It is a trap. The thing will attempt to devour anything that enters it.
...but there is also a person inside who has already fallen victim to the trap.
It is clear that this is a trap. Anything that fully enters the room will struggle to escape from the creature. The thing most likely draws energy from those it traps.
...it is also clear that the chair is turned away because it is digesting something, or rather someone.
As Charly realizes what's going on thanks to Captain Rose's observations, sparks begin to dance along her arms and her eyes begin to glow blue-white. The air around her crackles and her demeanor changes from defeated to determined. She's about to do something potentially very stupid.
"Think this thing is gonna like the taste of lightning?"
"I'll be ready if you need help. Most things tend to find me unpalatable... or find out I'm higher up on the food chain."
Charly nods to Kavax and takes in a deep breath before there's a crack of thunder and a bolt of lightning arcs from where Charly had been standing to on top of the back of the chair.
She can feel the pull of the room's magic on her mind, but her strange nature allows her to shrug it off long enough to grab the person in the chair by the shoulders. She concentrates on pulling whoever it is back along with her as she refocuses on the room where the others stand.
The glow from the first spell hasn't fully left her as she casts yet again and another arc of lightning flashes between where Charly is and where she reappears. Unused to having someone else along for the ride, she tumbles onto the floor as she reappears and lands on her back. Her stomach growls a little as she lies there, bringing a chuckle from her.
"That could have been better timed."
Carlos just watches the display, and sees the young woman turn into a bolt before magically rescuing the trapped person.
"Well then. Can't say I've seen that before."
He goes to check on the person on the floor, hoping none of the room had lingered into them, or worse.
"I didn't even realize that there was a person being eaten in there... A tragedy of my own shortcomings this whole venture has been."
Charly is able to jump in, grab the figure in the chair, and jump out again without being caught by the haunt. The figure is small, with whispy blond hair and features delicate enough to mistake them for a child as they sleep, although they probably aren't. They seem to be very pale, however.
Instantly, as Charly escapes, the room inside ripples and the door begins to swing shut. More, tendrils of yellow begin to ripple outwards from the door, cracking concrete and popping lights. It is clear that the creature is not happy of being deprived its meal.
Kavax watches Charly's unusual magical grab-and-run, still standing near the door. "Alright, so now there's nothing important left inside the thing, right?"
He catches the closing door in one taloned hand and faces the inside of the 'room'.
"You're so hungry, huh? Try eating a bit of this."
And with that Kavax exhaled a billowing blast of Balefire into the haunt's maw, then threw the door closed behind it.
Shoving past Captain Rose, who had been holding the door open, Kavax unleashed unautral fire into the room before attempting to close the door.
Unfortunately, the door seemed to have other ideas.
Still, the flames did something to the creature, and the room inside rippled and vanished beneath the fire that engulfed it. The yellow tendrils, now sizzling with heat, grew thicker and began to pull away from the wall.
Charly sees the craziness her stunt apparently unleashed and makes a snap decision. The person she'd rescued was still breathing, but if they didn't smoke the monster behind the trap, they'd all be dead. Sparks dance on her fingers as she concentrates on the storm swirling through her veins.
She takes aim, then blinks the glow disappearing from her eyes as they widen in surprise. Then...
Cheshire narrows his eyes, trying to tell if the flames had hurt or help the creature.
Carlos sees the others spring into action shortly after hearing the unholy sizzling coming from Kavax's hidden mouth. There are times when he forgot what he was working with, but now was not one of those times.
"We can never just leave it with good enough?!"
He hunches his body over the victim, trying to get a read on their vitals and protecting them from the situation at hand.
Captain sighed but still quickly moved out of Kavax's way and helped to keep the door closed without comment. With her experience, she felt uneasy with the apparent ease and overuse of magic with all that already involved with this. But at least retrieving this survivor was done...hopefully...she was a bit busy holding a door closed to check on them yet so glad Carlos could help with that.
Kavax threw his not inconsiderable weight into slamming the door. He still wasn't sure if this was helping, but figured he'd do what he could.
"So... do we have any plans? Think smashing the door down would hurt it, or help it? Guess I should have asked before moving.
Kavax and the Captain are able to brute force the door shut, although it is noticeable the door no longer feels like anything you'd care to make a building out of. Kavax isn't even certain, after a moment's thought, whether he could smash the door down or if it's more likely to bleed.
As Charly attempted to hurl a lightning bolt one of the pulsing yellow tendrils tore from the wall, fast enough that it created a sharp CRACK! before slamming into the side of Charly's head with the same brutal force and speed.
Carlos notes that there is another door, not 15 feet from you all, that will lead out of this creature's domain. While there's no gurantee what is beyond will be safer, it will certainly be faster to head through that to fight this thing here.
Morgan is certain the flames hurt the thing. Fire purifies, even as it destroys. But this thing was more akin to a massive infection than a single target, with tendrils spreading throughout this whole section. It should be possible to kill it with enough damage, but if it manages to feed it will heal rapidly.
Glancing back and forth to the door, Carlos grabs hold of the victim and slumps them over his shoulder in a short range fireman's carry. "There's a door! Over there!" He makes the biggest gesture he can, "It will take us out of its reach hurry!"
He starts to move as fast as he can, stealing glances backwards to the others, seeing if they follow.
Charly is blindsided by the attack and her spell fizzles as she goes tumbling through the air. Curiously, for a vampire, she bleeds from where her forehead was gashed. She manages to keep her wits and does her best to make her way towards the door while making sure the others aren't left open by her flight.
Captain held the door for a bit longer, wanting to give Carlos plenty of time to get the victim father away before making her own way towards the other door, more keeping an eye on the odd door - gun firmly in her hands - than hurrying.
"Maybe so, but we'd best hope this isn't a frying pan kind of situation," Cheshire replies to Carlos. He backs towards the other door warily. "It does leave the question of what we'll do later about this. I'm rather inclined to burn the building down, myself."
The hunters are able to fall back, as more tendrils tear from the walls. The door begins to slide along the wall towards you all as well. It was...not a pleasant site.
Tendrils lashed out, once again with a crack that suggested horrifying speed, but thankfully you had all escape to the backstage area. Dusty and dank as it was, it seemed safe enough for now.
Tendrils began to try and push through the still open door to reach you, but it was obviously struggling with leaving the stairwell. Still...they were forcing through the door inch by inch.
As Captain Rose saw the tendrils fighting their way through the odd door, she paused to fire off a few shots...
...though threats of this nature were difficult targets, but the cover fire might be enough to keep it back a few moments more. Captain started slowly moving back towards the others, gun still raised.
Kavax looked around a bit outside, but still figured that these tendrils were the most immediate threat.
"Sooo, should we shut the door? I guess we'd need to get rid of these protruding ones first, at least..."
Not wanting to set the building on fire just yet, and no longer in some kind of pocket domain, Kavax drew his blade and carefully hacked at the tendrils pursuing them.
Charly focuses for a moment while holding her hands in front of her. Sparks of blue-white gather between her hands as she speaks slowly.
"Kavax, please watch your arms. I'd rather not cut them off by accident."
As the sparks form a ball of lightning, the air stirs around Charly like she's the eye of a storm. She takes in a deep breath then thrusts her hands out with the palms facing the door. The energy of the spell rushes from her hands and to the door where it forms a wall of slow moving lightning with an explosive crack.
"Okay, I think we're safe enough to close the door," she says before turning to the person in Carlos' care and starts trying to assess their condition while speaking to them soothingly.
"Hey, can you hear me? Are you hurting anywhere?"
Carlos considers where to place them down, eyeing the nearby boxes suspiciously. Okay the boxes won't come to life and they definitely won't open up revealing some interdimensional being. With a sweep of his leg he kicks some stuff over and finds a place to put them down before starting to check their condition.
"Ho, you okay?" Opening their eyes and patting them down for any strange abrasions (or worse) he starts to see what kind of condition they were in.
He smiles as Charly pops over his shoulder then looks to the door and the others, "How does it look over there?"
"We'll still have to deal with that thing eventually," Cheshire comments. "Especially if we're going to be un-trapping anything around here."
As he speaks, he takes a careful look around the area they'd entered, wary of further dangers.
"Agreed, though helping the victim to leave would probably make that easier." Captain said to Cheshire while remaining firmly near the door they had come through, weapon in hand as she looked around, mentally preparing for further weird and the update she would send.
The barrier blocks the door effectively, although the tendrils are hunting for a way to find to bypass the barrier. Rose can see the sparks when parts of the rebar from the walls touches te barrier, crackling angrily. Still, the large hole she had also put in it was comforting.
The person is clearly very, very ill. Pale and cold to the touch, and breathing shallowly. Their pupil does respond to light, however, which suggests that the coma isn't as severe as it could be.
"So, any ideas on how to help them get out of this," Charly asks.
Seeing that no one had anything thing else in mind, Charly steadies herself with a deep breath. Perhaps she could do something. She had magic, after all, and healing miracles were not unheard of in legends and myths.
"God, if you're listening, don't let me screw up," she prays quietly before concentrating and trying to do what she could.
Before Carlos has a chance to act, he sees Charly try to wield magic and hopes that it works out. Glancing at the pallid skin, he tries to assess how things are shaping up.
"Yeah, not protocol but they're dying." He gives Captain Rose a glance. "Cheshire, can you find a route out of here? You seem to move fairly quietly."
Charly can feel the problem - the room has literally drained the life from this person. The only way to help is to replace it. As to where that comes from...
Captain nodded to show she was listening as she watched the strange threat. "Hopefully we can get her out of here before nature's protocol trumps ours. I'll try to send an update, try to get care on site faster to get her and any others we find cared for faster and maybe some extra equipment for that threat so we can hold off on the fire - at least for the time being." Still watching the threat, she again holds the weapon in one hand while dealing with her phone with a bunch of protocol code in the other.
For once, the codes through go without any issues or any sarcasm. Apparently Captain Rose's contact considered this an unusually high priority. A few moments later, a message came through - a team would be on location to surreptitiously remove any wounded, and the police around the building would either be paid to ignore things or there shifts switched with officers who would.
"I can take a look around, yes," Cheshire says languidly. He shows no sign of offering to help Charly with healing the injured. Instead he shifts back to cat form and starts cautiously exploring towards one of the exits from the backstage area--best not to go on the stage itself.
Charly lets out a yelp and flinches as the magic draws from her life to mend the other persons.
"Okay, I can help them, but not without hurting myself or someone else," she mutters to anyone who's listening. She holds the spell, but doesn't let it sap her further. She was already hungry and this latest bit of magic was making her ravenous, and some of her teammates in this mission were starting to smell delicious.
As soon as the thought pops into her head, she shakes it away. Food would have to come in a minute, she still needed to help someone.
"I'm... Not sure if I'd help or not here. On the one hand, I might have the wrong kind of... essence? Not sure. On the other hand, I think I might be some kind of immortal, so maybe it'd help? Not my field of expertise."
The reply came quicker than Captain expected. That meant several things and brought to mind a few questions that she might get around to asking later. She explained the ping after a few moments,"A team will be here shortly so we can focus on just stabilizing and getting any wounded to the experts & doing what we do best. There are a few heat packs and other kit in my case if useful and you're all out." while pocketing her phone and gripping her weapon with both hands again as she kept watching the threat for signs of weaknesses and ways around in case Cheshire didn't find a way out this way...
Carlos sees Charly struggling to keep the magic on the dying person, "Let me give you a hand." He kneels down and puts his palm up toward her, "A little at a time, lets see what we need to get them up and out of here."
He notices a look on Charly's face, "You okay señorita? You're sweating."
Now that people are looking around and getting there bearing, the backstage area is a large without much remaining. A door leads out from either wing, and the curtain to the stage is closed but probably simple enough to bypass. The one Morgan looks through seems to lead to the dressing rooms.
As Carlos passes his life force through Charly, the person - it's hard to determine there gender, thanks to there androgynous looks, but they seem to be in there 20's or so - regains a touch of colour to there cheeks. It'll clearly take more to bring them around, however.
The fastest way out, Captain Rose assumes, will be through the main area. It absolutely must have fire exits or a simple route to the main doors. As for the spirit in the stairwell, she believes there two ways to defeat it - destroying the space it exists in or finding out what happened to cause it and 'righting' it. Anything else will simply force it rest again for a while.
While she wanted to help, it wasn't going to do anyone any good if she passed out and they had to carry two people out. After Carlos helps the person recover, Charly lets the spell end and sits back from their rescuee. It takes Carlos a couple of tries before he gets a response from her.
"I'm hungry and trying not to focus on who smells the most delicious," she mutters in reply. "You know how good beef normally comes from a heifer and not as good beef comes from a cow? Turns out it's like that with humans and vampires. That's why they go after virgins if they can, and it's really, really weird to smell your own blood and have your mind go 'Dang! I smell tasty.' It's even worse when your ravenous," she rambles on, her words not getting filtered due to hunger-induced delirium.
"Can I have the Payday you have in your jacket pocket, please? I can smell the caramel and peanuts and it's just making the hunger worse," she begs after a moment.
"We either pump more firepower into the space that threat is using to stop it or find their cause and fix that. Either way, we should be able to cover that area long enough for one of us to get them out via the main doors or fire exits. Captain said as she began sketching the next step out loud.
Whether the threat could hear them through the barrier or not, Captain had enough surprises up her sleeve - or rather in her case, she wouldn't have anything like that up her sleeves or in her suit pockets - that trying to get the others on the same page made sense to her.
"Whatever we're going to do, maybe we should move farther away from this door while we think about it. Maybe try to find the rest of the missing people first."
The colour starts coming back and Carlos lets out a heave. "Living at least. You did a helluva job Charly." He moves his hand over to the chocolate bar and his smile goes a bit wrong, "Sure but well..." He reveals a melted fist and shrugs, "Blame the carry earlier."
He nods to Kavax and Captain Rose, "Alright, alright. Re-position elsewhere and get this one out of here."
Charly sighs, but knows that complaining won't accomplish anything.
"I think I can manage. We don't even have the right stuff to make fondue," she says as she sits up, then has to pause as a wave of dizziness washes over her.
"Probably not a good idea to have me help carry them out, though," she admits after sitting there for a moment while waiting for the room to stop spinning. Once she's a little more confident in her feet, she stands and brings up the rear, hoping that she'll be long gone before her barrier fades. Those at the back of the group can see her hands shaking a little, as if from low blood sugar, and hear the occasional complaints of an empty stomach.
Moving did seem like a wise move, as more tendrils pushed against and around Charly's barrier, looking for an entrance.
Cautiously Cheshire pokes his head out onto the stage, looking closely at the spot he'd identified earlier as suspicious. He takes a couple steps towards it, then cautiously looks around for anything out of the ordinary.
The stage seemed silent, with only a chair sitting in the middle. No lights were on, making it hard to see anything at all.