By the time Dove and the twins came back to Macabre House, it was just about dark. Laurence was conflicted about having her join him and the other two interns to continue Roswell's case. She didn't look tired, more like mentally drained as the twins were, way too exciting. But she insisted she was fine. The twins passed by, holding the cursed items they confiscated from the teenagers and told Laurence they'd send him their reports after sending the items to the alchemy labs.
Laurence took her word for it and gathered Vernon and Malachite for Roswell's case now that it was dark.
They went back to the same building, and it appeared to be vacant.
Malachite held a notebook, clutching it tightly as they opened it after getting out of the car. When waiting for the day to become dark, they had continued asking Roswell the ghost cat questions, practicing their translations.
'Underground', 'Missing', 'screams that cannot be heard', 'cages', is what they had translated so far.
"Does Roswell just refuse to speak in full sentences?" Laurence asked as he checked the notes.
Malachite made a grumbling sound as they closed the notebook and tucked it underneath their armpit, beginning to sign aggressively. They pointed to themself, extended their hand out to him with all fingers together and extended, moved it to their chest, then made a 'W' with both hands and moved them in a circular motion.
They then made strong eye contact with him, looking up at him intently as they made the 'B' handshape again, quickly moving it away from their face and shaking their head, then moved their dominant hand into a 'J' shape, moved it down in front of their chest, then pointed with a shaking hand to themself again. All while keeping an annoyed look in their eyes
Laurence held his hands up in mock surrender and nodded to Malachite. He then looked down to the ghost cat standing beside them. Roswell's tail swished up and gracefully as he looked up at him with these blank, ghostly eyes. Dove just told him that Roswell likely enjoyed the attention and to not give him too much.
The warehouse appeared to not have anyone inside but before Laurence even tested if the backdoor was locked, he waved his hand to the other interns who were far behind him, signaling for them to not come closer.
He noticed all the dirt and dust around the area with the faintest marks of footprints to the door. They don't know how long the workers are supposed to be working at the warehouse, but Laurence knows that any footprints made in minimal amounts of dirt would've been blown away by now.
These were made very recently.
He stepped away from the backdoor and asked Vernon to try again to test if he can sense any movement underground. Now that it was nighttime, there should be less human movement.
Vernon stood right by the building and then knelt down to test for any feelings of vibrations or whatever the roots and dirt in the ground can detect. Concrete still made this difficult, but he did nod and confirm that there was a group of people underground.
Roswell finally decided to be kind and give them a push in the right direction, walking off somewhere, prompting the group to reluctantly follow behind him.
He stopped at this manhole near the building, pawing at it. Laurence hummed, looking from the manhole to the warehouse, picturing what kind of layout the sewer infrastructure must have, if Roswell is implying they can get inside through there.
He decides to go in first, giving the interns instructions on what to do while waiting for him, checking if each of them had his number and if he had theirs. Then he instructed that in the chance they hear a blood curdling scream, to cover the manhole back up and get away from the area. Don't even think about going in for him.
They all fell silent, not knowing what to say as he began to lift the lid, leaving no room for objections. Laurence then frowned when he noticed how clean the chimney was, along with the step irons. Completely clean of gunk, mold, or anything caused by moisture, but when he swiped the first step with a finger, he found a thin layer of dirt.
There was a rock nearby, and he tossed that inside, listening for anything. There was an echo, and then the impatient meowing from Roswell, who went down the manhole chimney, then peeking his head out, moving his paw, beckoning for the others to follow.
Laurence still insisted on going first. He followed the cat down and the interns waited by the hole as he climbed down.
Down below, Laurence climbed down but what he found wasn't a sewer, rather a clean place of concrete and no water. He used his phone to light up the room.
There were three hallways and instantly, Laurence had the hypothesis that only one is correct and the other two are for trespassers. He looked to the ground, found the rock he threw down, picked that up, his other hand ready to grab the gun at his side, and noticed more footprints on the ground.
Each hallway had a set of footprints and at first glance, they all looked real. Laurence inspected the first one from the right, seeing that the footprints there, after a second glance, were carefully and skillfully drawn into the ground. Almost a perfect illusion were it not for the fact that he could see that a little past those footprints, they stopped further down the hall.
A trap or something to misguide the intruder.
The middle hallway had a set of footprints that went on for longer and seemed real, but when he made a couple steps toward it, just to test, he sniffed the air and listened. He felt something warm in the air and backed out of that hallway.
A gas pipe was down there, or perhaps something causing the smell. Likely a trap to cause the intruder to feel drowsy and pass out.
The left hallway was the only one with real footprints and when he shined his light on the floor of that hall, the footprints went further down than he could see. He walked further inside and tested the path, throwing the rock as far as he could, then stayed still to listen.
Roswell suddenly made himself visible in front of the man, walked further down the hall, then paused as he looked back at Laurence, waiting for the man to follow.
"You just had to make me do the work of finding the right one, didn't you?"
Roswell meowed.
Down the dark hallway was a metal door with a lock, and a scanner that required a key card. Roswell pawed at the door and meowed loudly. Had the cat been alive, his meows would've echoed throughout the hidden room.
He sighed and texted the interns after asking Roswell to kindly go through the door and see how many people are inside.
'Go ahead and come down, it's safe. Malachite, I need you to translate, Vernon and Dove, you both have to help me with a lock.'
They all came down, surprised to come upon a concrete room but thankful for not having to step in any sewage. Especially Dove. She was trying to hide it, but she was dreading the idea of possibly stepping in sewer water.
Laurence showed them the metal door and the door lock that required an access card. Dove and Vernon pondered what to do. They were thinking of using his flowerpot to first grow a plant that could create some kind of sap to mess up the panel. But then Roswell came back, and Malachite translated that he only saw one person, and suddenly Laurence relaxed more.
He told them to stay back and flipped his revolver around in his hand, whacking the doorknob and breaking it. They were surprised to see he was that strong, and more surprised when he stuck the barrel of the revolver through the new hole he made and pulled the trigger a couple times.
"Three." He counted to himself.
He taught Dove how to remove the control panel so they could go in. She didn't think it would be that easy to rip off until he gave her his knife to use.
"Most control panels are applied onto the wall with screws or wiring, considering how thick the concrete in this place is, wiring and drilling holes for something like this would be too much of a hassle. See? There's only glue."
She pulled it off the wall, noticing the dried-up construction glue.
She wondered if with all the noise they made, the person inside had already fled. Laurence said that it wasn't likely, and he opened the door, showing them the dimly lit but pristine room.
There were metal tables with cuffs attached, too small for any adult wrists, and many tools around the room. Empty cages sat on the walls, some had dried up blood in them.
It was a secret lab used for animal testing, and the only person inside was a scientist working late.
"You,,, you shouldn't be here." Stammered and croaked that same man now on the floor, weakly trying to crawl across the floor.
Laurence had managed to shoot him right in the hip without looking.
The kids all looked at the detective in surprise.
"I have good aim." Is all he said.
He told them to pay attention to Roswell, who ran past them through the lab and off somewhere else.
The cat kept meowing until the kids followed, Malachite couldn't even translate as they ran because Roswell kept rushing them. Even Vernon could sense how urgent the situation was as he mentioned feeling a large presence. The ghost cat led them to a door out of the labs and into the halls.
It was a good thing that the ghost cat demanded so much of their attention. Laurence checked to ensure they were out of view, and abruptly stomped on the scientist's back, stopping him from crawling any further.
"You're reminding me of a snail right now. I hope you know that." He said as he noticed the meager trail of blood on the floor.
The scientist yelped in pain beneath his foot, pitifully squirming.
The detective knelt down, replacing his foot with his knee to dig into the squirming man's shoulder blade, and reached with one hand to forcefully turn his head to the side.
"Look at me." The detective firmly said.
The scientist's pupils dilated.
"Where are the others who also contribute to this animal testing place?"
He didn't answer. Just said he was only doing his job. Laurence gave him a blank, disbelieving stare.
"Something else I'd like you to know, I didn't shoot you in the hip by accident. You have an hour or two before you bleed to death. I can do a lot in two hours if you don't start talking."
The interns would never see this side of him, for they had followed Roswell down the hall, passing other doors with windows. Most appeared to be for chemistry use and others appeared to be makeshift rooms that were similar to a vet's office.
Vernon paused a good distance away from the room that Roswell wanted them to go to. He was frozen in place, his face unreadable. Dove noticed his stillness and also stopped, asking what was wrong. He could not say, but his grim expression already told her to prepare for the worst.
Malachite didn't notice and went ahead to try and open the door. Roswell phased through the door and they could hear him meowing, calling for them to go in quickly. The door was locked and the only one with no window.
'They are in here! My Edith and my kits are in here!' Roswell kept saying to Malachite as he phased through the door.
He meowed relentlessly to the necromancer in training.
Malachite had to go and tug on Dove's sleeve because they needed her help to unlock the door. So reluctantly and with a bad feeling in her stomach, she shifted her baton, the end creating the shape of a skeleton key, and she picked the lock.
Through the door, they saw the rubber and foam borders made around the frame. They made the door hard to open, and that was a reason the borders were there. But it was soon revealed that the rubber and foam were also there to keep the foul stench from escaping.
The interns reeled back in disgust, seeing piles and stacks of cages. Rotting animals resided in each one of them, some alive, some dead. Either way, despite how sterile the room may have been, the cages attracted flies.
A small hamster cage was filled to the brim with rats, all gnawing at bars as they crawled all over the dead rats at the bottom. Dogs taken from the streets were shaved naked, revealing their scars from scalpels, dissections, and needle shots. Most of them looked blind and crippled, others appeared to have parasites of some sort in their eyes. This was theorized by the lack of white in their eyes, and how the pupils were unnatural colors that would wiggle and move inside the eyeballs.
Suddenly they realized how quiet the room was.
Their ghost cat had long stopped meowing, standing next to and desperately pawing at a cage with a female cat and her kittens.
The female cat didn't look as dreadful as the other animals, her coat was slightly matted and dirty, but her eyes still had a shine to them, unlike the other animals. The kittens stayed close to her, quiet but their eyes followed Roswell's spirit and so did the mother's. His family could see him. When he meowed at them, they meowed back.
He looked over his shoulder to the interns as they hesitated to step inside, traumatized by the sight of the other dissected test subjects. He meowed loudly for them. Dove, the one with the stronger stomach, stepped inside. She didn't need Malachite to translate for her, just went ahead and carefully picked up the cage holding Roswell's family.
Malachite had to gently shake Vernon out of his discomfort and ask him to grow something to help the other dogs and rats.
"We should take them out for some air." Was all he suggested.
He did not think there could be anything that could save them, they were broken beyond measure and didn't even bother to growl or bark at them.
Malachite made a 'W' with their fingers, moving it between all of them as they gave Vernon a confused expression. They repeatedly looked up to where they came from and back down to Vernon, as if to mimic 'Us? Up there?? How???' in the most flabbergasted way.
"I'm sure there's another exit somewhere. There's no way anyone could've managed to bring down lab equipment and animals in cages through the manhole." Dove said, readjusting her grip on the cat family.
Roswell meowed and paced around her legs. It was a good thing he was a ghost otherwise she would trip.
Vernon decided to summon some vines from his flowerpot and try to pick up all of the dog cages. Malachite stuck with carrying the cages of rats even the smell reeked and made them want to gag. The group pondered on leaving behind the cages that had dead animals, Dove was just about to open the door for everyone before she quickly slammed it, startling them.
There came footsteps running down the hall.
"The cameras showed they're in here! Hurry and lock them in!" Shouted a voice from outside.
Panic spread.
"Vernon, can you get us a plant with poisonous gas?"
"No, only a powder and I don't want to accidentally get it on Roswell's family."
Dove silently cursed to herself. She tried to consider any idea and also wondered if they should just go out anyway, wanting to know if Laurence was alright. Then, Malachite tapped her on the shoulder, holding their flat hand to their forehead and moving it outward.
The workers coming down the halls were in the warehouse earlier, and there were actually security cameras around the area. When the designated security guard first saw Laurence go down the manhole, followed by the other kids, he assumed they would all end up walking down the false hallways and into traps.
This was until his partner came back and scolded him, pointing at the other screen connected to the cameras in the labs, showing they got inside.
Rarely anyone has been able to find out about the secret labs, since rarely anyone is willing to go down a manhole. But since this group did, they not only discovered it was for illegal animal testing, but the main detective shot the scientist in charge of prepping the tools.
The workers in the warehouse went down to the labs through another entrance and had planned to deal with the younger ones first; locking them inside the room they were last seen in to die from the disease of the other animals there and then go kill the man.
No one expected the door to slam open and a stampede of zombified cats, dogs, rats, possums, opossums, and raccoons to come barging out.
The workers screamed and back away, stepping over each other's feet as they turned to run away from the room. The rotting animals chased after them with vengeance and snarling fangs.
Malachite signed to Dove and Vernon that they were safe from being attacked, because they played no part in the suffering of the ones brought back to life.
Opting to instead open the cages to make things easier, the interns found that even the rotting animals that were still alive. The near-blind dogs, tired stray cats, and deranged rats had a newfound energy to come out of their cages and chase after the workers alongside their fallen.
The men and women who brought them to the labs, and the ones who experimented or contributed to experimenting on them, each one was hunted down, like a scented trail that no one could get rid of as none of them could hide or run from the test subjects.
Some ran into other rooms for safety, but Malachite's magic had caused them to revive ever dead animal and summon every dead spirit in every room of the labs. Whoever locked themself into a room for safety without checking the place, had put themself in the perfect position to get mauled to death.
Others would not be able to outrun the others, even the ones with crippling bones or limps, getting on and snapped at by jaws that reeked of the dead and whatever chemicals were in their bodies when they died.
The interns ran out after giving them room, making sure the cats they let out were following them. Roswell seemed to be directing them thankfully, and they made their way back to the lab room where Laurence was, hoping he was alright.
Vernon got distracted by a certain room, sensing something from there. He couldn't take his eyes off the door. There was a muffling inside and a window beside the door but the blinds inside were drawn closed. Put some light slipped past the edges.
Roswell told Malachite that they shouldn't open it.
'The one inside is no longer a being.' He meowed to Malachite, who had to write out the full sentence in order to express the full weight of his words.
"Kids!"
Laurence found them first, confused and wondering why there were zombified dogs, raccoons, and rats, chasing people, but shrugged and put his gun back in his holster.
Dove sighed in relief at seeing he was alright, only a streak of blood across his shirt.
The blood wasn't his, I could tell.
He wanted to usher the interns to follow him to an exit he found that led up into the warehouse.
Vernon would not budge and even the cats tried to convince him to move, tugging weakly on his pant leg.
"There is a living thing in there. It still breathes but only barely." He said.
Curious, Laurence put his ear to the door and listened. He could not hide the grimace on his face based on the breathing pattern and shook his head.
"I highly recommend we leave this place quickly, whatever you're going to find in there will not be pretty."
Vernon kept to his thoughts and tested the doorknob.
Locked.
Dove decided to open it for him, picking the lock again.
Inside the room appeared to be something similar to a medical suite but for pets. Specifically, one pet.
There was a gilded cage of sorts, set in the decorated corner of the small room. Inside it was very furry thing. Dove's eyes became enormous as soon as she saw the fur breathing, verifying Vernon's words that it was alive and breathing, somehow.
She cautiously stepped inside the room, and that's when she realized it wasn't even sleeping. It suddenly moved, like it saw her. She couldn't even see a face but the way it moved, seemed like it was facing the door she had just came through. It was awake the entire time and just sitting still in that one position, like it barely had legs, and upon closer inspection, it had very ragged breathing.
she could hear the effort it was making in every deep breath it was taking, which was constant.
"Ah... That's unexpected." She chose the politest thing she could say in the moment.
Malachite and Vernon came in after her and saw the creature, who seemed to wiggle its entire body... No, not wiggle, shake.
Malachite held up both their hands and made a cross with their fingers. Laurence sighed as he noticed the items in the cage and name sign next to it. There were the soft expensive dog bed and some toys, tubes connected to some tanks, one having mush the other having water, clearly the genetically mutated creature could not eat anything solid, and the name place was right next to the gilded cage.
'Prada' it said.
"Designer pet. This place was funded by someone very rich and dumb, or smart but heartless." He said his speculations out loud as he crossed the room, going up to the gilded cage.
"How do we know some weird, corrupt company wasn't funding this place?" Dove asked him.
He reached for the latch and opened the cage, giving the creature a wide opening to come out. It acted like a ball that could not roll. The detective opted to pick it up and figure out where its legs were.
"Remember that first guy we saw who was writhing on the floor? Well, I questioned him, and he revealed he was a med student who needed money. I explored the lab afterwards, before that big stampede happened which, by the way-" He turned to Malachite after figuring out how to hold the strange creature, who apparently had legs, sort, but they were more like nubs.
"Good job, now you're gonna have to figure out how to undo your spell later."
Malachite slouched, forgetting that part.
"Anyway, I searched the rest of the poorly set up lab, all of the equipment were secondhand or tools they just had to make do with, the tables and shelves were used and brought down. This whole layout was likely here before the lab was made, likely for a speakeasy back in the day. Rich person knows this somehow, rents the warehouse, gives the desperate students a sketchy job, which is to make her a designer pet." Laurence continued, searching through the fur for the creature's face.
Vernon stepped back, uncomfortable. It was like a sea urchin but with fur instead of prickles, there was a nose and then a mouth underneath that, but-
"Are its,,, teeth? Missing?" Dove squinted her eyes as she took a closer look at the furry ball.
Laurence hummed, then opted to place it on the table and inspected more, with Dove's help. She combed the fur away to keep the nose and questionable mouth revealed.
"Where are the eyes?"
"And the ears?"
"Found the ears." Laurence said in a disappointed tone.
Holes. Actual holes for ears, like an Owl's ears but covered by fur instead of feathers. Speaking of the fur, it was abnormally long, and a had a deep, reddish hue to it, similar to red leather.
Feeling insensitive but also wanting to confirm a hypothesis, Dove pulled out her phone and searched for designer bags. a bit of scrolling and she selected an image of a red handbag, zooming in and then holding her phone next to the creature's fur.
"Well then." She said, seeing that the shades matched.
Laurence was still looking for any physical features, aside from the fur and looked for a tail, just to see if it was a cat or dog. So far it had reddish brown fur like a fox, the snout and breathing issues of a pug, a round, fluffy body like that of a raccoon, and was as quiet as a mouse aside from the squeaking. There was another furry nub, like a rabbit's tail, and the detective frowned.
"Did any of you kids see any bunnies?"
"No. Thankfully no."
"Yeah, that's probably for the best." He said as he finally stopped trying to figure out what the animal was, all he knew was that it was some sort of mutation.
When they all backed away from the table, the furball was standing for a moment, before tipping over and wriggling again. The nubs it had for legs barely worked and didn't even have what you could consider paws or anywhere for nails to grow. It squeaked like a rat and continued to gasp for air, unable to roll over.
The way its mouth opened each time it gasped was disturbing, for the mouth had some fuzz but was mostly naked. It looked like the mouth of a baby lamb.
Malachite continued to make a cross with their fingers, never letting their eyes off the thing as they slowly backed out of the room.
"The animal can barely breathe, and it can't see because it was born without eyes. The limbs-to-body ratio also make it impossible to walk on their own." Vernon said, noting how incapable this creature was of living for long.
"And the would-be owner clearly isn't going to care about its health. Letting it out is a bad idea, it won't survive, and I'm not sure how well it'll do in a pet shop."
Vernon summoned a deadly nightshade flower and picked the berries for it to eat. Sadly, the creature lacked teeth, and the nose couldn't smell it. The mouth wasn't even big enough for the berries. Vernon was too disturbed by the texture and movement of the weak, baby-lamb shaped mouth to insistently try feeding it.
Laurence patted his shoulder and advised for him to exit the room to avoid seeing what he was about to do next to help. Dove stayed at first, whispering apologies to the creature, unafraid to touch and pet it.
"Dove. Please cover your ears and close your eyes." He asked her quietly as he took his gun out of his holster.
She covered her ears as she walked toward him, and he held her head with his free hand, pressing her close to him to shield her away as he pulled the trigger on the designer animal.
He would have preferred all three of the interns to have their eyes closed the entire time until they got out of the labs, but with all the obstacles on the floor, that would only make it difficult to walk.
There were corpses strewn about.
Lucia appeared there, in the middle of the room, right underneath the now dim light. She was wiping blood off her face, the other hand holding only the bottom half of a person as she gave Laurence a big smile.
Vernon and Malachite looked away, Dove kept eye contact with Lucia, Laurence was tempted to cover her eyes even though he knew she didn't seem as disturbed.
"You got here quick." He commented bluntly.
The cat family stayed close around Dove's feet, hissing at Lucia and backed away, hiding behind her legs.
"Well, you did call me, saying you had a large meal waiting for me. I can't say no to a large meal." Replied the forever-starving wendigo with a smile.
"And when will Chris be arriving?"
"He's already upstairs." Lucia pointed up with a bloody finger.
"Or more, up the stairs that led into a secret entrance in the warehouse. Worry not, he'll come down to help with the cleanup, after I'm done of course." She gave a wide grin that showed her teeth.
Laurence nodded, making sure the kids stayed behind him as Lucia sped off again, going out to find any other people that have not been mauled by animals, wanting more of her share. He signaled to Dove to take her friends and gave her the directions up, saying he needed to check something with the dogs. Dove took both Vernon and Malachite by their sleeves, helping to lead them through the room and making sure the cats followed.
"Don't let Lucia eat the animals, the fallen will be gone after Malachite's spell wears off, and the rest will just be dogs and other strays that deserve a nice passing and burial." She said in passing to him.
"That all depends on if I can get to her quick enough. But I can try." He told her as he went off.
The labs continued to echo the screams and running.
As Laurence had told them, there was a staircase that led up and into a secret door in the warehouse. The doors were left open, presumably by Laurence, and they all unconsciously took a deep breath after getting above ground, as if being in that strange basement lab was suffocating them brutally.
Chris met them at the basement doors, waving to and greeting the kids as it had been a while.
"There seems to be a lot of noise happening underneath. I doubt even Lucia could cause that much of a ruckus." He said as he then noticed Malachite and gave the kid a smile, noticing they had a brighter look in their eye now.
"Malachite unleashed a stampede of the dead." Vernon casually said.
Malachite had a proud look on their face.
"Are you here to burn the place down when Lucia's done?"
"That depends. Since this place is located beneath the ground and in the middle of downtown Portland, I'll have to first do a scope of the place and then decide how much to burn."
He knelt down after noticing the cat family. They weaved between Dove's legs to Vernon's. The boy had caught his breath and grew some catnip from his flowerpot, before kneeling down and placing the pot on the ground, letting the cats have at it.
"Something to help relax them." He said.
Chris chuckled, holding one hand, palm side up, out to the cats, letting one of the kittens smell him.
Malachite gently pulled on Dove's wrist and pointed down.
Roswell's ghost appeared again. The mother cat, Edith, trotted over and was able to rub her face against his, like he had become solid for just this moment. Edith purred and chirped. Roswell purred with her, bumping his small head against hers.
He looked up at the interns and meowed.
Malachite was about to lift their hands to sign, paused as their brain scrambled to remember the movements. They pointed to Roswell and then made a circle with their pointer finger between them, Vernon, and Dove, then did the sign for 'Thank you'. Malachite then soon realized they forgot what hand signs to do for the rest of the message, slouched in tired defeat, and took out their phone.
'He says thank you for saving his family.'
Roswell meowed again.
'And for saving all of the other friends. Roswell can finally rest in peace knowing his family is safe. All he asks now is that his kits stay with Edith, their mother.'
Roswell lowered his head to look at his family again, going over to his kittens as they gathered around him, weakly running around and playing. Watching them be free and outside of a cage made him happy, and he closed his eyes in that smile a cat can only make with their eyes closed, and his spirit soon disappeared.
Laurence and Lucia came out soon after, followed by the only few surviving strays who, rightfully, stayed close to Laurence and away from Lucia. It was Chris' turn to go inside and inspect. Laurence had already done his part and gathered the evidence Chris would need in order to know which company was secretly funding this project, and so he went in to choose which rooms to burn.
Lucia didn't stay long. Now that there were no more humans to cannibalize and the rest mauled to death by the felled strays, she wanted to go back to Liora. The interns also wanted to leave the premises quickly. Malachite was about to start crying as soon as they saw all the other lab rats and animals that barely made it out, and Vernon was beginning to physically feel sick from the place, not just the state of them.
It was a challenge, figuring out what to do with the stray animals too messed up by chemicals and chemical testing to live long. Laurence opted to call Bence to come over as well, at least to give Malachite instructions on how to undo their spell and give funerals for animals. Any type of spirit left without being guided will turn into a dark soul eventually, if left unchecked.
But that last part, Laurence and Bence weren't worried about. When it came to animal ghosts that refused to pass on, they had Ursa to help with that. She typically preferred canines but she could be creative.
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