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Adee had kept herself quite busy, trying to get answers from anyone in charge. The hybrid hadn't had an success, but that didn't prevent her from giving it her best shot. Someone had to know something. And it simply wasn't right that it was being kept from them, as far as she was concerned.

She was near the front of the auditorium, trying to question the teachers, when the scream began. It was chilling, piercing kind the scream. The sort of sound once heard could never be forgotten. Adalyn froze, her eye whipping to the direction the scream had come from.

Everything went totally silent, except for a faint shuffling. And then the banging. Once. Twice. Three times. Then a shout for help. Adee wanted to surge forward, to help, but she was frozen. And then more screaming. Her throat felt tight, and the doors banged opened.

Adalyn could hardly believe her eyes. Great hulking cloaked figures loomed in the doorway. She still felt frozen, until they started to move. To snatch. The very teacher she'd wanted to question. A strange, strangled noise left her throat. She felt like she wanted to empty to stomach, the wet ripping, rending sounds were nothing she'd never heard.

"RUN!"

It was the only thing she heard, and her body obeyed. Thankful in the back of her mind, for being tall and athletic, she darted through the crowd, trying her best to block out the noises. Wet, rending noises. And more screams. All she could do was run, and block the rest out as best she could.

She burst through the open door, panting wildly, partially from fear, partially form exertion. Glancing around, she saw a university staff member who'd made a portal, and was ushering those students who'd already made it out through them. Adee darted towards it, not daring to look back.

Nanashi stared at the oncoming horror, unable to tear her eyes away from the mangled body of the teacher. Even the dean's panicked shout to run barely managed to filter through what she was seeing. In the end it too being hit by one of the panicked students to wake her up. The other student bounced harshly off her shoulder, stumbled, but kept going. Nanashi turned and started running as fast as she could, but there was debris strewn everywhere. Tables and chairs, once in some manner of order were chaos and obstacles.

The crowd jostled and screamed, someone knocked into her, and she went sprawling over a pile of...she didn't even know, she was so panicked. She felt herself being pulled to her feet, and was briefly grateful another student had stopped to help her. When she was turned around, however, she came face to face with what was not a student.

Nanashi screamed in horror as it grinned at her then screamed again in agony as teeth went through her cheek. The pain was intense and all consuming, the bakeneko knew it was all over for her. She kicked, trying vainly to escape as she felt teeth rend flesh and grind against bone. Suddenly the hulking thing that had her in its teeth was gone. Someone was pulling her, pushing her through the room and into one of the portals. She landed hard on the other side, dropping to her knees. Her face felt like fire was licking it, her mouth twisted into a scream, but her voice had broken when she screamed earlier so no sound came out. Just a horrid, ragged whisper.

It was one of the few times in Arabelle's life where she wasn't sure what to do. It seemed right to go around to the others, the ones who looked a bit more worried, and try to speak words of comfort to calm them. The problem was, she didn't know if she had that in her. She had no answers, no way of knowing whether her assurances were false or not.

How could she hope to calm others when she herself was a bundle of nerves on the inside?

Well, panicking would do nothing to help the situation. Arabelle practiced her breathing techniques and felt her heart rate at least become more level, even if her mind was still awash with various scenarios, half-formed plans, and real concerns. She moved softly through the groups of people, pausing here or there when a word of comfort seemed like it might help, and teaching her breathing technique in at least an attempt to keep anxieties in check.

It was in the middle of one such teaching when there was a sudden bang on the doors. Arabelle's head came up and swiveled towards the door, like everyone else in the room. It was deathly silent, aside from those bangs. The screaming started, and as the Dean went for the door Arabelle found herself biting off a startled cry that involuntarily started in her throat. She wasn't heartless, but to risk the lives of everyone here for one person? In the end, it didn't matter. The doors did nothing to stop the invaders. Arabelle's body was tensed like a bowstring; she didn't need to hear the command to run, she was ready to go from the moment those doors opened. It was only the tenuous grip of shock that had held her in place.

What followed was like the worst kind of nightmare, the ones where danger is after you and you run and run as fast as you can but it seems like you're getting nowhere. There was a mass of bodies in front of her, bodies she couldn't seem to get past no matter how hard she tried to find an opening. She stumbled several times, and each time she felt fear choking her at the thought of being trampled in the panicked masses, combining with the pure terror illicited by the shrill screams and sharp-yet-wet sounds of tearing. The metallic stink of blood filled Arabelle's nose, and she willed herself to move faster.

There was no warning. One minute she was pressed in the crowd, fighting towards the doors. The next there was a strange feeling, like the press of the crowd suddenly eased, and a shiver like a cold breeze rippled across her body. Suddenly Arabelle's left shoulder was on fire! A weight that hadn't been there before burdened her and made her stumble, falling to the left and on top of something quite solid. A scream born of terror and pain tore from her throat, and without thinking she brought her right fist around so fast that she almost wrenched her shoulder. Certainly it, and her fist, were now broadcasting levels of pain almost equal to her left shoulder. Be it fist, fall, or creature not having a good hold (or a combination of all three), Arabelle felt the hold on her released. With a strangled sob she scrambled back to her feet, fear giving her new levels of speed.

She made it outside and to the portal without further incident. On the other side she moved away, trying to escape some of the crush. No longer driven by the blind panic to run, the pain in her shoulders felt like it redoubled. There was a warm wetness trickling down her left side. Arabelle used what little level-headedness she had left to try to calm her breathing before she started to have a panic attack. She brought her right hand up, wincing as the muscles cried in protest, and tried to staunch the flow coming from her shoulder. It wasn't serious yet, but she needed to get it cleaned and bound up soon before it became serious. She glanced at it only once, and the shiver tap-dancing on her spine combined with a welling of nausea convinced her to keep it covered. The bleeding wounds were in the perfect shape of a bite-mark.

[Saving for Tessa, will edit when at a computer proper]

After Celedrin had been returned to the floor and the sulky kirin sent on his way (he had the dryad to thank for that), the imp managed to achieve some semblance of calm. Busying himself with organising the beads on the table by colour, shape, size, and material, he all but forgot about his current predicament. One might even say he had begun to enjoy himself. Of course, the distraction was only temporary.

Celedrin's frayed nerves returned when a scream sounded over the rabble and the auditorium doors burst open. He braced for flight. He could not see through the crowd but his instincts told him enough. A second agonised scream a moment later only confirmed his fears. He was off through the crowd like a shot.

If there was one thing Celedrin was good it, it was running away.


KitsuneAura
RP with me


Micillia
I demand it

A sliver of dread sliced through the Litch's spine when the first scream split through the air. He happened to be close enough to the doors that he heard the commotion outside. The moment the doors burst open he lost himself in the adrenaline rush, his legs pushing him forward and propelling him out the door. He got caught in the massive escape, ushered to a portal to be deposited at the Academy. He silently took refuge inthe center of the group, shaken to his core at the sights he had witnessed back on the university campus. What were those things? And what kind of carnage lay at the scene he just left?

Not wanting to hover once the crisis was over, Kiera drifted off to the corner again, hoping to fade into the background as she gave herself sometime to think. She needed to process- and once the others were at least busy entertaining themselves she slipped off.. She'd always known she would go into medicine, but she'd never really THOUGHT about what that meant in practice. She had real power to help, and that was a heady scary thought. She'd acted on instinct and teachings- that had to be enough for now. But as she looked around the auditorium of people calming down she made a resolution. Anything she could do to make sure people got out of this mess, she would do.

As Fate would have it Kiera didn't have long to wait. Sitting near the wall with her bag beside her, she didn’t notice that an instructor had left, until that first scream. Her head snapped up and she held her breath with the test of the auditorium. Then for her at least it seemed time slowed, she watched as the dean seemed to saunter towards the doors, then freeze. In the silence that followed the pleas echoed and hurt her ears, the doors burst open and the teacher was grabbed. The colors were electric, vivid, the sounds clear and pristine as she looked and listened in horror. She had all the time in the world to stand and gather her bags while students and teachers alike streamed through the doors.

What seemed like hours were only seconds as she helped people up and ushered them towards the door. The figures scattered and before she knew it she was among the stragglers in the room, most of the students outside, when she heard a snarl beside her, she spun and reflexively raised her left arm as one of the hooded figures pounced her. She screamed but it was lost in the din. Teeth came at her, sank into her arm and then pulled away. She lashed out, hooves flashing as she kicked and ran at last. Reaching the portal she all but fell through.

Only then did she notice the pain in her arm, the blood trail she’d left, and she looked stunned at her arm just staring for a few seconds.