damned_institute | Night 45: Main Hallway, 1-West

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Night 45: Main Hallway, 1-West

[from here]

Once away from the safety of the patient block, Momo slowed down as she traveled along the left hand wall to cover her blind spot. In this position, she could easily draw her sword and deal with issues as they arose. Hopefully, there would be none.

Momo had too much on her mind to want to deal with anything she didn't have to.

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"Well, upstairs is... well, it's... " He stumbled over his words, trying to figure out exactly how to word what he thought of the Horrible Hallway. "It's less pleasant than this area, and that's saying a lot. There's a witch that lives up there, and these little somethings that skirt about in the dark and strike at your legs. Facing them alone didn't seem like a very smart idea."

He looked away for a moment, feeling guilty about leaving Mele in the state she was in, even if there was seemingly nothing he could have done. "Mele- my friend- she's in a room down the hallway. She doesn't remember me at all, even though I spoke to her earlier today. She attacked me, talking strangely and making it sound like we'd never met. They've tricked her somehow, bewitched her to be like that- I just know it!"

He took a deep breath, soothing the ire in him. It was rare for him to feel angry, but the Wizard Landel had gone too far.

Okaaaaaay. This guy thought he was a scarecrow, and Remy, knowing what he was himself, could almost accept that. He was completely comfortable with the idea of tiny somethings running around in the dark: for rats, the small companions would be ants or fleas, and he knew that, for humans, they were just as likely to be mice or rats. But a witch? Or the wizard that Scarecrow had mentioned a couple of minutes ago? That had to be a figment of somebody's imagination, and not a pleasant one.

"So it's scary," he said, catching the slight scornful note in his own tone. When he continued to speak, he sounded a little bit friendlier. "If you have to go up there, you have to go. I'm not afraid of the dark." He didn't want to say that there was nothing to be afraid of in the dark; there might be traps, or poison, or both. But he was relatively confident in his ability to evade them.

He wanted to know more about this place, this place that could make him human, and even if the idea of a witch was ridiculous, there had to be something about it that would frighten Scarecrow. It wasn't a matter of some woman with a heavy handbag or a guy with a big carving knife; it was more complicated than that. There was the fact that someone was messing with people's heads, but -- Remy realized he had to ask.

"If bad things happen here, why doesn't everyone just leave?"

"I'm not sure we can," the Scarecrow said darkly. He'd never tried to leave himself, but he'd heard plenty of stories during his stay. "I've only been here about a week, but I've met people who've been here far longer. Surely someone has attempted to get out of this place, but I expect the same sorts of spooks that haunt the second floor have barred anyone who has tried."

He paused a second, rubbing his side. It had finally stopped complaining for the moment. "Even if I could leave, I don't think I could go home," he said, pushing down those homesick feelings, along with every other concern that came to his mind when he thought of returning to Oz. "It's pretty far from here, I expect, and I wouldn't even know which road to follow."

"Haunt?" Remy sounded a little less confident. It wasn't that he believed in ghosts -- he knew that the small vision of Gusteau, the one that seemed to have left him the night before, was a figment of his imagination. "How would they stop anybody? You could just find a dark place to sneak around behind them."

But all the things Scarecrow was saying were leading Remy to think that someone here -- the doctors and nurses? -- was going out of their way to scare people. That wasn't the only problem. The idea of all of this being some kind of elaborate cage bothered Remy more than stories about creepy things in the dark.

Only yesterday, Skinner had trapped him in a cage and threatened him. Was this more of the same thing, only on a much larger scale? And if that were true, what did they want from him? He doubted that the goal was to get him to develop a line of frozen entrees.

When Scarecrow suggested that it might be hard to find his way home, his brief reverie broke.

"But we're in Paris, right? That should help."

That frown crept back onto the Scarecrow's face. "I wish it did help, but I don't know where Oz- my home- is in relation to Paris."

He pictured that drawing of the United States of America he had tucked away in his journal, wondering exactly where 'Paris' would go. "One friend told me the Institute might be in a place called 'New Jersey.' I don't suppose that's close to Paris." If only he had a map, or better yet, his brains! Then he'd be able to think of a way to save his friends and get home.

He crossed his arms. "The Wizard Landel is powerful enough to bring all sorts of folks here from places I've never heard of, enchant those of us who weren't originally human into human forms, and it's likely he commands the nastier beings residing on the second floor. So long as you don't mind the possibility of said beings trying to claw our legs, suffocate us, or set us ablaze, I'd be in your debt if you'd accompany me to the second floor. As I said, it's not really safe to go alone, and maybe you can help me brush up on my 'sneaking around behind them' technique."

Remy's eyes narrowed into a shrewd look, as he tried to put together what he knew of the world. "I don't think New Jersey is even in France, let alone Paris. Isn't it in America somewhere?"

After a pause, he added, "I've never heard of Oz. Small town?"

He crossed his arms and listened, thoughtful, to Scarecrow's explanation and proposal. As he considered it, he tapped the fingers of his right hand in a cascade against his left forearm.

This guy had told him a lot already; he might even be a friend, or a candidate to be one, and the way he was describing the place they were made it seem like just another kind of colony. The second floor might be dangerous, but at the same time, being injured or suffocated or set on fire were all risks Remy was used to, as both a rat and as a newly-minted star chef. It wasn't hard to come to a decision.

"Yeah, we can go look for your friend. It sounds like we have to stick together here." He nodded along with his words.

The idea that he'd be able to help Scarecrow learn to sneak, though... Remy wasn't so sure about that. If it had been Linguini, that would have been one thing: Remy could have just pulled his hair. But the change in his own size, and the fact that Scarecrow wasn't familiar with the system by which Remy had controlled Linguini's movements, made that idea useless. He wasn't even sure a human was capable of the kind of stealth that was second nature to a rat.

The Scarecrow got that guilty feeling in his chest again. "I know where she is," he said quietly, his middle deciding to remind him why he shouldn't go back there without a plan. "It's how to snap her out of her bewitched state her I don't know. I'm sure I'll be able to think of something once we get to where we're headed." He loathed that feeling of not knowing what to do next- he'd expected he would never face it again once the Wizard had granted him some brains. Then again, he'd never thought he'd end up in a place like this, human and feeling pain and lacking his prized possession when he needed it.

"But believe me when I say I'm grateful for the company," he added with a smile. "Today has been a frustrating day, and the prospect of going somewhere so dangerous alone wasn't one I liked." He reached for his journal in his pocket, unfolding the map he'd copied from its pages. There were stairs on the other side of the hall- maybe there was a chance they could avoid the most horrible part of the Horrible Hallway entirely?

"As for Oz," he said, his eyes still scanning the map, "It's a country. I live in the Emerald City, the capital."

"Nope, never heard of it."

Remy scanned the hall, sniffing the air, not learning as much from what he smelled as he would have liked. Exploring would be a little bit more dangerous when he was larger and not quite in command of his senses in the way he was used to. There was a flight of stairs across the hall, a short distance away.

"Should we go that way? It seems like it might be easier than trying to get up into the ceiling."

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Night 45: Main Hallway, 1-West

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