Night 68: Main Hallway, 1-Center

[madeinthehrl]

[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."

Comments

[fullmetalheart]

"I don't know!" Ed said before yelling when Al was pulled away from him.

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.

[deathrattling]

The hair-body reached, enfolding Al in ever more hair until thick strands were extending not just from its arms but from its legs and torso, as if pulling him into its encasing mass -- and nothing worked -- until it did, all the hair recoiling sharply from the blows that Lloyd and Ed landed into its chest. For a moment it was still, hair flowing slowly without pulling, and then --

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.

[redcladidealist]

Unfortunately for Lloyd, the short range of his dagger meant that he was the one who was closer. The monster's nails dug into his throat before he even had a chance to jerk back. The teen screamed, the sound half-choked by the hands on his throat. Desperately he clutched at the monster's wrist with his hand even as he slashed wildly with the knife in his other.

[armoredsoul]

Al was struggling for breath now, though he still fought the hair with terrified vigor. His choking screams were muffled by the hair, but just as hysteric.

[fullmetalheart]

"Dammit, let him go too!" Ed couldn't really see a choice but to try Scar's method of attack.

He clapped his hands together and reached for the nearest part of the newly fully revealed monster and prayed that it would actually work. He had no idea what he'd do if he couldn't make some part of her explode.

[deathrattling]

It worked: at least in the simplest definition of worked. Her arm bulged, the scent of rot heating up at an exponential pace sweetening the air, and then exploded with a wet burst of flesh and bone. Black blood splattered them all, this time, painting over skin as if marking them, and the hand that had been clutching onto Lloyd's throat wavered, bereft of the arm that had held it steady.

And then it very deliberately let go and fell to the ground with a wet smack, hair building around it and subsuming it within seconds. The death-rattle surrounding them stilled; the hair that had all but cocooned Al in its smothering embrace paused.

Her head turned, wide-eyed gaze locking onto Ed's for the first time, stare furious, as enraged as it was blank. They had all intruded upon her territory, had awoken the spirit whose work it was to share the suffering, and so they would: share.

In an explosion of movement, hair looped upward from the ground, winding into a thick trunk beneath Al as it lifted him clear into the air. Every strand around his body tightened and tightened again, pulsing into a squeeze harsh enough to cut skin.

[redcladidealist]

The moment Lloyd was released, he stumbled back, gasping for breath. His hand clutched at his throat, trying to stem the flow of blood, but it oozed past his fingers, and it hurt, it hurt to drag breath down, but he greedily gulped it anyway. Blood spattered across his face, but he didn't care, he was too focused on being able to breathe.

Until horror gripped his lungs and froze the breath in his chest. "Al!" His shout was hoarse, but no less full of panic as the monster's arm burst apart and rejoined the rest of it in its relentless attack. There wasn't time to think! Without thinking, he reacted, lunging forward on feet that he refused to admit were unsteady, and he slashed with every bit of mana that he had. Demon Fang raced at the trunk of hair-monster-dark-

Please please cut through- "Edward, get him out!"

[armoredsoul]

Al screamed in pain, too tightly held to thrash as the hair bit into his flesh in countless places and drove what little breath he had out of him. His vision started to go grey, though adrenaline warred to keep him conscious.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed froze for a moment at her stare, staring back into her eyes. He didn't remember ever seeing someone with that much anger before although he'd run across plenty of people in the past that came close.

Lloyd's command snapped him out of it and he nodded and grabbed for Al to pull him free.

He didn't want to fight this thing any longer, just get Al and run. He was completely out of ideas for how to counter it, the one idea he did have failing spectacularly.

[deathrattling]

Inside the cocoon of hair, where Lloyd and Ed had no line of sight, the intent of the darkness was shifting, changing: seeking in the boy it had entrapped a vessel as much as a victim. Even as both other patients struggled, the hair found Al's open mouth and writhed in through his screams, filling his throat until only the barest slivers of air could sliver through, strands crawling their way down oesophagus and deeper.

The rattling quieted as it did, as Lloyd's attack sheared through the thickest wind of hair: Al's body thudded to the ground along with the mass of hair surrounding him, but it was rushing into him at a rapid rate, releasing him at the same time as it suffocated him.

[redcladidealist]

Exhaustion hit him even as the last of his mana flew free, and it was only adrenaline and desperation that kept him from staggering or falling to his knees. With a sense of finality and dread, he knew that that was it. He wouldn't be able to hurl anything else at this monster except for steel and fists, and up against this, when he was so shaky and tired he wanted to drop...

Lloyd shoved the thought away. It wasn't an option. Instead he half-lunged, half-stumbled toward Al and grabbed one of his arms to help haul him up, pushing, pulling, whatever it took to get him away from that thing.

"Run!"

They had to get away before it reestablished its grip!

[armoredsoul]

Alphonse was gagging, choking against the mass of hair forcing itself down his throat. He grabbed his throat by pure instinct and panic, his move to then grab the mass of hair interrupted by Lloyd taking hold of him.

Thin cuts bled freely along his arms and legs, not deep enough to impede but still painful and needing tending. His perception was beginning to return from the fight-or-flight panic he had been caught in before, and he scrambled to get up and back away from the creature.

[fullmetalheart]

Ed stepped back to obey Lloyd when he stepped on his flashlight and it rolled under his foot, causing him to go down with a yelp.

He scrambled back up to his feet, flashlight in hand, and turned to flee with the others.

[deathrattling]

Hair clung to them as they moved, but in ever-thinning quantities, until the strands were easy to break as they dashed for the exit. It might have been encouraging for the patients: except that the reason it was disappearing was because of where it was disappearing, thick wads of it clawing down Alphonse's throat and into his body, strands seeking entrance even through his nose and eyes.

By the time the patients escaped, it would all be gone: but the darkness had found its place in a victim, even if he could breathe again, and it would not be gone for long.

[redcladidealist]

It was hard enough to focus on his steps, hard enough to ignore the way his vision was trying to gray at the edges. He didn't see where the black strands of hair went, and frankly didn't think to care. The important thing was that they were gone, finally allowing them to flee from the hall.

[To here.]