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 Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:17 pm
"No way in Hell are you comin' with me, Len. You're mortal, and bad things tend to happen on escapades like this," Liam seemed genuinely concerned about the girl's saftey.
"I'll come with you. My boyfriend, my problem."
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:22 pm
"Good, it's settled. Len and I wait here, you go get him, and we run," Ethan said. "And if you see anymore of those shadow-rider things, don't start a fight. Just run."
Listening to the screaming wind that seemed to bend away from the motel, Lenore watched the sun slip behind the mountainous horizon and retook her seat in the truck bed.
"Hurry back," she said, allowing a flicker of deathly fear to pass over her face before she looked away.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:24 pm
"Okay," Liam nodded and started off before anyone could say anything else. Rabid followed, hands shoved in her pockets. She had this irking feeling that someone was going to get very hurt in here.
The pair traveled about, going on nothing but Liam's blind instinct.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:28 pm
The cold grew more noticeable the further into the complex the pair went, as well as the lack of life. No late-roaming birds, no insects, nothing. The wind was still. The lights were still on, though if their dimness was from years of neglect or something else was an uncertainty. All the corridors on the ground floor led to a bare patch of earth and an empty pool, a metal staircase leading to the second floor looming in one corner. Spattered on the ground and leading up the metal rail quite clearly were dried stains of reddish-brown.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:29 pm
"Hey, look," Liam pointed.
"Eh?"
"Ten bucks says that's Julian residue."
"I doubt it."
Regardless of her disbelief, she began up the stairs.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:34 pm
The second floor was silent and poorly lit, though shafts of light from the dying sun provided some comfort. There was movement in rooms with drawn curtains on occasion, and the door to one was half-open. The woman inside took a drag on her cigarette and looked out at the two before slamming the door shut. The spattered trail took a left towards the back of the building and was lost on the dirty landing, but the intensifying cold was guide enough. The landing ended at a door facing north, its curtained window allowing a view of the flat desert and the featureless stretch of highway that went beyond the motel.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:37 pm
Rabid approached the door carefully, afraid to breathe that she might see her own breath billowing up around her. She knocked lightly three times, waiting.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:41 pm
There was no response. The door was securely locked, though it bowed outwards in the middle as though someone behind it had been trying to kick it down. A sizable rip in the curtains showed the room was unlit, and allowed a last dying ray of sunlight to illuminate one wall. It bore a long red streak that traveled downwards and back into shadow.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:44 pm
The blood was what spurred Liam into action. Even if it wasn't Julian, something had been bleeding pretty bad. And didn't teh shadow-thing say it had him? Well, ********. He reeled back with his enhanced arm and punched the door as hard as he could. There was a snapping, and he gave a miserable moan as the door barely opened and his knuckles leaked blood.
Rabid ventured forward and peeked inside.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:50 pm
The door had been pinned shut by the heavy-framed bed, though Liam's attempt to break through had forced it back a bit. The room was the equivalent of a meat freezer, and the rush of warm air from outside was visibly fogged as it swept in. The place was in shambles, much as Crow's room had been, as though the occupant had taken care to destroy everything within reach. The walls bore the most mistreatment, cratered and torn.
It was silent inside.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:53 pm
Rabid took a few steps back, hugging herself.
"You go in," she ordered, voice trembling, "I'll keep watch." Liam said nothing and simply hefted himself through the slightly opened door and onto the bed, over, and down. He didn't like this. Not one bit.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:57 pm
Glass crunched under Liam's feet, and the ruins of the now-screenless television sat close by. The carpet was ripped up from the floor in places, revealing the dry-rot ridden boards beneath. The place was a total ruin, unfit for anyone to live in. And in one shadowed corner, something shifted and coughed.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:58 pm
Liam jumped at the sound.
"Uh...Julian? Random stoner-man? 'Ello?" He swallowed hard, his heart beating triple-time.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:59 pm
There was a sudden startled intake of breath.
"Nothing left," Julian said, voice hard and exhausted. "Just go."
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 3:01 pm
"No," Liam said sternly, glad that the voice was familiar. He approached slowly, carefully. Julian was worth about three of him, and at the moment the vertically challenged man wasn't feeling so sure about himself.
"Come on. You have to come with us."
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