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UNKNOWN
Mar 20, 2013 15:21:12 GMT -8
Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 20, 2013 15:21:12 GMT -8
Seth realized he had run up more flights of stairs than there should have been in the building, and Joe was nowhere to be seen.
The world was dim, but not in the usual way of the post-electric world. Every surface was filled with a dark, but shockingly vivid blue. Vague sounds of people or zombies ascending were just a disembodied background noise here, no hint they had ever belonged to a real physical source.
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UNKNOWN
Mar 20, 2013 15:28:20 GMT -8
Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Mar 20, 2013 15:28:20 GMT -8
Seth- "..."
He stopped, mid-stair. He glanced around, listening to the sound of his ragged, wheezing breath. He was breathing, right? That was proof he was still alive, wasn't it? He leaned against a wall, taking deep, sucking breaths. What the hell was this? The atmosphere was stagnant, arid and dusty like an ill-kept office space. After he caught his breath for a few seconds, the creeping horror washed over him. More stairs... He looked down the stairwell where he'd come from. The sounds were rapidly disappearing, as though they'd just been in his imagination the entire time. Was he passed out? Did none of this really happen? He still felt the blood trickling down his forehead, and the throbbing burn of his scratches and wounds. That seemed real enough. He looked up the stairwell, trying to find the source of the vibrant blue light.
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UNKNOWN
Mar 20, 2013 15:34:20 GMT -8
Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 20, 2013 15:34:20 GMT -8
Familiar man- "Hello. You look like you have a problem." A guy stepped around the stairwell from above.
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UNKNOWN
Mar 20, 2013 16:17:43 GMT -8
Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Mar 20, 2013 16:17:43 GMT -8
Seth- "H-Who are.. you..." Seth felt wary, but the man didn't seem to have anything strange about him, not at first glance anyway. The blue light was glowing all around, like it was a very sedate night club.
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UNKNOWN
Mar 20, 2013 16:46:56 GMT -8
Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 20, 2013 16:46:56 GMT -8
Familiar man- "Who we are is an elemental question of philosophy, but in order to make progress, we must continue to more advance propositions even when simpler ones have not been settled to everyone's satisfaction.
But I do favor cutting to the essence of an issue. What is your problem?"
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UNKNOWN
Mar 20, 2013 17:00:25 GMT -8
Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Mar 20, 2013 17:00:25 GMT -8
Seth- "The... zombies! They got in, it's... where am I? Are you a ghost?" He started feeling extremely weak, like blood was rushing to his head. He leaned on the railing, wondering how it could be real. Extra stairs with extra railing?
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UNKNOWN
Mar 20, 2013 17:04:41 GMT -8
Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 20, 2013 17:04:41 GMT -8
As the man stepped closer, very quietly, Seth's head began to feel much worse. Familiar man- "Zombies, haha. Again, we can't make progress with the simplest questions. Am I a ghost? Aren't we all ghosts?"
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UNKNOWN
Mar 20, 2013 17:08:11 GMT -8
Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Mar 20, 2013 17:08:11 GMT -8
Seth- "Wh--what are you talking about?! You're--*wheeze* you are a ghost..." As Seth shakily backed down the stairs, he felt a burning in his nose, and warm wetness trickle down to his lip and off his chin, the sharp metallic taste of blood running down his throat. He didn't have a lighter, or a torch... "This light, you're making this light..."
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UNKNOWN
Mar 20, 2013 17:15:30 GMT -8
Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Mar 20, 2013 17:15:30 GMT -8
Ghost of familiar man- "A ghost doesn't make the light. Some light is still around as we approach six. How I love this weak and blue light of the day's death. The wine next to me looks like blood." Was he saying it was late in the day still? The light looked like a movie portrayal of that. What wine? Seth's head felt like a bowling ball that was about to roll off his shoulders and bounce down
The stairs. The man kept coming closer, and he was going to have to break into a run to get away from this... whatever it was.
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UNKNOWN
Mar 21, 2013 1:14:47 GMT -8
Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Mar 21, 2013 1:14:47 GMT -8
Seth ran down the stairs in a panic, sometimes sliding down a few stairs in his blood soaked socks. He crashed into the railing a few times, and threw himself against the walls in his hurry to escape. The blue continued, and he felt like he'd gone down several flights.
The ghost's voice was rather distant, though he was speaking as if he hadn't moved at all, which made it hard to hear. Ghost of a familiar man- "Your problem is of life. You strive to live as the bourgeois but your proletarian efforts only achieve the status of the zombie. Take this wine..."
As he got further from the ghost, his pounding headache subsided a bit, but he got an increasingly eerie feeling. Though he was running hard, and already had reduced lung capacity, he felt like he had no air, no need to breathe... He slowed his roll, and noticed for the first time there were doors all along this surreal stairwell, but they were on the wrong wall. He shook his head to himself, trying to understand the answer to the puzzle. Seth- "Who are you?!"
Suddenly the ghost's voice was close, and his head burst into pain again. He felt the blood drip off his lower lip. The ghost had stepped out of one of the doors. Ghost of a familiar man- "This wine was pressed with the hands of the worker. It's a bitter harvest on the last light of a cold spring day. Today I had Eritrean cuisine at Mama San's. It tasted bland but the atmosphere filled my mouth with a spirit of enjoyment."
Seth puzzled at the man's words, finding them familiar, but his head throbbed at the slightest cognition. He ran for one of the mystery doors, and started to open it. It opened on to a balcony overlooking what looked like Lake Washington. There was a little black girl standing there, with her back turned. He considered diving into the placid scene, but there was something terrifying about it. Like some kind of idyllic vision of heaven, a picture hanging on the wall of a retirement home to make death seem less unpleasant. He slammed the door, the blood still coursing down his face. What could he do!? He started to feel incredibly woozy, going down the stairs now was mostly sliding. He fell to his knees and slid down a flight and flopped on his side, scrambling to get up again.
The ghost floated down out of nowhere extremely fast, landing on a stair Seth was about to pass through. He ran into the ghost!
He felt as though he had just walked through liquid that was suspended in midair. As he passed, he felt like he had hands around the back of his throat. The pain was incredible. He felt black stars forming on the corners of his vision. Ghost of a familiar man- "You have a problem."
Seth ran through the specter's nonsensical words, trying to puzzle it out. The ghost was utterly weightless, holding on to him as Seth tried to slid and tumble his way down the endless stairs. He tried to grab the weightless hands around his neck. He was shocked to feel cold, oily fingers that just fell away like paper with his touch. He felt a fire where they had touched, like a chemical burn. He spun around, holding on to the railing desperately to keep from falling.
Seth- "You-- I remember-- Y-*wheeze* You're a writer! M-M something. Charles!"
Charles (?) "Yes?"
Seth- "Why are you doing this?!"
Charles (?) "Because you have a problem."
Seth clawed at his head in frustration. It was like talking with a parrot. He started banging on the wall opposite to the scary doors, running down the stairs as he did, screaming for help with his hoarse, ragged voice. Soon he couldn't speak, the blood running down his throat choked him and took what little voice was left. He became silent, and focused on running away from the specter.
He felt like his breath was utterly weightless. It felt like there was nothing coming in and out of his lungs, and yet he had the ability to continue going. Like breathing air that he didn't need. His head cleared, and then erupted in pain as the murmuring madness of the ghost came within inches of his ear.
The light seemed to be getting dimmer, he must have run down 17 stories, when he came to a landing that had no door for the first time.
He almost ran into the wall, and put out a hand to push himself away from it, and spinning around in the darkness he could see there were no stairs going down any longer. He stood on a flat landing at the bottom of the stairs, with a door in front of him. Next to that, a fire extinguisher. Beyond that door, was darkness, visible through the small window.
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UNKNOWN
Mar 21, 2013 1:23:43 GMT -8
Post by ◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊ on Mar 21, 2013 1:23:43 GMT -8
Seth ran for the door, the world seemed vivid orange to his eyes after that oppressive blue. He opened the door and ran into the darkness. (Seth moves to PARKING GARAGE.)
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