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damned_institute2009-08-29 09:52 pm
whiny-egomaniac.livejournal.com) wrote in damned_institute2009-08-29 09:52 pm
Nightshift 43: Stairwell by Waiting Room/Lobby 1
[from here]
A sudden wave of fear washed over the Decepticon as his recently-injured foot hit the first step; granted, tonight was, as far as he could tell, no different from any other night here... but the events of the previous evening had had their impact upon him, as it doubtless had on the other patients. Thus, it was with quiet trepidation that he slowly made his way up the two flights of stairs, his back to the inner railing, the flashlight pointed forward with an occasional swing back to the ground floor.
His foot, though no longer in a cast, still ached if he placed too much pressure on it, and though he could walk just fine, he found the branch to serve as an excellent cane in times of particular pain. Perhaps I should fashion this into a proper staff at some point, he mused; it's certainly long enough, and from its heft, it does not appear as if it would break should its mass be decreased to a more manageable amount.
Reaching the top of the stairs after a few tense minutes, Starscream paused, sweeping his light around him. No one here yet, he thought to himself. Rather than stepping into the hall, however, he chose to wait just to the left of the doorway, light shining forward as he slid to a seated position, back to the wall. He held the branch vertically at his side; surely his anonymous companion would not mistake him for someone else now.
A sudden wave of fear washed over the Decepticon as his recently-injured foot hit the first step; granted, tonight was, as far as he could tell, no different from any other night here... but the events of the previous evening had had their impact upon him, as it doubtless had on the other patients. Thus, it was with quiet trepidation that he slowly made his way up the two flights of stairs, his back to the inner railing, the flashlight pointed forward with an occasional swing back to the ground floor.
His foot, though no longer in a cast, still ached if he placed too much pressure on it, and though he could walk just fine, he found the branch to serve as an excellent cane in times of particular pain. Perhaps I should fashion this into a proper staff at some point, he mused; it's certainly long enough, and from its heft, it does not appear as if it would break should its mass be decreased to a more manageable amount.
Reaching the top of the stairs after a few tense minutes, Starscream paused, sweeping his light around him. No one here yet, he thought to himself. Rather than stepping into the hall, however, he chose to wait just to the left of the doorway, light shining forward as he slid to a seated position, back to the wall. He held the branch vertically at his side; surely his anonymous companion would not mistake him for someone else now.
[at the base of the stairs]
Leonard reached the spot where he'd seen the door, tucking his journal into his pocket and putting a hand on the wall. The wall doesn't feel any different here. I know what I saw, though.
He shined his flashlight around the wall, looking for any sort of depressions or hint that this wasn't just some figment of his imagination.
[Unknowingly awaiting Utena]
Re: [at the base of the stairs]
Just as she was nearing the bottom of the stairwell, the intercom went off again. Utena slowed enough to listen to it. She felt hair rise on the back of her neck when the melody kicked in over the strings of code. Stop it, you're not gonna give in to him trying to creep you out! she told herself. Even as she thought this, though, she couldn't help feeling incredibly unnerved.
The melody gave way to a lower, but equally eerie sound as Utena reached the first step. She shivered physically. Though she couldn't make out quite what it was, it reminded her of faint shrieks and moans of agony long buried in her memory, their origin now unknown to her. She felt the same cold tightening in her chest hearing shrieks in her head as she had felt when thinking about the coffins earlier. Why was that? Utena strained to remember, but found that she couldn't make out anything clearly past a deep sense of uneasiness.
It took a few moments before Utena realized she had frozen in place with one foot on the bottom stair. She had unknowingly ended up next to a man checking over a wall, much the same way she had checked one coming out of the female patient block. She looked him over, not taking long to put two and two together. "You saw something too, didn't you?" she asked, moving her foot down and turning toward the man, trying to keep her voice from wavering. "So I'm not crazy, then."
no subject
He turned his attention from the wall to the girl who'd spoken to him, trying to ignore what sounds he thought he was hearing from the intercom system. He looked her up and down, fishing his photos from his pocket and flipping through them under his light. "Do I know you?"
no subject
"No, I'm pretty sure you don't. Maybe you've just seen me around? I do kinda stand out, I think," she suggested, raising her flashlight beam and checking out the wall herself. As expected, it looked perfectly ordinary. Still, she narrowed her eyes at it. There had to be something going on if they were both seeing similar things. "Maybe I don't have to look just on the second floor for a way to the third," she said to herself after lowering her light again.
She turned back to face the man more directly. "Sorry, I should introduce myself. I'm Utena Tenjou. And you are?"
no subject
He shined his light up the stairwell. "There's a third floor to this place? What's up there?"
no subject
Not wanting to linger long in one place lest the night end abruptly, she took a few steps up the stairs. Before getting far, however, she turned back and looked down at Leonard. "I was planning to go searching for clues about it tonight. If you're not busy, do you want to help? They say two heads are better than one," she offered, holding out a hand as a gesture for him to follow.
no subject
He returned the photographs to his pocket, reaching for the camera that hung over his shoulder as he followed Utena up the stairs.
no subject