Nightshift 41: Janitor's Closet

[number_crunch]

[From here]

Eureka!

This closet, small and cramped as it was, was a veritable data cache of supplies and materials! A practical Au mine! Industrial-strength chemical cleaners in non-Euclidean containers! Buckets of varying sizes, concentrically stacked! Cylindrical lights! Bulbed lights! A hand truck! Duct tape. Sho felt like a little boy in a

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[superdynamic]

Suzaku shouldn't have been surprised that Lelouch was going to take matters of fashion into his own hands, not when these t-shirts were so far from the other boy's taste. Suzaku hid a smile, turning to keep watch on the shadowy corners of the closet. "Of course not. Are you going to make something for me, too?"

He'd say something about using their time more wisely, but Lelouch was such a genius with clothes that it probably wouldn't slow him down too much. And it wouldn't hurt to take a little time off from planning and investigating, either, not when they had to keep their strength up and their wits about them. A couple days ago Suzaku wouldn't have suffered Lelouch to take any time for himself, but things had changed. In ways Suzaku didn't particularly care to understand.

Turning his mind from that, Suzaku gazed around the Janitor's Closet consideringly. At least this wouldn't take long, if there wasn't much to look through. On the other hand, they'd probably have to come back. It was annoying, but Suzaku had to reserve his attention for watching Lelouch's back and couldn't spare much for annoyance, especially when Lelouch probably had enough for the both of them. "Hey. . . Those other people took most of the stuff in here. Should we maybe do inventory on one of the other rooms for tonight?" He didn't want Lelouch to get too tired, but he also didn't want to waste the time they had. And there hadn't been all that much of use in the first room they tried.

[damned_monsters]

One of the shadowy corners of the closet, unfortunately, contained more than just an ordinary shadow. The darkness shifted, seeming somehow to grow darker and thicker still, focusing on the light and warmth the two young men had brought into the small area.

The phantasm reached toward them, a tendril of blackest midnight stretching beneath the shelves and clutter toward the closest one, the taller one who seemed less alert to danger. All it intended was the lightest of brushes against an ankle: enough to encourage him to stay, to sit, to come within easier reach.

[tiassa - y halo thar ♥]

[superdynamic]

"Ah, that's a good idea," Suzaku replied, still scanning the room, almost half-heartedly now. There weren't as many places to hide in here as in General Storage, and it was becoming pretty clear that there wasn't anything in here either. That didn't mean he was going to completely slack off his duties, however.

Of course it was a good idea to go to Patient Possessions, because it was one of Lelouch's ideas. It'd be irritating as hell if Suzaku didn't know it was just the way of the universe. He didn't know what they'd be able to find, however. He hadn't had much on him at the time he'd been kidnapped, and he was pretty sure Landel wasn't going to let them find their weapons. Maybe his clothes, but that wasn't too useful, and even the key of the Lancelot Albion would be useless if he couldn't find the machine itself. Unless the possessions were what they supposedly had in their "real" lives before they'd needed to be institutionalized, but even then he couldn't imagine anything especially useful being there. He supposed Lelouch was talking about looting through other people's stuff, too, and he wasn't so foolish as to protest out of some pretension to morals. Maybe there'd be something to justify their excursion tonight.

Suzaku turned a little to ask Lelouch his opinion, but the words died in his throat as his eyes, trained to be attentive to the minutest details in the middle of a lightning-fast fight, picked out something strange in the darkness. Was it just his imagination, or was that shadow -- okay, now he was going crazy. All his carefully maintained paranoia must finally be getting to him. Nevertheless, Suzaku shone his flashlight in the direction of the shadow that had seemed to move of its own volition. And -- he shook the flashlight a little, not sure if it was malfunctioning. Again, it might just be his imagination, but it hadn't seemed to penetrate that area of shadow. "That's weird," he muttered to himself, and walked a little closer to investigate.

[damned_monsters]

The beam of light was most unwelcome and unpleasant, and the phantasm drew away from it and farther into the darkness unbanished by the flashlight's beam. It followed the seeking tendril that had drifted over by Lelouch, settling into a pool of deepest shadow around the young man's feet.

He'd already been affected by the first touch, but there was still life and warmth left in him, and that was what the phantasm craved. Let the other come nearer as well, for he would only get the same treatment.

[superdynamic]

Suzaku was still frowning at the weird -- patch of space, really, and he must just be seeing things, as he drew near Lelouch. And then he stopped, looking up, distracted from the probably-nothing in the darkness. "Lelouch?" he whispered, feeling a twinge of deja vu as he did. "Are you alright?" He could just be tired, which would be understandable. He'd been pushing himself, they'd just been doing something physical, and Lelouch had been injured several times in the last few days. And yet -- he was shivering too, even though he was wearing that coat, despite shifting those boxes around. Did he have a fever? Those wounds couldn't have gotten infected, could they? No, whatever else this place was, it was still a hospital, and the patients' wounds were dressed every morning. They would have done it properly. The alternative wasn't something Suzaku was willing to contemplate.

Suzaku was too busy looking at Lelouch's face as he stepped even closer to notice the strangely condensed darkness at their feet. He was still on the alert for anything about to attack them, but his mind was drawing up images of giant things with claws rather than the possibility of something -- well, more subtle. Suzaku didn't do subtle. Except when it came to changes in Lelouch's countenance. Maybe, maybe he was still being too overbearing, but when Lelouch was injured he had the right to be sensitive to the slightest sign that something was wrong.

[damned_monsters]

Slowly, gradually, the light cast by the flashlights they carried grew dimmer, as though the room was filling with smoke or dark mists. In the meantime the pool of darkness about the feet of the two men seemed to writhe and thicken, growing in strength and size as it drew the very warmth from the air.

And then a portion of the near-tangible shadow shifted, coiling about Lelouch's calf before slowly starting to contract again. If he possessed enough presence of mind to realize what was about to happen before the phantasm made contact with his skin, all the better to savor that emotion as it was leeched out once more.

[superdynamic]

Suzaku stared, definitely alarmed now. Lelouch was -- there was something in here? Heart starting to pound a little, Suzaku cast frantically about, but he still didn't see anything. And yet it made sense, because something was doing something to Lelouch -- he wasn't supposed to look like that, he wasn't even -- goddamn, Suzaku couldn't fight something he couldn't see! What the hell was. . . could it have been that thing he noticed earlier? He knew, trying to think rationally now, that there were supposedly some monsters here that had psychological effects and less-than-physical presences, but he didn't recall these exact symptoms. Whatever these symptoms were. Lelouch could barely even communicate -- no, he couldn't afford to panic.

Suzaku waved the flashlight around in the general area that the strange phenomena had first occurred (at the same time that Lelouch had started to act weird, he realized), and. . . The shadows were darker at Lelouch's feet. He was not imagining that, he had excellent vision, and shadows were not supposed to behave that way. They were just the absence of light, so why -- ? Whether that was the cause or not, the best solution he could think of was to get Lelouch out of here, before it got worse, or before it started affecting him, too. But Lelouch looked completely out of it, and Suzaku wasn't sure how well he would be able to move. Wasn't sure at all, because he still had no idea what was happening to him, just that something was, and he hated not understanding what was happening. It reminded him of the SAZ, when everything had been so incomprehensible that the only thing he could think was to find -- why was he thinking about that now?

Forcing himself to stay calm (something he'd never been good at), Suzaku took hold of Lelouch's arm and started to tug gently, mindful of the wounds on Lelouch's shoulders. "Come on, we're leaving. We'll count this stuff later." He tried to make sure his voice was just as calm as his movements, not wanting to scare Lelouch. For all he knew, it was fear that was paralyzing him. Still, he pulled a little more firmly on the other's arm, practically dragging him to the door.

[damned_monsters]

[switching up posting order by request]

The reaching coil closed on nothing as Lelouch was pulled away, but the phantasm would not go un-fed after all. As the young man moved, each step stirred the black mist that was the creature's self, seeming to make the room even dimmer yet until the lights they held could barely pierce the darkness.

Though Lelouch was moving away from the main body of the shadowy creature each movement brushed against it, each movement little by little drawing more life and warmth from him.

[superdynamic]

Suzaku barely noticed that their lights had been flickering until they nearly went out. He couldn't feel anything himself, but there was definitely something weird about this darkness, and it was getting worse. Lelouch was still aware of his surroundings, still able to respond to him, but his distance and his stumbling movements were already frightening enough. Especially because, other than to say that there was something in here, he hadn't told Suzaku what was wrong. It could be anything, and Suzaku didn't have any idea what to do for him. The only thing he could do was get him out of here, and then try to get a better diagnosis so maybe he could do something useful.

Suzaku groped through the darkness toward the door, but jumped and whipped around at the sound of Lelouch's flashlight falling. He barely had time to register that Lelouch was actually collapsing before the sudden addition of weight made him stumble. He managed to catch the other boy, a muttered curse escaping his lips as he completely lost the battle against panic. Arms under Lelouch's shoulders, he half-dragged, half-carried his Prince through the door, slamming it behind him as they finally escaped the nearly-corporeal shadows.

[to here]