madeinthehrl (
madeinthehrl) wrote in
damned_institute2013-01-27 04:54 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Entry tags:
Night 68: Main Hallway, 1-Center
[from here]
It was still early in the night from the looks of it--the main hallway was totally clear as they moved toward the Sun Room. It was true the route they were taking was normally guarded, but there was no guarantee the rec field wasn't, and with a group this large, they would stand a better chance at breaking through anything that might await them.
She glanced back at the group. "If there's someone in the Sun Room, try to focus on disabling the attacker and running. I don't want to get held up in a pointless fight."
It was still early in the night from the looks of it--the main hallway was totally clear as they moved toward the Sun Room. It was true the route they were taking was normally guarded, but there was no guarantee the rec field wasn't, and with a group this large, they would stand a better chance at breaking through anything that might await them.
She glanced back at the group. "If there's someone in the Sun Room, try to focus on disabling the attacker and running. I don't want to get held up in a pointless fight."
no subject
Or rather: even as Ed turned away from the rattle, another answered the first, equally faint, at the same difficult-to-judge distance -- but this time, sounding from in front of them. And before the echoes of that one had faded, another rattle scuttled through from yet another direction, harsh and rough.
And, subtly, something tickled the back of Al's head, the lightest brush of touch.
no subject
"I have some mana techniques I can use, too, but they drain me. I haven't figured out the limits, but I probably shouldn't use them if I can help it." He just hoped he'd have a choice. He edged closer to the others, freeing the knife from his belt just in case, then darted a glance toward where he knew the doors to the Sun Room were. The doors always seemed to be open, but if they could close them... "Let's... let's keep going. The Sun Room has tables. We can block the door."
no subject
The faint brush against his head made every hair stand up on end (how had it gotten behind him already?!), and he whirled around with his blade up against whatever had managed to sneak so close.
no subject
"Anyway, yes, getting somewhere more defensible sounds like a really good idea," he said, as he moved towards the Sun Room. At least, up until he saw the way his brother moved from the corner of his eye and also whirled around, so he could see what got his attention.
no subject
Until abruptly its claws sank through Al's shirt at the same time that the touch against the back of his head resolved into a hand, grey-pale, extended from among his hair. Groping at nothing, it reached first outward and then curved back at the wrist to bury an unforgiving grip in his hair: with a vicious yank, it pulled him backwards, towards the darkest recesses of the hallway.
no subject
"Al!"
Without a second thought, he lunged forward, slashing at the hand and the too-thick blackness with the dagger in his hand.
no subject
"Brother, catch!" he shouted, tossing the sword to Ed and grabbing at the hand with both of his, bracing himself against the pulling and trying to get back to the others.
no subject
Fear shot through him past the rage that was choking him. He couldn't lose his brother their first night here!
He shined the flashlight at the section of hall Al was being dragged to so he could see and attack whatever was there.
no subject
And the hand: Lloyd's dagger struck it open with the overripe sound of dead flesh splitting. Black, viscous blood splashed, spattering his face and oozing sluggishly along the wrist and rapidly-emerging forearm until it stained Al's bright hair. And still it didn't hesitate, grip only tightening and pulling, pulling until -- a second hand crawled out of his hair, pale fingers curling forward this time. Blood-caked fingernails scraped across his face, trailing lightly over his cheek and eyebrows until abruptly it, too, was pulling him back.
Inexorable strength, unmitigated fury. Behind Al the darkness in the hallway didn't disperse so much as absorb the light, shadows writhing as if all the black itself was alive.
no subject
In a split second, he threw away his first instinct to slam the thing with Beast. Beast had exhausted him when he'd used it on the front door three nights ago, and he couldn't afford to be exhausted. Not now! But maybe something weaker, that didn't need as much mana from him.
His mana raced down his arm as he focused it almost without conscious thought. Even before it reached his dagger, he was moving, aiming another strike at the monster's arm in a technique he'd done so many times it was almost second nature to him. Mana and light streaked through the air as he hurled it with his blade, a shockwave already forming.
"Demon Fang!"
Let's see how you like mana point blank!
no subject
A sudden flash of memory--another time years ago he'd been taken in a mysterious creature's grip, the pain that had followed-- "Brother!!"
no subject
"I am not losing him again," he snarled at the darkness, hiding his fear behind anger.
no subject
Even as Ed reached for his brother, the darkness reached back. The sluggish mess staining his shirt, cold to the touch, suddenly writhed into motion at the same time as the blackness behind him did: it whipped around Al, grabbing at him like myriad tiny hands dragging him back into the darkness. Except these were no hands. If the patients took the time to look, they would see: it was hair, a sea of it, creeping along the shadows cast in the hallway and making them alive.
Strands crawled over his face, writhing around the hand still clawing into flesh until it subsumed it altogether and the fingers became hair themselves, funneling into every crevice: mouth, nostrils, ears, seeking even to creep between his eyelids and eyeballs.
no subject
But there wasn't any time! The hands hadn't let go, and now there were fingers, strands of hair and darkness, wrapping around every part of Al he could see, and if they didn't do something-
"Edward, cut the hair!"
If they couldn't kill the monster - and it certainly hadn't acted like it cared about his attacks! - then they needed to get Al out of its grasp, and they needed to do it now! He sliced his dagger into the black strands nearest to Al's head. They couldn't let it suffocate Al before they cut him free!
no subject
no subject
Ed hacked at the hair as soon as the words left Lloyd's mouth, desperation giving him strength.
no subject
It was almost a body, but grotesque and broken, back wrenched into an arc and arms groping upward as the source of the hair enveloping Al. The guttural croak sounded and grew louder until it was nearly deafening, and still the hair pulled at him, bringing him closer and closer to the warped body behind him.
no subject
"Keep trying!"
no subject
no subject
"I'm here, I won't let it take you," he promised.
no subject
The rattling sound that surrounded them coalesced with the hair, focusing until it sounded clearly from a rapidly-forming head. Still the shape was built of hair, still it seemed to hug the ground in a wretched contortion, but more and more it was humanoid: human-shaped, but twisted, assembled incorrectly.
no subject
This isn't working! We need to try something else! If it's hair wasn't a weak spot, then maybe its body-
Urgency drove him into action even before he finished the thought. He lunged forward, plunging his dagger straight into what he hoped was the monster's chest.
no subject
no subject
He followed Lloyd's lead of stabbing the hair monster as his mind raced to think of a transmutation that he could perform against it.
no subject
From amongst the strands there burst a body: a woman, blue-pale, wide-eyed, linked to the dark mass still gripping Al through her own hair -- and both hands latched into the closest patient's throat, nails digging in with every intention of tearing flesh.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)