Night 50: F-A Block Hallway

[nobleobliged]

[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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[autophoenix]

There was a spark of electricity, but it didn't surprise Claire. It only made her angrier. Elle was using her ability, which meant she was either trying to shock her a lot harder than the fork-in-an-electric socket feeling she'd gotten, her it meant that her ability wasn't dampened. Neither appealed to Claire, but it didn't matter.

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.

[highvoltagegirl]

"I didn't." Elle hissed back, trying to snatch at the flashlight again. "I was looking for someone to steal a flashlight from and you looked like the dumbest person here." She was still trying that honesty thing out for size. If helping her out and playing buddy-buddy didn't mean anything to Claire here, it didn't have to mean anything to Elle, either. She was used to hating Claire, anyway. It was easier.

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.

[autophoenix]

Just another test of her self control. But, there was something to be said for being the bigger person and making the step to help someone, right? That was the point of hunting down the bad guys, to protect other people. This was just the more direct method. Still, when Elle said things like you looked like the dumbest person here, it didn't really encourage Claire to resist the urge to turn around and smack her again.

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. ]