Night 58: Medical Wing Hall

[spandexorgtfo]

[from here]The front desk and the adjoining break room had been the extent of his knowledge from the night prior, so in this next section, Kratos did take the time to carefully observe the scenery. There were two paths that split off straight ahead and to his left, while to his right were a series of identical, plain doors. Somehow, that row

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[bodhiandspirit]

[from here]

As she entered the hallway, where she was faced by a great number of doors just around the corner, Rita realized... she really didn't know where she was going. Find medicine? How was she going to do that if she didn't know where to start looking? She didn't have much time...

Rita pointed her flashlight around the room, but as she did, she realized her hand looked strange. Stopping for a moment, she turned the light on her hand to see.

It passed straight through.

Though it was weaker on the other side, the beam passed through her hand and shone straight through to the floor below. Not able to believe her eyes, Rita brought the light down closer so that her hand would have to block out all the light... but it still passed through. It wasn't passing around it, as she hoped. And it wasn't just the light. Rita could see the floor through her own hand. Her skin, her whole body was somehow becoming translucent...

"Wh-what the...!?" she stammered, staring at the impossible phenomenon.

[promisedawhale]

As before, Brook followed along with his thoughts drifting from one matter to another. The bickering between the radio and the intercom left him curious as to how much the General could manage each evening. He had seen the man in the Coliseum, yet now it looked as though he had been doing other things that night as well. He must have been able to teleport like with that one strange event

[bodhiandspirit]

Brook's question was registered as 'irrelevant' in Rita's mind and was promptly ignored. She couldn't be bothered to think of much else while her body was disappearing. Just what the hell did that mean? In a technical sense, how did that happen? Was Rita just losing it?

"That's not it, you moron!" she barked at the man when he made another useless comment. "Look at this!" Rita raised the flashlight to her hand to show again... but it somehow slipped out of her fingers and fell to the floor. Her backpack, too, fell off her back. She didn't feel it slip off (and how would it, anyway?) but there was a telltale lack of weight on her shoulders.

Scoffing, she reached down to pick it up again... but somehow failed to lift it. Rita tried again, and this time, she watched as her hand passed through the bag, unable to grasp it. There was a look of absolute horror on her face as she yanked her hand away, as if she'd just touched something hot

[promisedawhale]

Brook bristled at being called a "moron", despite being more than used to verbal abuse, mostly because he hadn't thought that he'd earned it this time! True, he might have offended her before when he'd insinuated that Rita was scared, but this time he'd been trying to give a bit of encouragement. She was obviously paler than when he'd met her further back in the Institute. So much so that he could almost seen right through her!

Wait, was that how whiteness in darkness was supposed to work?

As the wheels turned in his head, Rita's shouting and the following clank of her flashlight and backpack caused him to more properly look the girl over. She was even paler now, and as he squinted his eyes at her, he started to realize that he could see the area behind her. Not beyond her, but actually, literally through her. Without having to draw his eyes up or peer around her. Finally the wheels came to a stop, clicked, and made the most sense of what he was looking at

[bodhiandspirit]

That was his conclusion? Rita's glare sharpened as anger welled up inside her. Hearing something that stupid in response to such a serious issue - it was insulting! "Idiot!" she snapped. "There's no such thing as ghosts!"

With that, she balled up a fist, lunged forward, and plowed it into Brook's gut. The intention was to smack some sense into him, but rather than slamming into the man's stomach, the fist slid right through Brook's body. By the time Rita was able to stop herself from moving forward, her arm had passed all the way to the other side.

There was a moment of silence as Rita's frustration was quickly replaced with befuddlement.

Unknown to Rita, her touch drained heat from whatever surface it came in contact with - in this case, Brook's abdomen. Once the shock subsided enough for her to move again, Rita withdrew her arm. With her hand no longer stuck in another person's body, she could only stare at the transparent appendage in horror and disbelief.

There was no such thing as ghosts. It was stupid to even consider it for

[promisedawhale]

The last time that Brook had gotten touched by a ghost, he'd ended up feeling like he wanted to be reborn as an amoeba. Thankfully that had sent him into a skull joke about how amoebas didn't have bones and had shaken him out of the ghosts effects, but he could still remember that terrible feeling so many years afterwards. Unfortunately though, the touch that came from Rita was far different than the ghosts he'd faced, despite the similar way that both had gone right through him.

Instead of becoming negative, Brook went cold and lost what energy he might have put into freaking out at being not touched by the see-through girl. What energy he did keep was put into stumbling back and away from Rita's touch, his lacking coordination sending him falling right onto his rear. The sting of his fall however was small when compared with how his middle felt, or rather didn't feel

[bodhiandspirit]

As if there weren't enough things happening to confuse and frustrate Rita, Brook's reaction was a new mystery. At first she thought he was in shock, but as the moments passed, she realized he was in pain. But her hand slipped right through him, didn't it? Something that couldn't touch him couldn't hurt him, could it? ... Somehow, it had