Chapter VII
Creak, creak; the wood from the halls echo outside, Sora turns over and looks to see his door is ajar. Curious, he rises from bed and takes to peek out to see what, or who, is making that sound. He sees Velia, carrying a worn copy of the dark epic in her hands, but her destination is unusual. She stops near her room, but turns towards the elevator. There is tape covering it. She rips the paper off. Fearing that she's going to hurt herself, the curious takes off down the hall.
"Stop!" he screams, making Velia turn her head, but her face makes him freeze. "My god, what happened to you?"
The young woman's face is bloody, her teeth, when she smiles, shows more. "Hello Sora, what are you doing again out this late?"
"Wh-what happened?"
"I was just out to the lobby to see if I could check out, but some of the workers here asked me if I wanted to help join them in their night off."
"What's that blood from?"
The strange one turns her head towards the light above, looking at her reflection and giggles. "I forgot to clean myself up after that scene, no reason you think I'm scary."
"Why were you heading to the elevator?"
"Branches from broken trees circled me, they tore and beat me till the blood from my face could do more, then it went for my mouth."
"Why did you come to this elevator if it's broken?"
"Those ghosts continued to harm me, inanimate they may have been, only, how could I avoid them?"
"How did the elevator break again? It was working this morning."
"'Haunt me no more devils built from nothing!' I screamed, grabbing those that swirled around me and continued to lash, tear, or what it be for brutality against my mortal flesh, 'I will become your master by the dark light within I shall bind and make you my pets!'"
"Shut up and answer me!"
The strange one pauses, turning her head to Sora and begins to laugh hysterically. "With the power inside me I grabbed that which disturbed me," Velia screams, grabbing Sora by the collar of his shirt and throws him into the shaft. She watches as he grabs onto a cable then looks up at her with blown away surprise. "I'd make the specters fall with my jaws, cut their power down to a string that's wrapped around me finger, make them my servants," the mad girl screams and jumps in, catching the cable below her fearful foe. "'I cut!' I scream, bite their webs, into me they go," Velia cries, and bites the wire, gnawing at it savagely.
"Stop it! You're going to kill yourself! You'll kill me!"
Snap, one wire goes with surprise and the room owner watches his mad friend jump to the other one to gnaw on. Snap, the last wire goes, the elevator goes plummeting down, it'd been stuck between levels. Velia jumps, grabbing onto Sora, and bites his right arm. He screams, and shoves off his attacker so that she may die within a fallen elevator with a loud crash.
"The sun came, the storm ended, I had conquered the spirits that took hold of the inmate while I had laid sleeping!" are the mad woman's last words to be screamed before she hits the debris and dies, no more words tonight, or at least that's what the room owner hopes.
"I'm sorry Velia," Sora whispers, and looks at his wound. "I can't believe she bit my arm, what did the staff do to her?" he says, and swings himself to the hall. "Did this really happen?"
Click, creak; the survivor of a nightmare turns, seeing his neighbor come through a door at the other end of the walkway. Rye moves slowly down the hall, Sora's appearance makes him want to stay away, but his look can't help to draw him towards the bleeding and weary.
"Who attacked you?" the neighbor asks, stopping a few feet to examine the injured Sora better and see how much of a mess he is. "Or was it something else?"
Click, creak; a door next to Velia's old room, opens. An elderly lady wearing grandmotherly like clothes steps out into the hall, her face red as a burning coal. "Would you two be quiet? I was busy counting the stars from my window! Now I have to start over!"
"Please tell me you didn't hear it," the survivor groans, feeling his mind is swimming in a pattern of insanity. "Please tell me neither of you heard the loud bang of the elevator collapsing, or Velia saying her last words."
"What do you mean by, 'saying her last words?' Did you kill the chick that lives near the elevator?" the late returner exclaims, both his eyes and the old lady's rest on Sora. "Why-why would you kill her?"
"I didn't mean to, she…" replies the survivor, who looks away in anger.
"She may have been an uptight slut who couldn't keep her voice down while reading out loud that wretched book," the elder says, creating a snap from Sora who looks at her with surprise, "but that's no reason to kill. Were you two fighting about something and that's why you decided to murder her?"
"Yeah Sora, what got you boiling?" the survivor's neighbor adds with a sneer.
"There was no fight. She went mad, cut the cables with her teeth and went at me. I shoved her off, sent her falling, but it wasn't…" Sora replies, feeling a heavier wave of shame.
Rye grabs the survivor, turns him around and puts him onto his knees. "Tell me, what's the real story?"
Sora looks up to see that Velia's copy of Orel Myshton's 'Climatic Glory,' is lying a few feet away from him. "Hey, old lady…"
"Take this piece of trash to the lobby," the elderly screams, but as she turns to go back inside, Velia's next door neighbor goes over and puts a foot on his head. "The name's Ms. Vix, and if I hear you call me old lady again, I'll crush your skull, murderer."
"She told me she never read the book!"
"What are you blabbing about?"
"Ms. Vix, Velia told me she had never read the book."
"She must have, how else could she quote it word for word?"
Sora freeze's but then the note about the staff's meetings comes to mind. "She told me everyone that works here plays out parts at night when they're off and before she died, Velia told me she went to one tonight."
"That's funny, funny sad, considering that I've been here a long time and never heard about them doing that."
"I swear, its the truth…"
The neighbor picks up his chum, and starts to pull him down the hall. "Come on, you're going to wait downstairs with me. Morning is almost here and when Nema gets here, we can talk about your 'wild' night."
"I'm not lying! She told me the staff gets together to act out parts from that dark epic!" the survivor screams, struggling to get free, but finds Rye's grip is tight. "I didn't murder her!"