Night 51: Disciplinary Therapy Corridor

[madeinthehrl]

[from here]The hallway was dark and, as far as Soma could tell, utterly devoid of life. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the lack of lighting, waited for her breathing to steady, her pulse to normalize. The voice in her mind had, for the moment, faded to a quiet whisper. Perhaps Marie had realized just how much she was affecting her host

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[autophoenix]

The look from Peter didn't go missed by Claire, and she just gave an innocent kind of shrug that showed she had no idea what she'd said that was so wrong for him to give her the disapproving look. It wasn't like she'd asked how they'd managed to screw Soma up -- she was just trying to be understanding. Or, rather, empathetic, really. Which was a rarity in itself for her -- it wasn't often she got to see exactly how screwed up she'd become reflecting in other people and it was her instinct to grab onto it, as insensitive as she was realizing that was.

Peter couldn't know what it was like to feel broken on the inside and not on the outside, though, and as she shifted her gaze from him back to Soma, she realized that was exactly the problem. So, Claire just forced a grim smile onto her lips that split apart as soon as Soma's hardened attitude drove her to ask what was outside the hall. Turning to look over her shoulder, Claire couldn't suppress the shudder at the thought.

"I don't know," she confessed in a quiet voice. "Whatever it is, though, it's bad. It's like … I think whoever's out there can make illusions. And is catching people in them." It wasn't that hard to imagine someone with an ability like that -- the real surprise was that they might have an ability like that and yet it wasn't limited.

[human_sponge]

All the doors were locked, and the one that did open was already empty, meaning it either hadn't been used for the night, or some rescuers had made it through before them. Peter wasn't sure how, unless they were the only two who had been unlucky enough to be put through whatever that had been. Sighing, he turned from the last door and moved back down the hall toward the two girls, wiping some sweat from his forehead now that he had the chance.

They didn't have the technology. What did that mean? Most likely, something had been done to her internally that was unable to be fixed with just a few bandages and some medical expertise. It was frustrating, but he wasn't going to push the girl.

Claire gave a decent enough explanation of what had happened to them without giving away any unfortunate details, which Peter was grateful for. They didn't need to be airing their secret fears to anyone, even if Soma had helped him in the past. Peter just leaned himself against the wall, grateful for a slight respite after all that.

"Do you know if people might be coming for you?" he asked the girl. "Those friends of yours, maybe?" Meche and Senna, right? "We can stay with you until the night ends or they show up, whichever comes first." It wasn't much, but it was the best they could do until some of the other doors opened up.

[madeinthehrl]

Illusions. Soma pressed her lips together tightly. Judging from the state in which Peter and Claire had emerged from the hallway, the last thing she needed was to venture out there. Whatever it was, it sounded as if her rescuers had gone through just as terrible a time getting here as she'd spent in the experimental treatment room.

What lay out there? Fears? Dreams? She felt curious, in a detached sort of way, but not nearly curious--or foolish enough--to see for herself. And yet--

"I arranged to meet with Senna and Meche and Hokuto," she said. "They would have noticed when I didn't show up." But there was no way of telling if they knew where to find her, and even if they did...

...they might be out there, right now. In that hallway, facing whatever it was that had had such an effect on Peter and Claire. Worry began to grow inside her, and she glanced back at the two of them, her thoughts clearly written on her face. Still, she attempted a faint nod at Peter's offer to stay.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I appreciate it."

[autophoenix]

As hard as she tried, she couldn't help casting a meaningful look in Peter's direction when he mentioned people coming for her. If they came through that hallway, she could only bet there was a fifty percent chance they were going to come out of it in any condition to help anyone, let alone get into the hallway of experiment rooms at all.

She still couldn't quite figure out how they'd managed to, all things considered, but that probably had something to do with the fact that she couldn't tell her shoulder was still dislocated and broken from slamming the door in. Without pain, and with the baggy t-shirt of the institute on, it looked normal enough. Nothing was sticking out where it shouldn't be, but her healing had slowed enough that it was still chugging its way through fixing what she'd done to it in her hallucinated haze.

With a curt look, she shifted her gaze back to Soma and blurted out before she could stop herself.

"I wouldn't count on them making it here, if they do figure out where you are. With what's out there, I wouldn't be surprised if no one else made it in here, open door or not." Comforting? Probably not, but it was honest and really, that was more important. There was no point in hoping for a rescue that wasn't coming. No matter how obviously hurting Soma was, or how empathetic Claire felt about it, she wasn't going to sugarcoat. If she were in Soma's position, she wouldn't want that, and so she wasn't about to give it unnecessarily. Besides, Peter seemed to have the comforting under control by promising they'd stay.

[human_sponge]

So he'd been right. Senna and Meche were the two who had come to help him alongside Soma, though there had been one other. He'd talked to her, so what was her name again? Falis? Either way, he knew it hadn't been Hokuto, so he had to wonder what had happened to that one girl. It probably wasn't something he needed to be bringing up at that moment, though, and so he left it alone.

Still, if those girls had realized that Soma wasn't showing up even though she should have, then it was a safe bet they were trying to get up here. Unless they didn't know the way, but chances were one out of the three had been up here for a rescue in the past.

Though once again, Claire chimed in with a rather dismal piece of information. All of them had probably been thinking that it was unlikely that they'd make it through, but did she really need to go out and say it? "On the other hand, we made it through," he cut in. "Maybe they will too. There's no guarantee, but..." Well, at least they were here. They weren't friends, but they were people who could try to get her mind off of whatever she'd just been through.

Which was... easier said than done. Seriously, how did you make small talk with someone who had just been experimented on? Peter was usually decent at chatting people up, but this was out of his element, even. "What had you guys been planning to do tonight?" was what he eventually asked. "I can't imagine you normally run around looking to save guys from demons." Which he realized he'd have to explain to Claire later, but... later.

[madeinthehrl]

Soma glanced at Claire sharply, anger flashing in her eyes for a moment before the emotion passed and there was only exhaustion written on her face.

"They'll come," she said simply. She hadn't believed it before; now, she knew they would. They had to. "They're stronger than you think. They'll get through that hallway, illusions or not."

Another deep breath. Her pulse was slowing now. She focused on Peter's question, attempting a faint smile. "I haven't seen any of them for a while. We were planning to catch up with one another, I suppose. Perhaps explore the area outside the institute; that's how all of us met in the first place."

[autophoenix]

Demons? Peter's question got a sharp look from Claire -- about on par with the one she'd received for being so blunt with Soma, really. Why hadn't he told her if he'd needed saving from demons? That seemed like the kind of thing that one would bring up with the person they were stuck with and relying on. Hypocrisy aside, of course -- it wasn't as though she was chomping at the bit for a chance to tell Peter all about how Sylar brain-raped her last week.

The attentive look softened into something that was just frustratedly understanding and she turned begrudgingly to look to Soma for a response. Not altogether an exciting plan for the night, but she supposed they couldn't all be as exciting and momentous as Claire and Peter's had been.

"You didn't miss out on all that much, aside from some creepy … ruined city. There's not much to look at outside aside from the shed," then again, truth be told, just the thought of the outside of the institute dragged the fringes of her mind back toward the fearful place she'd been mentally scrambling away from, so she was trying to shut down that conversation quickly.

"Anyway. If your friends do get here, you'd better hope they came prepared with a way back out -- I don't think any of us are getting through that door. I don't think any of us would want to, at this point."

[human_sponge]

While Peter figured it could go either way in regard to whether or not Soma's friends would show up, he didn't see much point in speculating. It looked like Claire had decided to drop it, though, and so they were left instead to look for a way to pass the time while they waited.

He hadn't missed Claire's glance at him, and had pretty much expected it the second the word demon had left his mouth. Peter had had a lot to do with demons lately, even if they were apparently different kinds. He would explain later, when Soma wasn't his main concern.

What made this whole situation so hard to bear was that Soma had just been looking to try to make some progress with a few friends, people who she apparently hadn't seen in some time. (Since Roland's attack? He had to wonder.) They were probably worrying sick over her now, wherever they were. Peter was just glad they'd managed to get up here, at the very least.

"Yeah, we're not leaving this place," he agreed. "We can stay here. I don't think anything's going to attack us in this hall." He figured that whatever had caused them to hallucinate was probably the last line of defense, so this was actually the safest place. He doubted that Soma wanted to be so close to where her torture had taken place, but there wasn't much he could do about that.