell that again..." Cole puts the syringe back in his pocket then snaps his fingers. He disappears.