A/N: Been busy taking care of a kitten lately, so I haven't had a chance to update. To make up for it, I combined the next two chapters to make this one longer. Enjoy!
As always, reviews are highly appreciated.
As soon as she turned away from Nora and took a few steps to the door, the air turned cold. Ruby's hair stood on end and she froze, hand stilling midair from where she'd been reaching for the door handle. She wasn't alone, and this time, whatever was with her was not as friendly as Ren.
Before she could even think of what to do, something grabbed her, sharp nails digging into her sides. The girl gave a pained squeal and wrenched away, feeling the nails tear long and deep scratches as she did so, and darted out of the door before it could grab her again. She glanced back into the room before the door could swing closed, her eyes meeting the empty sockets of Weiss again.
"Red! What happened?" Roman came out of the other room, and stared at her for a moment. "You're bleeding."
"I am?" Ruby looked down, really seeing the scratches on her sides now. "That monster from earlier followed me in there."
"The blonde one?"
"No, the one I ran into the last time we split up." She reminded him, touching the scratches lightly. She hissed as it burned.
"Okay, from now on, no more splitting up." He nodded, agreeing with himself.
"I'm definitely not going to argue with that."
"You okay to keep going?"
"Yeah." Ruby turned, letting him see the hammer symbol now present on her belt alongside the others. "Look, we can move on now if we can find the ladder room."
"Let's go find it, then."
They started off back the direction they'd come again, since Yang had vanished down the opposite way, and there was another hall to explore back where they'd started anyway. Ruby blew out her own candle again, letting Roman carry the light source as they walked. It wasn't long before they came back to the intersection, and turned down the last hallway.
"Hey, Red?" He spoke up again a few minutes later.
"Yeah?"
"Is it just me, or does this place…" He paused, seemingly looking for the right words. "Does it feel like it's eating away at you?"
"It does, actually." She agreed, thinking of how it seemed to be messing with her memory and the overall feel of it was making her lose her edge. "It feels like it's trying to make me go insane."
He didn't answer, and they fell into silence again. They did come upon another door, though, and when Ruby peeked behind it, the amount of light inside made her eyes protest at the contrast between it and the darkness of the hall.
"Found the ladder room." She grumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"… I've got a bad feeling." Roman mentioned as they walked into the room and toward the ladder.
"Eh?" Ruby made a questioning noise, looking over at her companion.
"I don't know." He admitted. "I just feel like something really bad is going to happen on this next floor."
Ruby looked back at the ladder. I can feel it too. There's something else up there, something we haven't seen yet, and I really don't want to go find it. "We'll just have to be cautious."
He nodded, and climbed up. Ruby followed, the foreboding feeling she had getting stronger with each step. When the opening closed behind them, she felt as if they'd just signed a contract for their doom.
This room didn't actually have a door, instead opening up directly to another hall, which they quietly crept into, listening closely for any sign of Yang. But Ruby could hear nothing; instead there was an eerie silence the other floors didn't seem to have. It wasn't just a lack of noise, it was the kind of silence that pressed on your head and made your ears hurt. Ruby pressed a hand to the side of her head and cringed, already feeling a bad headache coming along.
Roman started off down the hall, and she followed, content with letting him lead while her head hurt. Time started to blur slightly, so she wasn't sure if they had walked for thirty seconds or an hour, but after awhile he stopped and she ran into his back. "… Torchwick?"
"Look. What's that up ahead?" Leaning to the side to look around his shoulder, Ruby peered into the darkness in front of them. She was just able to make out a dark figure, stumbling toward them as if injured. She didn't have to wait for it to come within range of the light this time to know what it was.
"No. No, no, I don't want to see that one again." Ruby hid behind her companion, shivering as she remembered the injured Jaune as it had stumbled toward her before. If felt like she had watched a recording of him dying, and something about it got under her skin more than the other monsters did.
"Is it dangerous?"
"I don't think so. I just… I don't want to see it."
There wasn't total silence now. Ruby realized with a horrified jolt that this time, Jaune made noise. She could hear the shuffling of his weak and uneven footsteps, and faint gurgling sounds, making her picture the blood coming from his mouth. Covering her ears didn't block out the sound at all, as much as she wanted it to, until finally the footsteps ending in a tripping sound and then there was silence again. "… He's gone."
"Okay." She looked up, noticing Roman was staring at her. "What?"
"That thing was one of your friends, right?" She nodded. "Damn. I can understand your reaction, I wouldn't want to see them like that either."
Ruby blinked. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be a jerk?"
He laughed slightly. "I can't really remember."
And then Ruby realized something. "Torchwick, this place is making us forget who we are."
Her words hung heavily in the silence as the two contemplated what that statement could mean, and the consequences it held.
Eventually, the two remembered that they couldn't stay in one place for too long, or else Yang or one of the other monsters would find them. With that in mind, they continued on their way, walking in silence down the hall. The complete lack of sound was getting under Ruby's skin, making her fidget and want to come up with some sort of conversation just so the silence wouldn't feel so pressing, but she also had a feeling any noise they made would lead all of the monsters they didn't want to see straight to them.
"How long have we been down here?" Roman breathed, making as little sound as he could. I guess he feels it too. Making noise is probably a bad idea in here if we both have that vibe.
"I'm not sure. It feels like it's been days." She admitted, noticing again how much her feet hurt.
"It probably has been."
Ruby was about to answer when she thought she saw a faint flicker of light far ahead. She paused, and reached out to grab Roman's sleeve to stop him as well. He turned to give her a questioning look, but she just shook her head and kept watching the darkness. "Hey, can you blow out that candle?"
He just looked downright confused now, but did as she asked. Once they were in the dark again, he spotted the light ahead too. "What's that?"
They watched it for a few moments until Ruby realized it was coming closer to them, and stepped to the side to watch as it passed by. Once it had gotten close enough, she realized it was the two Beacon students she'd seen before, except this time they were running from something. That something was apparently the same monster as Yang, since the same grating sound was following the students as they ran. This monster seemed to be faster than Yang, though, since the two were just barely getting away from it. The grating stopped, then a second later the dark shape of a scythe slashed into the range of the candle and the blonde student fell with a pained cry.
The hall was silent and empty again as they vanished.
"Do… do you think she died?" Ruby's voice shook slightly.
"No." Roman answered, sounding certain. "I think she escaped. I think they both got out of here."
"I hope so." She still felt as if she should recognize them, but no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't quite figure out who they were. "Come on, we should keep going."
Soon they had a candle lit again and were back on their way, trudging down the hall on sore feet and waning spirits. Ruby's head was hurting more and more the longer they wandered the silent stone floors, and she vaguely noticed she couldn't even hear their own footsteps, despite the fact she and Roman were both wearing heavy boots. This floor wasn't just quiet, it was unnaturally silent.
Again, Ruby couldn't quite tell how long they'd walked before her companion stopped, making her nearly bump into him again. "What are you–"
"Shh. Listen."
Ruby did as told, going quiet and listening closely to the still air. She was about to ask what it was he could hear when she finally picked up the faint sound of someone crying in the distance. The sound made chills go down her spine.
"I guess we should go find the source of that." She nodded in agreement, finding herself unable to come up with a verbal answer. As soon as they started walking again, the sound started getting louder with each step, even though it had sounded a mile away just a few feet before. "What is wrong with the sound here?"
Almost immediately, they came to another door. The crying seemed to be coming from inside, but just as Ruby was reaching for the handle Ren appeared between her and the door, making her almost reach right through him.
She and Roman both froze as they stared at the magenta-eyed ghost. He was giving them a slightly panicked warning look, similarly to when he had tried to help them get away from Yang, and was shaking his head slowly.
"Ren? Do you not want us to go in there?" Ruby was answered with a quick nod from the ghost. "Is Yang in there?"
He shook his head this time. Ruby was about to ask what was in the room, but Ren suddenly seemed to get grabbed by something she couldn't see. He struggled against the invisible bonds before being forcefully pulled through the door and into the room. Exchanging a quick, uneasy glance with Roman, they opened the door and went in after the ghost.
Roman's candle lit very little around them, but Ruby could make out old bloodstains on the floor. They cautiously walked further into the room, hearing the crying get louder as they did so. Soon the light hit the wall opposite the door they'd entered from, illuminating a strange painting and the still-struggling Ren beside it. As Ruby peered closer, she noticed the painting was a very pretty image of Pyrrha with her eyes closed. The crying seemed to be coming from it.
She could see Ren struggle harder in the corner of her eye, apparently trying to break free and get to them, but for some reason she couldn't look away from the painting. Judging by the fact Roman hadn't moved or spoken, he couldn't look away either. The crying got louder and louder in their ears, until it reached a deafening level, and suddenly the pretty image changed drastically. The painting was now Pyrrha with her eyes open, and an unnaturally large grin split her face. Her expression made her look murderous, but happy about it.
A sharp pain pulsed through her skull like fire, similar to her headache, but much worse. It happened again and again, making her vision turn red at the edges before everything went black and she felt herself fall to the ground, faintly hearing a similar thud beside her as Roman fell too.