NIGHT 64: MAIN HALLWAY, 1-EAST

[envy_the_sinners]

_{[From here]}

Scar continued through to the easternmost end of the hallway, finally reaching the door to the medical wing. Grumbling at the damn thing being locked, the Ishbalan bashed it a few times with his flashlight until it broke, and he pushed open the door somewhat cautiously.

_{[To here]}

Comments

[forsworn]

[from here]

The next hall was just as quiet as the one before it, but this one actually gave Kratos pause as he passed his flashlight over blood smeared on the walls and floor. There had been a fight here...the question was, between who? He shone his light around the rest of the hall, finally happening upon the culprit--or the victim, depending on how he looked at it. There was no monster corpse nearby, though; had whatever attacked him escaped, or had he stumbled in here from another area?

His mouth thinned to a line. If the injured patient hadn't been attacked in the hallway, he had probably come from the medical wing. Well, could you have expected anything less? The prospect of a fight, even a brief one, was looming, and Kratos's arm began aching in response.

"The medical wing is straight ahead," he said, pointing it out with his flashlight. "Flynn--" He paused to fumble with the tool pouch sitting next to his "sheath" and extracted two of the scalpels he'd acquired while exploring with Lingormr several nights before, which he then offered to the other man. "You're going to need these."

[hairraising]

Rapunzel was at once relieved that Eugene was okay with saving their talk for another time, and guilty that she had to leave him hanging. She knew full well just how much significance the dagger carried for both of them, and sick patients or not, leaving something that big out on a wire wasn't going to help much with feelings of unease.

It seemed she had greater reason to be uneasy as they closed in on the Medical Wing, however. She hadn't expected they would be able to just waltz in and take whatever cure was there, but that still didn't prepare her for the blood. Not much did. The only reason she didn't cover her mouth was that she didn't have a free hand.

She drifted closer to Eugene as Kratos handed him some tiny blades. Better than nothing, but her stomach still sat in knots. "For sure. Whatever's in there, it's going to be like last night. Probably worse," she explained, the body of her voice barely there anymore.

[brokensmolder]

That...was a lot of blood. Even after the nightmare that was last night, nothing could have quite prepared Eugene for the reality of seeing the blood that smeared the hall. He stepped back a little, startled, but steeled himself and recovered quickly. He could handle blood and the sudden, unbidden mental images speculating about its origins. But that didn't matter right now. It didn't matter who--or what--had been doing the bleeding; it wasn't anyone in their group and trying to find the source would just waste time they apparently didn't have. Rapunzel was dead-set on finding that cure. There were sick people waiting on them.

Sick people like Castiel. It had taken a little longer to notice, thanks to his little bout with weapon-that-killed-me-is-now-in-my-girlfriend's-hand phobia, but now that Eugene was looking, really looking, the guy didn't look so great. Put bluntly, he looked like death warmed over.

Eugene frowned. Why wasn't Castiel back in his room? If there were more monsters like the birds last night running around and leaving bloodsmears everywhere, the last thing they needed was for Castiel to become a liability.

But, hey. If they were off to find a cure, he could think of no one who needed it more than their long-coated companion.

Eugene pulled himself from his thoughts and the blood-smeared spectacle in front of him when Kratos began to speak and then search through his bag to produce...

...a couple of really small knives. "Thanks," he said, examining them. They were long-handled and wickedly sharp, sure to cut deeply and cleanly. Back home, Eugene had used something very similar to cut purse strings when money was tight and more high-profile jobs were a long time coming. "I appreciate it." And he did. He had reservations about their practicality as weapons, but something was better than nothing. He was going to need all the help he could get.

[freewill]

In the end, his question was never answered, as the entirety of their group was distracted by the blood that was staining the walls and floor near the medical wing door. Castiel stopped for a moment, realizing that it could be staged -- and yet he knew enough about wounds, even human wounds, to know that it was all real.

Besides, when had the threats here even been empty?

As Kratos handed a few weapons off to Flynn (they were medical instruments rather than actual knives, but most people were limited when it came to weaponry here), Castiel stepped forward. He knew that he shouldn't be the one leading group, but he -- like Kratos -- was less affected by the sight of blood. Rapunzel, at least, clearly wasn't used to this sort of danger, and seeing how she was here on the behalf of others, it would be best to keep her safe.

"Brace yourselves," he said with a glance over his shoulder. He drew in a breath, ignored the aches and pains in his body, and opened the door. A dark hallway was all he could see for now, and so he stepped inside.

[To here.]