damned_institute | NIGHTSHIFT 27: F-BLOCK HALLWAY

Solomon... Book of Solomon... No way in hell they were one and the same.

The girl was hurling riddles, and he simply didn't have the patience to handle them without complaint. He was gonna wake up in a minute, knowing the crazy-ass timing in this God-forsaken place. The whole gig was a game to these people, wasn't it? Real funny.

Suspicion she was lying through her teeth aside, the situation seemed grim. If there was blood anywhere, it was in Dean's calling to study its pattern and origin.

"... Alright." He was going in there. Someone might need his help. Screw thoughts to the contrary – whether this was a professional move or not was of no significance. They'd been taught to use their senses as tools, too, and at present it was all they had at their disposal. The flashlight in his hand turned on with a small click. "Sam, stay here with Diva while I scoot in and outta there," he rolled off like a military commandant; gaze fixed on the bathroom door as he unconsciously shuffled into sidesteps. "Back in a sec."

The hunter stood his ground, eyes doing a fleeting inspection of the doorframe - top to bottom - before he kicked it open and slipped to the other side of it with a trained swiftness.

"Dean-" Sam began in protest, then cut off, gritting his teeth as his brother vanished into the further darkness of the bathroom. "Damn it," he swore, voice pitched vicious but low enough not to carry, barely above a whisper.

He moved towards the door, angling to cut off access to it, preventing a threat from at least one front. Tempted though he was to ignore the direction in favour of not leaving Dean alone with whatever was in the bathroom, his own conscience wouldn't let him abandon Diva to the other things that might be roaming the halls.

This was far too familiar for his liking.

His skin itched, fine hairs prickling at the back of his neck. He could smell it now, the blood, thick in his nostrils and settling on the back of his tongue. It was only long familiarity with dark places and the nightmares they conjured that allowed him to banish the images that tried to spring unbidden to his mind, telling himself that he did not know what was in there, and that daydreaming would be useless.

_{[PRETEND SHE LEFT BEFORE EDWARD AND CO. CAME IN, OR THERE WOULD BE BAD THINGS. 'KAY? :O]}

Diva was already moving away when Dean made his decision to enter; by then, Diva didn't really care anymore. She touched the wall to the right of the doorway, more or less listening to the low gurgling beyond. She knew human blood didn't normally travel through human plumbing, water did that. And water came from...

There was usually a place with lots of water. And then it came through the pipes when someone turned a tap, right?

The Chiropteran was thinking ahead, thinking there had to be a place with a lot of blood to make it go around the building like that. Or something like that. Would have had to have drained a lot of bodies to get that much, but that didn't explain why it was being wasted. She stepped away from the wall, making a slow circle.

When she finally made a full 360, she paused. Then she made a beeline for the exit.

Sam bit back several choice curses, eyes narrowing in frustration as he watched Diva make her way off down the hall. "Where the hell are you going?" he hissed, fighting the urge to raise his voice - making their location even more obvious was counterproductive.

His weight shifted, indecision holding him in check for a moment before he planted his feet, grimacing to himself. It would be foolish to take off after her, but it grated on him to leave her to her own devices. Just not as much as it would grate on him to walk away before he knew what Dean had found inside.

Glaring at nothing in particular, he turned towards the bathroom door instead.

"What~? You don't sound happy."

The girl had an obvious strut, even in the ridiculous overcoat. If she felt any of the apprehension Sam did, it wasn't obvious.

"There are interesting things outside," came the final answer.

"Out-" Sam began, then trailed off, raising the hand that held his flashlight to scrub his knuckles across his eyes, as though wiping away a headache. The gesture sent weird shadows splintering across the nearby wall.

"Right. Thanks," he added, a touch inanely. He was not entirely certain his voice would carry far enough to reach her, by that point.

"Nice work, Sammy," came Dean's salutation as he crossed the threshold, careful to close the door on exit so as to prevent the slam. Idly shining his flashlight over the hallway, he could perceive Sam and Diva at a distance. At the man's side was little Rika, her tiny hand in his and her arm extended upwards thanks to the height difference.

He considered flicking the torch off, but ultimately chose to keep it on. The kid might go into a panic if all she could see was this dark willowy figure standing there – one with a grumpy face, if she had night vision. Dean didn't pay attention to Diva, simply frowning and noting she hadn't fled yet.

"Her name's Rika," he stated tersely before Sam could even question the stranger in their company. "She's new. And, uh..." Inclined to speak in murmurs with his brother, he directed the bright beam to the floor. "Blood's circulatin' through the plumbing. 'Cuz that's totally normal." He smiled dryly at the younger man.

Dean lead her out back into the hall, where two other people were waiting. Another man, and a figure that she couldn't make out in the dark. Dean quickly introduced her, which Rika took as a cue to keep quiet.

With nothing else to do, she just stood around and listened in on their conversation. They must have been here for quite some time, as the two just gave off an air of knowing what they were doing. She hoped that she would be able to learn a bit more about this place just by listening.

But if anything else, she learned that the blood indeed was not normal, even for a place like this.

Diva opened the door to the hallway and let it swing slowly open. After all, although her senses were more pronounced than a human's, she still couldn't see all that well in the dark, and she had moved out of the flashlights' glow.

Normally, the girl had every tendency to wander on her own at a whim. This time. though, she looked back and forth down the hallways before turning around and waving her hand at the others. "Come look, come look. I told you." The little human female that the man had brought out was so -

Diva fixed her gaze on Rika, and her long, blue hair.

"I love that color. You're just like a doll! How pretty."

Sam offered Rika what he hoped was a reassuring smile, though the glance he shot Dean on the heels of it was dark with solemn concern, and not a little anger. If ever there was a question of what the younger hunter might think of a child being trapped along with the rest of them, the answer was clear enough in the look. He said nothing on the subject, however, opening instead with a quiet, dry, "Next time, you get to stay with the crazy chick."

Sam glanced past the pair at the bathroom door, frowning speculatively. "It's running through the pipes?" he asked, unease colouring the request for confirmation. "Thought it smelled like a slaughterhouse when you opened the door, but that..." He trailed off with a shake of his head.

Diva's hailing caught his attention before he could spare much more thought for the possible sources of such contamination. He lifted one shoulder in a small, helpless shrug and turned about, heading down the hall to see just what had so snared the woman's interest.

"No way, man," he laughed, breaking out the customary grin. "The crazies dig you. Besides, she doesn't quite fit the description. Remember that blonde acquaintance of ours?" He was referring, of course, to Meg. Or the demon controlling her, whatever. Leaning closer to his brother, he instinctively squeezed Rika's hand as his gaze shifted to the other girl. "I'm surprised at you, Sam. Blamin' the kid when she can't help bein' how she is."

Green eyes traveled aloft, a grimace forming as a single question continued to undulate – where was the blood coming from? "Yeah. Just when you start thinkin' things couldn't get any weirder..."

Diva was fervent to lead them elsewhere. He couldn't really blame her; they'd been in the F Block for a few minutes now, and they hadn't gained leeway in their exploration. Even if a sledgehammer were in their possession, pipe surveillance would be stupid. They had to locate the source, the bloodbath itself, and Dean had a hunch...

"Rika," he quietly spoke down at the girl, as though Diva hadn't made the doll comment. His first thought was to distract the older girl from interacting with the younger one. She was messed in the head, and, frankly, Dean had the impression her erratic actions were akin in likeness to a bomb; if she suddenly lost her composure, he'd definitely feel more comfortable knowing he was in the line of fire, and no one else. "This is Sam, my brother. He's gonna take care o' you." He released her fragile hand, giving her a gentle nudge in the other man's direction. "We're all workin' together tonight, so don't worry, we won't be separating." A momentary look settled on Sam, holding a hint of warning that he should assume the duty without complaint, for Rika's sake. He swayed a little before moving toward the neglected member in their party.

"Diva, what's up?" He frowned, honestly interested. "What is it you wanna show us?"

She had thought that the others might disapprove of Dean bringing a child to them, and it looked like she was right when the other man gave her a smile and then turned to glare (she thought he was glaring, anyway) at Dean. But how could she blame them? For all intents and purposes, Rika really was a helpless child. There was no point in trying to inform them of her true age or nature, was there?

The doll comment made by the adult female actually intrigued Rika, rather than offending her. A doll? That was the first time anyone called her something like that. It seemed to be a compliment, at any rate, so she took it as one and smiled back at the older woman.

At Dean's instructions, Rika nodded again and wandered over to Sam, giving him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Mii, thank you for taking me with you. I'll do my best not to get in your way," Rika politely said, returning her attention to the woman so she knew where they were going next.

Diva didn't think a child had ever smiled right at her before, and she smiled back too before Dean's form blocked the little doll from sight. So many fun people to play with! Amshel would probably disapprove, after all, there was blood everywhere and that usually meant lots of lots of humans. And a hospital and doctor people... It was a mystery! Like one of the plays Nathan would blabber about. A good performance required mystery, intrigue, and a beautiful detective. She was not - in Nathan's taste - a pretty boy, nor terribly interested in whatever paradox Landel's offered, but the thought struck her all the same.

She looked up into Dean's face. It was difficult to pigeonhole Diva for a variety of reasons, not the least of which included her apparent lack of intelligence versus whatever truth there was to be found.

"That's really awful, thinking ill of me," said the Chiropteran. Her voice had dropped to mimic the human's exchange with his blood relation. "Are you scared of me already?" Only a game, of course. She rarely had serious conversations with her own Chevaliers, and never with humans.

She hopped back a step.

_{[continuing to LOL out in the hall (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/217123.html?page=2#comments)]}

NIGHTSHIFT 27: F-BLOCK HALLWAY

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