damned_institute | Night 64: Sun Room

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Night 64: Sun Room

[from here]

There was no sign of other patients in the Sun Room, meaning it was possible that Rita and her companion were the first. That was just what Rita didn’t want. It meant she couldn’t know if any monsters or brainwashed patients were lurking around, and if they were, she and the old man were going to get their full attention.

“Don’t make too much noise,” she cautioned Skulduggery in a whisper. “You never know what could be hiding in here.” Unfortunately, their flashlights probably drew plenty of attention too, which meant they needed to be fast. Treading lightly yet quickly, Rita started toward the entrance to the library, watching the darkness for signs of danger as she moved.

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[From here]

Hakkai paused right inside the door. It sounded like there was fighting again, and he could see flashes of flame-bright light further in. He gave Gren a quick glance.

"Should we risk it?" He kept his voice as low as possible, not wanting to attract attention to themselves.

"Unless you want to try another way around," he offered. He wasn't spoiling for a fight, but he wasn't sure they had any better options.

"Maybe whatever it is will be distracted?" He tried to sound optimistic, but it came out a little less confident than it could be.

Distracted, perhaps. But the rage that dwelt here was all-consuming and all-encompassing, and the presence of one victim did not nullify the threat to others. Even as the new intruders debated their path, thick vines of hair crept from within the doorframe they had just passed, covering the wood beneath.

Half-covered in clutching dark strands, the doors pulled shut with a sudden slam.

Hakkai did jump, this time, the sudden noise behind him coming as more of a surprise than he could cover. He swept his flashlight around to see what had come up behind them, and saw only inky tendrils of darkness.

He gave Gren a nervous smile. "I don't think we have much of a choice tonight, it seems like." Whatever had trapped them in here was likely looking for a fight. He tried to steady himself, prepare for whatever form the attack took so he could counter it with his chi.

Gren cursed, and stared back at the abruptly closed door. Well, that wasn't good at all, was it? If they couldn't get out that way, there was really only one other way out of the room.

"Want to make a run for it?"

He was really only half-joking. Even if whatever it was caught up with them, they'd be closer to their destination when it did.

As the patients debated their course of action, the darkness around them deepened, the moonlight seeping through the windows with less and less strength. Even the glimmering light of fire from the other end of the room seemed to fade with time, each minute seeming to pull it further away, making it dimmer, separating the living breathing humans from one another.

Behind Hakkai and Gren, the force that had pushed the door shut had vanished -- closer inspection would show nothing but a door they could not pull open.

But deserving of closer inspection still was Gren: for between his dark hair drifted hair still darker, pitch-black and not of his own. It lengthened slowly, brushing down his shoulders to his back and lower still.

Hakkai still wasn't sure what it was they were up against, but he could see the gradual dimming of the light - both from outside, and from Gren's flashlight. Whatever it was - it was trying to split them up. And that would be bad for both of them. Hakkai concentrated, pulled up a small ball of raw energy, and threw it at the darkness growing between them, even as he shoved forward right behind it.

It almost seemed like an optical illusion, the way the room seemed almost to fade into blackness. It took a moment for his brain to even register the change, and by then, he was more concerned with the creeping sensation that was almost like wind, or the way the sand on Titan had tickled at the back of his neck like a multitude of tiny insects.

"What the--"

He was cut off as Hakkai moved suddenly and acted on instinct, throwing himself back towards the wall.

The ball of energy rent the darkness at first, shadows tearing apart as if Hakkai had attacked sheets of black fabric instead of something intangible. As they ripped apart to reveal the two men to one another with greater clarity, there echoed a faint rattling that seemed to emanate not from a fixed point but from around them in every direction. Almost a death rattle, for those who had heard one, it continued longer than any natural breath could even as it faded closer and further.

But the shrouding darkness did not return between them: it had already done its work. The hair drifting amongst Gren's own had lengthened enough to reach his waist and wrists, and there it suddenly stopped its lazy progression and whipped out in a sinuous curve to bind his arms to his torso and press him into the wall.

Hakkai bit back a swear. He didn't have any physical weapons on him to cut Gren free with - he didn't even know if physical weapons would work on whatever it was that had Gren trapped.

The sudden noise, soft as it was, chilled him to the bone, and made him pause as his first blast of chi faded away. He'd heard that sound many, many times before - the last few dying breaths of an enemy, choking on the blood in their lungs. But there was nobody he could see, and the sound came from all around them.

He tried to push that aside, and moved in for another blast of energy, aiming at the wall just to the side of Gren, hoping he wouldn't cause too much damage to the structure behind the darkness.

The sound was a terrible one, calling to mind too many memories he preferred to keep well buried, but he didn't have much chance to dwell on it, or react at all as he was bound and pinned in place.

He would have cursed, had not the combination of the impact and the wave of sudden panic at being restrained--not again--taken the breath out of him. He recovered only enough to struggle, instinctual more than any planned strategy, nerves not at all helped by Hakkai's attempt to free him.

The wall cracked on impact, hair writhing around the ball of energy before some strands gave way. Behind the thick coat of black the plaster shuddered, fragments scattering around Hakkai and Gren and leaving a visible hole behind them. The death-rattle coalesced, echoing around the room before finally something became visible in the wall: an eye, wide and staring in a pale face mostly obscured by ropes of hair. Malevolent and furious, its gaze fixated on Hakkai --

Even as a hand parted through Gren's hair and landed on his face. Smooth, pale, and icy, it pressed against his cheek and pulled: and slowly, he began to sink back into the hair, into the wall itself.

Hakkai recoiled from the face half-hidden beneath the hair. This was like nothing he'd fought before - it was something out of a ghost story, almost. He realized a moment later that his pause had given the spirit an opening to grab closer hold of Gren. It was becoming clear that his chi attacks weren't doing much good - instead, he dove in, trying to grab at Gren's shoulders and pull him away from the wall.

It was like every bad nightmare he'd ever had, on Titan and beyond, trapped and unable to do anything to free himself while a voice in the back of his mind that he hadn't heard in quite awhile now was telling him to just give up. He'd suffered enough, hadn't he? He'd almost had peace once... before waking up here, why not go back to it?

But he was still stronger than that voice, just barely, so he tried to flinch away from the corpse-like hand, tried to kick at the wall he was pinned to as if it would do him any good... struggled as much as he could to keep from being dragged away into that darkness.

Hair swept and snaked over Gren's form, tangling with itself and his clothes to grasp him with an ever-firmer grip. The face in the wall pushed through, borne on a column of even more hair, bobbing with loose -- almost mechanical, unnatural -- jerks as she rested her chin on his shoulder. Almost affectionate, close enough for the rot and the death-rattle to ingrain into his senses, she tilted her merciless stare as if to watch Hakkai's efforts.

One dark eyebrow quirked: the expression shifting nearly to confusion for just a moment. Then another hand burst forth from the masses enveloping Gren and wrapped around his torso, clutching with dead flesh against the living, sinking his shoulders and back into what should have been soothingly-patterned wallpaper.

And the hair continued to wrap him in a living cocoon -- crawling with a life of its own, it wound around Hakkai's fingers where they touched Gren and then coiled up around his wrist, threatening to bind them together for good.

Trying to pull Gren out wasn't working, and at the rate this was going, he was going to get trapped too. He tugged one hand free of the dark wisps - which, he was starting to realize, was hair - and aimed a quick punch at the face in the wall. Hopefully it would be enough of a distraction for Gren to pull free.

"Get out of here, Hakkai." He didn't raise his voice, but he was resolute.

It was no use. Just no use. He could keep struggling, but he could hardly move, and at this point, they were both going to be dragged away if Hakkai stayed and tried to free him.

It was as if death and the weight of all his past sins were dragging him down into darkness, into an oblivion that part of him still craved after all this time.

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Night 64: Sun Room

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