Oh here they come
But I'm not afraid
There's no temptation I can't evade
Stand up straight
Look through the haze
I begin to walk through the maze
Here they come
They're all up on me
But I'm dead to sin like
Some kind of zombie
~Some Kind of Zombie, Audio Adrenaline
Luce ed Ombra
Chapter Seven
Where it All Begins
[By Ultema and Guo]
His head stuffed into the corner of the couch, one arm on the head of the couch, the other off the edge, Dante had obviously been rolling around on the couch, as it could be seen from the trail of drool marks. No matter, his one visible eye opened as Isabella entered the doorway, and looked straight at her. It wasn't quite certain what he knew or could tell from her face, but he suspected something.
Jumping to his feet, a quick brushing of his coat and pants, and a shake of his head, not moving the seemingly undisturbed silver hair, an eyebrow rose towards Isabella along with a slow nodding of the head with his usual smirk.
"Ah, caught ya! Thought you were going to be able to get me out of these clothes with a sneak attack, eh?" Was he serious? Or was he just concealing his knowledge? One couldn't really tell with him., and did it really matter with such a wise ass?
What Isabella offered in return was something reminiscent of a smirk, but the contemplative absence in her eyes was something a little different. Whatever the case, she wasn't going to let that get her down ... at least, not right now. Without responding to the young man, she moved to one of the three suitcases and knelt, opening it gently with one hand and removing from it a cell phone, along with a small, high caliber handgun.
She stood and crossed the room silently, expression somewhat distant as she slid the handgun into a previously not-visible shoulder holster in her coat. Moving again towards the suitcase, she pulled from it a cell phone, turned it on, and clipped it to the belt that dangled uselessly around her waist.
" It will be safe to go now ... I've scouted the passage and all's well..."
The crimson clad man tilted his head to the side, a smirk as he procured the phone she had given him earlier, from his coat pocket, looked it over, gave it a twirl like one would a gun and slipped it into his pant leg's pocket -- no drug dealer ghetto look for him ... he had to keep the stylish. He took a stance to her side, arm lifted to lean on her shoulder,
"So this is where it begins, eh? ... I still don't know anything, y'know ... but I guess it won't matter since whatever's around here'll get a nice taste of steel." And he meant everything; monsters, demons, chairs, it didn't matter, however this brought another concern to mind;
"Uh, speaking of which ... Am I going to have to find a new sword or what, babe?" A lighthearted comment from him
"You can get it when we get there ... It may be safer to head there with you now than it would be in the daylight, but the other folks still wander around sometimes, and I don't think stuffing your sword down your pants is going to hide it very well." A silent nod in response to her own statement, Isabella moved forward again and towards the door. Leaning against it, she peered around the corner and slipped out of the room, all that was to follow was a hand beckoning the white-haired man to follow suit.
It was another stealth mission, maybe not on the lookout for people so much, but under the security camera again, and getting him over those broken stairs was going to be a real test.
A brow rose in Isabella's direction, but Dante followed her behind. He was there to work, and perhaps find out a bit more about her. Crouching down behind her, his boots knocked a bit hard on the floor below him, and a squint in his face indicated his embarrassment, or whatever it was. He leaned over her shoulder, looking where she did, offering approximately 1.2 centimeters of maneuvering for her, and whispered near her ear, most likely making his voice much louder than intended,
"Where are we going? ... and what are we hiding from?" .. He seemed a rookie at stealth ... after all, previously it was all just hack and slash for him.
Isabella's head swiveled slightly backwards at the loud sound of her partner's voice, offering him little more than a typical stink-eye death glare, before returning it to its previous position and staring upwards, towards the ceiling. A hand rose to indicate something what was indeed moving some distance ahead of them -- rotating left and right slowly, and sure enough it was a camera.
"That, and any other odd noises you may hear," Isabella whispered. "If you hear anything, hide as fast as you can, but STAY OUT of the camera's field of view ... there's a blind spot right under it..." That said, she moved, back flattened against the wall, and shifted sideways with it across and under the camera, which continued to rotate. Disappearing into the blackness beyond, two bright green orbs appeared as though floating in the midst of the darkness, and a hand beckoned idly to the red-clad hunter.
A smirk as he saw how carefully she moved passed ... Dante just had to ask her why ... but in order to do so, he had to play along -- in his way, of course. Lifting himself up and strolling down the hall as the camera rotated away from him, he pulled out Ebony. Surprisingly, and getting another death stare from Isabella over there, he raised it's barrel to the camera, yet did not shoot, instead, as it came towards him, he simply pushed the camera upwards and over behind him, keeping himself out of it's cone of vision -- it helps to be tall, even if it is just because of boots. He made dash, keeping as silent as possible, over to Isabella and smirked at her.
"Why're we keeping out of sight if we're just going to be breaking this place, anyways?" He offered with an obviously amused tone of voice, yet, it was obvious he'd play Metal Gear for real if she requested it.
"Well, it's not really this place that we are going to be ... "breaking" " Isabella stated as she shook her head in response to Dante's antics before grabbing his hand and moving towards the stairwell. This was going to be the tricky part.
Letting go of his hand almost the same instant, she turned to look the Hunter dead in his eyes; something she did quite well. Without much more than a blink, her attention ascended the stairwell again.
"Do you have a way you could get up those stairs without actually stepping on them? They're too fragile to hold your weight ..."
It was true, she wasn't telling him he was fat, either, but she couldn't see a way to do so without picking him up and chucking him up the stairs ... if he had a better idea, let it be known.
A confused look was present on Dante's face, while one hand reached to apparently search around his pockets, the other was pinching his stomach, checking his body fat.
"Ahh, I seem to have left my grappling hook in my other set of pants, babe." Dante offered as he eyed the stairway and walls, and attempted to hoist himself up, pushing against both sides. While he easily got himself up, it was going to be impossible to move up, let alone get down quietly.
"Little help here? Any ideas?" He grunted, using much of his upper body strength.. there must have been something she could do.
"Like, throw your cat up there in a pole and I'll climb him or something, eh babe?"
"Oh!"
Obviously. Why hadn't she thought of something like that, anyway ... and while Moofie wasn't possibly strong or big enough for what she had in mind, she had placed her hands together, forming a triangle with her fingers, and then flipped her hands upside down. On the floor before Isabella, appeared two red triangles, spinning ... spinning ... spinning, and stopping to form a perfect pentagram, around the perimeter of which formed a circle, and as the pentagram seemed to sink into the floor, from between the cracks in the stone oozed a black substance that soon took form as another familiar black shadow feline.
"I've got to admit, you've got some sort of resourcefulness to you..." Isabella uttered, slinging her hand forward in order to the feline, who's body tensed, before right under the legs of the demon hunter slid a spear-like projection of a head, wide enough for someone to balance across, all the way up to the top of the stairwell.
Having to swing himself up, as he didn't want to let go and ruin their amazing stealth, Dante wrapped a leg around the feline's rigid extension and subsequently crawled all the way up, hanging upside-down, army style. On the landing of the stairwell, he awaited his companion.
"I don't see how anyone can compare to us, you know? They better all just hope they can run faster than I care to chase ... and ... especially with, " A glance to her own little friend. "Y'know, I could really use a few of these for my own personal use." Whatever that meant, he seemed to be amused by it.
" .... "
Isabella didn't even want to think of what uses he'd put to her precious shadow babies, and instead leapt forward towards the stairs -- boots aimed down and ready to crash into the stones below, but just before they collided with them, the sound of soft, padded feet scuffing gently against the stone was heard, and a black cat the size of a large dog scampered up the stairwell without so much as disturbing the fragile lay of the rock, and continued expecting the hunter to follow suit quickly and noiselessly.
"Come on, hunter ... we're almost there..." The bend of a corner taken, and the feline trotted, tail a-waving towards the candle which she had previously gone under, and with a slick and smooth movement, the animal disappeared into the ripples of the wall, only to stick her head out again to see where her partner was.
Dante's eyes grew wide, it wasn't the kind of thing you see everyday, even if one knew something like that could happen at any time with Isabella around. A blink or two as he was now following a talking cat in the loosest sense of the word ... no matter he though, things just kept getting more interesting, which was fine by him, he was sick of the same old. As he stayed behind her, he couldn't help but stare at the physical qualities ... it was almost worth studying, if he were that kind of a guy, as opposed to a break whatever's new because it'll hurt otherwise. The sounds of his footsteps were all that was heard from him... he'd keep his mouth shut about all of her … abilities.
Noting the compliance of her partner, the feline continued on through the wall and down the hallway she had previously been in. The floorboards creaked under even her weight, as she gripped the wood with the pads of her feet to assure that she had proper footing. Something still felt amiss as she peered over her shoulder towards the other end of the new hallway - pitch black as could be. No other sounds save for her own footfalls as she neared the iron door.
Four padded footfalls became the shuffle of two boots as the feline appearance melted away to again reveal the human Isabella. Hands fell on the cold, black iron as she came to a halt, and peered over her shoulder towards her companion, half expectantly, half in contemplation.
A look of disbelief from her partner, but it wasn't exactly like anything else that had happened when he was with her was normal. Dante cocked his head to the side as he walked to the area of the wall that the feline had walked straight through.
"I somehow think this isn't going ..." Dante mumbled, trailing off as he held a hand straight out and pressed on forward. Perhaps expecting to need to be some special sort of creature like she was, he was completely off guard, for his hand reached straight through as he leaned forward. A trip or two in his journey through the wall, but he emerged just as Isabella expected, only with footsteps perhaps a bit louder than her careful treading as he struggled to stay standing. His eyes looked up from the floor and met hers; this was going to be an interesting excursion. The ground creaked from his steps as well as he questioned if it could hold either of them up for long.
Dante swiveled on his heel for a moment, looking to either side, eyes pausing down the hall away from where she was pointed. Apparently something struck both of them about that area.
Allowing her own attention to shift away from her partner, Isabella reached forward, pressing a hand firmly against the battered iron and pushed. There was no movement first, and then a low groan. At the hinges of the door, what look like stone dust and plaster fell, pattering gently against the wooden floor, and with a shudder, it opened. One glance inside, and there was nothing to see. Just black. It was as though the candlelight where they were standing was unable to go through the doorway, because from the point where the doorway started, and away from them, was nothing but darkness. Not a single tile illuminated.
"We have a bit of a hike ahead of us, if I remember right..." the woman noted, tone casual and unmoved as she offered a hand out to her companion, fingers extended, but her vision seemed to skip right over Dante's shoulder and filter off into the opposite end of darkness for a brief second, and then rest again on his face. A solemn, somewhat forced smile had taken the place of a straight-lined set of lips.
Dante backpedaled slightly, a retreat towards the one leading him. His eyes snapped around when all commotion was made from the door and the one pushing it, and settled onto her. His composure seemed quite calm despite the previously sharp movement ... perhaps he was just alert, he didn't seem the type to be frightened. His hand was given to her, but he was already moving himself past her, peering into the room from up close, yet still not a shred of light found its way beyond the doorway.
"I guess you'll be leading the way then... after all that must look all nice and cozy to you, right? ... If there's room for you?" The room itself seemed like one big shadow.
Isabella's facial expression was quite obviously forced, he knew something was up ... but whether it was just her optimism (hah!) and friendliness, or yet another secret that she was keeping from him, he couldn't tell either way.
"Don't worry, it's not all like that there. Close your eyes and hold on to my hand. I don't need to lose you here ..." The remarks themselves less than friendly, if not downright caustic, Isabella's tone was a complete one-eighty, and without giving the white-haired man a chance to respond in any way, she had tightened her grip around his hand and stepped into the void.
There was a strange tugging feeling for a moment, and Isabella felt her fingers loosen slightly from around the hunter's hand as though some opposing force was trying to pry the two apart, but simply responded by tightening her grasp again. The next feeling was one of the floor having disappeared from below them; a split second of a feeling of a rapid descent, and then a sort of weightlessness. Even from behind eyelids, bright flashes of multi-colored light were noticeable, but perhaps the most notable feeling thereafter, was that of a soft, yet solid ground below her boots, a cold breeze, and stagnant air.
Dante's hand had been holding on tight through the whole time, after all, getting lost in pure darkness didn't seem like a good idea. A short yelp was let out as his body seemingly plummeted to the ground, of course the whole little episode was over in a few seconds.
Both eyes opened to see a sort of large, open corridor where the ground was grass and stone alternately in patches, here and there. Isabella looked quickly in the direction of her partner, making sure that he was both there, and to take a quick glance to see if there was anything below him, and surely enough his shadow had been reduced to a nearly nonexistent, light gray outline on the stones. There were no candles, no lights, but somehow the soft glow that existed left her feeling useless and helpless. That aside, she cleared her throat and raised her attention again, towards the hunter.
Dante glanced around, noticing the lack of shadows.
"Hah, I bet this place is actually scary for you, eh?"
"No turning back, now ... Now listen ... If you see a shadow, I want you to run ... and if we get separated, use that phone I gave you to contact me, okay? My number is the only one listed on there ..." Isabella whispered, moving to walk beyond her companion.
However his joking around ceased when she actually suggested he run for his life. No matter, he wasn't in the mood to argue or regain his ego. Instead, he simply nodded his head, and gave a few words of assurance,
"Oh, why do I know that this was just the beginning of all the weird shit that's going to happen when I'm with you ...?" His hand pointed towards her, along with a face showing his sarcasm.
"If I didn't want to go all the way, I wouldn't have met you in the street that night.... lets rock." He smirked towards her. It was her call, he hadn't the slightest clue of what he was doing. He had no clue as to what was going on, although the only way he could explain what was happening, was that he must have been slipped some form of acid earlier. But no, this place had some tricks that could easily cost a life.
"Not only does this place scare me, but I can't do anything here. I'm just as useful as some normal human girl here ..." Isabella hadn't begun joking around, though his lightheartedness was well accepted for now.
"Ah, shit ... y'know, you were my backup, too... well, you've got a gun." By backup, Dante of course meant guide and guardian. He understood the situation, but he wasn't pleased; nevertheless his attitude remained the same as ever, shit-eating grin and all.
Without so much as another word, she had begun walking forward, attention flickering around at every sound and ever-odd movement that caught her eye -- in fact, it didn't seem as though she was familiar with the place, at all. In all reality, it had changed since she last remembered. This wasn't the usual reception chamber at all ... in fact, it was some place she had never even seen before. Instead of letting him know that directly, the black-clad woman continued onward, heading down the long, open corridor ahead.
Overhead, a twitter or two, the flapping of wings, a shrill call, echoing water, jagged rocks. This place looked more like a cavern than a hallway.
It became extremely hard for Dante to keep his eyes focused. Without shadows, things had an indeterminate form to them. Thoughts ran through the white haired one's mind, with a flip of his jacket and his head cocked to ask his partner a question,
"Where exactly are we heading anyway? ... "
"There is a room that I can't go beyond here. It's like something's missing and I can't figure out what." The alternately stone-grass-stone floor had suddenly become solid stone, covered by a dirty, tattered red carpet. Glancing from here to there, stains of purple-red, armor, bones littered the pathway.
It seemed either they were definitely headed the right way, or definitely headed the wrong way. Either way, his guide was concentrating on moving ahead. With each step forward, the corridor looked longer. There were bars on either side of them, but they just led to more decayed corpses chained to walls. Scorch marks littered the walls here and there, and the charred remains of what could have only been previous visitors lay strewn about the area, and were carefully stepped over.
"So you know this place well? Well that's a relief." Dante chuckled slightly as his attention was more on her than the walk, trying to keep his mind off of the annoyance of what seemed to be an endless "hallway". As the scenery changed from a cavern like area to a castle, he began examining the walls as well.
"Are you sure you remember exactly where this is?" A hand ran down a few of the cracks and seems in the wall. He bit the tip of his glove and removed it from his hand.
" ... More or less..." Lies, lies, lies. Isabella hadn't the faintest idea of where they had ended up, and the scorch marks were curious. Perhaps most curious of all were the partially decayed bodies they were coming up to now. The stench, while unbearable in its own right, was somewhat of a welcome change to what was like the scent of fetid sea water. Something curiously glittery caught her eye amongst the pile of corpses, and without warning she had stopped and crouched, hugging her knees to her chest and reached out with one hand to see what it was.
Dante's hand felt the wall, but apparently he was left unsatisfied.. he noticed her actions and was quick to be beside her like a puppy dog.
"What is it?" His eyes glanced upwards at the wall behind the bodies, a split in the wall that the bodies were either covering up, or coming out of. Either way it was bound to be putrid inside of the opening. His hand reached up to pull his turtle neck above his nose -- such a delicate demon, while his still gloved hand began prying away a few of the bodies to look inside.
"You want to go first?" He snorted in disgust, and while his comment wasn't serious ... he waited for an answer, just in case.
"Er --" There was a pause as Isabella watched for a moment, hand still resting between corpses as Dante began pulling corpses out of a split left and right. By the time she looked back at the object, or rather, where it had been previously, there was nothing there. A quick look of confusion crossed Isabella's face as she upturned her questioning stare to the hunter, one brow dodged and the other risen.
"I'm not sure, there was something there a mi-"
Snatch. Something that felt like beef jerky had gripped the wrist resting between bodies, and with a haphazard yelp, attention flew back to the area below. A weathered, shriveled hand was latched about her wrist, and the company that had been pushed out of the wall was starting to move.
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Author's Notes: beeeeeeef jeeerkyyyyy - Guo
But I'm not afraid
There's no temptation I can't evade
Stand up straight
Look through the haze
I begin to walk through the maze
Here they come
They're all up on me
But I'm dead to sin like
Some kind of zombie
~Some Kind of Zombie, Audio Adrenaline
Chapter Seven
Where it All Begins
[By Ultema and Guo]
Jumping to his feet, a quick brushing of his coat and pants, and a shake of his head, not moving the seemingly undisturbed silver hair, an eyebrow rose towards Isabella along with a slow nodding of the head with his usual smirk.
"Ah, caught ya! Thought you were going to be able to get me out of these clothes with a sneak attack, eh?" Was he serious? Or was he just concealing his knowledge? One couldn't really tell with him., and did it really matter with such a wise ass?
What Isabella offered in return was something reminiscent of a smirk, but the contemplative absence in her eyes was something a little different. Whatever the case, she wasn't going to let that get her down ... at least, not right now. Without responding to the young man, she moved to one of the three suitcases and knelt, opening it gently with one hand and removing from it a cell phone, along with a small, high caliber handgun.
She stood and crossed the room silently, expression somewhat distant as she slid the handgun into a previously not-visible shoulder holster in her coat. Moving again towards the suitcase, she pulled from it a cell phone, turned it on, and clipped it to the belt that dangled uselessly around her waist.
" It will be safe to go now ... I've scouted the passage and all's well..."
The crimson clad man tilted his head to the side, a smirk as he procured the phone she had given him earlier, from his coat pocket, looked it over, gave it a twirl like one would a gun and slipped it into his pant leg's pocket -- no drug dealer ghetto look for him ... he had to keep the stylish. He took a stance to her side, arm lifted to lean on her shoulder,
"So this is where it begins, eh? ... I still don't know anything, y'know ... but I guess it won't matter since whatever's around here'll get a nice taste of steel." And he meant everything; monsters, demons, chairs, it didn't matter, however this brought another concern to mind;
"Uh, speaking of which ... Am I going to have to find a new sword or what, babe?" A lighthearted comment from him
"You can get it when we get there ... It may be safer to head there with you now than it would be in the daylight, but the other folks still wander around sometimes, and I don't think stuffing your sword down your pants is going to hide it very well." A silent nod in response to her own statement, Isabella moved forward again and towards the door. Leaning against it, she peered around the corner and slipped out of the room, all that was to follow was a hand beckoning the white-haired man to follow suit.
It was another stealth mission, maybe not on the lookout for people so much, but under the security camera again, and getting him over those broken stairs was going to be a real test.
A brow rose in Isabella's direction, but Dante followed her behind. He was there to work, and perhaps find out a bit more about her. Crouching down behind her, his boots knocked a bit hard on the floor below him, and a squint in his face indicated his embarrassment, or whatever it was. He leaned over her shoulder, looking where she did, offering approximately 1.2 centimeters of maneuvering for her, and whispered near her ear, most likely making his voice much louder than intended,
"Where are we going? ... and what are we hiding from?" .. He seemed a rookie at stealth ... after all, previously it was all just hack and slash for him.
Isabella's head swiveled slightly backwards at the loud sound of her partner's voice, offering him little more than a typical stink-eye death glare, before returning it to its previous position and staring upwards, towards the ceiling. A hand rose to indicate something what was indeed moving some distance ahead of them -- rotating left and right slowly, and sure enough it was a camera.
"That, and any other odd noises you may hear," Isabella whispered. "If you hear anything, hide as fast as you can, but STAY OUT of the camera's field of view ... there's a blind spot right under it..." That said, she moved, back flattened against the wall, and shifted sideways with it across and under the camera, which continued to rotate. Disappearing into the blackness beyond, two bright green orbs appeared as though floating in the midst of the darkness, and a hand beckoned idly to the red-clad hunter.
A smirk as he saw how carefully she moved passed ... Dante just had to ask her why ... but in order to do so, he had to play along -- in his way, of course. Lifting himself up and strolling down the hall as the camera rotated away from him, he pulled out Ebony. Surprisingly, and getting another death stare from Isabella over there, he raised it's barrel to the camera, yet did not shoot, instead, as it came towards him, he simply pushed the camera upwards and over behind him, keeping himself out of it's cone of vision -- it helps to be tall, even if it is just because of boots. He made dash, keeping as silent as possible, over to Isabella and smirked at her.
"Why're we keeping out of sight if we're just going to be breaking this place, anyways?" He offered with an obviously amused tone of voice, yet, it was obvious he'd play Metal Gear for real if she requested it.
"Well, it's not really this place that we are going to be ... "breaking" " Isabella stated as she shook her head in response to Dante's antics before grabbing his hand and moving towards the stairwell. This was going to be the tricky part.
Letting go of his hand almost the same instant, she turned to look the Hunter dead in his eyes; something she did quite well. Without much more than a blink, her attention ascended the stairwell again.
"Do you have a way you could get up those stairs without actually stepping on them? They're too fragile to hold your weight ..."
It was true, she wasn't telling him he was fat, either, but she couldn't see a way to do so without picking him up and chucking him up the stairs ... if he had a better idea, let it be known.
A confused look was present on Dante's face, while one hand reached to apparently search around his pockets, the other was pinching his stomach, checking his body fat.
"Ahh, I seem to have left my grappling hook in my other set of pants, babe." Dante offered as he eyed the stairway and walls, and attempted to hoist himself up, pushing against both sides. While he easily got himself up, it was going to be impossible to move up, let alone get down quietly.
"Little help here? Any ideas?" He grunted, using much of his upper body strength.. there must have been something she could do.
"Like, throw your cat up there in a pole and I'll climb him or something, eh babe?"
"Oh!"
Obviously. Why hadn't she thought of something like that, anyway ... and while Moofie wasn't possibly strong or big enough for what she had in mind, she had placed her hands together, forming a triangle with her fingers, and then flipped her hands upside down. On the floor before Isabella, appeared two red triangles, spinning ... spinning ... spinning, and stopping to form a perfect pentagram, around the perimeter of which formed a circle, and as the pentagram seemed to sink into the floor, from between the cracks in the stone oozed a black substance that soon took form as another familiar black shadow feline.
"I've got to admit, you've got some sort of resourcefulness to you..." Isabella uttered, slinging her hand forward in order to the feline, who's body tensed, before right under the legs of the demon hunter slid a spear-like projection of a head, wide enough for someone to balance across, all the way up to the top of the stairwell.
Having to swing himself up, as he didn't want to let go and ruin their amazing stealth, Dante wrapped a leg around the feline's rigid extension and subsequently crawled all the way up, hanging upside-down, army style. On the landing of the stairwell, he awaited his companion.
"I don't see how anyone can compare to us, you know? They better all just hope they can run faster than I care to chase ... and ... especially with, " A glance to her own little friend. "Y'know, I could really use a few of these for my own personal use." Whatever that meant, he seemed to be amused by it.
" .... "
Isabella didn't even want to think of what uses he'd put to her precious shadow babies, and instead leapt forward towards the stairs -- boots aimed down and ready to crash into the stones below, but just before they collided with them, the sound of soft, padded feet scuffing gently against the stone was heard, and a black cat the size of a large dog scampered up the stairwell without so much as disturbing the fragile lay of the rock, and continued expecting the hunter to follow suit quickly and noiselessly.
"Come on, hunter ... we're almost there..." The bend of a corner taken, and the feline trotted, tail a-waving towards the candle which she had previously gone under, and with a slick and smooth movement, the animal disappeared into the ripples of the wall, only to stick her head out again to see where her partner was.
Dante's eyes grew wide, it wasn't the kind of thing you see everyday, even if one knew something like that could happen at any time with Isabella around. A blink or two as he was now following a talking cat in the loosest sense of the word ... no matter he though, things just kept getting more interesting, which was fine by him, he was sick of the same old. As he stayed behind her, he couldn't help but stare at the physical qualities ... it was almost worth studying, if he were that kind of a guy, as opposed to a break whatever's new because it'll hurt otherwise. The sounds of his footsteps were all that was heard from him... he'd keep his mouth shut about all of her … abilities.
Noting the compliance of her partner, the feline continued on through the wall and down the hallway she had previously been in. The floorboards creaked under even her weight, as she gripped the wood with the pads of her feet to assure that she had proper footing. Something still felt amiss as she peered over her shoulder towards the other end of the new hallway - pitch black as could be. No other sounds save for her own footfalls as she neared the iron door.
Four padded footfalls became the shuffle of two boots as the feline appearance melted away to again reveal the human Isabella. Hands fell on the cold, black iron as she came to a halt, and peered over her shoulder towards her companion, half expectantly, half in contemplation.
A look of disbelief from her partner, but it wasn't exactly like anything else that had happened when he was with her was normal. Dante cocked his head to the side as he walked to the area of the wall that the feline had walked straight through.
"I somehow think this isn't going ..." Dante mumbled, trailing off as he held a hand straight out and pressed on forward. Perhaps expecting to need to be some special sort of creature like she was, he was completely off guard, for his hand reached straight through as he leaned forward. A trip or two in his journey through the wall, but he emerged just as Isabella expected, only with footsteps perhaps a bit louder than her careful treading as he struggled to stay standing. His eyes looked up from the floor and met hers; this was going to be an interesting excursion. The ground creaked from his steps as well as he questioned if it could hold either of them up for long.
Dante swiveled on his heel for a moment, looking to either side, eyes pausing down the hall away from where she was pointed. Apparently something struck both of them about that area.
Allowing her own attention to shift away from her partner, Isabella reached forward, pressing a hand firmly against the battered iron and pushed. There was no movement first, and then a low groan. At the hinges of the door, what look like stone dust and plaster fell, pattering gently against the wooden floor, and with a shudder, it opened. One glance inside, and there was nothing to see. Just black. It was as though the candlelight where they were standing was unable to go through the doorway, because from the point where the doorway started, and away from them, was nothing but darkness. Not a single tile illuminated.
"We have a bit of a hike ahead of us, if I remember right..." the woman noted, tone casual and unmoved as she offered a hand out to her companion, fingers extended, but her vision seemed to skip right over Dante's shoulder and filter off into the opposite end of darkness for a brief second, and then rest again on his face. A solemn, somewhat forced smile had taken the place of a straight-lined set of lips.
Dante backpedaled slightly, a retreat towards the one leading him. His eyes snapped around when all commotion was made from the door and the one pushing it, and settled onto her. His composure seemed quite calm despite the previously sharp movement ... perhaps he was just alert, he didn't seem the type to be frightened. His hand was given to her, but he was already moving himself past her, peering into the room from up close, yet still not a shred of light found its way beyond the doorway.
"I guess you'll be leading the way then... after all that must look all nice and cozy to you, right? ... If there's room for you?" The room itself seemed like one big shadow.
Isabella's facial expression was quite obviously forced, he knew something was up ... but whether it was just her optimism (hah!) and friendliness, or yet another secret that she was keeping from him, he couldn't tell either way.
"Don't worry, it's not all like that there. Close your eyes and hold on to my hand. I don't need to lose you here ..." The remarks themselves less than friendly, if not downright caustic, Isabella's tone was a complete one-eighty, and without giving the white-haired man a chance to respond in any way, she had tightened her grip around his hand and stepped into the void.
There was a strange tugging feeling for a moment, and Isabella felt her fingers loosen slightly from around the hunter's hand as though some opposing force was trying to pry the two apart, but simply responded by tightening her grasp again. The next feeling was one of the floor having disappeared from below them; a split second of a feeling of a rapid descent, and then a sort of weightlessness. Even from behind eyelids, bright flashes of multi-colored light were noticeable, but perhaps the most notable feeling thereafter, was that of a soft, yet solid ground below her boots, a cold breeze, and stagnant air.
Dante's hand had been holding on tight through the whole time, after all, getting lost in pure darkness didn't seem like a good idea. A short yelp was let out as his body seemingly plummeted to the ground, of course the whole little episode was over in a few seconds.
Both eyes opened to see a sort of large, open corridor where the ground was grass and stone alternately in patches, here and there. Isabella looked quickly in the direction of her partner, making sure that he was both there, and to take a quick glance to see if there was anything below him, and surely enough his shadow had been reduced to a nearly nonexistent, light gray outline on the stones. There were no candles, no lights, but somehow the soft glow that existed left her feeling useless and helpless. That aside, she cleared her throat and raised her attention again, towards the hunter.
Dante glanced around, noticing the lack of shadows.
"Hah, I bet this place is actually scary for you, eh?"
"No turning back, now ... Now listen ... If you see a shadow, I want you to run ... and if we get separated, use that phone I gave you to contact me, okay? My number is the only one listed on there ..." Isabella whispered, moving to walk beyond her companion.
However his joking around ceased when she actually suggested he run for his life. No matter, he wasn't in the mood to argue or regain his ego. Instead, he simply nodded his head, and gave a few words of assurance,
"Oh, why do I know that this was just the beginning of all the weird shit that's going to happen when I'm with you ...?" His hand pointed towards her, along with a face showing his sarcasm.
"If I didn't want to go all the way, I wouldn't have met you in the street that night.... lets rock." He smirked towards her. It was her call, he hadn't the slightest clue of what he was doing. He had no clue as to what was going on, although the only way he could explain what was happening, was that he must have been slipped some form of acid earlier. But no, this place had some tricks that could easily cost a life.
"Not only does this place scare me, but I can't do anything here. I'm just as useful as some normal human girl here ..." Isabella hadn't begun joking around, though his lightheartedness was well accepted for now.
"Ah, shit ... y'know, you were my backup, too... well, you've got a gun." By backup, Dante of course meant guide and guardian. He understood the situation, but he wasn't pleased; nevertheless his attitude remained the same as ever, shit-eating grin and all.
Without so much as another word, she had begun walking forward, attention flickering around at every sound and ever-odd movement that caught her eye -- in fact, it didn't seem as though she was familiar with the place, at all. In all reality, it had changed since she last remembered. This wasn't the usual reception chamber at all ... in fact, it was some place she had never even seen before. Instead of letting him know that directly, the black-clad woman continued onward, heading down the long, open corridor ahead.
Overhead, a twitter or two, the flapping of wings, a shrill call, echoing water, jagged rocks. This place looked more like a cavern than a hallway.
It became extremely hard for Dante to keep his eyes focused. Without shadows, things had an indeterminate form to them. Thoughts ran through the white haired one's mind, with a flip of his jacket and his head cocked to ask his partner a question,
"Where exactly are we heading anyway? ... "
"There is a room that I can't go beyond here. It's like something's missing and I can't figure out what." The alternately stone-grass-stone floor had suddenly become solid stone, covered by a dirty, tattered red carpet. Glancing from here to there, stains of purple-red, armor, bones littered the pathway.
It seemed either they were definitely headed the right way, or definitely headed the wrong way. Either way, his guide was concentrating on moving ahead. With each step forward, the corridor looked longer. There were bars on either side of them, but they just led to more decayed corpses chained to walls. Scorch marks littered the walls here and there, and the charred remains of what could have only been previous visitors lay strewn about the area, and were carefully stepped over.
"So you know this place well? Well that's a relief." Dante chuckled slightly as his attention was more on her than the walk, trying to keep his mind off of the annoyance of what seemed to be an endless "hallway". As the scenery changed from a cavern like area to a castle, he began examining the walls as well.
"Are you sure you remember exactly where this is?" A hand ran down a few of the cracks and seems in the wall. He bit the tip of his glove and removed it from his hand.
" ... More or less..." Lies, lies, lies. Isabella hadn't the faintest idea of where they had ended up, and the scorch marks were curious. Perhaps most curious of all were the partially decayed bodies they were coming up to now. The stench, while unbearable in its own right, was somewhat of a welcome change to what was like the scent of fetid sea water. Something curiously glittery caught her eye amongst the pile of corpses, and without warning she had stopped and crouched, hugging her knees to her chest and reached out with one hand to see what it was.
Dante's hand felt the wall, but apparently he was left unsatisfied.. he noticed her actions and was quick to be beside her like a puppy dog.
"What is it?" His eyes glanced upwards at the wall behind the bodies, a split in the wall that the bodies were either covering up, or coming out of. Either way it was bound to be putrid inside of the opening. His hand reached up to pull his turtle neck above his nose -- such a delicate demon, while his still gloved hand began prying away a few of the bodies to look inside.
"You want to go first?" He snorted in disgust, and while his comment wasn't serious ... he waited for an answer, just in case.
"Er --" There was a pause as Isabella watched for a moment, hand still resting between corpses as Dante began pulling corpses out of a split left and right. By the time she looked back at the object, or rather, where it had been previously, there was nothing there. A quick look of confusion crossed Isabella's face as she upturned her questioning stare to the hunter, one brow dodged and the other risen.
"I'm not sure, there was something there a mi-"
Snatch. Something that felt like beef jerky had gripped the wrist resting between bodies, and with a haphazard yelp, attention flew back to the area below. A weathered, shriveled hand was latched about her wrist, and the company that had been pushed out of the wall was starting to move.
