Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

Annoyingly, there's another knock at Alice's door a while later.

 

Alice sets up a pulse rifle pointed at the door, puts a string around the trigger, then goes up to open the door, holding the string just less than taut.

 

“This is the entry, exit, and break room. I’ve seen it once. It’s usually a disguise for anyone who breaks in.”
I walk over to a corner, next to two shelves.
“But, it’s pretty easy to get inside from here.”
I pull on the shelf and the wall opens up like a door, leading into some sort of basement.

 

Luckily, it's friendly faces this time.

Artemis, Katie and Spring, Claire and the elites stand outside Alice's door, Claire hugging Artemis, looking scared.

"Hey, Aj told us to come here because the palace had been overrun with a dangerous parasite. He said you were one of the few people he could trust. Can we come in?" Artemis asks politely.

"We'd help out Aj with the parasites, but he said it was too dangerous even for us." Tirra adds.

________________________________

"That's some basic hiding mechanism, I've got to admit." Shadow Stephanie says, heading over to you.

 

"Yeah. Yeah."
He thinks for himself.
"Okay, so what would happen if the snow were to fall? It would probably fill the tunnel then?"

 

Alice lets go of the string.
"Anyone else coming? If not, I'm shooting the damn door next time someone knocks." She says, irritated.
Pause.
"...Oh yeah, feel free. Four kettles going right now, and my dining room is stupidly large for just me anyways."

"Yeah, then we'd have to dig deeper or go on the surface and hope we don't get noticed."

 

“Yeah, well, it worked. I don’t think people often trek out into No Man’s Land to find houses to break into.”
I start heading down the stairs.

 

"I think we're the only ones Aj sent personally." Aeris says.

"It'll be ok, don't worry." Artemis says to Claire, kneeling down a bit to her level.

"True, but it'd be super suspicious to have just a normal house in the middle of nowhere." Shadow Stephanie says, following you down the stairs.

 

"Well, if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye out so I don't shoot anyone I shouldn't be, that'd be great. Now, come on in, it's probably cold out there."

 

“I didn’t make it.”
I shrug, as we end up in front of what looks like a pair of automatic sliding glass doors. They don’t open.

 

"It is rather cold." Ignia says, shivering a bit.

The group enters Alice's house, Claire holding onto Artemis' hand.

"Need some help with these too?" Shadow Stephanie asks.

 

“Do you have a problem with stepping on glass?”
I ask, getting out my hammer.

 

"Good to see we have the same plan." Shadow Stephanie says, smirking, her dagger in her hand.

 

"Ignia, could you light the fireplace? I just gave up half my strength to Aj and can't really do much right now." She says, closing the door behind the group.

 

"Sure thing." Ignia says, heading over to Alice's fireplace. Ignia simply moves her hand across one of the logs, and it lights on fire. Artemis finds somewhere to sit with Claire, while Katie sits next to Aqui, the pair chatting about water guardian things. Mortimer and Victus find their own seats, growing a couple of chairs for the others if there aren't enough, though Tirra seems happy to sit on the floor rather than a chair.

 

I smile, whipping around to the door and bringing my hammer right into the center of it. The glass shatters and the door breaks inwards.
“I’ll have to clean that up, but whatever.”
I step inside, crunching glass.

 

Shadow Stephanie picks up a few glass shards before she enters, looking around.

 

There's twice as many chairs as there are people in the dining room, though Ruby seems a bit confused, glancing at everyone with her tongue still sticking in her cup of tea.
"Uhhh..."

 

Inside are hallways, going straight, right, and left. A mostly-decayed corpse extends a hand towards the door from the enter hallway.
“Sasha.”
I say, monotone.

 

"Oh, hello Ruby." Artemis says, smiling at Ruby.

Claire looks at Ruby nervously, seeming a bit shaken by whatever happened before she arrived at Alice's house.

"What the fuck is that." Shadow Stephanie says, looking at the corpse.