Welcome to Gaia! ::

Yep! Marcels been working on it all day!

::Mary said with a smile, as she the utensil tray a bit to the side and moved to push some of the machinery away from the small rabbit girls bed. First was the heart monitor machine, next the back up tool tray, then the mysterious black box, and finally when the path was clear she turned back to Madi with a bit of a smile and asked, a very important question, though it was with a bit of cheer.::

Do you think you can you walk?

::Even Mary was excited, in this house there were alot of room, and alot of doors, and even she hadnt been in all of them. Though even if she had it wouldnt really matter since Marcel was quite the creative designer...like father like son.

But just in case, Mary stood a bit to the side of the bed, and yet still close enough for her to move in, should Madi fall or slip...or become shocked when she realizes she is only in a hospital gown. Eitherway, Mary would be there to help her if she fell, just as she would help anyone who had fallen...like father, like daughter.::

Oki! Lets go!

::Mary reached her gloved hand out and gently grasped Madi's...and they were off. Madi might notice, in just the small trip from the bed to the door that Mary was something of a fast walker. Secondly, as Mary pushed open the doors of the O.R., Madi might notice, just how dark the hallways were. They were black! Until just about Marys third step when the lights gently activated. It seemed like each hallways was lit with the bare minimum of light necessary. Infact, halls in this lower sector were all dark until light was needed to step. The Black Hospital wasnt exactly hooked up to a main citys power supply now was it? But at just about every 6ft hanging from the ceiling was a light which shined down opaquely on the ground below lighting a small round section and leaving the majority of the hall dark. And as the visitor stepped past each light, the lights clicked off.

But the sight, sounds, and worst off, smells, that Madi would be exposed to grew darker by the minute. On either side of this dark and dank hallway were doors, each door was a solid metal and had a slit about 3ft up for someone or something to look or reach in, or out. Each door had several sets of steel bolts drilled into them to layer steel on steel and each was half stained with rust and decay. Of course with about 30+ doors in this hall the smell of mildew and rust filled the air. But there was something else....

Combined with the rust and mildew was something more, rotten. It was the sort of smell you get when you leave meat out in the open for entirely too long. This smell horrifically and irrevocably combined with the grotesque and yet highly recognizable scent of dried and fresh blood. A truly nauseating mixture.

As Madi and Mary stepped forward through this dark hall, the floors would come into view. These floors had only been here a few weeks but already were aged and creaky, as well as stained and scratched. In fact on more than a single door, as one walked past the doorway a definite set of scrapes could be seen leading behind the bolted door.

The scrapes were clear, Madi could trace them with her eyes....

BANG!!

The sound reverberated down the hall, the wet sculch of flesh hitting metal, and metal being as unforgiving as always. ::

Uuuuaaaaah....

::A moan...mixed with the sound of tears...the voice didnt sound like it could any younger than Madi herself, and it cried such a sad sad song a definite scraping was heard, like bone rubbing briskly against bone.

This place was horrible.

A movement! With ears as sharp as Madi's one could swear that something had just scuttled by her face, if she looked she would be just in time to see a shadow dash by, perhaps diving back into its slit, perhaps just crawling out.

This was a nightmare.

The wet smacking of lips to large for a man or a beast could be heard several feet behind Madi. Behind, and away from the comfort of light...getting closer...getting louder...breathing harder...one could almost feel the air whizzing past Madi's face drawn in by large nostrils. It just beckoned curiosity, it begged to be looked at it, begged to be seen...or maybe to be fed. It drew so close one could even hear the heart beats.

Yes, beats. There were more than one, in place like this, so dark so dank its almost impossible to know how many things lived here. But there was a voice...it spoke one word which was barely audible above the sounds of heavy machinery grinding in the background...one word which became clearer with every scrape and scuddle, one word which beckoned the one woman with ears strong enough to hear it as it repeated the same thing over and over...it said....::

"Madison...walk with me..."

::There was a squeeze, not the sort of squeeze that hurts, but the sort that snaps your attention back to where it should be. The squeeze came from Madi's hand, the hand that was being held by Mary. And she spoke in a much more serious tone than before.::

Dont look back.

::But she never stopped, she held Madi's hand tight, as if trying to provide the security that this one hall did not offer.::

Father made many brother and sisters...not all of us came out so well...

::That smell, it was as if Madi had just passed under an air vent which put forth only the smell of horrific, putrid rotting flesh. The smell of death, as some would call it.::

....not all of us survived...

::Her voice has faded down to a whisper.::

Dont look back...

::If you had eyes, now was the time to use them. Ahead, just past Mary was a doorway with a constant light on it. And a small red button surrounded by several scrapes and scratches in the concrete, ands several stains of red, and green, and yelow liquid. As it finally came into view, it seemed the menagery of sounds behind Madison began to grow, their breathing was frustrated. The voice seemed to shout to Madi, and only Madi, echoing in her head like a bad dream. Mary's hand squeezed harder, and her footsteps grew faster...but she still never looked back.

The voices screamed! Not with anger, but with desperation, as if this was the final plea of something so desperate it would die for this cause. Meanwhile Mary pressed black button beside the set of double doors, and the grinding of heavy machinery could be heard.::

"Madison! Dont leave us!"

::The scuddles and scrapes grew louder, and faster, it echoed down the hall like a
stampeding army. Or perhaps a wave of monsters...faster...closer...breathing harder, wanting, needing...It seemed like an eternity, and perhaps fear could make it seem just like that. They were so close, you could swear they could reach and touch...grab..claw at you...Without warning the final light in the hall clicked out. Leaving the entire hall bathed in black. One could hear the sinister laughter...

DING!

The sound of the elevator reaching the bottom floor was as unmistakable as it was loud. And just as suddenly as it came...all other sounds were gone. Not fading, but gone entirely, as if they were never there. Infront of Mary a slit of light rose in the wall where the crack in the doorway had been and the double doors slid open bathing the hall in the light. It would be blinding at first due to how bright the elevator was. But, without fail Mary stepped forward into the elevator, and pressed a series of buttons causing the door to close behind them, and the lights to fade just slightly.

There was a few seconds of silence before the sound of metallic crunching, and the elevator began to move. And a few seconds of silence still, before Mary spoke. Her voice made it sound as if they had never traveled through the horrible place. It was cheery and perky, and Mary even turned to face Madi with a bright smile on her face as she spoke. But her hand still grasped tightly.::

So! I dont think I ever got your name. What wouldja like me ta' call you?

::Talk about misjudging the situation.

Theres really no telling what makes a person really lose their sense. But to go from huddling against the nurses arm for dear life, to petting a giant attacker...thats just plain wierd. Heck, to not even wonder why a giant spider, has a tail. Has anyone even heard of a Spider with a tail before?

It really makes you wonder if Madi was paying attention at all. ((Or wether she was even reading the posts....))

What really motivates a person to reach out and pet the beast that has just torn a steel elevator, like paper? What makes that person tick? What are they like on the inside? Who knows? But it was likely we'd find out. Or maybe it was more likely the spider would find out. Spiders DO eat their prey by injecting a poison in them which allows them to suck out their internal organs like liquid in a straw, this causes pain which exists on levels far beyond the word pain. It was sort of like a smoothie. In this case, a Madi-Bunny Smoothie.

And to think, this spiders fang were right there, chittering away just inches from Madi's face.

But maybe she was right? Perhaps somewhere in her mind she believed that this was just some sort of pet, or a show or what not. Maybe thats why she would try and pet this monster. And maybe the spider really was, infact, as she pet him, the chittering of his fangs slowed, and slowed, as steadly its legs seemed to lower its massive body down closer to the bottom of the elevator, while leaving its hind quarters raised.

It let out a little purr...was it a pur? Or was it a growl? Or was it the spiders tummy rumbling?

Without warning or hint, or moments notice, the beast lunged forward, its fangs reared up and it went in for the kill. It had enough poison in each fang to liquidate a whales organs, much less a little rabbit girl.

Maybe its positioning would be familiar now, it was a pouncing stance, the sort of stance a Trap Door Spider takes before jumping out of its whole and ending it preys life in the blink of an eye. But this spider was bigger, and faster, if she blinked, she'd miss it all.

Thats would be when the blur of white rushed by, using the Spiders own Scorpion-like tail as a swing rope, Mary whizzed by, taking a slash across her side as she swooped down and managed to push Madi away from harms away, giving just enough time for her to scream.::

What the hell are you thinking?!? MOVE!!

::Mary had alot of voices, some tough, some kind, some freaking, some sexy, and some down right vicious. This was one of those, this was her Warrior Voice so to speak, the one she took when trying to fight giant monsters and what not. Of course no matter what voice she was using, she still screamed the same when one of the spiders legs thwacked her and sent her flying out the gaping hole that was once the elevator door and down into the dark elevator shaft. Leaving only her echoing scream as she fell.

Madi...was alone. The Beast reared on its hind legs taking a natural spider attack stance. 4 of its legs held its wieght while the other 4 splayed out to cover the area around it. Its fangs began to chitter onces again, thumping away as it hissed and carefully slid closer to the cornered little girl.



Normally a creature of this size wouldnt fit in an elevator this small. But when dealing with a creature of this strength, it makes room wherever it damn well pleases. And right now, the drool dripping from its fangs, said that it would be very pleased to have some Madi-Bunny Smoothie.::

::SMACK! Her kick landed right in the spiders jaw, while spiders dont have jaws, we will use the word "jaw" to describe the area under its face. One would imagine that a spider this huge and a spider with the strength to punch through steel, and thusly the endurance to allow his leg to survive being driven through steel....would survive a kick like this with no problem. Right?

Wrong. The spider fell back onto its back and seemed to writhe and scream in pain. Its tail flailed about like a mad whip with its stinger smacking against the walls and ripping random holes through out it. It then seemed to, in its death throws, stumble onto its back and out of the gaping hole from which Mary had feel, letting out some sort of primal final scream as it fell all the way down. And one could tell that it fell all the way down, because not even 15 seconds after Brave Little Madi had kicked it, a loud smack was heard, presumably from a large dead arachnid hitting the elevator shaft floor.

And now, there was silence. Madi was hung some 300ft up in a torn metal box called an elevator which was suspended by...who knows what. More than that she was alone, in a large dangerous tower, which seemed to be filled with things that were not all together too friendly. And one of the friendly things, a nurse, had just fallen to her death. Infact, even the little spiders which once filled the elevator were all gone, not even a single one of them remained. They werent dead, the elevator wasnt filled with squished bodies. They were simply gone, vanished. Leaving only cobwebs to show they were ever there. And leaving one little rabbit girl, alone, with the dark, the creaking metal, the torn metal, and blinking red emergency light.

It sort of makes you wonder which is scarier, the monsters, or the lonliness...

Madison had some time to think about this...about...2 minutes.

And then came the banging, from directly beneath the elevator came a series of loud bangs. These werent like the bangs before, these were softer, weaker, quiter...and faster, and getting closer at an alarming rate.

Perhaps this was the sound of an angry spider returning for its revenge! Perhaps it was the sound of forsaken nurse returning from the grave! Or perhaps it was something far worse...perhaps it was the sound of myriad of tiny spiders coming to take their revenger for the death of their mother! Who knows?! Madi would, in about 2 more minutes...::

::The banging grew progressively louder, seemingly only matched by the progressive feeling of confusion which seemed to be budding in Madisons mind. What was going on? Why did this place always have so many questions and never any answers.

Questions probably rose in her mind at about the same speed that the loud and repeatitive banging clanged up the elevator shaft. It was funny that while her mind worked at an answer, and answer worked on reaching her. It just didnt sound like it was a very good answer....

As the bangs grew closer they grew louder, and louder, until finally from the black of the elevator shafter rose a white spider. Well it seemed like one large quite spider about the same size as Madisons small rabbiton body, as it rose though this spider seemed more and more odd, it was as if it was moving...not really moving itself, but moving on itself. Which is to say that as it climbed it seemed as if its skin was crawling around, it constantly in motion. And to make the situation even stranger, as it rose it seemed to be toting some sort of load behind it a string if you will. The string was constantly taught meaning there was some sort of wieght on the end of it, and a heavy one at that, because in order to hold the wieght the spiders legs were forced to dent into the steal to gain enough of a grip.

The higher it climbed the more of the string showed and slowly the string grew a sort of red color and began to widen out, forming what seemed to be a net. And as the spider climbed even higher, now even with the elevator door, the contents of the net was revealed. It was none other, that Mary!

The nurse barely had a scratch on her body, but her tiny nurses cap was gone, and her red hair was blown in every concievable direction as it was matted with cobwebs. Slowly the white spider began to real her in, but her eyes never looked up at Madi only down to black shaft, and with a look of terrible concern on her face.

You see, even though the white spider had stopped moving...the banging had not. Infact it did quite the opposite, it grew faster, stronger, and louder. Instead of only steel being banged one could hear the steel bend and warp.

The noise had gotten defeaning by the time the white spider had finally reeled Mary up unto its back. And suddenly, it jumped! And just as it jumped, it exploded into thousands of tiny itsy bitsy white spiders each with a little tether on Mary, each landed safetly in the elevator and carried her with them. And none to soon, for just as Mary landed on the broken elevator and turned to face Madi, the banging noise had reached its apex. It had become a thunderous clamouring which felt as if it was directly beside the elevator. Mary moved to open her mouth and speak to Madi, but before she could, there it was!

The hungering beast from just moments before, the giant spider stood directly out side the elevator, and lunged its face inward at Mary and Madi with a horrid roar! Mary had just managed to get up and begin dusting some cobwebs off her clothes, and strangely she wasnt in the slightest bit scared. She placed her hands on her hips and raised her right index finger to point at the spider, like a mother scolding a child, and said in a very strict and very motherly tone.::

Bad boy! You play to rough!
::She stomped forward, and the spider jerked back, almost in fear::

And you scratched my new skirt! Its gonna take all day to fix this! Dad is gonna be furious!

::She stomped forward yet again, and spider recoiled back like a small child hiding from mommys spanking.::

Be more careful next time!

::As she finished that final shout the spiders face, was placked low, and its fangs drooped like sad puppy dog ears, it even wimpered a bit.::

Awww, I'm sorry to shout boy, but you gotta be more careful.

::She said as she gently pet his head in between his eyes...he loved that spot, it was his absolute favorite. And then she pointed to Madi and said in a more friendly childish tone.::

Now go say sorry to Madison.

::Without pause the spider did just that, it leaned over to Madi and tried to rub its huge head, which was somewhere around the 4 times the size of hers, against her face and nuzzled her, with a slight whimper as if to say sorry. While with a huge head like that in her face, Madi probably couldnt see much she would likely hear Mary speaking.::

Madi, this is Squiddly. He's a scorpider, he was my pet until Father super-sized him to run our new elevators, and he's really sorry. He just got carried away cause there was people to play with.

::She had walked around the giant spider head and was now hugging it as she said with a smile.::

Are you ok?

::Squiddly only nuzzled away, Mary did all the talking. Or rather laughing, at the thought of Squiddly being hurt and then saying.::

Squiddly a tough lil' bugger! Dont you worry about it.

::She said as she kicked him in the rump section and said with a childish joking voice.::

Now move your lazy a** and get this elevator up to 36!

::If Squiddly could have said "Yes Ma'am!" He would have, but he was a scorpider and he couldnt talk! So he quickly turned to face her and used his leg to make a sort of salute before jumping out of the elevator door and begining his run down the shaft. Mary made her way to what was left of the control panel and pressed two buttons turning the red emergency lights off and clicking on the regular dim lights. And then after a few seconds or so the elevator began grinding to a start. And in no time the rickety torn, broken, and bashed can of metal began moving up the elevator shaft, swaying a bit as it rose.

In no time, at all, there they were at the 36th floor, and the elevator doors opened. Of course thre was a bit of space between the hall door, and he elevator door due to alot of fighting but Mary quickly made the hop across and held out her hand for Madi to follow. If Mary could make it, a rabbit definately could, it was only about a 3ft leap.

The hall itself was a pitch black, and simply did not light, as if the lights had yet to be installed here. At the far end of the hall was a single doorway and infront of that doorway was a rather large silohette, it seemed as if a very large man, or a bear was standing in front of the door. And behind this man was a very bright light, presumably from the room. From this distance it was hard to make out the figure shape, but Mary wasted no time in grabbing Madi's hand and skipping down the hall. Not running, not walking, skipping, like a school girl. The farther one walked down the hall, the less human the figure looked. It was very clear that what once looked like two arms and two legs was actually closer to 4 arms, two large arms, and two smaller arms, and 3 legs, or perhaps two legs and a tail.

A few steps farther, and one could make out glimmer of eyes near the top of the creature, not one eye, or two eyes, but 16 eyes. And not 4 arms, but 6 arms, two large humanoid arms, two stranger skinner arms, and two arms that looked more like something Squiddly would grow. Closer, and the 3 legs were quickly revealed to be 4 legs, and a tail. Even closer, and the smell traveled down the hall, a stinky smell, though it wasnt so stinky as the bottom floor. Closer still, and the teeth came into view. And yes it had teeth, one couldnt really make out the teeth themselves but more the way the light bounced off the wet teeth. Large...large..teeth, like walrus tusks in a row hanging from a mouth. Yet even closer, and the puddle came into view, yes there was a small puddle on the floor near the beats feet, and small drip a a bit of some clear liquid dropped onto the tiled floors.

Really, with such a disgusting beast at the end of the hall, one had to wonder why Mary was skipping down the hall so fast! She was, and she wasnt slowing down either. Until finally, there they were, nearly face to face with the creature. By now Madi probably recognized the creature, but if not, Mary quickly exposed the secret.::

Ok bro, lets see it!

::Marcel, the hulking beast stepped aside so that Madi could actually enter the room, and Mary gently nudged her forward saying.::

Go, ahead, take a look. Marcels been working all day on it.

::The room itself was well lit, and by many standards, beautiful. It looked almost as if someone hand taken a princesses room from right out of a mideval castle and transported it here. Every detail was as elegant as it was extravagant. The room was decorated in shades of red, black, greys, and white. The bed alone was grandiose and huge, it looked as if Squiddly could fit his entire body its vast reaches. Beside the bed were two grand night stands, several strange painting of nothing in particular just interesting blends of color. It was a princesses room for a...Hospital Gown Guest? Not quite.

Marcel lumbered near the doorway, he watched as Madi entered as she looked around, trying to take in her reaction to his creature on all 16 eyes. He was careful only to stand in the tile enterance so that his long claws, which scraped against the floor as he walked, wouldnt damage the carpet. But he turned to Mary and made a few strange gestures with his smaller set of hands. To which Mary nodded and spoke.::

Madison, take a look at the closet.

::Indeed, there was a large closet in the far corner of the room, very large though its size was only hinted at by the two huge 12ft tall doors in front of it. As huge as they were the doors wuld slide open with the slightest touch and reveal...well, it would be kinder to say Marcel had outdone himself.

There was a large closet reaching back over 18ft and it was filled, from top to bottom with clothest, shoes, and other pieces of femine wear. Mary wouldnt admit a good portion of the attire was hers from when she was smaller, and the rest was hand made by Marcel himself. Including the masterpiece, on the far end of the room, two outfits hung on the back wall. On was Madi's casual normal outfit repaired, and beside it was beautiful flowing dress, the kind you would only see a princess wear. It was an elegant black laced with blue and a bit of red, a full gown. Also hand made. Mary and Marcel simply watched and smiled, hoping that Madi would like her room.::