Joseph pulled the bedroom door closed behind him and repeatedly assured himself that he would only be gone for a minute at most.
He had already checked both of the abandoned bedrooms over and since there wasn't much to search to begin with, there wasn't much to be found. Hell, there wasn't a trace that one of those creatures had even so much as walked into either bedroom. So the rooms were cleared, as well as every adjacent room around them- the library included. It was also worth noting that their lingering presence in this wing of the mansion had yet to draw any more creatures their way.
By all points of reasoning, this area had been thoroughly cleared and secured for the time being.
So, by proxy, Kidman would be safe resting where she was.
Well, as safe as one could get in a place like this anyways- which wasn't very assuring in the long run.
Still, Joseph felt a sense of uneasiness at the situation.
Kidman desperately needed the rest, that couldn't be argued with in any form, and Joseph was glad that she was finally taking the downtime to do so. It just meant that he couldn't risk messing up and having her get hurt if something did show up here. He had no doubts that Kidman could easily protect herself, but with her physical injuries she shouldn't have to.
God knew that Kidman didn't need his protection but it felt like it was the least that he could do in a situation like this.
Sighing, Joseph glanced down towards the library once more, having to reassure himself again that the open room and its conjoining corridor were still empty.
There were no sounds, no visible catch of movement.
Things were still okay, things were still secured.
(He would only be gone a minute.)
Finally releasing the doorknob, Joseph turned left and headed down the corridor away from the library. Hopefully he would catch up with Sebastian before the man got too far ahead of him- although Joseph highly doubted that the older Detective would stray for too long. Or for too far for that matter. Sebastian just preferred to do wide perimeter searches to ensure that they had plenty of room to move around in; it also ensured that they had plenty of room to fight in if need be, which was usually the case.
The connecting corridor at the end cut to his right and lead straight back to a single doorway located at the far end of it. There was a fairly presentable archway that seemed to highlight the door, and given the long walking hallway before it, it almost seemed theatrical in a sense.
Considering the two smaller bedrooms behind him, Joseph could only assume that the room at the end of the hall was the master bedroom. If such was the case, than that would make this the domestic wing of the mansion. A bit of an odd placement for it seeing as it branched straight off from the library and was relatively hidden compared to the other wings.
Given the state of the world that they were currently stuck in however, blueprints and house layouts were the least of his concerns.
Stepping out into the open hallway, Joseph paused as he took note of the faint red spatters and streaks coming from the dead-end wall to his left. Based on experience, the aged stains looked like blood but... the placement of them made no sense. The spatters implied impact, it implied a sort of spread, but only the floor itself was dirty. The wall connecting to that particular spot was relatively clean and gave no indication that any sort of striking blow had even been close to it.
It only left him with more questions than answers.
And he really didn't have time to question everything he saw in this place; God knows he would never get answers for them anyways.
As much as this mansion gave him an unsettling feeling, he needed to stay focus so they could get out of here.
At the very least, he could see where the other man had made it halfway down the corridor.
"Sebastian," Joseph called, although he tried to keep his voice low just in case of detection. At this point, they had no rational clue on what this mansion could be hiding from them- and after seeing the secrets of the church and its catacombs, Joseph wasn't sure he actually wanted to know. He watched as Sebastian glanced back at the call before the man stopped and waited for him to catch up. "Kidman decided to take some time to rest."
"About time," Sebastian replied; the man sounded genuinely relieved. "I was wondering how she managed to make it this far without passing out."
"She's been through a lot, I'm kind of surprised myself," he nodded.
"Hell, I'm still impressed she made it through that cave on her own two feet."
Kidman had been at her worst when they were trying to escape the catacombs through this weird underground cave system. She had survived the actual catacombs well enough on her own and both he and Sebastian had mistakenly dismissed it as Kidman getting her strength back. Looking back on it now, Joseph figured the adrenaline had finally worn completely off, thus leaving her body struggling with the physical overexertion that remained.
With the tight spacing of the makeshift cave passages made difficult by those creatures chasing them, it wasn't easy for Kidman to keep moving.
She had had one too many close calls but... she pulled through.
Thankfully.
Despite the obvious pain she was in, Kidman repeatedly insisted on carrying herself out of that hellhole.
She was determined not to be a burden to the team.
(Which was odd because, of the three of them, she certainly wasn't the burden.)
"I'll finish clearing this hallway and circle back," Sebastian spoke as he turned and continued down the corridor, further away from where Kidman was resting.
Joseph glanced back for a second, hesitating, before he moved to follow Sebastian.
They hadn't cleared this hallway yet and it would be in their best interest to do so- just in case there were more of those creatures down here. Joseph was still nervous about leaving Kidman by herself, but at the same time he didn't want Sebastian to get caught in an ambush situation by himself either.
And between the two of them, Joseph supposed an ambush in this direction would be more likely to happen.
They wouldn't be too far away from Kidman though, so if need be they could still get back to her room in a timely enough fashion should something decide to pop in on her.
Joseph stayed close to Sebastian as they approached the open archway at the end of the corridor, only to realize that it wasn't the dead-end he had presumed it to be. He could already see yet another hallway stemming off to the right of the doorway.
Jesus, just how big was this mansion?
"You should take some time and rest yourself," Sebastian remarked, "you walked away from that church just as bad as Kidman did."
Joseph knew that Sebastian wasn't wrong but... Christ, he didn't want to think about the church anymore than he already had.
That place had been an utter nightmare for him before they even walked through those doors, and Joseph was just now giving himself the leniency to look past it. He didn't want to remember all of those things he had said and done when control had been yanked from his grasp. When it had felt like someone else was inside of his head and they were having a hell of a time destroying every aspect of him, mentally and physically.
He hadn't exactly been in fighting condition when the three of them woke up in those catacombs. Hell, he had barely been in living condition, but he pushed through it. It wasn't easy and there were times when it seemed better for everyone involved if he just took the bullet instead.
For some reason, he didn't.
For some reason, he still hadn't.
Between him and Kidman, it was a miracle either of them had managed to survive that hellhole.
It was a miracle either of them had made it this far.
If it weren't for Sebastian, neither of them would have escaped those catacombs alive.
"I know, I just-"
Joseph barely had a chance to finish his sentence before he heard a punctured gasp and caught sight of Sebastian collapsing next to him.
Well it was more like something had yanked the man to the ground instead.
Joseph turned immediately, fingers drawing his gun free as he was fully-expecting to find out that one of those creatures had managed to sneak up on them. Which had to be impossible to do- they had cleared out every room up to this point.
Instead, he turned to find that there was nothing behind them.
Nothing more than an empty hallway.
At least until he heard the sudden roar of machinery fill the tight corridor around him, causing him to physically flinch in reaction to it. The noise was damn near deafening in the closed space and it didn't take long for the loud noise to spur ringing in his ears and sharp pain in his head. The sudden flood of adrenaline only made him feel worse as Joseph tried to figure out just what the hell was going on.
And that was when he saw it.
The wall at the dead end of the corridor, the one he had just walked by, had opened up some how, revealing a hidden compartment on the other side of it.
Revealing two massive spinning pieces of machinery.
They were moving too fast for him to really tell what they were or what the hell they were doing- or even what kind of purpose they would serve in this place.
But then Joseph remembered the blood spatters on the floor, the oddly clean wall despite the mess.
And it took him far too long to realize just what the hell was going on.
"Sebastian!" Joseph called, watching now as the Lead Detective was being dragged down the hallway towards the impending trap. He couldn't see exactly how the man had gotten caught, not at first anyways- but he did catch a glimpse of a cord of some kind wrapped around Sebastian's leg a few seconds later.
The cord went straight between the spinning cylinders.
Which only meant one thing.
Even with his gun raised still, Joseph had no idea of what he was even supposed to shoot!
There was no way in Hell he would be able to shoot the cord without running the risk of hitting Sebastian instead- and there was no guarantee he could even hit the cord to begin with. The margin of error on that kind of shot would literally be the line between life or death. This could either end with Sebastian getting pulled through the trap or it could end with the Lead Detective getting his femoral artery blown out.
And shooting the mechanism itself would do little else but ricochet the bullet elsewhere.
As if the spinning death trap itself wasn't enough of a threat on its own.
In the ensuing panic to look for something- anything- Joseph's eyes were drawn to the red light just between the two cylinders. It was out of place and fairly bright given the bleak lighting of the dim corridor. And it was just sitting there, right above the death trap, hidden just the same as everything behind it.
... It had to serve a purpose, right?
Jesus, he was putting too much faith into this one but he had no other choice.
If he was going to do it, he had to do it now!
There was no time for him to try and gain any extra steps to increase his chances of hitting the damn light- not with the speed that Sebastian was getting pulled at. And Joseph could only hope that, for this moment at least, his eyesight wouldn't fail him.
His nerves got the better of him with the first shot.
But the second bullet clipped the red light just enough.
Just enough for his third shot to hit.
The small red light shattered immediately.
And a few seconds later, the trap ceased- with only a few feet to spare.
Lowering his gun, Joseph caught himself damn near hyperventilating as the spinning cylinders slowly came to a stop, as the insistent grinding came to a stop. He could feel his heart in his throat and his hands shaking hard enough that his gun nearly dropped from his grasp; the still working portion of his mind prompted him to re-holster it before another accident happened.
The adrenaline was hot in his bloodstream but...
Christ, it felt like he could barely move a muscle.
Joseph watched as Sebastian cut the cord from around his leg the moment the machine stopped before the Lead Detective tossed the now severed cord as far away from him as he could. And Joseph sure as hell couldn't blame him for it.
One of the floor tiles must've had some kind of plate or something that triggered upon contact, upon pressure.
And once that plate was triggered, so was the trap.
(Now was not the time to be theorizing this.)
Sebastian was alive.
That was all that mattered.
It felt like he had to force his legs to move as Joseph ran over to the Lead Detective, quick to make sure that the other man was alright. He was still convinced that the mechanism could spring back back to life if it wanted to though. After all, it wasn't like he had killed its power source or anything- all he did was shoot out a light; the machine turning back on was still a strong possibility.
Joseph couldn't find his voice to say anything as he dropped down next to Sebastian, one hand automatically going to the man's shoulder.
His eyes never left the exposed trap, which had completely winded down to a stop now- giving them both a proper chance to look it over.
The trap consisted of two floor-to-ceiling cylinders that were armed with what looked to be a thin blade that spiraled around the cylinder in a corkscrew manner. The blades on both cylinders were offset so that they interlocked between one another, perfectly overlapping and leaving no space in-between them. The lower half of the cylinders and blades, as well as the wall and floor, were stained with previous slathers of blood- and there was no telling just how old or fresh it was.
(It explained the once odd stains on the floor though.)
Joseph could only imagine the kind of damage a trap like that could do to a person.
There had to be a plate hidden under the floor tiles somewhere that, upon given pressure, would trigger a cord to snare the unknown victim's leg. And upon triggering the tile and cord, the wall space behind would pull away to reveal the spinning death trap, which would then draw the cord, and the victim, into the awaiting maul.
The blades at the bottom would crush the legs first, if not completely mangle and rip them off. Given that point, the cord would no longer drag the victim in, but the spinning motions of the blades would, thus continuing the assault. The blades would climb to the victim's hips, shredding the lower body into unidentifiable pieces before eventually puncturing through the torso.
At that point, the blades would more than likely disembowel the victim before ripping the shoulders and head apart just the same as the rest of the body.
Hell, there wouldn't be much of a body left afterwards.
Death would've been quick maybe.
But certainly not quick enough.
(Just the thought of it made him sick.)
That easily could've been Sebastian had he been any slower.
Jesus, what the hell was he thinking?! After barely surviving all of those traps in the catacombs, had he really learned nothing from them? Timing was everything- hell it was the only reason that they were all still alive at this point.
And he almost just fucked that up.
He had even seen the signs and still somehow missed the point.
"For fucks sake," Sebastian started, easily sounding out of breath himself. For once, the man truly seemed out of his element. Despite the utter hellhole they were in, despite everything they had survived up until now, Sebastian always seemed like he was still in control, like he still knew what he was doing. But now... now he looked scared. And Joseph sure as hell couldn't blame him. "... Fuck me."
"... Oh God."
Joseph looked up at the startled words, watching now as Kidman stood in the opening of the hallway, staring down at the same trap that he and Sebastian were looking at. The woman seemed to fumble slightly as she holstered her gun, maybe doing so for the same reasons he had earlier. Joseph had no idea how long the woman had been standing there, or just how much she had witnessed- hopefully not the whole event.
Given that however, Joseph could only imagine how the scene before her looked.
"Jesus Christ, that would fuck you up."
She seemed to have reached the same conclusion that he had.
Not that that would've been too difficult to do.
"Thanks Kidman," Sebastian retorted sharply, "as if I couldn't figure that out."
Giving out a quiet sigh, Joseph reached up and removed his glasses before he rubbed at his eyes. It felt like they were throbbing inside of his sockets, making it difficult for him to open them again without suffering the quiet ache all over again. Considering the distance that had been between him and the machine, Joseph was surprised that he had managed to hit close to the light at all. Perhaps through sheer panic and adrenaline, he had pulled off the luckiest shot of his career- but now it felt like his eyes were paying the price for it. "Who the hell sets up something like this?"
"You know who."
Yeah- yeah he did.
And the reminder of that only left him questioning just what else Ruvik was hiding in this god-abandoned mansion.
"It's okay, everyone's alright," Joseph started as he pushed himself to his feet, slipping his glasses back on as he did so; he could deal with the throbbing pain for just a little longer. Maybe he was speaking out loud more for himself than anyone else, but the words were still comforting to hear; they were almost believable in some regards. Offering a hand to Sebastian, Joseph was a little surprised that the man actually took it before he helped the Lead Detective to his feet.
He wanted to say something to Sebastian but no words came to him; it felt like there was nothing he could say that would portray the amount of relief he was feeling. Or anything that would portray the subtle guilt at taking so long to help. Or the subtle guilt that Sebastian had gotten caught in the trap in the first place when he should've mentioned something about the blood stains.
Christ, if he had decided to stay with Kidman even just a few seconds longer...
"It was a close call. We'll just need to be more careful around here from now on," Joseph finished, deciding to bottle the emotions and guilt for the time being.
As if it didn't feel like they weren't already walking on eggshells around here.
They just... they needed to be more perceptive.
(He needed to be more perceptive.)
Sebastian seemed... fine again for the time being- not that the man would ever admit otherwise.
"Alright, well at least we know nothing's down here- otherwise we would've gotten swarmed by now," Joseph spoke, pulling at the cuff of his gloves now, feeling the cold sweat of his palms starting to stick to the now warm leather; it was starting to get uncomfortable. He was hoping the subtle announcement would come across as good news- and it technically was; it would seem as though they had, for the most part, cleared this wing of the mansion. "We should be okay to finish checking down this wing if you're still up for it, Sebastian."
Maybe it seemed insensitive but... Joseph didn't want to stay still for much longer.
He didn't want to stand around and contemplate death any longer than they already had.
He wanted to keep moving, he wanted to keep searching, keep investigating.
He just wanted them to get out of this place already.
"Yeah," Sebastian replied, no doubt feeling the same as the man ran a hand down his face as he spoke. He looked exhausted for the first time since they had been here. "Let's just... find what we need to find and get out of this place."
Good.
They were on the same page then.
Joseph turned his attention back to Kidman, taking note of how she was leaning against the wall now.
She looked even more exhausted than she had just moments before- and it was her physical health that was really causing him to worry. There was no telling just what exactly she had survived back at the church just before he and Sebastian had gotten there. Whatever it was had been a serious attack. And Joseph was hesitant to admit that it didn't seem like her injuries had come from any of those Haunted creatures; she didn't bear the same bite marks, or scratches that they usually struck with- let alone any weapon injuries.
Perhaps in their time of being forced apart, Kidman had encountered something else, something neither he nor Sebastian had seen before.
Which was plausible given that Sebastian mentioned something about a four-armed creature, dark-haired creature stalking him earlier- something neither Joseph nor Kidman had seen.
After all there was no telling just how big this place was, or what kinds of horrors it could create.
Still, he was worried about her and he didn't bother to try and hide it.
"I know it'll be difficult to convince, but you're welcome to go back and rest, Kidman," Joseph offered.
And it was hard to ignore what looked to be a shudder on the woman's shoulders.
"No, I... I've rested long enough," Kidman assured as she pushed herself from the wall and straightened herself up; and Joseph wondered if she did so to try and portray herself as feeling better.
It didn't work.
"You were barely down for a minute," Joseph reminded.
It was hard to comprehend that so much had happened in such a short amount of time.
He had just been with her, he had just been closing the door behind her, hesitant about leaving her. He had just stepped around the corner to speak with Sebastian, discussing Kidman's health as they moved to at least finish off this conjoining corridor. And maybe Joseph had dodged the proverbial bullet about his own health when the trap went off. In the moment it felt like time had slowed down, like the entire event had dragged on for an hour.
And then reality settled back in and there had been only seconds wasted.
He could still feel the cold press of the doorknob through his glove.
"No, I- it had to have been like ten minutes," Kidman objected, and Joseph swore he could hear her voice almost shaking with the words.
Her sudden arguing of the point was strange and out of nowhere.
What purpose exactly would there be to argue his point of timing?
Joseph passed a glance to Sebastian and noted that even the Lead Detective himself seemed confused by the remark.
Kidman was in a lot of pain; she was exhausted and suffering from extreme overexertion.
This was the first chance she had gotten to finally rest and recover from it all, and it had been pulled short.
And given how time did and didn't move in this world, Joseph couldn't blame her for getting confused.
"I assure you, Kidman, I just came out here to tell Sebastian that you were resting," Joseph replied. "And even though we set off this trap, it was forty seconds at best between now and when I left."
This time it seemed like the color drained from her face.
Joseph couldn't deny the sense of confusion that came to him; he couldn't deny the small knot of dread that was building in his stomach either. He knew Kidman well enough and while being stuck in this world was showing him new sides to both partners, he still felt like he had a firm grasp on who they were. But right now it felt like his grasp on Kidman was slipping, even if just by a little.
But a little slip could mean a world of difference here.
(The church had proven that.)
"... Are you feeling alright?" Joseph asked as he took a step towards the woman.
A hand brushing against the back of his arm convinced him to stop though.
"She's had a rough time, alright?" Sebastian reminded. "This place is shitty enough on it's own; it's hard to keep things straight around here."
As if that wasn't an understatement.
But Joseph got the impression that Sebastian was making and decided to step back.
Kidman needed her space; she didn't need him coddling her.
"You can get some more rest if you want, but if not than feel free to join us," the Lead Detective offered.
"I'll go with you." Kidman's response was almost immediate, which again caught Joseph off-guard. It was like she had been wanting for someone to make the offer- and if they didn't, she would've stuck with them anyways.
Kidman seemed to catch on to her sudden outburst and tried to smooth it over as she moved a hand to rest on her holstered gun.
"After all, I'm gone for forty seconds and you nearly get dragged into this thing? Sounds like you need me around."
Joseph snorted back a laugh at the unforgiving remark and tried to further mask it- knowing well that he was within Sebastian's hitting range. It was out of nowhere and completely unprovoked for the most part but... it felt good to laugh at something again. Even if the timing wasn't exactly appropriate given the recent turn of events. From the corner of his eye, he could see Sebastian roll his eyes before the man turned back down the hallway.
"Just try and keep up," the Lead Detective remarked over his shoulder.
Joseph turned to follow the man and he heard Kidman move quick to follow after them.
Reaching the end of the hallway once more, Joseph watched as Sebastian approached the archway before the man cautiously stepped through it- as though anticipating another trap of some sorts. Luckily, it seemed like the coast was clear for the time being. Joseph followed close behind the Lead Detective, stepping through the archway threshold and keeping his gun trained on the open corridor to their right.
It was empty for the time being, with the exception of a pair of legs sticking out from just around the corner. The legs weren't moving and given all the noise recently, if the creature had been alive, it would've shown itself by now; playing dead would've required too much effort for the Haunted. Joseph figured it was yet another victim who had been turned into a meal by those creatures- just like the one outside of the library.
Glancing back, Joseph watched as Sebastian eased the archway door open and followed through with his gun drawn- staying in the doorway for the time being. The man did a quick scope from the opened position and considering that his gun didn't immediately go off, the room must've been vacant.
"It's empty," Sebastian remarked, before he motioned for Joseph to continue down the side corridor. "I'm going to do a quick look around. You and Kidman go see what's down that hallway."
As Joseph figured before, it must've been the master bedroom; a single room, no other doors, one way in, one way out.
"Watch yourself," Joseph reminded, as he slowly made his way down the short corridor. Approaching the legs on the ground, he took a wide step around the corner and kept his gun locked on the fallen body below.
Or at least what was left of it.
Most of the body was missing.
The face and head had been pulled and eaten away, as well as part of one arm and most of the stomach cavity.
Not the best smell in the world, but it didn't smell as bad as the one in the library had.
The corridor continued further down in front of him and ended at yet another closed doorway. Perfect. Just how many rooms were in this place exactly? And again, just how big was this mansion to start with? It felt like they had already gone through every room and investigated every corner and yet there was still more to explore. And that wasn't counting the massive iron doors they were currently working to unlock.
This place could have an even more massive basement for all they knew.
"We got another room," Joseph called back.
"Jesus," Sebastian muttered, no doubt sharing his exact thoughts on the situation. "Alright, go for it."
He was not looking forward to whatever secrets might be lying in wait behind that door.
Starting down the corridor, Joseph took note that it was deathly quiet- which wasn't surprising and yet it managed to be unnerving still in a place like this. Silence was both a good and bad thing here; it meant there wasn't anything actively hunting them, but it didn't necessarily rule it out either. The silence also made him all too aware that any one of those creatures could be anywhere, just waiting for them, and they would have no idea that it was there- not until it was too late anyways.
They could be walking into an ambush right now and they would be none the wiser about it.
He tried not to focus on that terrifying thought.
Joseph instead focused on the muffled footsteps that followed behind him, reminding himself that at least he wasn't alone; and it was a comforting reminder. Despite his reluctance to leave Sebastian on his own, Joseph figured the man had purposely ordered for him and Kidman to go this way. After the ordeal with the death trap, Joseph had no doubts that Sebastian probably wanted a moment or two alone to recollect himself.
Approaching the door, Joseph reached out and placed a hand on the doorknob. "You got my back?" he questioned, glancing to Kidman behind him.
"I'm your back-up, aren't I?"
He chuckled lightly at the response and tried not to question whether the woman meant it as a joke, or as a subtle reminder that she had been treated as just 'back up' quite a bit lately. And Joseph had to admit that both he and Sebastian were guilty of making her stay behind while they went ahead and checked out things. He just didn't want to risk her getting even more injured- but that really wasn't his decision to make either.
Turning the door knob, Joseph pushed the door open with one hand and allowed for it to swing open on its own. He stayed in the doorway, both hands on his gun as he waited to catch any movement, any clue that would give away that something else was in the room. The door gave a subtle creak as it opened to full view, revealing nothing of any Haunted variety in front of them.
It only revealed what looked to be a storage room of some sort.
There was a dressing wall of some kind to his right, which unfortunately blocked out most of the room from sight; it created a spot of vulnerability should something be in the room with them.
And straight ahead of him were what looked to be mounted deer heads.
The faint light of the dim overhead bulb casted a shine on their dead, black eyes, giving off the impression that the decapitated heads were staring back at him, that they were following him as he slowly stepped into the room. The thought and illusion alone sent cold chills down his back, forcing Joseph to reposition his grip on his gun.
He never saw the purpose of hunting outside of necessity.
And the obsession of collecting decapitated heads as trophies came off as psychopathic.
Joseph could list three serial killers off the top of his head who had done the same to their human victims.
Asides from some unpacked boxes shoved against the walls and shoved into corners, there didn't appear to be much else that Joseph could immediately see. Based on the evidence around him, he could only presume that this room was used for storage and little else.
"What a dump," Kidman remarked behind him.
Joseph glanced back at the comment and watched as the woman reached up and grazed one of the mounted heads with her hand. In any living situation, it would've seemed like a subtle pet on the nose- but in this one it just seemed arbitrary. And maybe a little creepy.
He didn't like the idea of touching something that had been preserved after death.
"I guess every house has a room like this though," she finished.
"I take it you're a bit disorganized yourself?" Joseph asked as he made it to the packed corner of the room, allowing himself to get a glimpse of the rest behind the dressing wall. As far as he could tell, there didn't seem to be much else in the room- nothing of use or of interest anyways. There just appeared to be more furniture and other typical things that were pushed into storage in order to free up room in the rest of the house. Although it was frightening to think that with how big this mansion was to begin with, the previous tenants still managed to run out of space.
More dressing walls blocked the back portion of the room but Joseph was beginning to doubt that there was much left in here.
"I'm pretty minimalistic," Kidman admitted, as she traced his steps through the room, "but even then things still manage to get cluttered."
Joseph recalled a previous conversation between them where Kidman had asked him where she could buy a new coffee machine since the one at her apartment had unfortunately stopped working. When Joseph asked why she didn't just go back to the place where she had bought the first one, Kidman admitted that the tenant before her had left unexpectedly and left all of their furniture behind. She cut a good deal with the leasing office and basically inherited all of the former tenant's furniture- coffee machine included.
While the thought of taking and using a stranger's entire room set up was disturbing, Kidman remarked that it was more than what she had signing the lease with, so anything was better than nothing.
So more than likely she had also inherited the former tenant's clutter.
Joseph watched as Kidman moved past the dressing well ahead of him and stepped into the only clear path that ran down the middle of the uncharted room. Given that Kidman didn't give or show an immediate reaction to anything around her, Joseph could only presume that his theory of this room being a bust was true. Not to say that there was anything bad in having a boring, empty room- if anything, it was a relief to have.
"I bet you're real strict about how you have things set up," Kidman continued.
This might've not been the most appropriate place to be having this conversation of home organization and decor, but it felt normal.
It was better than talking about severed heads and recorded puzzles.
Hell, it was better than any other topic they had had so far in this mansion.
"Everything has a place and it doesn't move from there," Joseph replied, as he followed up behind Kidman and kept an eye on the dressing wardrobe to their right. Gut suspicion said that the wardrobe was big enough for something to be hiding in it, but so far he wasn't seeing any evidence to support the claim. Kidman moved past it without incident so he wrote it up as paranoia.
"I've seen your office."
Joseph chuckled at the response, maybe the subtle dig, as he continued to work his way towards the back of the room with her.
Kidman's behavior earlier had been odd and sort of stand offish, but it seemed as though she was slowly getting back into control of herself. That wasn't to say that the behavior would last, but it was a good sign nonetheless; it meant that despite all of the odds stacked against her, she could still recover quick enough on her own.
"And I've seen your desk," Joseph followed up.
Kidman gave a snorted sort of laugh in return.
So far so good with their search of the room.
There didn't appear to be anything in particular in here, which was really just one less thing for them to worry about.
And in the grand scheme of things, it was a relief.
Unfortunately, as best as he could see in the dimly lit room, Joseph couldn't see or find any sort of metal piping that might've been running through the room. So as good as things were right now, it meant that their key to getting out of this place wasn't in here either. They were beginning to run out of options here as to where to look for the damn things.
Just how many different places could someone hide a severed head?
Maybe it was hidden inside one of the dear heads.
Coming up to the back of the room, Joseph noticed the door hidden in the far corner. As dimly light as it was, he could still pick out the shape of wooden boards that had been nailed over the door, keeping it permanently locked to the other side unless brute force was invoked. Asides from the overall tension in the mansion, the brain puzzles themselves, and that one death trap, the boarded up door felt wildly out of place.
It made him question just what exactly was on the other side of it.
Not that he was all that curious to find out; he was fine with letting some secrets remain secrets.
Unless of course there was a severed head on the other side, which given their luck there would be.
"Nothing but a load of shit," Kidman remarked.
"Can't say I'm disappointed," Joseph replied as he stepped into the back area of the room- only to watch as a red light suddenly flickered on in the darkness. He saw the light before he even heard the rhythmic beeping that followed it, but he was quick to feel the tight grip on his arm as Kidman suddenly tugged him back. He retracted only two steps before the beeping went silent and the light switched off.
Joseph didn't even realize how tense he had gotten within those few seconds.
He felt it through the subtle pain in his fingers and hands at the white-knuckle grip he had on his gun.
"What the fuck is one of those things doing in here?" Kidman pressed, the irritation in her voice all too easy to hear.
His mind didn't even piece the red light and rhythmic beeping to the motion-activated wall bombs that Kidman had been referring to, the same ones they had seen scattered through this world. They had been littered all over the church and catacombs- even in the asylum of all places. The explosives bore no correlation to any of those environments; hell they had even been the most advanced piece of technology in the catacombs.
And now they were here, in this god-forsaken mansion.
At this point it was beginning to feel like someone was purposely placing down each bomb out of design, out of entertainment.
But Joseph had momentarily forgotten all about those previous encounters.
No, he had chosen to connect the red light to the same one out in the hallway, to the one sitting broken above the spinning death trap that was remaining silent for the time being.
Part of him was expecting this room to suddenly open up in the same manner.
"Do we leave it?" Kidman asked, breaking him out of his focused panic.
"It... it wouldn't hurt to disarm it," Joseph started, as he holstered his gun once more and tried to work the ache out of his fingers. "It might be pointless to do but it would be one less thing to worry about. And who knows, we might come back through here again, or somehow come through from the other side of that door- in which case we'd easily be within blasting range before we'd even realize what was going on."
"Fair point," Kidman noted, before she gestured towards the well-hidden explosive, "get to it then."
Joseph had basically volunteered himself for the job, especially considering that he was the only one with experience dealing with explosives, but it was still humorous to hear Kidman pushing him to do the job anyways.
The wall bombs themselves weren't all that difficult to disarm if they were caught in time, and Joseph had certainly disarmed bigger, more dangerous explosives before. This one would be no different.
Joseph moved towards the bomb once again and managed to get to it just as the first beep escaped from it. A quick disarm of the exterior cog silenced the programmed countdown temporarily while he worked to disable the interior mechanics. It was a little harder to do it all by hand but it wasn't like he had a set of tools just lying around. It didn't matter anyways, he would get the job done regardless.
"So just how exactly do you know how to disarm these things?"
He was wondering when the inevitable question was going to come up.
"I just do," Joseph answered, knowing well that it did little to answer Kidman's question- and purposely leaving it as such.
"Just common knowledge to you then, huh?" Kidman replied with a touch of sarcasm.
"Yeah," he spoke, continuing to avoid giving a direct answer.
Kidman gave what sounded like an irritated sigh before she seemingly gave up on the topic. "Alright, suit yourself. I'll just mark it up as another one of your weird quirks."
As long as it got the topic dropped-
"Wait, what do you mean another one?" Joseph pressed.
"Yeah, it's kind of odd how the whole disarming bombs thing isn't the weirdest thing-" Kidman started, only to cut herself off before she could finish her thought.
Joseph waited to see if the woman would continue, although he couldn't say that he actually wanted her to, but after a few seconds of silence he came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to. "Kidman?"
"Do you hear that?" she questioned instead, almost whispering it at him.
He must've zoned out of his environment just enough so that he was only focused on disarming and focused on talking with Kidman, because he didn't hear anything out of the ordinary around them. Nothing that would've stuck out enough to draw his attention anyways. The silence didn't change the fact that that was not a question Joseph wanted to be asked right now, especially not while he was still trying to disarm this thing. These wall bombs were small but they were still a fairly dangerous explosive- especially given that most of them, this one included, were strapped down with exposed nails and all sorts of other shrapnel pieces.
(And maybe a touch of experience told him that that shit hurt when it went off in close proximity.)
"What are you hearing?" Joseph asked, keeping his voice equally low to match Kidman's.
"It sounds like something's behind that door-"
About that time, a loud force struck the door from the other side and Joseph caught sight of the door buckling in his peripheral vision. The sound, let alone the action was enough to cause him to flinch and almost break his concentration in lancing the color-coded wires in front of him.
A second, repeating strike came through just as quick and even louder as it caused the once boarded and locked door to splinter apart under the given force.
Allowing four Haunted to spill into the room with them.