Nightshift 43: Room of Air

[ran_on_empty]

[From here.]

Compared to the loud rumbling that dominated the last room, the silence that greeted them in the next was practically deafeningSync kept his gaze forward, almost as if he was trying to burn holes into the thick fog that surrounded them. He was quiet, ignoring the dull ringing in his ears as he listened for any other sound, but in the

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[dahliahasthorns]

Once they had managed to bolt themselves out of the Frogger room, Dahlia was sure was all that noise had just rendered her deaf because, now? She couldn't hear a thing. Even her own breathing was shallow and barely audible here. What was this?

Fog, boulders... oh jeez, there was two more rooms after this one, wasn't there? She made sure to squeeze Sync's hand a little too tight once he looped his arm around hers and then turned to their sweet little third wheel.

"H-hi." She put on a smile as she wrapped her lithe fingers around the other girl's hand, but wasn't a very cheerful one. More like 'frightened beyond all reason'. "Let's stick together, okay, Annie?"

[gald_digger]

When the door closed behind them, it was like all the sound was sucked out of the room. The click of the lock was a welcome sound this time. There was no way Anise wanted to go back there. At least now they could stop and breathe easy for a minute, instead of being kept on their toes like that.

...Maybe 'breathe easy' wasn't the right way to put it, though. The air was heavy and humid, and just uncomfortable in general. Anise could barely see in front of her face, and the gray uniforms seemed to blend in with the pale mist, which really didn't help. From just a few steps away, Sync and Dahlia kind of looked like floating blurs of green and red.

When she and Dahlia joined hands, Anise was able to see the other girl's face, though just barely. "Right!" Annie? Dahlia had a nickname for her, too? Well, whatever. She smiled back and nodded, though the smile faded a moment later. "But... try to stay calm, okay? If you panic, it'll just make this harder." Since they finally had a second to talk, she at least had to get that out. If Sync

[ran_on_empty]

That tightened grip from Dahlia didn't go unnoticed, but Sync had chosen to ignore it for now, allowing the other two to talk before answering the question posed to him.

"I haven't the faintest clue." Really, couldn't Anise see for herself that it was hard enough to make out anything beyond two feet? Of course, instead of letting his frustration get the better of him, Sync carefully tugged the two back until they were now touching the wall behind them.

"It'd probably be best to stay near the walls. We don't know how large this room is, but if we at least keep close to something solid then we'll eventually find the next door." With that said he began to slowly tread along, keeping his steps small and cautious. For all he knew this room could be booby trapped, so at least if they tread lightly the chances of getting caught were slim.

[dahliahasthorns]

She nodded her head again in that quick, nervous way like before. She could act more calm here, right? After all, she couldn't see the danger. She couldn't hear anything. Obviously, that meant there was no danger, or at least that would be the thought in the air-headed front she put up. Nervous, sure, but not so much that she needed to put herself into another breakdown just for show. Just to be on the safe side, though, she let her body tremble just a little more, like she hadn't gotten herself completely calmed down after that brush with certain doom. Poor, poor, pitiful Dahlia...

Ha!

All these attempts on her life were starting to get boring very, very quickly and, though she suspected the threat of losing her life really stopped bothering her the moment she was handed the Death Sentence, it probably had to do with the concentrated amount of danger she had to face the past two nights, plus this on top of it. It made her long for earlier times that now felt like days of yore: idiot boyfriends, exciting court drama, terrified cell-