Night 50: F-A Block Hallway
[from here]Like a ghost story, Natalia told herself as one hallway opened into another. Reminding herself that these were the same halls she had been escorted through during the day had not served to ease the hairs on the neck, nor her quickening heartbeat. An adventure, a quest through haunted rooms to find the one responsible. That she was not,
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She she went farther along the hall, looking at the people who had flashlights and trying to figure out which one looked the most susceptible to her manipulation. It was like picking a weak gazelle out of a herd. But there was no luck so far. As she reached the point where her narrow hallway poured out into a much broader one, she felt a small jolt run along her spine.
But... her powers were gone, weren't they? Maybe she was just imagining things. People missing limbs talked about phantom pains and stuff, right? Maybe this was just phantom electrokinesis.
As she finished this conversation with herself, she noticed a girl in the hallway holding a flashlight in her mouth as she overlooked a map.
Victory. She smiled to herself. Here was her gazelle.
It wasn't until she got close enough to tap her on the shoulder that she realized who it actually was. And then it took every fiber of her being not to scream at the top of her lungs. She could only stare at her angrily. What right did the cheerleader have to be here? No matter how helpful she'd been to her before, Claire Bennet still ranked pretty high on her list of people she wanted to see the least.
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And then, there was a tap on her shoulder. Claire had to resist the urge to roll her eyes, because really? Did she look like the kind of person to go to for help? Well. Given that she'd just had the map out … maybe that was a stupid thing to wonder. Putting on a happy face, she turned to see who was trying to get her attention and quickly regretted the decision to even pretend to act amiable.
Elle.
Did she even realize just how much Claire would like to hurt her right now? Apparently not, if she thought the smart thing to do was approach her. The only thing stopping her from reaching over and grabbing her by the hair was the fact that her hands were already full. Still, her grip on the glass shard tightened. So, it wasn't Sylar. It was just the next best thing.
"You." She jerked her shoulder away from the other girl, taking a defensive step back as she set her jaw. "I guess we're not all out of place here, after all." Between Elle and Sylar, Claire was really starting to think that it was about 50/50 for who was just getting what they deserved, getting sent here. She wasn't sure she liked that idea, though. After all, there was no telling which side of that divide she'd be on.
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What she should have done was just ran off. Maybe she could find somebody else with a flashlight. Someone who wasn't her wannabe arch-nemesis. But why bother? She could take her on in a fight. Probably. Powers or no, she at least had Company training. What did Claire have? Cheerleading? Ha, forget that.
But having those words thrown in her face was pretty offensive, especially when she had been thinking them not five minutes ago about the piece of work she had for a roommate. "What makes you think you're special enough to be misplaced, Pom-Pom? If I belong here, so do you." She tried to smile, but there was no mistaking it for being bitter and forced. What gave Claire any right to treat her like that? She wasn't any better than her. And what happened to trying to help her? Didn't little miss perfect believe in the power of love and friendship anymore?
Whatever. Elle was past it. It just made it easier for her to try and snatch Claire's flashlight away from her without an ounce of remorse. Claire deserved to wander around Creepsville in the dark.
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Lucky you, Pikachu.
The only reason she stopped her tirade was she noticed Elle grabbing for her flashlight -- she hadn't noticed it at first, but now Claire studied the other girl's inventory and realized she wasn't carrying anything. Talk about useless; she hadn't even though to check under her pillow before roaming the halls? Or maybe she'd lost it while roaming the halls, Claire realized. If her dad could potentially be there, then maybe Elle had been there this whole time, too. Not a good thought, but it wasn't one she chose to dwell on.
Jerking the flashlight just away from Elle's grasp, she lifted it and swung for the other's face. It wasn't as hard of a hit as she might of liked it to be, and it definitely wasn't as hard as she deserved, but if she hit as hard as she wanted to, Claire would run the risk of knocking her out and, well. That wouldn't do her a lot of good for interrogation purposes. Starting with just how long Elle had been hanging around if she couldn't even manage to bring a flashlight around with her. The best decision, Claire concluded, was to call her out on it -- which she did, after she was positive the blow connected.
"What do you think you're doing?"
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Wait. Did she just-- no. Right? That stopped. She wasn't in pain anymore, so her ability had to be gone. She had to be okay. That was the one good thing about this place. If she didn't have that, then...
It wasn't important. Claire didn't appear to react to her being shocked-- although that might just be the lucky little cheerleader's inability to feel anything. She was ignoring it and hoping for the best.
"I was trying to ditch my roommate." She confided, having no problem with giving Claire the utmost honesty when it came to her situation. "You want to talk about people who belong here? Look at her. I'm not going back there. She's going to try to kill me in my sleep or something. She totally has that look in her eye."
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It didn't hurt, though. It was just a gentle tingling sensation, like the taste of scope, but all across her skin. That just aggravated her further. Aggravated her enough that she couldn't bring herself to care as Elle rambled about her roommate -- did it matter? Why was she telling Claire all of this, anyway? It didn't make sense.
"What, so you decided to come to me?" She hissed, all the venom making itself evident in her tone. Maybe in another world, she might have cared. Maybe protecting Elle might have mattered. But, as of now, Claire felt like she could honestly care less if Elle died. It would save a lot of people a lot of heartache, and Claire a lot of trouble. She didn't have the mental capacity to deal with Elle's problems, let alone care about them; it was the beginning of a long night at Landel's and Claire had been all but promised that Sylar would be looking for her.
The last thing she needed was Elle shooting her mouth or her electricity off in the darkness and leading him straight to her.
Crap.
A twinge of unintentional sympathy hit her. Sylar might have her power, but he didn't have Elle's. Taking hers would be a lot more drastic than anything he could do to Claire. So, she leveled her gaze on the girl, rage slowly dissipating from her expression. The girl probably wouldn't make it through the night, ability or not, without a flashlight. Not with Sylar roaming around.
So, after a long and thoughtful pause, she turned her back on Elle, gesturing through the hallway doors with her flashlight.
"It's not being killed in your sleep you should be worried about. There are a lot worse things in here than crazy people. If you want to make it through the night and even get the chance to find out if your roommate is going to kill you? Come with me."
God, please let her say no. It was going to be a long night if Claire was stuck with Elle the whole time.
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And then Claire turned abruptly. Elle stopped trying to pilfer the flashlight and just stood there, hands dropped to her sides.
"With an offer like that, how can I refuse?" It was lucky Claire's back was turned. She wouldn't have to see the complete lack of enthusiasm on Elle's face. But it was okay. There was enough of it in the tone.
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And yet, somehow, she managed to resist. If there was anything Landel's was teaching her it was that she was a lot more grown up than she'd ever guessed.
Instead of rising to the bait, she accepted that Elle was either going to follow her and continue trying to be annoying or leave her alone -- at this point, not caring which option the other girl chose was her best plan. It's not like she'd had any kind of expectation for her to be grateful. So, instead of worrying about it, Claire pushed open the doors that led into the main hallway.
[ to here. ]
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