Keeping up? Good!

In the small bonus room in the tower of Leena's B&B, Claudia paced the wooden planks as quietly as she could in her agitated state. Her heart beat was ridiculously high from her panic run. Running her hands down her face, she tried to calm herself into rational thought.

So far, HG, Myka and Pete are definitely affect by… well something. Is it only a matter of time before they start like- eating babies or something? Or is the change only physical? I can't take the chance that it is only physical. What if its not?

Ok. Claudia! Calm down! She took a deep and shaky breath. Maybe not everyone was affected. She suddenly stopped. What if the others weren't affected? Did she just leave Leena alone with morphing monsters? Oh my god…

Practically diving for the trap door, Claudia grabbed the pull string to lower the trap door, but stopped short. She squinted and wondered: Was the trap door always gray?

As she watched, the gray color moved. Dropping the string, Claudia watched as it expanded across the floor. She stood and backed up into the wall, retreating from the color until it went under her feet and up the wall behind her. Spinning around, Claudia watched the creepy color as it climbs all sides, coming to meet at the peak of the pointy roof of the Bed and Breakfast.

Claudia had to catch her breath again as she decided that that was definitely not a good sign. But- she didn't feel any different herself. Making sure that she didn't grow horns or pointy ears, Claudia then dove for one of the little windows in the room. Flipping the ventilation veins open, she got a glimpse of the rest of the building. The cheery white and blue paint was replaced with creepy dull gray and black. Claudia thought that perhaps the artifact made things age prematurely, because the B&B looked like it had fallen into disrepair. Shutters hung from one hinge and there was a gaping hole in the roof. Spider webs suddenly sprung up in the gutters and in the little room that she was in. As if on cue, a spider crawls across her hand making her jump up and shake it off. Claudia wiped her hand quickly to get rid of the creepy crawly feeling of its eight legs on her skin.

Ok, ok. Think! Who's outside the B&B? Artie! Claudia reached into her pocket, then tried all of her other pockets before she had to admit that she must have dropped her cell phone in her dash for safety. Damn it.

Hopelessness threatened to overwhelm her. Claudia backed into a corner and sunk down to sit on the ground, tears brimming her eyes. She put her head on her knees and gave herself a good cry.

After a little while, Claudia wiped her tears with shaky hands and tried to calm down. If the entire B&B was affected, it was possible that she was the only one not affected. She had to assume that everyone else has morphed into who knows what by that time. Wait, she thinks, Is there a chance that I am the one affected? Claudia felt herself again for a tail. Then she remembered the mirror. She looked the same, while Pete was the big bat claw-y one. No, Claudia had to assume that she was the only one not affected. Better to assume that and worry about it later if she was wrong.

Thinking more clearly now, Claudia eyed the little ventilation windows, looking for an escape route. If she could get outside, maybe she would be outside of the influence of the artifact- if this was an artifact. Then she could run the 7 miles to the Warehouse and get Artie to turn this whole house of horrors back to normal.

The vent is small, but it was the best idea that she had, so she marched up to it and kicked it hard with her left foot. Pain shoots up from her toes and Claudia hopped on my other foot until her stubbed toe reduced to a painful throbbing. She evaluated the vent and frowned at only seeing two of the metal blinds bent. Claudia laid down on my stomach to reach the vent. Her nose crinkled as she could practically smell the rotting wood and putridness that the floor gave off. She could wiggle a few of the metal blinds but that was it. Claudia punch them in frustration and to help them loosen up so that she could remove them. A second punch lets her wiggle two of them out.

Putting her fingers through the gap, Claudia tried to feel the outside of the vent to look for anything to help her pop it off. She blinked then blinked again. Was the hole getting smaller? Claudia pulled out her hand and did a double take at it. Her hand was covered in blood from an apparent cut in her knuckles. Confused, Claudia wrapped her hand in her shirt to stem the blood. To her dismay, the vent continued to shrink before her eyes. Claudia cried out and put her left hand through the hole, in a vain attempt to hold the hole open.

Gradually, the vent opening slows its shrinking until it was only a foot wide. Claudia's whole body trembled in frustration and fear at her only option disappearing. She blinked rapidly to hold back her panic. She stood up and looked at her hand in her shirt again to check on her fingers but she pulled her eyes away quickly at the site of blood still leaking from the cuts. Ok, that can wait. Focus.

Then, a realization hits Claudia. The whole B&B is possessed was well as the people within. The building is actively working against her and she was stuck. As if to reinforce the theory, a strange watery motion in the creepy gray wall catches her eye.

As she looked, the wall wavers and bends, as if giving into the weight of the steeple topping the little room. Claudia took a step back from the wall and quickly looked at the other three. They are all almost melting and sagging. Claudia looked up and saw the steeple slowly sagging down and collapsing onto itself, threatening to squash her into a pool of blood and gore no more than an inch thick. Claudia's breath caught at this new threat. The walls continued to sag and close in. She ducked down to the floor and cover her head in anticipation of the room coming down on her.

Eyes closed, Claudia waited a long moment for an impact that didn't come. Shaking, she peeked up to see a wall looming over her and tilting threateningly. Claudia flinched, but still, the flimsy walls barely held.

Pushing through her fear, Claudia figured, if she couldn't get out of the B&B for Artie, then she had to go down and try to help where she could. Claudia would not be held up hiding and leave her friends to fight on their own. Terrified but determined, she quickly looked down to find the trap door before the walls can close in on her. After turning around twice, Claudia couldn't find the trap door. She fell to her knees, scrambling with both hands searching the planks of wood, leaving trails of blood. She used her finger nails to trace the rotting floor boards; breaking the rotting boards apart in places in her frantic search for the door that she knows is there, but isn't.

Claudia beat on the floor in desperation to get out but the door refused to show itself. After several minutes and several broken nails, she was forced to admit that she was trapped.