Meanwhile, in concern for her new ward, the crow began to board up the hallway which had contained the passageway to the basement. She called other older children to help her with this as well, after seeing the sight of the night before, everyone was concerned and distraught for maria. Hardly any of the kids even knew why they were boarding up a random hall but they just simply did as they were told as directed by their headmistress, surprisingly the teens were the most obedient. She had most of the boys helping her, most of which wanted her to sit down and let them do the hard work but she insisted on completing this job with them, and they were happy to oblige. Sometime during their work, they heard small cackling, the boys stopped and looked around curiously, "BOYS!" "Y-y-yes ma'am?" "Should you hear anything odd coming from this floor, just ignore it, and don't let it interfere with your jobs!" "YES MA'AM!" And they swiftly picked up their hammers and began pounding in the nails quick, to please the bird.
Sarah was watching this in one of the dumb waiters, Alice had told her that the bird was a telepath and so, decided to try and think something else, I sure hope Maria'll be ok I wonder if Alice has any type of medicine. It actually threw off the bird too. She looked behind her with a funny feeling but Sarah had already closed the door, she tugged on the rope three times telling them to pull her up slowly and carefully. The dumb waiters tended to be a tad creaky, if she tugged twice it meant "go as fast as you can EMERGENCY SPEED AT ONCE!" Maria and Alice were at the banister with archy of course, she had asked permission to leave the room as long as she didn't go downstairs, because she was still a little wobbly, archy was helping to hold her up. The one arm without the gauze was pulling the rope along with Alice so she wouldn't have to use much strength, everyone was against her being by the banister doing ANYTHING physical but she insisted and started limping out anyway. Once Sarah was up safe and sound, Maria began the interrogation. "It looked like they were under some kinda spell, and they're also boarding up a hallway...-" "oh that's it, I'm going down there!" Maria tried lifting her bad leg above the banister while she began to lean over, everybody grabbed her and yanked her away, she started kicking and fighting, then she held her arms up in the air and they all ducked but still held her. "SOMEONE GET THE BUCKLES!" Alice yelled, Maria looked terrified as her arm turned into a sword. Something that scared her even more was that she started to think about all the hollows she killed at once in one slash and how bloody her hands were.
Downstairs the 'old hag' had heard her thoughts and immediately turned into a bird and flew up fast. Even with 4 floors, she made it up in only a few seconds and perched herself on the banister ledge. While even carrying her dress to change into and flew over to where the others were at, when archy saw her she got a little nervous. "I swear, I didn't let her out of my sight, headmistress, I swear!" Maria was in a fit and was a little out of it but managed to hear what she had said, she smirked on the inside.
After being brought into the room, everybody stopped holding her down and eventually, Alexander brought in the buckles, archy and Alice pulled her arms out from behind her and clamped them on, she glared angrily at everybody. Some thought about handcuffing her to the bed. "How about you just stay in here the rest of the day and have a good rest, you heal much faster when asleep." Miss crowiller told her, maria just folded her heavily strapped in leather and buckled arms, growing impatient, she ordered everyone to leave the room at once and they did so without a moments hesitation. The bird got on one knee beside maria and gazed at her for an uncomfortable amount of time, maria was just confused as she cocked an eyebrow but had yet to say a word, is she trying to hypnotize me? Make me one of her strange obedient robots? Still not talking between either of them, the bird started to grow surprised, maria didn't even bother with the confusion anymore. Though, now getting curious, "just what are you trying to do? I'm not gonna become one of your stupid robots and I'm most certainly not going to be another obedient slave, you call your wards. You're just a normal ymbryne with one peculiarity and that's..-". Maria was starting to lose her train of thought as she started getting tired but refused to fall asleep, now she was more motivated than ever to prove her point and not sound like the crazy, paranoid, jewish stereotype anymore. "Y-you...have m-m-more than...one...p-pec-peculiarity, t-telepathy, h-hy-hypnotism, a-a-and….I j-just know….you're definitely…-", with those last few words she fell asleep. The bird was breathing heavily and fanning herself due to it, "I've never had to use those powers for so long before...she's a tough one, that girl." She looked back over at a sleeping maria and went to check her pulse, using such an amount of power can truly drain one of their life force. She was fine, luckily. Walking over to the door, expecting the sound of feet running away, turned the brass knob and saw no one in the hall, except for archy who was standing at the far end outside of sarah's room, there was laughing. So, assuming they hadn't heard a word, turned into a bird, grabbed hold of her dress with her beak and flew back down to the boys who were just about to pound in the last nail, the hallway entrance was completely sealed, air tight even. They saw her flying down and looked away while she nestled into her dress, wings spread into the sleeves and head, barely peeking out of the clolar, changed back into her human form and asked for the nail and hammer. "Happy to, headmistress!" They handed the equipment over as told and she told them they could have their lunch, the three smiled and ran to the kitchen, "JUST DON'T MAKE A MESS!" "WE WON'T, HEADMISTRESS!" They yelled back, already half way down.
The bird held up the nail to the wood, hammer in hand and with one hard swing, finally got the very last board on, the area now unbreakable and sturdy as an army base. Right as the last nail was hammered in, one of maria's eyes shot open then the other one, archy was with her by bedside and thought it was creepy, "m-mary?" She couldn't respond and was paralyzed from the neck down, what did the old hag DO to me?!...was that her hypnosis or….? "Mary if you can hear me, blink." She barely managed to blink but her eyes weren't gonna get red anytime soon, according to her, her eyes felt just as fine when they're ABLE to blink in the first place. Archy sighed that maria wasn't dead under her watch and went over to the small window, when everyone was in the room with her, candles and gas lamps that they brought in from THEIR rooms. So without much of anything to do, maria started thinking about another way to get both downstairs in general AND even try to make it back to the basement the first time was on accident, anyone could've fallen through those steps and for a loop, in which a new house would stay a new house. A new house doesn't deteriorate so quickly, the wood can't be that fragile and from anybody's perspective, it looked rock solid if it were the rain then there'd be at least SOME kind of show of peeling paint wether redone or not, cracks are always see able if they have any. It's the 20's after all, then again, most people aren't focusing on decorations or the details of many things other than escape plans from the concentration camps. I knew one boy and his 5 year old sister who got torn away from their parents and were eventually split up as well between girl's and boy's. My family lived underground with several others, all cramped together on the cold floors, I was one of the little ones who was given permission to have a blanket due to my age, I was almost 7 at the time, half of my teeth gone and some partially grown. I always wore two to three layers of everything all the time and would give some of the little-er ones one of my sweaters. Thinking about this was getting Maria a little tears eyed, archy just stared out the window as some of the other kids played tag. Maria started thinking about any possible way to not only get down to the main level but also find a way to get to the basement, during this, her arms pulsed and beat like heart, they seemed to have a mind of their own and only wanted to break free. If it were possible for my hands to become a...blade then... She remembered what happened downstairs and all the blood that got on her hands, it was traumatizing but she still wanted to see if that man really could help her with control. They lash out when angry or scared. Only her fingers could move and that gave her an idea...Maria figured out a way to turn her finger into a long rope with a knife at the end. It moved closer to the door slowly and carefully but then, archy turned around when she heard a click and looked to Maria with some fear. This was her chance and she wasn't about to let it slip. Her other three fingers on her left side, grabbed archy and shoved her against the wall, making her dizzy and her eyesight hazy, Maria started to gain more control of her body, but only her neck leading to her head, most of her torso, and she could move her arms freely. With her fingers, managed to fuse them together once far enough away from the restraints and separated out again to form a grappling hook, shot it to the paneling of the edge of the door, used her other arm to rip the blankets off and pulled herself to the door. Upon making to the hallway, archy shot back up awake, Maria grabbed the door with her usable hands and slammed it shut, she turned her fingers into a key and managed to lock the door, archy's banging and pounding alerted everyone in their rooms. Before anyone could make it to the hall Maria turned her fingers into a large suction cup, there was a chandelier in the hallway, she pulled herself above it, it was huge enough to hide a person but couldn't support their weight so, Maria was hanging by her fingers just above it, completely hidden as everybody ran out into the hall. Little did she know that archy saw everything through the keyhole and she yelled through it, "SHE'S ON THE CHANDELIER!" Alice was right outside the door along with Ella And Sarah, "Mary get down here now!" Alice yelled then they saw what looked like a skin colored stretchy rope shoot out and attached to the nearest ceiling across, they saw a small tug and Mary flew out of her hiding place, everybody's jaws dropped in shock, "I THOUGHT THE RESTRAINTS WERE ON!" Alice nervously demanded an answer. "She's using her fingers!" Archy yelled through the door, they all saw Maria smirk when she looked down then let go of the ceiling and dropped. Everyone ran to the banister while she passed floor to floor, Maria turned upside down and she looked like a torpedo with her nose dive. At random, Alexander and Philip ran into the hallway, Alice saw and then got a little paranoid herself, knowing philip's peculiarity. He grabbed Ellie's hand and then flew up his own. Time slowed down then stopped fully, Alice's face was of shock, her light pink dress in mid-turn, part of her dark brown curly hair in her face and her jaw open. When Philip stopped time everything turns black and white like in those old silent films, the only ones still in color were himself and Ellie whose hand he was holding so she could move. He whispered in her ear what he wanted her to do then handed her something very small, "but...I-I don't like transforming, it scares people…" "I'm the only one who can see you when I've used my powers, if it makes you feel better I'll turn away and close my eyes, once you're done, come back up here and tap my shoulder ok?" Ellie smiled and nodded then alerted philip to turn away now as there began a small moment of silence. Then, her transformation started…: Her eyes turned black, her teeth sharpened menacingly similar to a shark, the tip of two wings slowly made it's way out of her back as if a piece of skin was coming off but no blood instead is replaced with watery slime, the kind you'd see on a frog, as it makes it's way out, the wings that had finally come out were like those of a bat's and almost three times the size of her body in height and as long as a totem pole, philip tightly shut his eyes with his hands covering them as well, her nails grew out far and even sharper than her teeth which were that of new knifes, blood veins came up to her face as if her cheeks were cracking only they pulsed with the heavy sound of her heartbeat, her wings began to flap up and down slowly then got progressively faster as she began to rise up, over the banister almost like hovering only more bouncily due to the wing flapping. Philip was tempted to look after the loud noise of ellie's wings but stood by his word and kept his eyes closed then he heard the sound of wind sweeping by him fast almost like a dust cloud left behind from…,(you know what, I'm not even going make a Looney Toons reference here, this moment is too serious...I think I just screwed it up). Ellie shot down to maria then stopped perfectly without the need to slow down and slowly made her way to maria without moving her body. She took off the restraints and they fell to the ground peacefully then went to put the small object philip had given her into her friends hair, according to all of her friends, there could be a bird's nest forming through and in her hair and she wouldn't even notice until someone points it out. It was a recorder, there are two, the one in maria's hair could only hear voices from around them but it wasn't a communicator, the other one philip had could only hear what maria heard. Luckily no telepath can listen to thoughts when time is stopped, the device was easily nestled into her giant mess of knotted, thick, curly, long hair. Ellie flew back up at the same flash speed as before, she shook her head fast and it turned back to normal then used all her strength to literally push her wings into her back once more like an accordion, after pushed inward all the way, the skin instantly regenerated over it layer after layer until the wing marks were invisible and her back looked normal. She tapped philip on the shoulder like said, he turned around and saw an adorable little girl with her perfectly normal goldy locks curls, a few strands tied back with a purple bow and light purple long skirt, her regular laced up high boots, her black jacket though...was completely torn to shreds, same goes for the back of her long sleeved light blue high neck. It looked like just the same peculiar girl he's always known and still has yet to see what she looks like on the inside but apparently, to her, it's embarrassing. He smiled back then flew his hands up and time started again. "Philip don't do it!" Alice yelled nervously, not knowing what he'd done, "sorry, alice but you're a little late for that, I had an idea and I needed ellie for it that's why I grabbed her hand, I already did what I had to do." "B-but..." "You don't have to worry...I've got a fool proof plan in store, there's a recorder in mary's hair right now." "When did you have time to build that?" "In the other loop, back at the camp." "When and how did you-" "before we were numbered off, before the horse race." "I'll ask again, how did you build it, where'd you find the equipment?" Philip rubbed the back of his head and looked away nervously then back up at alice and laughed awkwardly."does it REALLY matter, point is, we're going to spy on mary for her safety, ok?" Alice gave him a guilty glare."possibly...maybe..from the speakers throughout the camp that the nazi's would kinda speak through..." "YOU LITTLE PSYCHO, SO IT WAS YOU TWO THAT CAUSED THE HORSE RACE!" "Hey, we escaped didn't we?" "I should just call Anna to come in and catch Mary, whose falling...very slowly..." "It gives her plenty of time to make a hole with her...arms..." Alice looked down at mary who was falling in slow-mo and her arm restraints were off. "Why are the buckles off?!" As they had this conversation they'd completely forgotten that they weren't the only ones in the hallway, alice looked over to her right and saw rafael, sarah, archy's eye through the door keyhole, all staring at them, and alexander who was to enveloped in maria and her slow fall that was beginning to pick up speed. When she noticed the buckles gone, her arms changed into a drill for the first time and she went straight through the floor. "C'mon, everybody to my room!" With that, he grabbed alice and ellie's hands and urged the others to follow him.