A moment later, the bus stopped at a deserted, abandoned bus stop on the edge of the woods. Cole and Celes stepped off, and the bus immediately drove away. The three remaining passengers and the driver watched them, surprised to see anyone get off in the middle of a desolate, dangerous-looking forest. After the bus left, Cole checked the map on his smartphone, then looked at the footpath near the stop, checked his smartphone again, and finally looked at Celes.
"Let's go, Celes," Cole said, taking Celes's hand.
"Okay," Celes replied, silent since they'd gotten off.
Cole pulled Celes along, leading her into the woods on the footpath right next to the bus stop. Suddenly, Cole felt Celes's hand trembling. He turned to see Celes looking terrified behind him.
"Are you okay?" Cole asked.
"This forest... it's the same as in the dream," Celes replied.
"Yeah, I know. (He looked at Celes's hand.) Have you been here before?" Cole asked.
Celes didn't answer, simply shaking her head. Cole looked ahead again.
"She wasn't shocked by the eye in the tunnel... she could tell me about the dome... and now she's shaking... she's definitely been here," Cole thought.
They kept walking until they finally saw the edge of the forest and stepped out. In front of them was a massive crater, about three miles wide, in the middle of the mountain, already overgrown with vegetation.
"Whoaaah," Cole gasped, amazed at the huge crater that looked like an old meteor strike, while Celes remained silent, tightly gripping Cole's hand.
"Co... Cole, look," Celes pointed to the other side of the crater.
Cole looked over and saw a ruined building on a distant hill. It looked like a path had been carved to circle the crater. He immediately started walking with Celes along the narrow trail right next to the crater's cliff, heading toward the building Celes had pointed out.
After climbing the hill and reaching the top, they stood in front of a modern structure that looked like a hospital, shaped like an inverted L, covered in wild vegetation, two stories high, full of window frames but without glass, and half-destroyed. It looked like it had been abandoned for a very, very long time, certainly longer than fifteen or even ten years. Cole turned to look at Celes behind him.
"When you were here before, did you go inside?" Cole asked.
"Um... no, not that time. I was scared," Celes replied.
Realizing she had given a clumsy answer, Celes immediately looked up at Cole, who was smiling at her.
"You have been here before, haven't you," Cole stated, smiling.
"I... yeah, sorry... I lied again," Celes replied, looking down in fear.
Cole could see that Celes was genuinely terrified. He then turned and put his hands on Celes's shoulders.
"Why are you lying?" Cole asked.
Celes fell silent and turned her face away. Cole then released her shoulders and folded his arms across his chest.
"Okay, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine," Cole said, turning away.
"W-wait... I lied because... I originally thought that if neither of us knew, maybe I'd be brave. Because if I told you what scared me, I wasn't sure you'd want to come here," Celes replied.
"Well... we're already here. Just tell me," Cole said.
"The melody we were singing and humming... I heard it here. When I came here, about a month after moving to the city, I... I got scared because I passed out right here, exactly where we're standing," Celes revealed.
"Really?" Cole asked, serious.
"Yeah. I was standing here, and suddenly... the hill beneath me started singing, and my head started spinning... I passed out, and when I woke up, I was alone here and suddenly I felt someone calling me," Celes answered.
"Hmm... you felt someone calling you?" Cole asked.
Celes didn't answer, but she nodded. Cole seemed to be deep in thought. Then, "DUK... DUK," he stamped his foot on the ground and waited. He then took Celes's hand again.
"Okay, let's go inside. I'm with you; it'll be fine," Cole said.
"A-alright, thank you," Celes replied, still looking genuinely terrified.
They took a step toward the doorway, but just as they were about to enter, "la...la...la," they both froze, hearing the odd, wavering voice humming the melody. "DRAP," Cole staggered and grabbed the doorframe, which had no door. He felt dizzy and his vision blurred. "PLAK," he immediately slapped his own cheek and shook his head. Once he felt steady again, he turned to see Celes behind him, swaying as if intoxicated and semi-conscious from the song.
"Hey, Celes... snap out of it... Celes!" Cole yelled, turning and shaking her shoulders.
But Celes was still swaying like someone drunk and half-aware. Cole quickly rotated his backpack to his front. Then he turned around, took Celes's arms and looped them around his neck. After that, he hoisted Celes onto his back and held her thighs.
"C'mon, Celes, let's go inside," Cole urged.
Cole stepped inside the building. Suddenly, the humming stopped. Cole turned back to look outside the entrance and heard nothing more. Then he looked at Celes, whose head was resting on his shoulder.
"Okay, she wasn't lying about that part, and there's definitely something weird about this facility," Cole muttered to himself.
Cole walked in through the corridor, which was full of debris and had holes in the walls that looked straight outside. As he walked, he passed a room through a doorway on the right. It looked like an old children's playroom, full of decayed, antique wooden rocking horses and other toys. He also saw children's drawings, now dusty and so dirty the original pictures were unrecognizable, tacked to the wall.
He walked past it and saw the next room, which looked like a study hall or classroom, with many small, ruined, and decayed wooden desks. He also saw an old-fashioned chalkboard, the kind that uses chalk, split in half on the wall. After that, he continued walking to the end of the corridor, where he saw a hallway leading to the right. He turned and kept walking down the hallway, where he saw a staircase leading up to the second floor.
He continued his pace. On the right, there was another room, and this one was huge. It was lined with rows of old, rusty, and destroyed iron-frame beds, like a children's sleeping ward, filled with broken toys and damaged dolls.
"Hmm... the inside of this building... why does it look more like a hospital... or an orphanage? It doesn't look like a military facility or a research lab," he wondered.
Cole continued walking, carrying the unconscious Celes on his back. When he reached the end of the corridor and looked out the doorway, Cole's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. He nearly lost his grip on Celes's thighs from the shock. In front of him was a massive garden, covered by a glass dome that was now shattered, letting the wild vegetation from outside mingle with the plants inside.
"T-this garden... I... I remember this garden... this garden is the one from my dream," Cole thought, his heart pounding fiercely.