Night 58: West Wing, Hall 2-A

[princeofthemoon]

[ from here ]The hallway in front of them did not seem much different from those downstairs, or the one which he had followed last night - there were more doors, in different locations, but the corridor itself had no real identifying characteristics, nothing that marked it as different from any other place in this facility. Sesshoumaru was growing

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[broodings]

[from here]

Alone. Finally.

Stefan pressed his hand against the wall to prop himself up, his mouth working silently against the pressure of his fangs. He was just hungry. It was just hunger. Stefan shut his eyes and breathed in and out, long slow breaths, gathering the shards of self-control again.

He'd survived decades before without losing himself to this. And he might have come close again a mere few weeks ago, but Damon and Elena had pulled him back out, and he would not, would not, make their efforts all for nothing. He would find something else to eat tonight, and it would be fine.

He exhaled. His grip on his knife loosened. The blood receded from his eyes. You can't do this forever, whispered a voice in his head, and Stefan laughed without humour before pushing himself away from the wall. Hunting first. Self-recrimination later. He glanced around the pitch black hallway, trying to decide where to go next.

[train_tracer]

[from here]Perhaps it had been a monster, Vino thought. His first real monster here! He'd always found it rather disappointing that he'd been here for nearly a week and he'd yet to even encounter a real terror yet

[damned_monsters]

It was always easiest to creep up on prey when they were off their guard, when it was least expected. Whether the pair of creatures that slunk down the hall toward the two humans knew that was debatable, but the fact that they were targeting someone crazed with hunger and another who was full of self-confidence pointed to the answer being yes.

Stranger still was that this pair of monsters was mismatched. Lurchers generally kept to their own kind, and yet this one seemed to have strayed away from its territory, perhaps drawn out by the sound of the one patient's loud voice. It dragged its immense weight forward, making no secret of its approach.

The lucentien accompanying it was somewhat more surreptitious, but any quiet was dispelled by how unnaturally it moved. The light it gave off was yet another signal that would be able to tip them off, and yet the creature didn't seem to see this as a disadvantage. As slow as the lurcher was, the lucentien was quick, and it swiftly took the lead down the hall as it headed toward its prey

[broodings]

Stefan's shoulders tensed at the approach of another person. Unthinkingly, he took in the scents of the hallway again, for all the good that did - once, he could've navigated a moonless forest on scent alone; now, all he caught off the man was that he wasn't bleeding, which was a meager comfort. While he'd managed to get his appetite under control again, that didn't mean he was any more fit to be around people than he'd been all day. Stefan stayed where he was by the wall, waiting for this person to pass, and certainly not expecting him to want to talk to a hungry vampire.

Not that this man could've known that. He was a 162-year-old teenager, who probably looked sick at worst. Feeling the other's gaze on him, Stefan forced a smile and took his time to look over. He was young, maybe a teenager himself, maybe a little older, with unmistakably red hair. Some kind of metal pole in his hand. And completely alone. Stefan's wrist flexed, lifting his knife by half an inch. If he was quick enough-

No. Stefan coughed slightly,

[train_tracer]

"Oh really?" The man was friendly, it seemed, though for one fraction of a second, Vino had almost felt a hint of something from him. It had been hard to tell in the dimness of the hallway, but from the sound of it, it was a young man, perhaps around his own age. "Thank you--"

But then several things happened at once. But this wasn't the problem for Vino. The problem was a most grievous one. It was this: how was he to go about prioritizing all of these things now?! Suddenly, there were exactly three things he wanted to do right now.

1. Go find this kitchen and get himself a knife. (Also possibly some real food, because hey, kitchens! They were bound to have something or another there, right?)

1. Whatever this intercom was suddenly talking about, he needed to know what it was right away so he could maybe actually get somewhere tonight. But other things were distracting him from fully paying attention to whatever this announcement was detailing, which led directly to his third #1 on his list...

1. Monsters. This one was pretty

[damned_monsters]

Running might have been the best decision for the patients to make in this case, and yet that clearly wasn't happening. The lucentien silently kept toward them, moving forward with its twisted march. Despite the fact that it was humanoid, the creature did not move like a human. Its limbs flung back and forth as if double-jointed and its head tilted to the side like it was a doll rather than a living being

[broodings]

Stefan's head jerked back in the direction of the redhead, too disbelieving in that instant to remember to keep his eyes on the approaching monsters. "What?" Sure, he'd noticed when the intercom had started up, but General Aguilar's ramblings took an immediate backseat to the two very dangerous-looking- creatures? The one further back was gorilla-like, as monstrous and mutated as the squirrel he'd once killed, but the golden one resembled nothing living Stefan had ever seen. A blank-faced marionette, maybe, jerked around by invisible strings.

Aguilar was going on about some rogue soldier and the chapel, and the memory of that blood was a sharp accent on the fight-or-flight adrenaline now coursing through his system. Vampires avoided injury in one simple way: to not be there when the hit landed. While Stefan knew he was no longer fast enough to just disappear, he still might've been able to dodge if instincts hadn't warred within him in that split second

[train_tracer]

"What?" Vino parroted back. Hadn't he heard what he'd asked? He thought he'd been clear enough, but maybe not. Vino opened his mouth to repeat his question, but cut himself off because suddenly, the glowing monster had reached them and, raising one devilish hand of knives, raked them down on the young man in front of him.

Vino would have warned if he'd had the time, but the thing was terribly fast. A few milliseconds later, blood -- the smell of it, the sight of it -- and the sound of a body hitting the floor hard. But the other man was quick enough and probably avoided the worst of the attack, Vino saw, so he wasn't too worried, not that he would've been anyway. He was too busy watching the show. And what a show this was.

It was with wide, transfixed eyes that he watched, the violent instinct stirring in him in response. It was an instinct, yes, he believed this. Or perhaps, more appropriately inspiration, even. True creation required inspiration, didn't it? Then similarly, true destruction would require that same inspiration,

[damned_monsters]

Blood had been drawn. Those blades had driven right into the human's shoulder, tearing apart the outer coating and revealing the vulnerable insides, red and dripping. Despite this, the lucentien hardly reacted. It was clearly not a creature that attacked for the sake of survival; it had no mouth by which to eat. No, it killed merely to kill, because that was what it had been taught to do. Those strings that might be moving it spurred it toward death and destruction and yet it continued to shine like something holy all the while

[broodings]

Stefan saw the man strike, fast and skillful, and his blow to the head sent the doll stumbling away from Stefan. It wasn't a kill strike - or even a wound strike - but it was enough to give him a second to breathe. Blood flowed wet from his shoulder and down his arm, and he remembered for the first time tonight how long it had taken for Damon to recover from his injuries. Normally, unless the knife was still in their body, a vampire only had to wait seconds before the wound closed again. Stefan grit his teeth. He was still bleeding.

No matter. If he could keep fighting moments after getting stabbed in the chest with a glass shard, he could endure this.

Second over. Pressed to the wall, Stefan felt the ape's roar reverberate against his arm and head and in an even deeper place, that animal part of him which recognized a fellow predator. At the creature's warning cry, he turned, fangs bared and eyes transformed. He might not know how to fight a glowing golden puppet, but any animal, even one as large and savage as this one, was still

[train_tracer]

The blow had connected, but that was all that could be said about his attack. There was no such thing as 'going easy' for Vino, so even that first swing had packed much of his strength. But the glowing mannequin just stumbled back a few steps and that was it. No bashed-in skull or broken skin or bleeding like it was supposed to have, not even a bruise to indicate where he'd struck the thing. It was as if he'd just whacked the thing lightly, the way it just continued moving, unaffected by any pain it should have felt. Well, that wasn't fair, was it? Not to mention, it raised the bar quite a bit

[damned_monsters]

The lurcher could feel the impact just as strongly as its target. It knew that it had inflicted a severe injury on the human, and more than that, Stefan's blood was now so close, a smell that set the creature on edge and made it hungrier. Retaliation from its prey was expected, but the monster still let out a hollow groaning sound when the knife plunged into its tough skin

[boketa]

[From here]

"Claire!" The name echoed down the hallway at a level just above wincing. "Claaaaire! Claire? Cl--"

The calling stopped, but the echoes continued down the hallway as Goku gazed at a strange sight. Four people were standing in the hallway--well, one was on the ground, but still--and it wasn't exactly a friendly exchange. He quickly ran forward and stopped close by the downed victim that glowed much like his dead friend had.

It was difficult to discern, but the monkey boy had to try. Giving the thing a nudge, Goku asked," Claire?"

[This will be a three-person fight now. Our fourth won't be coming.]

[broodings]

Stefan kept hold of the knife. He hadn't expected to be able to hold onto the ape for long, not with his injured arm, and while a feral snarl escaped Stefan's lips as he caught scent of the animal's blood, he still had enough sense to not lose his weapon. The blade slid out and he let go of his handful of hair, preparing for the impact of the floor again, only to be caught midair and slammed hard against the wall. The air went out of Stefan's lungs; he choked, both hands coming down on the ape's arm, fighting to pull it off his neck, fighting to keep himself aloft.

He saw a golden glow dance out of his sight and heard a child's voice ring out in the hallway, but all of his attention was on the heat and stink of the creature trying to crush him to death. His vision darkened at the edges. The pain in his chest flared as he struggled for breath. He saw his brother's face before his eyes, and Elena's. Her voice. Stefan. He hadn't survived for a century and a half only to be killed trying to find a meal. Just beyond his grasp,

[train_tracer]

--!! How surprising! It'd worked! Just in case though, Vino jumped out of range again, watching as the monster toppled backward and hit the wall, sliding down with a clang... wait, a clang? That was a strange sound for a body to make

[damned_monsters]

The lucentien had been waiting for its prey to draw in close again, and in a way, that was what happened. It was unexpected how another human joined the fight, drawing up right next to the creature and attempting to communicate with it. The monster didn't respond to the words, of course. No, all this meant to it was that it had an easier chance to cause more pain