"You're lucky, Belle. It could've been a lot worse." Dr. Whale had been crouched in front of her applying a bandage to her head. She was sitting on the floor leaning back against Mr. Gold. Everyone had come running out of their rooms when the heard screaming and then someone fall hard in the hall.
"Yeah, we could've been attacked by that man. He probably pushed Belle down the stairs."
"What man?!" Mr. Gold turned around sharply to look at Ruby. Belle knew from his tone that he was glaring at Ruby. His protectiveness in overdrive at the thought of his love being hurt by someone. Belle gently grabbed his hand with her good hand. The other was scraped up pretty bad and it stung to move it.
"There was a man upstairs!" Ruby shouted as she stepped forward towards the group.
"Ruby we're the only ones in this hell hole." Whale said exasperatedly. He liked Ruby, a lot, but this whole paranoia business was getting a bit out of hand.
"No we're not! We heard footsteps above Belle's room and then when we went up there was a man with black eyes up there!"
"Well then we should go check it out." Emma offered. Ruby looked like she was going to protest but didn't so Emma continued. "Any other takers?"
"If you're going, I'm going." Snow said and Charming nodded in agreement.
"I'll go too." Regina said softly.
"What?"
"I want to help. I don't like the thought of some mystery man pushing people down the stairs."
"Okay." Emma shrugged. "You guys stay here and look after Belle."
Charming took the lead since he had a small LED flashlight that he'd grabbed from his suitcase. They made it up to the fifth floor landing. Charming did a couple passes across the hall with his flashlight. It was deserted. The other three pulled out their phones. The silence silence filled the hallways as the darkness pressed in around them.
"Seems empty." Regina whispered making Emma jump. Charming went to the door to the left and jiggled the handle. It was locked.
"I thought Ruby said it was above Belle's room?" Snow asked him softly.
"Yeah but if somebody's up here he could be hiding in one of these other rooms too. We should split up. Emma, you and Regina take the right side we'll check this side."
"Great." Emma grumbled but walked over to the right side of the hall anyway. Regina followed silently. Emma could hear Charming successfully get into the second room on the left. With her phone held out in front of her Emma led the way into the first room on the right.
"Why's it so fricken dark in here?" Emma whispered. As she walked around the room. Her light went across a desk with a vanity mirror covered up on it. She heard the clicking noise of Regina trying to turn the lights on.
"Well that's what happens when the lights don't work." Regina made her way straight into the room instead of roaming like Emma. She noticed a space on the floor where a large spot of dust had been wiped away.
"Emma, get over here."
She heard the footsteps of the other woman behind her and Emma's light joined Regina's on the floor giving them an even better view.
"Is that blood?"
Emma crouched down near Regina and reached towards the stain. Regina's hand shot out and grabbed hers before she could touch it.
"Seriously?!" Regina hissed.
"Well it's not like it's fresh." Emma moved her hand back and stood back up. Regina kept looking at the stain.
"There's quite a lot of it. If somebody had been murdered here in Storybrooke I surely would have heard about it."
When Emma didn't say anything Regina looked up and saw she was staring out into the hallway. Regina looked where the light from Emma's phone was hitting. Nothing was there but Emma was fixed to the spot.
"Emma?" She whispered.
"What?"
"What're you doing?"
"I feel like someone's watching me." Regina could hear the fear in Emma's voice. If she hadn't seemed so spooked Regina would've made a snarky retort but she didn't. Instead she directed her phone around the room. There was water damage on the ceiling. The lone window was painted black. The bed was dusty and had sunk in the middle like someone was laying there but Regina knew that old mattresses did that with time and repeated use.
"Next room?" Emma asked stiffly and without waiting for a response she marched out of the room and Regina followed.
All the other rooms on the right were locked and it appeared that Snow and Charming were having similar luck. Puzzled the group headed back downstairs.
"There is someone up there!"
"Ruby just calm down."
"No! Someone attacked Belle! Do you think she threw herself down those stairs!"
"You guys were running, she could've easily tripped."
"Landed pretty hard for a simple fall don't you think?!"
Dr. Whale was trying his hardest to calm the close to hysterical Ruby but was having no luck. He reached out to touch her arm. She flinched like she was going to pull away but instead she moved closer to him. He was stunned for a split second but then wrapped both his arms around her as she clung to him. They stayed like that for a minute but then footsteps thudded down the stairs and Ruby jerked away from him as if their little moment had never happened.
"Did you find him?" She asked Snow as the later had just barely stepped off the staircase.
"There's nobody up there Ruby." She said softly. Trying to keep her tone light and as gentle as possible.
"What?"
"Only two of the rooms were even unlocked and we searched them both. Nobody was up there."
"Not possible." Ruby said shaking her head.
"Ruby-"
"No!" She turned her back on Snow and stormed into Belle's room.
