Night 73: Suite 1 (Third Floor)

[redcladidealist]

[From here.]

Maybe during the day the room Lloyd stepped into would have felt homey, maybe even luxurious as far as apartment rooms went. There was a nice, wide bed, a desk with a chair, a boxy item sitting on top that Lloyd vaguely recognized as a computer, though its screen was completely dark. There was a small kitchen alcove and a bathroom adjoining the room, the sinks in both dark with grime. Lloyd grimaced at the thought of trying to get drinkable water from either faucet. He didn't even want to think about the tub, too far recessed into the alcove for him to see. Something about the whole place felt eerie, disturbing. Fortunately, that wasn't what he was here for.

"There's the next warp pad," he said, striding across the room with purpose. His nerves only twitched a few times now from the memory of electrocution. Shining his flashlight as he walked, just in case there were monsters lurking, he almost didn't notice the small case sitting on top of a nightstand in the corner of the room. He blinked, the red cross on the box seeming familiar somehow. Where had he seen something like that? "Hey..." His footsteps slowed, the memory nagging. "What's that over there?"

Comments

[his_legacy]

[From here]

This room wouldn't have caused Link to frown if it hadn't seemed completely out of place in Landel's little dungeon. It was a bedroom, though far more homey than anything the patients slept in.

Probably not lavish enough for the egomaniac himself, though.

That left the question of its purpose, though at least they seemed to be alone.

[lighthearted]

Sora hardly could have expected what they found next. He'd only gotten a glimpse into some of the other rooms, but stepping into this one, he could tell that it was a place where someone was supposed to live. There was a bed, a kitchen, and even a bathroom further in.

He used his flashlight to inspect every nook and cranny, and found that the bathroom in particular was in terrible condition. It was full of blackened water -- or at least, that was what it looked like in this lighting.

Maybe it would have made more sense to keep moving. Sora didn't have a good feeling about any of this.

"... I wonder who lived here. Or lives here." There was no one asleep in the bed. Was it one of the doctors who did those terrible experiments? Sora's blood ran cold at the thought.

[knightspirit]

"Live-in staff?" Kyousuke guessed. "Hospitals usually have places for the staff to sleep, but..." He'd never heard of whole apartments, nor would he exactly call this a hospital, no matter what their attempts to claim otherwise. ... Hospitals were there help people, not torture them. He clenched his jaw, making his his way further in.

While Sora played with the faucet water, Kyousuke made his way over to the computer. ... Maybe they could find some kind of incriminating files on it. Unfortunately, however, the ancient machine wouldn't even turn on, making the idea short-lived. "No good, huh..." the boy said to himself. "We should probably get moving."

[damned_monsters]

The problem with good advice was that it was usually heeded too little, too late. The only sound from the bathroom was the regular drip-drop of the bath faucet, forming soft rings across the stagnant black water filled to the rim. The wary travelers could never have predicted it was nothing so harmless as a leaky faucet. It was a summoning, a call to feed for the bottom dweller that slept within the fathomless depths of the bathtub.

Silent, a bloated hand slid up the side of the porcelain tub, gripping tightly as it hauled the rest of its sodden body from the black water. Ratty black hair--More akin to frayed rope than hair, really--slipped from the water, clinging to a nauseatingly blue face with sunken holes for eyes. They dripped black muck down her face like bloody tears. It wasn't until her mouth finally surfaced did a heavy, watery cough finally break the silence. She expelled the water from her lungs onto the floor before a rattling breath took its place.

Like a limp rag doll, she flopped across the side of the tub, the only thing compelling her was an insatiable hunger that had not been quenched in so long.

[his_legacy]

Link's ears twitched, picking up the dripping bath faucet. Then the nauseating cough...

He whipped the bow from around his shoulders and took aim in the direction of the sound, eyes wide and brow furrowed. What he wouldn't give for a beast's senses at the moment-

"Shine the lights over there," he hissed into the darkness. How convenient, that they had only just stumbled upon a weapon so useful. Battered, yes, but better than charging in blindly with a sword.

[lighthearted]

Sora was on his way out of the bathroom to join the others by the teleportation pad, but that was when he heard the sound of dripping water and then the splashing of someone rising up out of the bathtub.

The bathtub, which had been full of dirty water.

Sora spun around right as Link spoke up, grabbing for his flashlight and aiming it at the tub, to see a bloated body covered in black hair. He gasped, remembering the bodies down in the lake under the institute, the way they had grasped for them like they wanted to suck the life out of them.

It wasn't like it should have been a surprise for a monster to appear out of nowhere like this, but while it wasn't the same as the ghost made of hair that Sora had run into before, it was too close for him to want to stick around for very long.

"We should just go," he said under his breath. "We can't afford to waste time on a fight right now."

[knightspirit]

Kyousuke was already turning sharply towards the sound of the cough before being asked. "Who's there!?" he cut in. But what he found was more of a what than a who, and for all of his usual coolness, it was hard to restrain his surprise at seeing what he could only describe as a living corpse. A ghost of some kind...?

It didn't matter, though. Sora was right. They should leave before they found out. Kyousuke had no problems with fighting if he had to, but they had nothing to gain by doing so here. He made his way over to the next teleport pad quickly, but he kept his back tuned towards it for now, instead continuing to focus on that ... thing pulling itself from the murky waters of the bathtub. Only when he sensed Sora and Link beginning to step onto the pad did Kyousuke tear his eyes away from the creature, following them to wherever their next destination was.

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