Welcome to Gaia! ::

The voices were laughing on the outside of the fence - even despite the rain that was beating downward. She was on the inside, of course, hands laced in the wrought iron bars.

Vincent was holding the gate shut, grinning at her. Wordlessly, he wound the lock and chain through the bars and around the posts, barring her exit.

"Don't worry, Terra...it's safe here. You trust me, don't you?"

The others had gotten up to this. 'She's just a child - she won't last in there,' they all said. 'It'll be be funny, and she'll scream for us before you know it'

'There' was a rickety old mansion, long since defunct and gated off. It was even said to be haunted. Lightning clapped high overhead.

"COME ON, VINCENT!"

Without another word, Vincent was heading away from the gate...giving one last smile back to Terra.

She was alone, and the darkening sky was pouring down upon her.

But the sky had no answers...only torrential rain, and more thunder.

Looks like the only shelter is across the old, rotting garden...in the house. The door swung open as if inviting her in - creaking on its hinges.

It was pitch black inside.

The garden itself was overgrown, and there were puddles where the ground was uneven. There was an old fish pond off to the right when facing the house - and dead rose bushes on the left.

As she walked through the doorway, the door slammed shut as if pushed by an unseen hand. The doorhandle broke off, clattering to the floor and sending dust flying into the air.

No going back.

Now that she was inside, it was, perhaps, a TINY bit brighter. The source of this light was a single lit candle....

Across the main entry.

The rest of the entry save for a couple feet around the candle was naught but black. Impossible to see a thing...reliance on the other senses would have to do to get to the candle.

The floor felt dusty under Terra's bare feet.

As she approached the candle, she would feel a change in the dust at her feet...there was increasingly less of it, and it was feeling...sticky. The sensation ceased where the light from the candle hit, however, and the floor appeared strangely clean.

If Terra were to use the candle and look down...she would see something had gotten on her feet. Something dark red and sticky. What had she walked on...?

Thunder roared directly over the house, shaking dust out of a few crevices.

Her voice echoed back at her. No answer for the moment, though somewhere within the house, something creaked.

...Still, now that the candle was in her hand, the light was shining on the start of the sticky part of the floor.

...It looked like....part of a letter? The rest was out of the light.

...Sure enough...there were words there, written in what could very well be blood.

Trespassers must be warned in time
For more lives here than dust and grime
These words are not written in ink
For darkness conceals more than you think
No time to wait, no time to breathe
Get out, Terra, before the Other One sees

"...Ring around the rosie...pocket full of posies...."

The voice wasn't a little one - it was male, tremulous and from a distance. Somewhere above, the sound of something scraping the floor. A balcony over the entryway?

"Ashes.........ashes.........."

Footsteps.

Lightning illuminated the room for a moment - a glint of a metal blade.

"...We all.......fall........."

There was a long, painful silence. He could be anywhere...in this darkness, he could be two inches from Terra and she wouldn't know.