I was hoping to get this story finished by Halloween, but I had work and no motivation, so. Hopefully I can get this story rollin' again! -E
"So I'm going to take a wild guess and say that wasn't Steve?" Tony questioned as they took the stairs two at a time.
"No," Clint glanced back at him for a second. "At least I hope not. That thing though - in the hall - that's what I was talking about when I said there was something in the building."
"But how did it look like Steve?"
"How did it sound like him?"
"Where's the real Steve?"
"Your guess is as good as mine is, guys." Clint grumbled, trying not to get irritated. As he got to the bottom of the steps on the ground floor, he went and quickly opened the door, immediately freezing in his place.
"Why are we stopping?" Tony asked, stopping quickly so he didn't walk into Clint. "Hey! What's the hold up?" Tony looked from Clint to the hall, his jaw immediately dropping open slightly.
"What's-" Bruce stopped as he stared at the hallway in front of them.
"Is there a problem?" Thor asked, annoyed. "I thought we were in a hurry?"
"But we went down," Clint finally said, numbly. "We went down." In the hall was the same discarded clothes mixed with shredded skin and hair as before. Clint shut the door and opened it again, as if the scene in front of them would change, but it still remained the same. "There's no way." He took off running down the stairs again, but as he got to the floor below, he found himself standing behind the boys again. "What?!" he yelled and the other three spun around, all with different levels of shock on their faces.
"Didn't you just…?"
"...But you.." Clint took off up the stairs instead, hoping to end up on the third floor. Yet when he reached the next floor, he found himself standing in front of his friends yet again.
"This isn't right!" he ran up the stairs again, only to come to the second floor a third time. "Okay… Okay… So we're trapped on this floor," Clint said to himself, starting to pace in circles on the landing.
"With a disgusting-face-stealing-monster," Tony added miserably.
"And the knowledge that it's probably killed two of our friends," Bruce chimed in.
"Can you not?" Clint snapped, glaring at the two of them. "We have to figure this out. Thor. Do you have any idea w…" his voice trailed off as he glanced around the small landing, seeing only Bruce and Tony. "Th...or?" Bruce blinked and spun around, his eyes widening as he realized the god was missing. He grabbed Tony's arm and yanked him over to him, wrapping his own arms around Tony's as if to keep him from disappearing, too.
"Okay," Tony's voice was slightly forced as he glanced around, his gaze finally falling on Clint. "Now we're down three, and we can't go up or down. What do we do?" Clint clenched his jaw as he watched the pair. Knowing they were just as clueless as him was almost comforting, but it didn't exactly help them.
"I guess we…" He exhaled harshly and ran his fingers through his hair, focusing on the door behind the boys. "We go down the hall."