Carlos turns a corner and immediately smashes into Charly!
"Vampire!" He turns his head around looking aghast before realizing it was Charly, taking a breath and running his hand over his head, "She was a monster in disguise. I should have known."
Cleaning the blood from his glasses, he pushes past her, "What about the other one? Was it an ambush there too?"
It takes the petite woman a moment to reorient herself and pick herself off the floor.
"No, no ambush. The guy's a whiner though," Charly says, casting a dark glare back the way she came. Turning back, she notices how bloodied Carlos had gotten, and a worried frown crosses her face.
"D-did she bite you?"
She takes a step back, her hands clutching at something under her hoodie, just above her breast. Her eyes grow wide, flickering red for a moment as she loses her hold on the glamour around her for a moment.
"She did. What if..."
For a moment, her eyes flick back to where the others are then to where she'd felt the last of the disappeared.
"God, what do we do," she prays. "where can we go for shelter?"
Her eyes fall on Carlos' wounds again, and she whimpers as the pang of thirst and hunger hits her. The glamour falls away, revealing ash-gray skin and red-glowing eyes. Fangs that have been little more than slightly too long canines grow into something much more deadly and she takes a step forward. She is so hungry. Surely just a bite wouldn't hurt?
"NO!"
The cry of denial is still echoing in the hall when Charly yanks the left sleeves of her hoodie and the shirt underneath up to her elbow and opens her mouth wide. She sinks her teeth into the flesh of her arm, red blood welling up around her lips as she staggers back until she hits the dilapidated wall and slides down it to sit on the floor. The pain of her self-inflicted bite steals the strength of her hunger and after a moment, she lowers her arm from her mouth and looks up at Carlos, her face now a bloodstained mess. Tears, actual tears, well up in her eyes before she looks away.
The smell of blood, the uneven surface of the wall and floor, the beating of her and Carlos' hearts all wash over her like a rolling tide with the heat of pain in her arm threatening to pull her under. She claps her right hand over the wound and curls up into a ball in a futile effort to protect herself from the overwhelming sensations. She cries into her knees as it all becomes too much.
"God give me strength," she begs over and over again between pleas for Him to make the pain stop.
Beneath the stage was clearly another area trapped out of time, or in an illusion, or some such. There was a creature here, sleeping for the most part and dreaming dreams of dreams gone by, that had grown powerful on the fear and despair of those who had wandered in over the years. At first, Cheshire guessed, it would have been too weak to harm anything humanoid unless they entered the lair. But it was likely rodents and pests were oddly missing from the building, and any pets that might wander in. Then the sick and the weak who might hide here on a cold winter night. Then the young. And now…anyone not of sufficient will.
Here, in its heart, it was a challenge to remain focused. Even defying the spell here only made a partial difference, reality and illusion flickering across each other and making it hard to tell what was what. Still, Cheshire was feline enough in form if not mind that it didn’t matter too much, and although gravity occasionally played strange games and reality seemed to warp in on itself it was possible to navigate.
Finally, he found the source of the magic. It was hidden away, beneath the monster sealed here, but no one had planned on preventing a cat access. The object inside sat on the ground in the middle of an intricate, complex ritual circle. Objects that would have been significant would have sat at vital points, but the power of the magic had reduced them to dust. And in the middle was a small silver bell, free of tarnish and dust despite the rest of the room. It was a simple matter to take it.
Only when did Cheshire feel the thing above metaphorically stretch and open its eyes did it occur to him – perhaps it had been put there to guard the bell.
Whoops.
Captain was pleased that this victim was getting calmer, or at least more coherent, and was about to reply to Kavax when Charly giggled like a creepy horror movie child and then ran off without another word.
Considering for a few moments, she shrugged. "No idea what's going on there, maybe the pressure got to her. We'll worry about that later." and hoped she could help the man retain what coherency after that off-putting sight.
She told the man, "We've already gotten one young woman, Anne-Marie, out of this building. We have another very injured person here we are working on getting out so you can either wait here or come with us, but we have to get moving..." before she started to back-out of the closest, keeping the door open to see what the man would do as she considered her options.
The man shook his head. "Did you get her out, or did the building let you think you did and took her back?" He shook his head again, tears again flowing. "You don't get what this place is like. What the things here are like."
He mentally cursed his poor planning. Look for the way out before grabbing things, stupid! Well, he'd better find a good way to slip past this thing now, and fast.
Captain considered the man's paranoid rambling for about a second, before bluntly stating, "I wouldn't say we got her out if I had doubts about that. I've dealt with stranger places for many years now. I am well-compensated to know what these things are like, but I am not paid to fake things or be nice. I leave that to the well-trained specialists involved in post-incident care who I would like to get this other person to sooner rather than later. You can join us as you see fit. "
Captain stepped away from the door as she considered their surroundings and the best way to move on next...
As far as Captain could tell, and unless the man was right, the best exits remained the front entrance or the fire exit. The best way to protect the victims would be to get them out. Failing that, some form of protection might be in order.
The man looked dubious at best, but after some consideration - and noting the gun - he climed out and stretched. "Is your...friend OK? She was kinda...giggling." He obviously considered this to be a bad sign.
Thankfully, once more, a cat could go places that humans could not, and Cheshire was able to slip back to the main hall in time to see a strange woman wearing nothing but a ragged dress slipping behind the curtain to the back.
Still, now that he was out here and that thing was waking up, it was time to quit being alone. Warily he started making his way across the theatre, towards the area he thought the others had gone. They'd need to know it was time to quit messing around and face the heart of the problem.
Kavax… watched the rather dramatic scene.
"...Not sure I should say anything here. But we should all probably get moving or doing something. Just standing here isn't getting anything done. And we know we're being hunted. Do I need to just go and start hauling that other guy around so we can get these people out already?"
Captain considered the survivor's question, "That was a bit odd, true. I don't think there is anything alarming though. I've never worked with her around before, but I've seen people newer at this do all sorts of weird harmless things."
She considered their exits, "Let's head to that fire exit, likely a bit faster and less likely to attract gawkers than going out the front. We'll hopefully have the care team with their eyes on them already. Gun firmly in hand, Captain started moving, not really checking if anyone was following...
Carlos stares perplexed at Charly before he hears the outburst, Yeah she bit me, but what does that--- Suddenly it all makes sense and Carlos watches the young woman’s emotional turmoil bubbling out. He sees the fangs come out and gives a sobering slap to the young vampire, ”Easy there! Easy! You’re not some monster and this isn’t what I expect from you. Grab hold of that charm, grab hold of something, you have strong capable hands to do that!”
He watches her bite her arm and turns away for a moment, hoping to give her some space in this cramped maddening hallway. The curandero watches her fall to pieces but he then kneels down beside her and offers a hand, ”Hey señorita don’t be so sad. No hay branca. It’s all okay.” His other hand reaches over to his glasses, ”Look here, everything is alright. We’re both alive; we’re both making it through this.”
Carlos takes a seat beside her and offers her some sleeve, ”We all have our crosses to bear, and sometimes they are worse than others. This chamba here is unpleasant, but it’s just a moment.” He stands up, ”You can let that moment rule you or you can move ahead. I had to learn that when I realize I squandered a life with my father, it crushed me you know?” Looking at the shattered rosary he laughs, ”Funny. I used this to fend her off and she exclaimed she doesn’t believe in the church or God and here you are asking for the opposite.” He moves to help her up, ”You aren’t like them chava, not by a long shot.”
He looks her over and puts the glasses back on, "So I'll tell you what. You get up, and I'll make sure whatever is eating you won't crush you down. You have my word, and the word of my father and his father before him."
It takes several minutes, but Charly does calm down. Her skin is still ash-gray, but her eyes are their original blue when she opens them again.
"No, I don't think most vampires suffer from sensory overload," she replies in a shaky voice as she sits up. "It happens sometimes, but that's twice tonight," she explains further, she puts some weight on her injured arm and grimaces as the pain lances up it.
"Sorry, Carlos. I'm just starving right now, and the blood just made it worse. It's only by the grace of God I haven't done anything dumb yet. Haven't bitten anyone since, well..."
She smiles and points to her teeth. She looks exhausted and her hands shake slightly, but she manages a weak chuckle.
"At least He gave me a sense of humor. That makes it a little easier when you can laugh about being a twit," she says before realizing what she must have looked like when she went to come find Carlos and laughs some more. "Oh boy, the Captain is going to think I went off the deep end after this."
She accepts any offered help as she gets back on her feet. She puts glamour back in place as she gives Carlos a reassuring smile.
"I appreciate the offer to talk about whatever's weighing me down, but I don't think we have all night to listen to me talk about my father. We should probably get back to the others."
Kavax and Rose, the victims in tow, walked out into the corridor and met back up with Carlos and Charly. A few moments later, Cheshire appeared at the door and entered as well.
The firedoor was at the far end, and held in place with an emergency bar. An ancient note warned the door was alarmed.
Seeing the others had found more victims to rescue, Cheshire decides it might not quite be time to share his news.
"Well here we all are again," he comments. "Let's get things moving... quickly."
Captain looked at the old ancient note. It was questionable whether such an alarm would be working. Even if it was, older door alarms had many ways to prevent going off that Captain knew. She gave it a quick look over, not wanting to hold up getting the survivor outside any longer than needed.
Kavax looked at the door. He also considered the nearby walls, wondering if the old wood would be easier to break than the door itself.
"...Think we should be worried about this alarm? It seems everything in this place already knows were here. Of course, it might be a different kind of trap, instead."
Kavax can spend his previous hold to ask 'What's the best way out?'
"It might alert the fire department or the police, but I don't think we should skip using it just because of that," Charly says.
Ever since the others had caught up with her, she's been a bit subdued keeps her left arm out of sight as much as she can.
Captain Rose is pretty sure that the power to any alarm died years ago, along with the power to the rest of the building. Nothing in the building is lit up, except with supernatural aid, and nothing seems to work. Why would the door's alarm be any different?
Hopefully if that worst of outside interference happened, Adalet's teams would handle it. And most of the paperwork.
Seeing no obvious sign of the alarm working, Captain pushed open the door. She would like to see signs of her support team.
Carlos moves in behind the others, bolstered by Charly's new... energy.
He moves into the room to reconvene with Kavax and Captain Rose, only to hear a familiar sound from a cat languidly speak. "Well fancy bumping into you again. What did I miss?"
He determines it isn't quite time to explain what happened near the lobby when he sees Captain Rose's serious face.
Cheshire looks over to Carlos. "Oh, I was just taking a peek under the stage. It looks like your... friend there is waking up."
He says it so blandly that only the slight hint of panic in his eyes betrays just how dangerous he thinks this situation is.
The door opened with an easy push. Beyond was the carpark. Patrons and actors awaited, a low chatter among them as they waited. Someone had pulled out a bunch of the tables and covered them with what might have been an old curtain, a selection of fancy-looking snacks and crystal jugs full of wine. Several people turn to look at you as you enter.
Cheshire sighs. "Of course. It would be," he grumbles.
He looks blandly at Carlos, then the Captain. "So which of you is taking point this time?"
For all that he sounds bored, Cheshire keeps taking nervous looks behind him, as if expecting something to jump out at any moment.
"Okay, where's our anchor this time," Charly asks as she looks around. She notices Cheshire's skittishness and waits for the others to get a few steps ahead.
"Hey, is everything alright? You didn't happen to run into a vampire in there did you," she asks.
"No, just something worse is all," Cheshire whispers back. "The thing at the heart of all of this. It's waking up. Best not to say anything in front of the noncombatants, though."
"Oh, great. 'Nother thing for the Captain can bust my chops for I guess," Charly grumbles.
Shaken from the previous experience, Carlos looks at the car park.
Captain gripped her gun tightly and let out an unimpressed sigh as she looked over the strange sight.
Reality hiccuped and flickered as Carlos' clothes changed to what would have been an excellent suit several decades before.
Captain tried to do a headcount. This was concerning, but, more trained people would hopefully end up working in their favour. Once she could remind them of it. Glancing to Kavax and the walking victim, she quietly suggested, more to the latter, "Make your way to the other end away. The farther from the stage and the less interaction with them, the better. I'll try to keep their attention."
Then she saw the building's rather weak fashion attempt on Carlos, she sighed. Another for the headcount. Maybe she could use this, people in such suits tended to have or want power and an incentive to use however much they had. While his suit was nowhere near as nice as her own, Captain had plenty of experience in finding and using those incentives.
Captain walked in as she typically did in these situations and many others that had helped her climb the corporate ladder - like she was completely in charge of the rules here, knew every secret in the room and could make or destroy them all with the right word in the right ear. An obvious scan around, she turned back to Carlos with a small smile, "They're waiting for us." It was entirely honest. Manipulative honesty to be sure, but that was probably the only kind in these kinds of events.
She turned back and looked for something that would amplify her phone the next time her alarm went off and would be a suitable place to direct Carlos towards...it helped before and if she could get a few more of her staff on side, this would become easier.
Hot dangit! This place will be boppin' in just a few short wags of a stick! Carlos walked into the lot and realized that he looked damn fine in his pinstripe suit, The only thing I need right now is a cigar and a dame and I think I found one.
"Waiting for us? Dollface I've been waiting for you my whole life. Why wear such a frumpy thing I'm sure you'd look swell in a flapper. Care for a little drink?"
If the other people looked closely they could swear they might hear a narration hanging above him and the constant sound of non-existent rain hitting the pavement.
Charly raises an eyebrow at Carlos calling Captain Rose Dollface and sighs. Might as well find out what causing this and break the spell.
Captain's gaze went to the others for a moment as she tried to think of a fitting response to that almost painful remark. She wasn't sure what part of this would mortify him the most, but if on the very very tiny chance they ever spoke of this again, calling her tailored suit 'frumpy' was high on her list of most foolish things she'd ever heard about herself - or at least one of most foolish things said about herself directly to her face.
One did not get very high in many fields without learning how to deal with such awkward flirting. Her current preferred methods were not available for a few reasons, so she chuckled warmly as her mouth slowly opened and she turned away. "But then how would I hear their thoughts on the renovations and potential starlets if I distracted them so? A drink would be nice, but I need to go around the room at least once before the band gets in full swing." and with that Captain walked off to listen in and look for a microphone or other useful items for snapping Carlos and others out of this... the sooner, the better for so many reasons.
Kavax eyed the scene with Carlos and Captain Rose. Well, if things got too annoying he could always just pick people up and carry them around. Regardless, he nodded at Rose's comment and started walking away, hoping to be able to pass of his unconscious cargo before something happened that might cause her injury.
Carlos the neo-noir entrepreneur rarely got rejected but he just laughed it off. "Well if you want to dance later, I will say I am the cat's pajamas."
"Cats don't wear pajamas. I should know," Cheshire interjects, wondering if the reference to himself is too subtle to help break Carlos out of this.
The truth is, however, that he's hardly paying attention to the goings-on, to busy nervously watching the door they'd come through, wondering if any moment the awakening thing under the stage would come through.
The crowd didn't seen at all concerned by Kavax, or his cargo. Perhaps they saw something else. Several of them asked for drinks, anyway.
One of the ladies blew Cheshire a kiss. "All the best times in the bedroom happen when you leave those behind," she said with a wink and apparently no care that the person talking was, in fact, a cat.
Charly sighs as she finds that this time she's not going to be able to pinpoint the person that is being used to anchor this strange place between. She gives a worried glance ot Carlos, remembering what the Brownie had told them about what had happened. Hopefully this wouldn't end with him getting hurt, but she knows that if they want everyone out, they have to break the spell. Doing her best to avoid attention, she begins looking around and trying to figure out this puzzle.
It's hard to know what, exactly, is happening here. Perhaps the thing awakening, as Cheshire mentioned, is spreading the snare out of the walls in a way that was never intended. Or perhaps this is another, related, creature that has somehow gotten out. The problem here is that some of the people are real, and some are illusions.
Charly looks around and notices how underdressed she is compared to the people here, both real and illusionary. If she wants to be able to move around, then perhaps it is time to change how she looks.
Charly is able to change her clothes. She certainly fits better with the party goers.
Lightning crackles all around Charly for a moment before she appears in a sleek dress of shimmering and sparkling navy-blue with white gloves that com up past her elbows. Silver combs studded with sapphires hold her hair in an elegant updo. Ready for any ball, she puts on her most charming smile and dives into the fray.
Unfortunately for any of her plans, Charly finds it hard to overcome her awkwardness and is either ignored or rebuffed in her few attempts at striking up a conversation. She falls back on trying to piece together what's happening from observation at the edges of the crowd. At least, she thinks sourly as she sips sparkling white grape juice from a champagne flute, this might attract the vampire Carlos ran into. The bitter thought brought up Captain Rose and her cool, almost coldly professional demeanor and the insecurities that made her feel. Soon, she wasn't having to act much to appear alone and vulnerable as she began to wonder if she would have washed out of the police department on her own without being turned into a vampire.
Captain took a meandering path towards the small sound stage. Hopefully, illusionary or not, it would help. She kept an eye out for any faces she recognized and an ear out for any odd stories. Captain pulled out her phone, checking for the next alarm and considering which station might work best as she moved to get closer to a microphone...
Kavax... Looks around for some people who don't look like they're caught up in the illusion to hand the girl he was carrying off to. Based on Cheshire's nervousness, things might be about to get bad.