Grim met Bleffles's gaze, for once glad that he didn't have as expressive of a face as humans did. "I, uh, don't technically have to deal with souls," he said, turning away so he could look for whatever ghost was about to appear. "But I've dealt with ghosts before." Just not a lot of partials. "We, uh, need to stay close together. And if we can find salt and holy water, we might be good. But holy water's hard to find, and salt probably is too, so we'll just have to do a lot of running until we find something made of iron."
He briefly looked over at Adeline. "We won't be able to tell until the ghost appears," he informed her, and it was just then that the lights exploded above them. The rest in the hallway began to flicker back and forth, illuminating a girl with matted black hair and a white dress as she floated down the hallway towards her. There was red staining the front of her dress, and it was only when she was a few feet away that Grim realized it was because of the giant gash she had in her neck.
"This is the part where we run!" he said, voice high with terror as he glanced back at the group of mortals he had to protect.
Natalie nodded and started to run upstairs. It was the only place she could think of. She tripped and scrambled up, losing sight of Bleffles and Adeline.
"Those moments when your in so deep, it feels easier to just swim down"
"I'm erasing myself from the narrative. Let future historians wonder how Eliza reacted when you broke her heart
Adeline let out a shrill scream and took off at a mad pace, throwing caution to the wind. She stumbled up the stairs after Natalie, her heart chiming loudly in its glass cage. Distantly, she was aware of someone screaming, and then she realized that she had never stopped.
Grim lingered behind the group, trying to put himself between the living and the dead. He still did run--he wasn't going to be knocked around by a ghost if he could help it. But he wasn't quite as terrified as the others were; he had dealt with ghosts like this before. It just hadn't been around this many people.
The ghost easily kept pace with him, following only a few feet behind as he darted up the stairs. His fingers itched to call forth his scythe, but doing so would only weigh him down. He couldn't actually use it. It was just for show.
He glanced back at the ghost.
On a whim, he checked the STATUS. What he say made him come to a sudden halt on the staircase; the ghost easily caught up with him and stared him down as it gave a low moan.
STATUS: DECEASED TUD: -0:02:28
That couldn't be right! Partials didn't form that quickly, and when he did the math, it would have had to have formed back in the hallway. But there hadn't been a body, and hadn't been any indication of a murder happening! The ghost went to go up the stairs, but he reached a hand out and grabbed onto its transparent wrist.
Or, at least, he was going to.
They were standing on the top of the stairs now. At that moment, a flurry of bats came flying at him. Grim near lost his balance as there was a repeat of when he had opened the doors to the building in the first place, but managed to regain it just as an almost cliche evil laugh rang out through the building.
The ghost disappeared from grasp, and he could just barely make out the silhouette of a Hollywood-esque vampire at the other end of the hallway.
STATUS: DECEASED TUD: -0:00:25
Grim darted after the rest of the group. "The ghost is gone!" he said. "But I think we have an even bigger problem to worry about!"
"A vampire!" Grim shouted back, his fear seeping into his voice. Things just weren't right! The vampire looked like a cliche Hollywood villain, and he had only been dead for a matter of seconds. If he did the math, then he had appeared the moment the bats had. But that didn't make any sense! Vampires were either born to vampiric families or turned by other vampires. So how could he have been turned in such a short time, since he obviously wasn't a newborn baby?
Grim frantically shook his head as he scanned the hallway for some room they could hide in. "I don't think it will help," he said, trying to keep his voice strong and confident. They needed him to be brave; he was the only remotely capable of handling situations like this. "That-that vampire's soul is wrong. It looks like he only just got turned into a vampire, but I didn't see another one!"
Rather than reach a room that they could easily hide in at the end of the hallway, Grim found that they were running right towards a second set of stairs that led to a third floor. It was as they approached that he began to hearing what sounded suspiciously like singing floating down from the floor above. He didn't like the implications of that; there could be a monster lurking on that floor, singing to either give them a false sense of security or because that was what it did when it wasn't trying to capture a group of people.
But they were too far away from the source to make out any of the lyrics, and even the beat was hard to discern.
Bleffles made a mad dash for it. She did not want to get caught by a vampire. She knew her college mates would never let her hear the end of it. Plus it sounded painful.
She sprinted for the stairs, and skidded to a halt. What the hell was that- calm, and eerie tune?
Oh, no. Oh, no. Soothing eerie tunes, in ancient abandoned castles, was never a good thing.
And she couldn't stop her legs from following it up the stairs.
"Guys, I can't- I can't stop," she sputtered. "Help?"
Spoiler! :
THIS DREAM THAT WE THOUGHT WE WERE SAFE TO FORGET, TO BURY AND SAY OUR ADIEUS
ON THE DAY OF THE FOOL, DEATH WILL TURN A BLIND EYE, AND YORICK WILL DUST OFF HIS SHOES
WHEN THE REAPER DOTH LAY DOWN HIS TERRIBLE SCYTHE TO FOLLOW THE WARM WEATHER WEST
YORICK, PUT BACK ON YOUR DANCING SHOES, AND RISE UP TO CALL FORTH THE NEXT.
Last edited by SirenCymbaline on Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Bad souls have born better sons, better souls born worse ones -St Vincent
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