Kitty~ <3 [Complete]

[flowing_alchemy]

Characters: Alphonse, Courtney, various ghosts
Setting: Starting in the grand room, moving through the dining room and into the kitchen, back through the grand room...
Time: Middle of the night
Summary: Alphonse finds a kitty! Also ow.
Warnings: ...cat lover obsessing? And ow.

Comments

[dollsy_npcs]

The lever was pressed; inside the toaster, coils glowed with heat.

The ghosts had been relatively unobtrusive up until this point, but Winny had suddenly fluffed up to considerably larger than her previous size, tail lashing like a whip as she hissed in the toaster's direction. By the same token, Allison shuddered violently, reaching for Courtney's arm as though she could physically pull her away from the danger; she anxiously looked from there to the kitchen door, their only escape route.

The cabinet directly beneath the toaster swung open moments after the respective warnings, with eyes shining out at them through the darkness. A twisted, blackened man emerged soon after, smeared with soot and still smouldering, wisps of smoke rising as he moved. Courtney was the closer of the two, so it was she the creature focused on; he surged forward, hands outstretched to grab her. "Hold still." The voice was firm and commanding, the sort a harsh teacher might use with their pupil.

[flowing_alchemy]

The first thing to catch Alphonse's attention had been, naturally, the hissing Winny produced, staring at the toaster. An odd thing to be upset about, but Alphonse realized that something was bothering the cat about it...especially when Allison began to react in similar, distrusting manners.

He pulled away from the fridge, an apple in hand, turning his attention to the object in question - before the cabinet door swung open, and something started crawling out like that - and Alphonse was completely overcome with terror, suddenly wishing he had stayed with his brother, where he would certainly have been safe from...from...this

[goblintamer]

In general, Courtney wasn't an easy person to scare. During her brief stint as a babysitter, the tot she was looking after had been replaced by a changeling night thing. When it had finally crawled out from its nursery bed, it had done its best to frighten her, sticking out a lizard tongue and hissing menacingly. Courtney hadn't even flinched, or batted an eye. In fact, not long after she had tied it up in an extension cord, spinning it around in the air and demanding that it reveal the location of the real baby to her.

This, however, was a much different occasion. Maybe it was the way Allison reacted, the thirteen year old feeling the tingling sensation on her arm as the ghost tried to grab her, the fear on her expression. And then the cabinet door swung open, and it crawled out... a burning, blackened figure with terrible eyes. As it turned its head, looking straight at her, she heard the thing speaking to her, telling her not to move. She felt paralyzed, rooted to the spot in shock. Her mind froze, her skin feeling the heat

[dollsy_npcs]

Winny hissed and spat at the figure, but naturally, could do nothing else--what would a cat do against a monstrosity like that, even if she had been alive? Allison, meanwhile, had skittered to the kitchen door, shaking and silently urging them on with her eyes, poised to lead them out and away.

The spell had indeed worked right, despite the heat of the moment; the floor was slick and glistening with grease under the creature's feet. There was a quiet hiss, the smell of sizzling fat, and he skated forward, off-balance; the grease flared up into an abrupt pool of flames as he went. Nonetheless, he surged towards them--though whether that was his own doing, or the momentum and slipperyness carrying him forward, it was hard to say--, snatching at both Courtney and Alphonse now with a burning touch. "This will only hurt for a minute." He insisted, ironically the way a doctor might before giving someone a flu shot. A little suffering for a greater good....

[flowing_alchemy]

Alphonse took pause as he watched Courtney performing...something he couldn't quite explain. His first thought was alchemy, but that made no sense, at all - she had been asking about their alchemy, earlier on, and there was no circles or even a clap, and that grease had come out of nowhere. No sort of equivalence in the equation, as far as he could tell.

But he told his mind to stop questioning it fairly quickly, and snapped back out of it - there were more important things to worry about.

He was still scared, though, like most twelve year olds would be, in this situation. But he had to act - to do something. The flames were hot, and that thing was coming toward them - flames and heat and burning coming at them

[goblintamer]

Oops. She didn't mean to--oh great, the kitchen was burning, and now the thing was just sliding towards them! Making a move as if to duck and jump away, she lost her balance as Alphonse yet again tried to be the hero (what did she think she was, some kind of helpless girl?), and stumbled against the counter, grabbing onto the sink. She could feel the heat, now, building up, and then - an idea occurred, which could only be accomplished if Alphonse distracted the thing for a little longer

[dollsy_npcs]

The flames roared and crackled as they were pushed back, sounding almost angry at being refused. The burning man reached for Al in spite of the flames slowing his approach. "It's better this way." His voice was authoritative and sensible, the sound of someone who obviously knew what they were talking about. Fortunately for Alphonse, he had been down on the ground when Courtney threw her water, and so it struck the burning man and the dancing flames that surrounded him from the grease. It produced a vicious hiss, and a sizable cloud of steam; the man was pushed back as he was about to grab Al's head with both hands

[flowing_alchemy]

Alphonse's mind and heart were racing. The alchemy had worked, but that - that monster just kept coming at him. He all but froze when that voice spoke, uncertain and afraid, and...and it was reaching for him. He wanted to react - to get away - but he felt frozen in place.

"Duck!"

The shout from his friend, though, began to snap him out of it - he was still low to the ground, from the alchemy, and tried to move further out of the way -

Only to scream out in pain, tears instantly building in his eyes, as burning fingers raked across his face and his jacket - obviously not their original target. The sense of heat and burning lit up across his features, while a dull, numbing sensation was present in others. His right hand tried to shoot up toward his face, but he quickly recoiled - a combination of the pain, and feeling the heat from the flames on his jacket licking at his finger tips.

He didn't have much time, though, to contemplate what was happening, how Courtney had saved him, or to figure out the pain...he just felt himself

[goblintamer]

The monster was stunned, at least momentarily... and with any luck, the steam and the grease would buy them at least a couple seconds. Her heart was pounding in her ears so that she could barely hear Al's screaming, she only knew that she had to get him out, they had to go, they had to run. "Get! Up! Now!" she shouted at him, pulling him to his feet, and with one of his arms around her neck like a combat medic, she barreled her way towards the dining room, running as fast as her legs could manage. Her calves burned as she caught up with Allison, not stopping now, needed to get back to the grand room.

As she got away from the burning monster, the heartbeat noise lessened in her eardrums. She could hear noises from Al, and she grimaced as if she was feeling his pain. It was hard not to feel like she had gone through everything like an idiot... she should have known why Allison was shying away from hot things. Why didn't she think? Just as well that they didn't turn on the oven, or the burners