Saori recoils at Tom's words. She turns to Jim.
"There's something wrong with him... drugged, hypnotised, or indoctrinated, or something! Is there somewhere safe we can take him."
She thinks hard and fast. Maybe we need his parents to talk him out of this?
Then back to Tom. "That's all good, fine, don't worry. Everything will be okay. You'll be fine. Can you tell us how long you wanted to do that - be a volunteer, I mean? When did you decide that?"
Tom answered, "Garrett was talking about meeting with his vampire friends, I might be interested, and at some time he mentioned that they would like meeting any who would be volunteers. I have volunteered for things before, it seems noble to do, so I guess I agreed before understanding what I volunteered for. But when I met with Garrett's friends and I was assured it would not be too much blood from me, just what they considered enough for the blood they say they depend on, I still went along with it. The opening of that master's domain appeared, when Garrett's friends called for it, and they brought me to him, and I was brought to his domain for him, the master, to have the first bite."
Jim, whose shaking diminished, answered, "Sorry we hurried out leaving your Louboutins back there. We should not go back there to get them, certainly, you will have to go on without them. We do need to take Tom somewhere, the way he is, taking him home to his parents right away does not seem like a great idea. It seems Gerard Regibald knows some things about the alien entities and could be of help for us to understand what effect might come from that one we saw. We could go to his family's home to speak with him, we might get helpful answers that way."
Saori slapped her hand to her forehead. In her panic and terror, she had forgotten exactly which shoes she had been wearing.
"Oh no, I'm not leaving the Louboutins behind! Stay here I'll only be a moment."
She snuck back in through the doors to the movie theatre and listened. It seemed quiet now. She tiptoed back into the dark theatre room and slipped down toward the stage. She just had to get those shoes back!
The darkness here was still startling. Saori thought, Why is it so very dark, and why is that startling? Then she remembered there were lit candles. That was the light that had been in here. And then that dark vapor from that being just extinguished them. There was such power from that Kazba, the master these people had served. A powerful being. A powerful being that would come back!
Jim was surprised that Saori ran back. That was crazy! Heck, he would have bought her another pair of the same shoes, so that she would not do that. He stared a second, standing next to the table with a covering that moved like it floated, where Tom Pierce sat now with the restraints off. Jim said, "We had better go back that way, just in case any help there is needed." But now he saw, he was alone with this table if he was going to push it back. And what about Tom? He could just get off the table. But then they wanted to take him with them. Could they still do that, or might the loosed Tom have his own ideas? Jim started to push at the table, and thought more that he did not have that broken pole. He must have dropped it. He saw that young woman who had helped push that table out from the theater, with the man who had spoken with them there, now holding a stick in a hand, and a couple of other young men, across the street, some way a little further, where they had stopped and now were looking at him and the theater Saori had gone back in that he was moving back to, pushing the table where Tom still sat. He waved, gesturing them to help. Jim was thinking, That is the broken pole I must have dropped. I was not thinking it might still be needed.
Saori paused as she entered the theatre, a sense of dread prickling the back of her neck. The darkness was ominous... the memory of that monster still in her mind.
But she took the first step. Sometimes that is the hardest one.
She remembered where she had lost her shoes - near the stage, where she had tried to confront the master and then was taken hold by all those men. She scampered down the aisle to the point, remembering also the warning that they might come back at any moment, and began to search round for her shoes...
It took a while in that dark, with not any significant amount of light at all. The shoes were not quite where Saori thought they would be judging by the steps from her turn at the front of the walking aisle. So she took an uncomfortable amount of time looking for them. At length, she felt the shoes by her familiarity with them. But now she was disoriented in this place she had only recently come to. Her eyes could not adjust to this much darkness. It was so dark she could not tell by sight where the walking aisle was. Even the door for the entrance could not be seen. She felt her way around, until finally finding seats that would have been at the front. From there, she went along the row of them by feeling them, until she finally came to the walking aisle. She started along them, but then heard noises. What was that tapping, and squeaking, and fluttering sound? It was coming behind her, where the stage was!
After Jim waited outside for a while, the man that had taken the broken pole left the others he was with, and crossed the street again, coming toward Jim. As he came closer he said, "What are you guys doing? That Saori lady ran back into the theater area we were all running out from? And you bring back this volunteer that the master brought to us, to trade for the next one you ran out with, right up here to the theater again?"
Jim said, "If there is the danger that your master Kazba would come right back immediately, we need that sharp ended pole again to try striking at him further, where Saori would be exposed still in there. I know, it was crazy she did that, just to get her shoes, I would have paid for new ones for her instead."
Saori felt her way by touch along the aisle, stumbling now and then, a dread panic rising in her chest. The unnatural noises seemed amplified and even more ominous when she was robbed of her sense of sight. Fear of darkness was a primal instinct from everyone's childhood.
She felt that she must be near the entrance doors now and reached out. She had to let go of the last seat at the end of the aisle. It was like plunging into a deep lake - in which she could not see what lay under the surface. Still, she forced herself to let go and shuffle out into the darkness, one step at a time, her hand outstretched, hoping, wishing she could touch something familiar and solid soon...
A claw grabbed her hand, its grip terrifying and strong as iron.
"Foolish child. Now we have you, we will have answers to our questions!" growled an inhuman voice.
Saori screamed.
The man with the broken off pole holding it out was saying, "I do not think the master, Kazba, would come out so immediately after you ran into him with this, there is still time needed for his recovery there. But, you know, we left with the vortox opening of the summoning open when we ran out after you called us to flee. There are other beings there in that realm, that might come through it still. It is not good to be here with that circumstance."
Jim said, "I do not want to think of what I saw of that horrible realm anymore."
Just then they heard the scream from inside the theater building. Jim grabbed the pole from the other man, and told him, "Get that table with Tom Pierce away around the corner from here!" He then ran through the door, holding the pole with the broken end in front, and then he went through the entrance inside. Saori was right in front of it, with a horrible creature grasping her. That one said, "It is you!" and flew right up a nearby wall.
Last edited by GodlyD&D; 09-09-2021 at 01:18 AM.
The... thing that had her was huge and terribly strong. In the complete darkness, Saori could only get a sense of powerful limbs and flowing capes. It was still faceless to her. She writhed and twisted, trying to break the grip on her arm.
Then she heard a sound. Someone entered. She thought it must be Jim. A coarse and deep voice roared, "It is you!"
Suddenly she was yanked off her feet as the monster... leapt? Flew? It travelled upwards and towards a wall, carrying her helplessly with it. It halted and she slammed into the wall, still dangling in its grip. Saori realised it was trying to evade Jim. He would not see it in the dark!
"Jim!" she shouted. "It's up here! Look out... it's got me..."
Jim looked up, where he heard Saori shout, alarmed. The door he came through was left open at least. He hurried over to that place along the wall, looking toward where the winged being was up there, adhering to the wall with one clawed hand and both clawed feet, while the other clawed hand grasped Saori, who he could make out in that dim light. As he stood there still holding the pole, Jim called out, "How are you here, creature? You were never summoned. You are not even one of the vampire masters, which I saw there were in that realm you are from!"
The creature responded, "I am just a minion of Kazba. You are the one who hurt him. As he recovers within that home he has there, which you saw, he sent me here to work at getting back for the wrong done to him. The vortex opening remains, it was not closed again, any creature however lowly can here from there, now."
Jim looked around him, noticing then rows of seats that went near to the wall there. He suddenly jumped on one, and from there jumped further to where he was near to the lower appendages of that creature, and he thrust the sharp end of the pole at it. He struck, hard, and the winged minion shrieked, in agony.
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