Ramshorn RP: Illusions

'Get up here...you... Just here'

Vivian extends her hand down towards Zeke but retracts at the last second. On the other hand, he might make a decent enough distraction for her escape.

'just stay here...' she says, turning around and beginning to run back across the walkway as quietly as possible.

Ingram moves slowly in the darkness. The room he was in was just another piece of the production part of the facility. It's an open area despite the large pieces of rusted and charred machinery taking their places. Acting as sentries guarding the past. He moves around them, jumping over conveyer belts long passed their usefulness. He hadn't run into a singe person, which he thought odd. He questions the merit of the rumors in his head, but goes over the loud crash earlier. That couldn't have been another part of the walkway above him falling, could it? He retains that thought as he presses himself against the northern wall. His hand runs up the side of it, feeling for a doorknob he could grab ahold of. His flame doing well to reveal his position.

In that moment Vivian pulled on the doorknob that lead into the factory floor. In order to be more stealthy she had to get off the walkways. The only way up or down was through the metal door that opened at the end of the factory conveyor belts. For some reason the door had more resistance than usual but she yanked it open and ran through.

That's when she felt it, a flame press against her skin then the weight of another person. She bounced off them, her feet panicked unable to get a purchase on the ground.
She muttered some incomprehensive expletive.

Great she had certainly killed Zeke, and now had just accidently chest bumped someone else.

Sophie turned her flashlight towards the crash. There, not too far away ontop of the walkway that had fallen lay another boy. She looked at Kurt apprehensively. "Do you think that's the guy who locked us in here?"

After brushing the ashes away from himself a light shone on Zeke, now blinding him.  He stood up looking toward the light with squinted eyes.  "Hello?" Zeke was finally getting his air back as he brushed off his green coat that he could now see thanks to the torch.  "I'm Zeke.  You're not like, an axemurderer or a ghost are you?"

Ingram stands like a somewhat solid wall, backing up as soon as he felt someone bump into him. He grunts in response. "God damn, what a pain." He blurts out. It was figurative and literal at the same time as he can still feel the pain from the cut on his head. He shines his lighter in front of him to find the girl he had been searching for since the doors closed. "Yo." He says unamused. "You got an explanation for any of this?" He continues, not exactly trying his best to block the route back to where he had come.

"Not as far as I know," Kurt replied, "I can't speak for her though. Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm a terrifying spectre of this factory." Sophie waved the light a few times mysteriously, and then felt stupid for doing it.

Zeke was relieved when he heard a response. Though it was mostly a joke about the ghost, the sarcastic response from the voice behind the flashlight calmed Zeke some. "Spooky. But beside the possibility of broken bones, yeah I'm fine... Little constipated but... Who the hell are you?!"

'Uhhhhhhh'

Vivian sort of darted back a few steps, then realised she was walking backwards, into the stairwell where she came from.

'No..'

A pang of guilt hit her when she saw the amount of blood on Ingram's face. Man those CD's are pretty amazing weapons, or maybe she's just really good.

'Is your face...?', she trailed off making a pawing gesture with her hand where the gash in Ingram's nose was.

"Who are you?" Kurt replied, "I try not to get into the habit of giving my name out while I'm trespassing." Despite his almost sarcastic response, Kurt had begun scanning the room around him for anything to hit the guy with, in case he was actually a meth-head or some other type of criminal.

"You have just kind of dropped in. Why are you here?" Sophie added to Kurt's question. She was still pointing her flashlight at the new boy so that he couldn't see them.

"Well you guys have the light so I guess I'm at your mercy. I'm Zeke Cowell, age 16 student at Laguna Creek. I got a letter in my locker to be here at nine. Was a little late, fell through a door and now I'm having a dumb conversation with a couple of investigators."

Zeke's smartass attitude probably wouldn't get him far but he wasn't the type for pussy-footing.

"I'll probably end up dead within the week." Ingram says with contempt in his voice. He watches as Vivian take a few steps back the way she came and sighed. "What do you mean by "No". You didn't force the door closed? Why were you messing around up there?" The questions come out one after another. He might take the excuse she had accidentally hit the switch. He's more pissed that she was the one who most likely beaned him with the CD.

'I, look... Ah, Ingram... It's', she pauses, saying his name was so strange, she probably hadn't spoken it aloud before this evening. Now it filled her with all sorts of strange upset emotions. Her eyebrows arched higher as she moved her hand to the back of her neck.

Taking another step further back and leaning on her heel she spoke again in a softer tone 'I heard stuff is all and... Got lost'. Yeah even she wasn't convincing herself, maybe it's because she really just didn't want to lie any more.

'You should make sure the other's are okay, I'll find a way out...'

Ingram squints his eyes in her direction, very nearly wailing on her with his pipe. He strains to not do anything too drastic and sighs. "Fine, you go off and do god knows what. I'll be with the others." With that, he leaves the young girl to her own devices and tries to find his way to the rear of the building. His lighter provides much needed light as he makes his way to the back proper. He can see the glints of a different, more solid light waving around and attributes it to Sophie's flashlight. Something rumbles from above his head and before he has the chance to even look up, something falls from the ceiling. He crouches down again, like he did when he had first entered the factory, while covering his head. The object sends a loud noise echoing across the factory. It doesn't seem like a minute passes by when another object seems to fall and hit the floor right next to him. A second loud thud slices the air and without a second thought this time, he stands and begins to book it towards the light.

"I bet you're the funny one in your class, aren't you?" Sophie asked sarcastically. Still, it was nice to know that this wasn't the guy who had locked them in here. She decided to move the flashlight off of his face so he could see properly. "Sophie."

Ingram can see a small group of people ahead of him, his feet pound on the concrete beneath him even harder than before. His lungs pumping precious oxygen into his lungs. He begins to slow down as soon as he gets closer to the group. Through long draws of breath he manages to say, "The place... isn't stable... pieces... fallin down. Oh god." His breath slowly begins to regulate, and as soon as it does objects begin to fall from the ceiling and hit the ground floor with a resonating bang. It's difficult to say what exactly they may have been, but it sounded like metal and brick. He looks up to see the moonlit sky, the stars twinkling above them.

"Oh, you'll give him your name when he asks," Kurt said, feigning indignance as he continued further in to the factory.

"Oh, are you getting jealous now?" Sophie turned her head to him, raising one of her eyebrows with a smirk.

Ingram's gaze snaps forward to the group in front of him after noticing there wasn't a peep being said. He raises his lighter up to see them just a bit clearer and is frozen in fear with chills running down his spine. The light coming from his lighter passes cleanly through the figures. They appear humanoid in shape, Ingram notes as the figure's necks crane to look at him. He can see what passes for eyes. Sunk in and sullen. Crying out in despair. They make no further movements before vanishing. His brain stops thinking. His body refuses to move. Paralysis overwhelms him. Perhaps it was just a side effect of being hit on the head? Was he bleeding out a bit too much? Was it just an hallucination from blood loss? A minute passes and all of these questions rush to him. His body slowly begins walking, seemingly on its own, back to where he had come from inside of the factory.

"No, I'm just having second thoughts about how I'd deal with any resident psychopaths we stumble across." Kurt looked around, before turning back to Sophie and- "Wasn't that guy just there?" He asked, looking at the empty space.

Sophie turns her head to look where the flashlight is pointing. She nervously sidles towards Kurt upon noticing the empty space also. "Did he just leave?"

Kurt turned around, his hand still on the door handle as he moved to open it. As he did, he paused for half a second, vaugely noticing something, other than the disappearing boy, wasn't right. He threw the door open, and stepped outside.

Sophie follows Kurt hurriedly, her flashlight still pointed at the collapsed walkway where the boy had been earlier. She almost trips on the door frame as she leaves, green eyes failing to watch where she steps.

"Well," Kurt said, scratching his head, "That was creepy."

He looked around, to his left was the way they'd entered, and to his right-

He paused, unsure of whether they'd gone left or right when they'd entered. "Do you think everyone else is dead or...?"

"Dead?! Why would you think that? It's just an old factory."

Sophie frowns at his back, finally moving the flashlight to him.

"Well, that's how this always ends right?" Kurt said, continuing down the corridor and talking over his shoulder, "Honestly, following some random, cryptic message was a stupid idea to begin with. How often does that end well?"

"It's not a film, you dick. Things like that don't happen in real life. It's just that girls stupid joke, the one who was here when we first arrived."

Sophie follows him closely, almost holding onto him despite her words, the flashlight searching around them as they walk.

"I mean, I've never seen her before. Could be that she's decided to recreate her favourite slasher film with us as the cast." He stopped and turned abruptly, examining a door in front of him.

"Stop being a knob."

Sophie glances around since they've stopped walking now, taking in the sights of the dilapidated factory building. There wasn't really much to look at in truth.

Ingram’s feet shuffle through the factory. He had gone out of his way through this spooky place... for what? Adventure? Something to break up the monotony? Finding some strange note with a cryptic message never usually happens. Maybe that’s what it was. That’s what he needed. What he didn’t need, he thinks as he shambles through the place like a zombie, was blood drying on his head or an hallucination like what he had just seen. He begins calling out for the others to try to regroup with them. “Anyone there? Hey!”

Kurt, having just about to open the door, heard the shout.
"Yeah!" He answered, his voice echoing uncomfortably off of the walls, "How the fuck do we get out?"

Sophie whirls around, anger on her face. "What?! You've gotten us lost?! How the fuck are you that bad at navigating?"

Ingram doesn't know how to handle the voices echoing through the halls. Were they real? Were they just figments of his imagination? Despite his fears, he calls out to the nothingness. Or, as he believed it to be darkness. He rounds a corner and sees a light pressed against a door with two figures. "Please tell me you guys are actually there. I don't think my heart can take much more of this shit." He says, his face as pale as the moon.

"What, the ghost kid vanish on you too?" Kurt asked, turning the door handle and pushing through. The rusted hinges echoed off of the walls. Beyond the door was a staircase, leading downwards. Kurt ignored that one. And a door, leading to the left. He walked over and tried to open it, the bolt on the other side clanging noisily as he shook it.

"Wait, who the fuck are you? Don't just walk up to us like you know us."

Sophie is trying to not make it obvious she's freaking out about the situation. Kurt's comments haven't helped her either.

Ingram shudders a bit at the word ghost. They'd think I'm crazy if I tell them. He thinks to himself. Better to just laugh it off. There must be some explanation to what happened. He gives a nervous laugh, "Yeah, couldn't find her. It's like she was never here at all." He turns to Sophie, "What? The spooks got your memory or somethin'? I'm the one you called a dickhead." He hears Kurt's attempts at opening the door. "Fuck, that one's locked too? That ain't good."

"Her?" Kurt asked, turning to look at Ingram. "Ours was a boy. Fell through the floor above us, I looked away for a second and he was gone."

Sophie frowns and then straightens herself up haughtily. "Yeah, but just because I called you a dickhead doesn't mean I know you. Who are you."

He looks to Kurt, "I was talkin' about the other girl who came in here with us, the hell's the boy?" He shakes his head, not wanting more questions piled on to what he already has. "Never mind. This night's just been too weird." His eyes shift back to Sophie, "Ingram Rainer. Should I say it again or are you gonna forget it, Princess?" He says with some bite, still sore about being called a dickhead.

"Sophie Winter. Not Princess." The girl spits on the floor in disgust and then moves the flashlight back around the factory building, exploring into the dark corners while they stood and talked.

"Well, you're a polite one, aint ya, princess?" Ingram says moving away from the glob of spit. He snaps his lighter closed, allowing the flashlight to be their one light source. "We're trapped in this place." He says shrugging and sighing in frustration, wracking his brain trying to figure out a solution to this mess. "Anyone have any ideas? We could try to find an unblocked window or somethin'?"

"Not a clue," Kurt said, shaking the door one last time with the quickly vanishing hope that he'd be able to force the bolt out. "There might not even be a way out; serial-killer girl might have really done us good."

"Will you stop suggesting she's a killer?"

“Well, if your serial killer is the same person I went after then she’s the one who cut me open with a CD. I wouldn’t say her being a killer is out of the question.” Ingram says, exaggerating the damage he had sustained. It really wasn’t too bad of a cut. Just enough to draw blood, but he obviously doesn’t know that.

"A strange girl lures a group of idiots to an abandoned factory, locks them in and then attacks one of them," Kurt said, giving up on the door and stepping away, "You've gotta admit, it's starting to look bad."

"Fine. Yeah. She's trying to kill us all. Can we focus on getting out of here now?"

Kurt, having walked back to the way they'd entered, didn't immediately respond. With his right hand extended as though he were reaching for a doorknob, he stared blankly at the flat wall in front of him. After nearly tenfull seconds of silence, his mind occupied with rationalising what he was experiencing, he had convinced himself that he'd just gotten turned around and had come to the wrong side of the room. He slowly looked around and checked each wall, counting only one door.