Night 57: Main Hallway, 1-East

[antiheroed]

[ from here]As far as Riku knew-which wasn't a reliable piece of information in the least-this was approaching new territory for him. It was the first time he tempted fate by going somewhere without one of his friends since he first woke up in this place. If it wasn't Sora or Kairi that was there with him, it was Naminé; to some degree, each one had

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[fourstonewalls]

[from here]

The hall outside the medical wing was quiet, after the noise around the sun room. There were a few lone patients, all uncharacteristically quiet and alone, and Lana shivered. Had no one come out of the medical wing? That didn't bode well.

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" She wasn't completely set against any sort of cooperation, but she was, hmm, disinclined. It hadn't brought her anything but heartache in the past, even when she'd been the one extracting it.

[ultimagi]

Jane, or Felicity, or whatever else they might decide to call her, listened carefully to everything the two women said, though little of it resonated. The names meant nothing, and the other terms--prosecutors, cops, Los Angeles--were just as foreign as her surroundings. It would be a long fog.

The unexpected motion to Lana's shoulders caught her eye. Was she cold? It was the only thing she could think of, despite not feeling the chill herself. Nothing she could see seemed likely to trigger feelings of revulsion or fear. Lana's voice seemed to carry a different tone than before.

Without a word her gaze moved to Bella. She seemed the younger of the two women, but she was the one who suggested their destination. It was up to them to decide; how could the girl make any decisions, ignorant as she was?

[mirthfulness]

> ==>

Gamzee had been hanging around the end of the hall since Zero had left, arms still wrapped around himself. He was completely see-through now, though visible. The troll watched others come and go with a careful eye, wary about approaching anyone lest they react unfavorably.

At least he took a few cautious steps toward a newly approaching group. To a troll, a group consisting of all females was not anywhere near being less threatening than any others, but they weren't too determined or troublesome looking.

...No, this was a terrible idea. Still, they were more likely to have answers or be able to provide help than some of the others standing around. Even if they might try to cull him in the process. As he neared, he brought with him that faint chill

[vitale]

Bella couldn't help but shrug her shoulders when Lana asked her whether it was a good idea or not, because she honestly had no idea if it was. "Well, I mean ... uh, I don't know. It just seems like a reasonable idea? Since normally you'd think that when something new opens, people crowd towards it like it's their job or something. It's like when a new store opens at the mall. Kind ... of ..."

Except the fact that they were most certainly not in a mall. Not even close.

As they continued to move, Bella couldn't help but shudder. What was she worried about? Her arms wrapped around herself, rubbing at her suddenly chilled skin -

Wait a minute.

This was familiar. But. It ... couldn't be.

However, through the darkness, she could see it. The form of a person, albeit they appeared ... not all there. Instantly, the teenager's body froze, face paling. No way. No way. No way. "Uh, not to ... you know, worry anyone, but I'm not the only one that sees the ghost person, right?"

[fourstonewalls]

When a young man stepped out of the darkness, Lana hadn't paid him much mind; he was clearly another patient. But then Bella called her attention to him, and she looked at him -- through him, in fact. He was younger than she'd assumed; too young, just like so many here, and he was decidedly not all there.

"You're not." Lana shivered, harder this time, and it was distinctly getting colder.

She did take one precaution; she stepped towards the young man in a way that also put most of her body between him and "Jane"; they hadn't even had a chance to properly warn her.

"Excuse me," she said, turning to face him. "Can you hear me?" The entire idea of ghosts was preposterous, but the evidence was equally obvious, and who was to say transparency didn't have a perfectly scientific explanation, anyway.

[ultimagi]

The chill should have been the first sign of something unusual, but in the case of "Jane," it was the reactions of her companions that drew her attention. Between Lana's shivering and the pallor of Bella's face, she wondered how threatened the other women felt by the sudden apparition

[mirthfulness]

If anything, Gamzee was just as cautious of them as the other way around. He stayed close to the wall as if it would offer him any real protection should they decide to do anything to him. When he was addressed, he shrunk back slightly.

"Yeah, sis. I can hear every motherfucker here." Whether or not they could hear him was the important part. They weren't the ones having to worry about whether or not they were still among the living. At least it looked like they could see him, and that was definitely better than nothing. He hadn't gone and vanished completely since speaking with that other young man before. Of course they also seemed wary of him, which meant he hadn't gone back to looking normal either.

He glanced between them, then moved forward again. It would be ridiculous for him to have wandered out to them only to retreat once they actually paid him any attention. "Where you all troupin' off to? Not the room with the motherfuckin' meds and shit?" Because that's where most people heading this way would be going.

[vitale]

Language. Bella frowned at the boy's words, though she was still on edge. He wasn't like the other child she had seen that time, so that was still a good thing, but ... but they had to be careful. She couldn't afford to get hurt tonight, especially when she hadn't even meant for this to happen.

When Lana stepped closer, she jumped, instantly worried. "D-don't get too close! Don't let him touch you!" It was getting sufficiently colder the closer he got, and even though she wasn't exactly sure he was even the same thing that child had been, she didn't want to risk it. Especially when the child started to scream, and she had been practically incapacitated by those horrible thoughts and memories -

Suddenly, "Jane" (though she still didn't want to call her that, augh.) was jumping in front of her, and Bella couldn't help but blink in surprise. It was almost like she wasn't afraid anymore? Had something happened in that small amount of time?

"We ... uh, were," Bella responded to the ghost boy, frowning. "Why? Should we not?"

[fourstonewalls]

Out of the corner of her eye, Lana caught "Jane" mirroring the protection Lana had tried to give her with Bella. Interesting. Crisis brought out the strangest things in people; in this case, memory loss was no impediment to standing up for someone else.

Admirable, but they still hadn't had time to find out if she knew what she could be getting into, here.

It seemed the dead, if that's indeed what this boy was, were inclined to help fix that. Altruism all around. Lana let herself smile at him, and the warmth of it made the cold almost ignorable. "We wanted to see what was happening." Meds. Had something in there killed him? "Did you take something in there?"

[ultimagi]

Strange; the girl would have expected the ghost to attack, or do something more than simply talk to slow them down. It should have been more of a, she thought, physical impediment of some kind. Wasn't that what beasts and monsters did? Ghosts probably fell under that category. More strange: had she ever seen ghosts before, or monsters? She certainly couldn't recall such a thing.

So long as it wasn't attacking, then, it was okay if she let Lana handle it, right? She was a little unnerved by the whole situation, her expectation tilted beneath her, but there wasn't a moment she truly felt afraid. Why, then, had she had such expectations in the first place?

Shaking her head to clear the muddling thoughts, the girl turned her attention back to Bella. "Are you okay?" she asked, voice pitched quiet. The other girl was the one who seemed most affected by the apparition yet to disappear.

Perhaps it was a strange reversal, her protecting Bella rather than the other way around, but it didn't feel unnatural for her.

[mirthfulness]

"I just did what the motherfuckin' ringmaster said. Jump through the hoop and get a prize, right? Weren't the only one who did." But then he hadn't seen any others looking like he was. Perhaps all the options were different and he'd just had bad luck with his. Should he still try and tell them not to go on?

He stepped a bit closer still and reached an arm out toward the closest. "I can't be dead though, right? I mean, I didn't all feel it. My body ain't all layin' nowhere that I seen." Of course, having not died before he really had no idea how that was supposed to work out. Maybe he couldn't see his body, or it was back somewhere he'd already passed up without realizing it.

"One of you motherfuckers can do somethin' for me, right? I gotta get better or whatever so I can see my best friend. I can't all do that like this!" There were tears welling up in the corners of his eyes now, and he wouldn't even be able to tell that they weren't the usual indigo. When was the last time he'd cried over anything?

[vitale]

Why was she worried about her when it was clearly Lana the one that was in trouble? "I'm fine, but we need to get out of here right now," she hissed to the unnamed girl, panic clearly beginning to form on her face. Why hadn't Lana listened -

Suddenly, the boy was moving towards Lana, and Bella moved instantly, even as he reached an arm out towards the older woman. Reaching out, the teenager grabbed onto the elder's arm hopefully hard enough to at least pull her away from the boy, looking at Lana with wide eyes. "We need to get out of here, right now. No, really. I mean it. I will explain later but we need to just get away from here before he starts to freak out. Trust me on this, okay? Please?"

The last thing she wanted was to go through that shit again. But even if they didn't listen, she just ... couldn't up and leave the two of them alone. That just wasn't fair, especially considering they were all still stuck in the same place. Even if the boy was a prisoner just like them, right now he was dangerous, and they needed to get the

[fourstonewalls]

Lana swallowed, and summoned confidence she didn't feel. What good was too much experience lying to everyone, including children, if it couldn't be put to good use, after all? Bella was grabbing her, but she braced her feet against the floor and stood her ground.

"These things rarely span more than a night, but I doubt another dose will improve anything. You'll be fine in the morning." And if he wasn't, he'd have someone to be angry at that he could actually confront. Anger was a healthy reaction, but bottling it up would just result in bitterness and eruptions of rage, neither of which would help anything.

She put a hand over Bella's. "I wasn't aware that he could affect us, beyond a little chill. But if you're worried, go ahead. I'll catch up."

"I do hope this has made you reconsider taking any yourself," she added, still directed at Bella. She'd planned to stop her by whatever means necessary, though she hadn't expected them to walk up to the party.

[ultimagi]

So were they... running away now? Between Lana's encouraging dismissal and Bella's nearly frantic gestures, the girl could only assume that leaving was the path before them now.

She could determine if the boy were alive or dead--just one spell could do that--but it looked like they wouldn't have time. Not if they were leaving now. The girl looked to Bella with a weak shrug to her shoulders. She was the one who seemed so desperate to get away; in that case, she could lead.

What were they so afraid of?

[mirthfulness]

They were moving away from him. They didn't want him to touch them. This bothered Gamzee more than any threat they possibly could have posed him. He didn't want others shying away from him. He needed help, not to be left alone in empty hallways when he couldn't even lay his hands on anything without them passing through.

One of them said he'd be alright in the morning. How would that work, though? He supposed he could believe her, given how they all woke up in their beds after a certain period of time as if nothing had happened. He wanted to believe her, that miracles would come and fix everything and he'd no longer be this ghost form of who he was supposed to be, but it was just so hard to do that right now.

The troll sniffled a little. "Let me come with you, yeah?"

[vitale]

Panicking. Bella was panicking. Lana obviously didn't believe her, which instantly caused anger to well up in the pit of her stomach. She didn't want this girl to get hurt, but if she refused to listen -

She moved away from the older woman and the ghost child quickly, moving back towards Miss No Name. The last thing she wanted was this new girl, unknown to everything, to get those horrible burns that she had received those few nights ago. What an outstanding first impression she would have on the two of them then - unable to save her from the dangers of the institute, even though they were the ones who had been there longer.

Just then, the ghost boy asked to travel with them. Oh god oh god oh god oh god, Bella's internal monologue cried out, and the girl kept her back to Lana and the ghost, looking towards the floor with wide eyes. They couldn't say no, could they. He was still a patient like they were - right?

And she couldn't just up and leave Lana, either. I'm so sorry, Edward, she thought to herself, shutting her eyes tightly