Nightshift 33: Kitchen

[blood_and_pocky]

[from here]

The first and only time he’d come to the kitchen, it’d been his first night, and it had started with chocolate cake, too. And ended with fighting off lizards, meeting Sasuke, and being inflicted with Alucard. There weren’t any good memories of this place (if that could seriously be said of any part of the building

Comments

[i_slay_giants]

Jack snorted and arched any eyebrow. "'Giant lizards that breathe fire'? What, like dragons?" That was absurd. Jack had seen his share of dragons and unless they were cursed into a different form, there was no way they could have hidden in the kitchen. Besides, he'd been in her plenty of times.

"I wouldn't worry too much," He nodded to Wolfram. "Would be the first time I've seen these creatures."

[arrogantflame]

Dragons in the kitchen? Wolfram frowned. But dragons weren't like lizards at all... "I doubt that they would keep any endangered species in here. And besides, it's not large enough. Their wings would never fit

[silent_predator]

Despite their caution, they were making far too much sound. In the darkness, something uncoiled, from where it had curled up in a corner. Uncoiled, and moved, lost into the shadows.

Behind them, a pot fell off one of the hanging hooks, and hit the ground with a loud clang

[blood_and_pocky]

“No, not like dragons,” Aidou scoffed. The only valid thing Wolfram brought up was the thing about logistics. Otherwise… dragons?

He wanted to keep moving as soon as possible, and stepped around an island, intent on the door and what lay beyond. With Wolfram pausing to scavenge, there was more of a chance for attack--never a good thing. The kitchen, unlike some places, had some potential for movement, but wasn’t exactly an idle place for getting ambushed. That, and Aidou hated the monsters.

Silently tapping his fingers against the counter as he walked, he turned to look as Wolfram finished. And saw the flicker of movement from the corner of his eye before a pot fell. Something tall enough to reach that height?

Automatically, the vampire reached out and caught Jack’s wrist in a hard grip, forcibly fixing the flashlight on the source of the movement. “Something’s there. Keep an eye on it.”

[somber_secret]

[HAHAHA, I FINALLY MADE IT. From here.]

The kitchen was even worse, if that was even possible. It was completely dead, like the silence that came just before a demon attack or the news that Watari had spiked the coffee maker that morning and, guess what, he had just drank the last cup. Either way, Hisoka couldn't help but move around the room as if something lurked in every shadow, body tense as he eyed the darkness.

[silent_predator]

After the chaos from earlier, the xenomorph had settled in a corner, curled up on itself. To someone passing by, it looked like nothing more than a pile of junk, or machinery.

It didn't have to wait too long. Soon, there was the sounds of footsteps on the ground, heat drifting through the exoskeleton. A claw, curled against its chest, twitched.

[somber_secret]

Something told him today wasn't going to be his lucky day. Not with this room anyway, especially considering the last room was empty when the two rooms before that had something with claws and sharp teeth. Those rooms couldn't have been anything special and yet they still had monsters, why should this room be any different?

The boy grit his teeth, suddenly wishing Tsuzuki was here to watch his back or chatter the silence away like an idiot ('You're giving away our position, moron!'). The dark and the anticipation was going to break him in two. Hisoka shook his head and swept the beam of his light around the room in a wide arc.

[silent_predator]

The beam of light passed over the room, even right over the huddled up alien. All that greeted the patient was an unnatural silence.

As soon as the light shifted away from it, the xenomorph shifted, rising, and keeping low to the ground, began to crawl, vanishing behind the island.

[spirit_forge]

[from here]

Archer didn't want any trouble, so he moved quietly. His vision may have been compromised, due to his flashlight being off, but stealth was important here.

[silent_predator]

Long claws twitched as a blast of cold air was forced out from the fridge door closing. The xenomorph was digesting the meal it'd eaten earlier, its movements slightly sluggish.

Its head lifted from where it'd tucked itself in against the bony chest, fanged mouth opening silently in a parody of a drool-filled yawn.

[spirit_forge]

Shit. Archer could feel it. His instincts were screaming out to him to run, so he did. There was something wrong here; something very wrong. He wasn't in the mood for another fight.

[to here]

[light_wicca]

[from here]

Willow slowly nudged the door open with her foot, her left hand tightening around the scalpel. It still didn't feel right that they hadn't run into anything yet, and she was just waiting for something to leap out from the darkness and attack them. From as far as she could tell in the dim flashlight illumination, it looked like a regular kitchen, albeit very clean.

Still, her spider senses were tingling. The faster they got through, the better. "It's the big door in the middle," she whispered to the other two, remembering the map.

[blurred_divide]

Angel swept his gaze over the room, putting his arm out to keep both of them back, although he was, again, more concerned about Anya; they'd just been lucky the cafeteria had been empty when Anya had gone diving through. Willow was somewhat more schooled in the ways of caution.

It was too quiet, eerily so. He could sense one person here, but not much else, and while there didn't really seem to be anything going on...that was kind of the problem. Last night, he'd barely made it out of his room when something already jumped him.

"Stay behind me," he said, keeping his voice low.

[silent_predator]

His voice drifted through the still kitchen, disturbing the air. Nothing rushed out at them, just yet.

The girl however, could watch her step. Her foot came in contact with a large puddle on the ground, some congealing clear liquid that stuck to the bottom of her shoes.

[wishescankill]

Anya more or less ignored Angel's edict to stay behind him, opting to head straight for the door Willow had pointed out. "There's nothing to worry about," she assured the other two, glancing over her shoulder at them.

The door had already been opened; the lock was broken. How fortuitous. She began to push it open, rather more cautiously than the other doors she'd barged through. This was where the door was, and there was likely to be something guarding it.

[traitors_smile]

[[from here]]

The kitchen was surprisingly empty. He knew he'd seen a couple of people heading this way earlier, but they must've made it through or gone a different route because there was nothing of them here now. He swept the room with his flashlight; it was messy and there was the scent of blood in the air, which kept him on his guard.

"Stay close," he told Ran under his breath. He hadn't been this way before, but he could hazard a guess that the walk-in freezer was the large metal door on the other side of the room. He stayed close to the walls, less chance that something might sneak up behind them that way.

[fuyunohanabi]

Rangiku narrowed her eyes when they found the kitchen empty, moving to draw her katana silently. Something felt off and there was the smell of blood which suggested that something at least had been around, even if it wasn't now. She'd rather have the weapon in her hands right now.

She nodded, keeping just behind him but with just enough distance to give them both room to move if they needed to fight.

[silent_predator]

That same puddle of drool, now more of a sticky mass than a liquid, lay glistening at Rangiku's feet. The air seemed heavier than before, heavy with the scent of blood and old fear. There were bloody streaks on the floor.

There weren't even any other rats or the normal vermin that lurked here, drawn by food. It was unnaturally silent.

[traitors_smile]

As something of a predator himself, Gin could sense that something was amiss. The silence, the streaks of red that ran across the floor in patches... the place was a mess, but he didn't see any bodies, patients or dead animals or whatever other monstrosities this place dreamed up. Nothing. Which meant that it'd already come and gone, or, more likely, it was still here.

He drew his sword, not quite used to the larger weapon, and kept his flashlight steady as they crossed the room, sticking close to the walls. They were getting close now, though he could feel something sticky on the floor beneath his feet, he didn't look down. The only thing that mattered was getting from one side of the room to the other.