Nightshift 43: Room of Air

[godforsaken]

[From here.]

Compared to the loud rumbling that dominated the last room, the silence that greeted them in the next was practically deafening.

Sync kept his gaze forward, almost as if he was trying to burn holes into the thick fog that surrounded them. He was quiet, ignoring the dull ringing in his ears as he listened for any other sound, but in the end he heard nothing else.

"... Anise, take Dahlia's hand." The God-General murmured quietly as a precaution, already reaching forward to hook his arm back around the redhead's. The fog was so thick that it impossible to see through, and Sync had the feeling that moving carelessly held the same amount of danger as doing the same in the last room.

Comments

[dahliahasthorns.livejournal.com]

Once they had managed to bolt themselves out of the Frogger room, Dahlia was sure was all that noise had just rendered her deaf because, now? She couldn't hear a thing. Even her own breathing was shallow and barely audible here. What was this?

Fog, boulders... oh jeez, there was two more rooms after this one, wasn't there? She made sure to squeeze Sync's hand a little too tight once he looped his arm around hers and then turned to their sweet little third wheel.

"H-hi." She put on a smile as she wrapped her lithe fingers around the other girl's hand, but wasn't a very cheerful one. More like 'frightened beyond all reason'. "Let's stick together, okay, Annie?"

[gald_digger]

When the door closed behind them, it was like all the sound was sucked out of the room. The click of the lock was a welcome sound this time. There was no way Anise wanted to go back there. At least now they could stop and breathe easy for a minute, instead of being kept on their toes like that.

...Maybe 'breathe easy' wasn't the right way to put it, though. The air was heavy and humid, and just uncomfortable in general. Anise could barely see in front of her face, and the gray uniforms seemed to blend in with the pale mist, which really didn't help. From just a few steps away, Sync and Dahlia kind of looked like floating blurs of green and red.

When she and Dahlia joined hands, Anise was able to see the other girl's face, though just barely. "Right!" Annie? Dahlia had a nickname for her, too? Well, whatever. She smiled back and nodded, though the smile faded a moment later. "But... try to stay calm, okay? If you panic, it'll just make this harder." Since they finally had a second to talk, she at least had to get that out. If Sync wasn't... well, Sync, Dahlia's distractions could've cost them their lives.

It was hard to say whether or not this room would be just as dangerous. There was a chance it'd be just as annoying, though, especially if there was anything in that fog. Leaning forward, Anise peered around Dahlia to look at what she was pretty sure was Sync's head. They were probably going to try to move together like before, only slowly. But...

"Okay, so... which way do you suppose the door is?"

[godforsaken]

That tightened grip from Dahlia didn't go unnoticed, but Sync had chosen to ignore it for now, allowing the other two to talk before answering the question posed to him.

"I haven't the faintest clue." Really, couldn't Anise see for herself that it was hard enough to make out anything beyond two feet? Of course, instead of letting his frustration get the better of him, Sync carefully tugged the two back until they were now touching the wall behind them.

"It'd probably be best to stay near the walls. We don't know how large this room is, but if we at least keep close to something solid then we'll eventually find the next door." With that said he began to slowly tread along, keeping his steps small and cautious. For all he knew this room could be booby trapped, so at least if they tread lightly the chances of getting caught were slim.

[dahliahasthorns.livejournal.com]

She nodded her head again in that quick, nervous way like before. She could act more calm here, right? After all, she couldn't see the danger. She couldn't hear anything. Obviously, that meant there was no danger, or at least that would be the thought in the air-headed front she put up. Nervous, sure, but not so much that she needed to put herself into another breakdown just for show. Just to be on the safe side, though, she let her body tremble just a little more, like she hadn't gotten herself completely calmed down after that brush with certain doom. Poor, poor, pitiful Dahlia...

Ha!

All these attempts on her life were starting to get boring very, very quickly and, though she suspected the threat of losing her life really stopped bothering her the moment she was handed the Death Sentence, it probably had to do with the concentrated amount of danger she had to face the past two nights, plus this on top of it. It made her long for earlier times that now felt like days of yore: idiot boyfriends, exciting court drama, terrified cell-mates and Meatloaf Mondays. Not as good as Taco Tuesdays or Fried Chicken Fridays, but it wasn't Tofu Thursdays and that's all the mattered.

She gave both of their hands one more reassuring squeeze before trying to match her steps with Sync. If he fell into a gaping hole, she was kicking his hand off of hers with all her strength. Just because death didn't scare her didn't mean she was going to let herself be dragged into the abyss by a two-faced brat like Sy.

[gald_digger]

Dahlia seemed calmer, but Anise wasn't too convinced that she would stay that way. Couldn't Sync have picked a hostage that wouldn't need hand-holding and reassurance the entire way? Picking no hostage at all would have been nice too, on that note.

"I guess that's a good idea," Anise agreed, allowing herself to sound impressed. Well, actually, she kinda was. Even though she and Sync were both soldiers for the Order of Lorelei, it seemed like there was a huge gap between them as far as strategical skills went... It was kind of annoying, considering they'd been with the Oracle Knights for nearly the same amount of time. And Anise was older. Ugh.

On the bright side, with Sync in the lead, he was the one liable to run into anything that might pop out of the mist. Anise and Dahlia were way safer in comparison! ...Unless something snuck up behind them. As if to check, Anise turned her head to look back, but quickly realized it was a futile effort. She couldn't see anything. There could be a monster two steps behind her and she wouldn't know it.

Frustrated, and even a little bored with there being nothing to look at, the girl sighed loudly. "Find anything yet?" she half-whined.

[godforsaken]

What was it with girls, anyway? Sync just rolled his eyes when Anise sighed, though he kept his gaze forward as he pulled them along the wall.

"Just be patient. You don't want to end up dead, do you?" While he spoke it in a half-joking tone, there was no doubt that he'd find it hilarious if the Guardian tripped and fell into some kind of trap. That'd definitely shut her up - maybe even for good.

Yet Sync didn't have time to immerse himself in his thoughts, for the moment he felt his foot touch nothing but air he abruptly stopped.

"Ah..." He had carefully guided Dahlia back, taking the time to slide his foot against the edge in order to trace its mouth.

"It feels like there's some kind of pit in front of me," Sync started, already moving off to the side. "So we're going to have to edge around it and back to the wall."

The God-General could only hope that none of the two made some stupid mistake and drag him down with them.

[dahliahasthorns.livejournal.com]

She may have nervously giggled at her company's "playful" banter, Dahlia still gave a pitiful squeak when Sync pushed her back, but it was nowhere near as loud and obnoxious as it was in the last room. Hey, she could mix up her acting, though far be it for her to stop being the frail butterfly she was! She took a few steps back, like instructed, and let herself be pulled along when he moved again.

Ugh, this was boring. If she wanted to play Simon Says, she'd be Simon, thank you. Sync? Got no brownie points for any of this.

Just as she had been internally debating the pros and cons of letting her honeycakes slip into a hole, a chill blossomed along the back of her neck and her grip instinctively tightened because of it. Why did it feel like someone was watching them? No. Not them. Someone was watching her. Multiple, shadowy someones specifically watching her, stalking her, standing right behind her, don't turn around, and really? Just adding onto the list of things she didn't feel like repeating tomorrow night. She hated being watched.

That fog was so helpful. It meant no one saw her lower her head and scowl at the idea that they were playing a tournament with her patience. When they got to the end of this? If there was a prize at the end of this stupid maze? It was coming with her.

[gald_digger]

There were pits in the room? It was a good thing they'd been following the wall, then. Wandering out blindly was definitely dangerous. And who knew how deep it was? There was no way to tell from where Anise stood, even as she slowly edged around it. In the fog, she wasn't even able to see that the hole was there, let alone how deep it was. Falling in it could mean anything from a minor setback to a certain death.

"Hmm. So that's their trick?" she hummed, mostly to herself, as the group cleared the space around the pit. It didn't seem nearly as bad as the previous room. At least here, being careful and taking it slow could guarantee safety, as far as she could tell.

The humidity was getting to her, though. There was a slight feeling of dampness on her skin and clothes, which was made worse when the air seemed to suddenly grow colder. Under the unexpected chill, Anise shivered. She could feel Dahlia tensing up too. They couldn't be too far from the end of the room, right? Even if the foggy room wasn't as scary as the previous one, it was still annoying and uncomfortable.

[godforsaken]

The pit itself didn't seem to be too wide considering the time it took for them to maneuver around it, but Sync didn't allow them to linger too long on a single obstacle. Even now he kept a mental note on how many steps it took to walk around it, keeping the information close in case they needed to backtrack their steps.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be more than one pit blocking their path, and in the end the God-General was forced to lead them around two others. The God-General didn't break his focus, and he was somewhat relieved to know that his patience finally paid off when his fingers brushed up against the ornate design of a door.

"Here it is," Sync announced, but the cold air that had surrounded them didn't go unnoticed. The dampness of the air only served to further chill his body yet he chose to ignore it for now; they could only move forward.

Reaching out for the handle, the teen pulled open the door and led them inside.

[To here.]