Nightshift 21 - 2nd Floor - Stairway Landing between Decom/Medical Library/Staff Training
((from here))At the top of the stairs, things didn’t look any better to Rufus. Straining to hear or see anything, he stopped at the top of the stairs. Before he had never considered the dark worrisome. It was merely an absence of light. Anything that was there in the light was there in the night. Unfortunately, Landel’s had a way of changing
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Click click.
"It's cleaning time now, sir. Perhaps you should return to your room?"
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"Who are you?" he asked, trying to see and make out a form or a face. "Cleaning?"
His hand crept to the fork he'd taken from his dinner tray, fingers curling tightly around it. This new person could be brainwashed as Reno had been.
"Who are you?"
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"It's cleaning time, sir," the woman repeated. Sclurp. Metal pulling out of something wet. "The Masters wish for your health."
Click click click click.
In the dark, the only thing visible was the glow of hot metal and the glint in Daniella's eyes. The glowing object moved upwards, pointing towards the man. "You should rest now, sir."
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The heated metal was what drew Rufus' gaze more than the woman herself. Whatever it was she had in hand was not something he wanted to encounter, at least with just a fork in hand. Starting around her in a slow circle, Rufus ran down the hallway leading towards the nurse's station where Reno had been standing last night.
It wasn't fleeing. It was a strategic retreat. Seizing the knob of the door and feeling it twist uselessly in his hand since it was locked, he glanced over his shoulder to see if she was following or not.
What in the name of Gaia does she have in her hand?
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"You need to rest, sir." She was closer now, enough for him to smell burning metal and flesh. Closer, closer… closing in to seal his doom. "Bad patients must be punished."
When she was close enough, there was the sound of something swinging through the air, something sizzling that the woman swung at the man's arm.
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It would have to be the one that Reno shot me in.Staggering backwards, all the hurt tried to make itself known at once. Flesh was burn and bruised from the impact of whatever it was she had hit him with. All he knew was pain. Getting past her back to the stairs was probably going to be impossible. The door was abandoned as he turned and truly fled down the hallway that was growing shorter ( ... )
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He liked to run, she noted, just as Miss Fiona had. And just as she tirelessly followed Miss Fiona through the castle's empty halls, she pursued this man, a small smile curling the muscles of her lips upward.
Bad patients needed punish. Baaaad, bad patients indeed.
She began closing the distance between them again, her laugh bouncing off the walls with his panicked breathing.
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He found the end of the hallway the hard way, but running into it. Scrabbling along the wall, he tried to track the steps behind him, figure out how close she was getting. His right arm was a symphony of pain, adrenaline taking some of it for now. When his fingers met door, a sick sense of relief swept him. It died quickly when he tried the knob and found it locked.
"No."
Twisting the knob, he hit it with his shoulder, feeling the slightest give. Another few might open it. Taking a deep breath and hitting it again with his good shoulder, Rufus hoped he had it. If she caught him in the hallway without an exit, they'd be cleaning him off the floor and walls tomorrow.
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"Mister Shinra," called out her voice as the laugh and shaking died down. Click click click click click click click, the glow getting brighter and brighter as she neared the patient.
There was another whoosh as she raised her weapon in the air, then another as she slammed it down towards the man.
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Her voice behind him sent a cold lick of fear dragging up his spine. The changes in her laughter didn't go unnoticed, the sick sensation of knowing he was dealing with a creature beyond madness adding to his fear. There would be no reasoning with her. Kadaj seemed sane when compared.
Hitting the door again, he heard something inside finally break with a brittle metallic sound. Pushing it again and twisting the knob, he heard the rise and fall of her weapon behind him. Material let loose with a rip, skin parting beneath her weapon with a sizzle that reminded Rufus too much of fat dropped on a hot iron. Pain was immediate and ugly across his back, a thin line going down the side of his cheek. His right shoulder and arm hurt, pretty sure that his arm was either broken or bruised down to the bone as well as burnt where her first hit had gotten him. The shoulder on that side was going to be the same where her second had barely avoided landing solidly when he went through the door.
What is she using? A rod ( ... )
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Click-creeeeeeeeee.
Kathunk.
The orange glow was directed at him once more after she closed the door behind her.
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She has heels on. She stumbled there or something. If I can get something heavy enough to throw at her... who am I kidding? I don't know if I could even use my right arm enough to throw anything.
Reaching the second door, he turned the knob frantically. It gave another grumbling click of being locked as the first door had.
Not again...
He was hurting, but the other option was standing here at the end of the hallway until she caught up with him and beat him to death. Or he believed she would. Bracing himself, Rufus hit the door with his good shoulder, gritting his teeth again the shriek of pain that wanted out. Another hit should do it, Rufus backing up a pace and hitting it even as his gaze flicked to the side to see where she was.
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The noise stopped.
Silence.
Click click click click.
"Mister Shinra. The Masters wish for your health. Perhaps you should return to your room…?"
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"Go... back?"
Stupid surprise made it into his voice before he could stop it, and pretensions he had at an emotionless mask driven by back real fear and pain. He'd had enough of the second floor, only wanting some safer place to spend the night. If she was willing to let him go to head back to his room (where he certainly wouldn't go to unless she planned on escorting him the whole way there) he was willing to head back to the first floor.
"All right. I will. I'll go back there immediately."
In the darkness, he tried to find the glowing tip of her weapon or eyes. If she wasn't threatening with it, he was willing to go back the way he had come. That was a big 'if'.
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It was time to clean, after all.
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That single thought floored Rufus Shinra. He was not the sort who would get an enemy backed into a cornre and ever let them live. Rufus would have killed them immediately, especially if they had the injuries he did. He might not be feeling it too badly right now, but Rufus was willing to bet that come tomorrow, he'd need some sort of pain medication just to get up.
However, if she was letting him, Rufus was not going to be a fool and keep going at a locked door. Slinking back down the hallway, he was ready to get the heck out while he could. Downstairs was probably much safer as long as he avoided the cafeteria. That thing could be there ( ... )
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