It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You're paralyzed

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight
~Thriller, Michael Jackson


Luce ed Ombra
Chapter Eight

Omniselciaxi
[By Ultema and Guo]


A blink of confusion rose from Dante with Ebony not far behind. A bullet as sent screaming from the barrel and was placed directly to the wrist of the offending arm grasping Isabella while his other hand grabbed her elbow and pulled in what may have ended up a game of tug of war until another several shots were used to sever the rotting hand. He glared towards the area in the wall between the strands of hair resting on his face, while his arm continued it's pulling until Isabella had enough momentum to get her body to him. As he glanced around the room, he noticed the friends of the previously dismembered body.

"This isn't going to be pretty ... now might be a good time to put some of your human skills to work with that gun of yours." Dante pulled Isabella against his body, turning her around to face the majority of the heap of bodies as he pulled backwards, bringing her along in a wide spiral, though she didn't appear confused at all as he did so. Ivory was the next one drawn, barrel pointed towards the bodies as well. Even though it would be just like him to burst out with a few shots ... he waited for her last bit of input ... and one quick, though quite important question,

"Now might be a good time for that sword of mine, babe." He allowed one of his guns to hang by the trigger cover in order to allow his palm and finger tips to search her stomach for an opening, and hopefully a hilt.

As Isabella was pulled along, one of her hands reached over to grasp the edge of the long coat she wore, and with a firm tug, the black material was ripped from her body and fluttering between both herself and her partner, and the unusually-quick moving undead that were moving to their feet and ambling towards them. The opposite hand flew to the holster on her shoulder, and the handgun was drawn in a flash of silver. The hand that tossed the black coat flashed behind her back, and from the seemingly useless belt around her waist, a clip seemed to appear in her hand and was slammed into the top of the firearm.

The other hand previously occupied with putting the clip in then moved swiftly to support the butt of the gun, two rounds were fired off through the black material before the coat ever hit the ground, and once it did one, one of the ambling bodies had fallen, and the other seemed sufficiently confused at the loss of an eye.

" Push your hand in! Grab a hold of whatever is solid, and pull!"

Dante did just that, and pressed his hand into her stomach; quite an awkward feeling as anyone could guess, and fished around for what could have possibly been a his sword at one point in time. Surely enough, he met several other sharp objects in there that could have been ribs with teeth, or something of the sort as he searched blindly in the recesses of what as a void-like stomach. A few shots were fired towards random bodies as they started to close in on them. Bullets, while good for stunning, didn't exactly seem to stop any of them. One body in particular was just about gnawing on Dante's shoulder and would most likely be moving towards his brain in a matter of seconds.

If Isabella had more control over her abilities, perhaps this would have been an easy fight ... or at least with his ... his sword. That was it, the hilt was not protruding that thin stomach of hers, his hand soon ripping the sword from the wet, slime-covered bonds. A spin freed him of the clinging corpse, as well as knocking a few back. Dante's cold eyes turned towards his companion's, checking to see if she was alright, after all, he couldn't be quite sure how many of her powers were restricted.

"Ya ok, babe?"

"I'm fine... To your left!" Isabella shouted, even with the sword ripping through her stomach, which didn't seem to faze her at all, she rose the gun eye level with herself and fired blindly towards her partner's left shoulder.

With a quick snap around, Dante looked back just in time to see the body that was about to attack him, fall down. Perhaps it was the distinct sound of gurgling was enough to know that the corpse had been shot in the throat, and it stumbled back. No time for celebration however, as something pounced heavily onto Isabella's back, forcing her to the ground.

There was a grunt and a deft click as her gun bounced against the floor and was sent spinning off towards her partner, all the while Isabella was pressing her hand into the forehead of the creature trying desperately to bite her, legs flailing.

Again, Dante turned his head to view his partner about to be bitten, he swore he'd have whiplash by the time this was over with.

"Isa-!" He called, and pushed out hastily as he made a jump towards her and unsheathed his sword, slashing diagonally downwards towards her. His swipe was made at the instant his feet hit the ground, giving him extra power from his hips; the head of the creature easily severed along with the legs of the nearest other body. Drawing his shoulders back, a he pressed forward forcefully, using the momentum of his turn, stabbing and skewering both the body that had been clinging onto Isabella, along with another two behind her by way of the right side of her ribs.

It was the most logical choice of direction for the blade, and he had assumed and hoped it would be no problem for her to withstand a very mild stabbing. Dante's head turned towards Isabella, his eyes keeping watch above and examining where she was hit. Isabella didn't mind the fact that she had nearly been shishakbobed, but thankful that the rotting flesh bag had been lifted off her. His hand was next to grab her, and pull her up, hopefully the rest of these could be avoided in some way, only the hole the creatures came from, and the depth of the extremely long hallway ahead were valid exits. The right side of her swanky black dress had been torn along the ribcage, and a small leak of black was visible over white flesh, yet it was ignored as she was lifted up and away from the barrage of falling bodies.

Stumbling to regain her balance, she grasped Dante's hand tightly and started to make a run for the end of the long corridor. While the other creatures were moving fast, they had nowhere near the agility the two of them had. Fast and furious she had started to run - her partner not far behind her as the sound of their boots slamming against the ground was loud and deafening, even with the groans of the undead behind them. Isabella kicked the butt of her handgun with a slick motion of her right foot, sending the metallic firearm into the air, and stooped down to grab it. In the distance, an iron gate was visible. It seemed to have fairly large slots.

" Think you can make it through?"

"I'll be fine." Dante grunted, not in purposeful rudeness, but rather it wasn't quite the time to concentrate on politeness. His sword was sheathed onto his back as his hands reached out to grab onto a couple of the bars. Shoving his foot through was the only real part that took effort. Slowly he slid the rest of his body through the bars, inhaling when necessary, and pulling clothing to the side, sword and weapons going through one at a time after he was through. Meanwhile he eyes constantly switched between the following ones and her.

The things behind were gaining, but not a second to look over the shoulder was spared as the woman slipped through the bars with a fair amount of ease and stood on the other side with her partner only to watch their assailants smack into the bars, rattle and shake them snarling rabidly with their withered hands reaching for them; curled, gnarled fingertips outstretched to claw at them. For now, they seemed to be safe from the menace on the other side, but a whole new area had presented itself with their escape from the ambling bodies on the other side; an open hall that once again cast no shadows, with no visible source of light. The air here, more foul than the last.

" What is this...?" Muttered more to herself than to the man next to her, Isabella's hand was rested upon the slick stone wall on the left side, and she continued forward, as though nearly oblivious to the existence of the hunter she had come with.

To the paler one beside her, their situation may have been less dangerous from attacks at the moment, but asphyxiation was a much larger concern to him. With all this senseless running around, a few doubts certainly entered his mind about her. Shrugging off his worries as usual, Dante couldn't help but feel that perhaps she was testing him, or rather, tenderizing him. Either way, he couldn't just stay quiet,

"Hey, babe, don't get me wrong, I love chasing after your little behind as much as the next guy, but where are we going?"

His hand was returned to his glove from earlier. Moving a bit closer to his companion looking for either some sort of truth, or at least reassurance they aren't out looking for some red herring, his hand reached out to glance her shoulder. The look in his eyes was most easily compared to an apologetic look.

"Are you alright?" His eyes ran up and down her body searching for wounds, just as she was. Not once did they even glance at his own condition. It wasn't like him -- his health had always been first in line.

"I'll be fine. How are you holding up?" The distant tone of Isabella's voice was obvious as the mocha-fleshed woman dragged her fingernails over the damp surface of the stone and continued on. The squalid conditions were almost unbearable, even for the likes of her. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't the time to notice the change in concern, though one could be assured that it would be met with a wry remark one way or another.

" ... And as for where we are going, I think we'll know when we get there ... I haven't seen this place before ... it's like things have changed since I've last been here, everything's all wrong ..." Considerable worry wracked her nerves, and a real dungeon crawl wasn't what she was looking forward to. The path previously had always been rather straight forward, no turns, no twists, and certainly no horrid-smelling animated bodies trying to take a limb off. Something was obviously wrong.

"Huh .. changed." It was odd to think of a castle changing, especially hallways and rooms. Nevertheless, Dante nodded in response. He wasn't going to argue or stop, instead, all this would keep him on his toes. Eyes kept on her, not out of distrust, but to protect her. A hand quickly moved up to bring his shirt up over his nose and mouth, a slight feeling of regurgitation caused his eyes to bulge slightly, sweat beginning to run down his forehead. Blood, gore, killing -- none of that had any effect on him -- he dealt with it daily, and feelings can be ignored, but it wasn't like he could turn off his nose (as much as he'd like to).

"I don't see myself making it too much further out of choice... so we should either find a way out of this, quickly... or find something to keep my stomach from lying out here with those guys." Dante's left hand made a general swipe in the direction of where the undead beings were, right hand still over his mouth. It wasn't just him being a sensitive little boy, it was distracting, difficult to use weapons properly, when all your concentration was going into keeping your stomach acids where they were. The lighting and hallway was also a bit suspicious to him, seemingly camouflaging something.

"I'm looking ... I'm looking ... " Isabella let out a harsh whisper as she paused in front of the wall, hands sliding over the surface of the stone, which, in this place, was covered by what looked like a thick coat of clear sludge. It was leaking in from the cracks in the ceiling, or so it appeared.

A wrinkle of her nose sent the woman backpedaling in disgust, wringing her hands off as the thick substance fell to the ground with a distinct plop. This smelled more strongly than anything else in the area, and it's less than pleasant, sulfur-and-ass odor didn't do anything for her, but that up there caught her attention. It was obvious something really disgusting was up above, but there was nowhere to go in that direction, just a wide open area with a few pillars here and there, dried bloodstains and scorch marks.

"I don't know ... I can't figure this out ..."

Ebony was already aimed directly where Isabella had been poking around. This was about all that Dante could take, his face now buried in his jacket, he began firing off bullets in succession. One after the other, bullets impacted in the cracks in the ceiling, and one after another pieces of the disgusting bile came flying out in reaction. A shuffle step to the side in order to stand in front of Isabella, and dodge the nastiness, he was about to give up. One last shot, this time Ivory pulled and fired at the same time; two bullets, accidentally set on a precision path to collide at the same time as reaching the crack. The work of a true gunslinger, or a man who was about to taste his lunch again.

A crack bore across the ceiling where the two bullets hit, and a slight rumble was felt, causing a slight stagger in Dante's steps, which were now bringing him backwards, away from whatever he may have just broken, one hand reaching out to take hold of his partner's arm.

Of course, his partner wasn't one to stand back idly and be protected, Isabella peered around the body of the red-clad man before her, only to watch as chunks and streams of muck splattered on the uneven ground below. Fragments of the stones forming the ceiling above shattered on contact with the ground and the rumble that happened soon thereafter was something that caught her off balance, until Dante had grasped her arm and pulled her backwards.

And a good thing, too. At the moment the rumbling had ceased and all looked well, the jagged crack widened into a visible fissure above their heads, and with what sounded like the snapping of wooden beams, a portion of the ceiling caved in all together with a monstrous thud. A cloud of dust wafted through the air, and the scent had become so strong all of a sudden, that she was forced to slam her hand over her mouth to keep herself from gagging.

"Christ, what is that stench?!" Isabella whimpered, one hand grasping the back of her partner's coat as the other alternated between batting at the dust, and covering her mouth. Questions were all too soon answered as the dust settled below the sound of falling debris from above; a sludge-covered limb twitched idly from below the mass of rubble before them, and another portion moved, before all together it was pushed away to reveal a twisted concoction of creature, held together by the strength of its own substance. No head visible, but plenty of eyes, hands, arms and legs -- like a mass of body parts thrown together to form a single being.







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Author's Notes Yeah yeah, bizarre chapter break up, but it's hard :P Anyway things are starting to slow down a bit what with being sidetracked and tired all the time now. Uploading and whatnot will still continue, but more likely at a slower pace than before. I'm lazy, though this is spring break finally. X.x