Hallway Leading To Blah

"Pardon?" he asked, turning back toward her. He hadn't sensed anything behind them, so he felt comfortable facing her for now. "I didn't quite catch all-"

He cut himself off as he picked up a vague shape above them. He quickly pushed her behind him, sending another pulse up at the ceiling. He got a mental ping back from it, and he got himself into a solid defensive stance. However, he didn't draw his sword. Whatever it was hadn't moved, even once they had obviously noticed it. Instead, he extended his right hand, keeping his left pressed against Mai to keep her behind him. He shaped his hand like he was holding a flashlight. Then he made a pulling motion, as if to pull it down from the ceiling.

"Let me get it!" She said sharply- the item... It was very clear as to what it was now. A doll. A doll with black hair, no eyes, and a white dress.... Mai felt, well, lured to this doll- she needed to hold it. Mai roughly took it from him and her eyes widened, a sharp, almost pained gasp escaping from her lips. Her hands began to shake so hard, she dropped the doll onto the ground, she seemed totally out of it, but very much into the vision. This vision was very... Vivid. More vivid than usual. In most visions, unless they were flashbacks from her own past- she was a third party- somebody else, looking into the scene... But this time, she was experiencing it firsthand. She could literally, feel everything the little girl had gone through, the moments up until her death.

Her bones were being crushed- she looked down at her body, where pieces of skin had literally been ripped off, skinned like an animal- without the priveldge of being killed first. The wounds were bleeding profusely- there was somebody screaming in pain- and it took her a moment to realize that she was the one screaming. Somebody kicked her from her current barely-sitting position, to her stomach- where she was impaled, through the back with a long stake. She struggled to stand up- but she was kicked back down, a loud crunching noise- and all went black, silent.

"Ohmygod." She whimpered, barely out of the vision, her face paling even more so, with a hint of green. "She didn't even fight-" Mai's voice cracked, she looked and sounded completely pathetic.

Jarus was behind her, supporting her with his hands on her upper arms. She had all but collapsed in the throes of the vision, shaking violently. He held her tightly, vaguely wondering if he should put something between her teeth. Then she screamed out - a bloodcurdling death scream. It startled him so much that he almost cried out as well, but he was able to hold it together enough to stop himself. Then she was out of it, whimpering something. He sagged against the wall and pulled her close, speaking softly. "Hey, you're okay," he said, "It's over." A part of him wanted to stroke her hair to comfort her, but he resisted the impulse lest she think he was trying something. Instead he just supported her and held her, letting her know he was there.

"I don't get why... SHE would want students to see this stuff..." Mai murmured, "There are spirits here- but it seems only to be limited to this particular area. We need to cut it off from the rest of the school, keep students from wandering and coming across this place." She seemed steadier now, but her sudden change in behavior may have been a facade- no normal human would get over such a scene so quickly. Truly, Mai was not comfortable venturing much further, but if Jarus thought it would be a good idea, well then, she'd suck it up and continue on. She pulled away from Jarus as gently as possible, a little bit of color returning to her face. Her shoulders shook as she suppressed a cough. "Should we... Go on, or do you think we have enough information?"

He stood, seeing that she had recovered, and pulled her up after him. "I think we've gotten enough for today, at least. You've certainly gone through enough today." He led her up the stairs to the doorway. "I can seal the hallway off. That won't be too difficult. Afterwards, do you think you could handle some food?"

She nodded, "Food would be good. Nothing too heavy though." Mai said quietly, going up the stairs, two steps at a time. Yes, due to the fact she was short, and the steepness of the steps, it meant she would have to do a somewhat-graceful little leap from step-to-step. From her body language, it would have been difficult to even imagine that she had just gone through a stressful experience. Mai flashed Jarus a grin, "Let's see if we can get this door open first, alright?"

"Well, unless it's magically sealed or something, this should be a breeze." He stepped up to the door, putting his right hand up to it. He sent a pulse through the door, and got a picture of how it worked on the inside. "Oh, it's simple. It just locks from the outside." He flicked the forefinger of his left hand, and the door clicked. He pushed it open, holding it for her to exit. "Step one accomplished. Now to seal the door. We'll need to head outside, to get some materials to close off the hallway."

"That sounds good." Mai was a little stunned at how quickly he could unlock a door. With her, it would take at least three hours to pick a lock... But she would have used one of the many-possiblyillegal- explosives kept on her person to open the door in the end. Jarus' way was less messy. She skipped out the door and stopped in the middle of the hall, turning on her toes to face him. She looked a little relieved to get out. The natural light from the windows brightened up the room, making it difficult to see at first, after being in such a dark area- but then her eyes refocused and got used to it. However, now it was obvious that her skin was still pale, in almost a sickly way. "Alright, so what sort of supplies?"

"Earthy ones. The kind that are very hard to move without machinery." He lifted her off the ground and floated the two of them back outside. There was a cinder block wall that bordered the campus where it met the forest. He set Mai down and floated over to it. His forehead creased in concentration, and the wall shook a bit. Then pieces began to break off, rising into the air and surrounding Jarus. Soon a veritable swarm of blocks orbited and circled around him. He floated back toward the building, some of the blocks floating ahead of him through the entryway. They flew to the end of the hall planting themselves against the far wall and stacking up until they completely covered it, sealing off the doorway.

"Alright. Good job." Mai commented, though it was a little obvious she wasn't paying an extreme amount of attention to the floating cinderblocks. She felt a tightness in her chest- a sharp tightness. Mai twitched and tried to ignore it, to move on. Psh, it wasn't that unusual- at least, for her. Constant pain was something she was used to, sadly. "Hey, should we report back to the headmaster?" She inquired, "Let him know what we saw, and what we cut off?" Mai grabbed a strand of her hair, pulling on the curls until they straightened out, and then letting them go, allowing them to spring back to her head.

Jarus shook his head as he floated back to her. His breath seemed to be a bit heavier, and sweat stood out on his forehead. "No, not today. He won't be of the mindset to deal with administrative matters. First thing tomorrow, I think." He dropped himself to the ground next to her. "Right now we should focus on making sure you're all right." He turned and looked her in the eye, his hands on her shoulders. "Are you?"

"I'm always alright." She grinned, the smiling obviously a habit by now. There was something a little defensive in her eyes- like an automatic shield had gone up as soon as he asked if she was alright. "A little hungry, but I'm sure that's going to be taken care of soon, eh?" Mai playfully elbowed Jarus, gently shrugging his hands off her shoulders. His skin- compared to hers- felt hot, but of course, that was, once again, not unusual. Her body temperature had been jokingly compared to one of a vampire's by her younger brother.

"Mai..." Jarus began, but he stopped himself. He knew she wasn't wholly telling the truth. She's so used to covering it up that she almost convinces herself that nothing is wrong. However, he didn't want to push her, to make her raise her defenses even more. Doing so would put a strain on their new friendship, and Jarus certainly did not want to be the cause of that. So he let it drop, speaking up after a moment. "Indeed it will. We can head up to the mansion where I can make you a real meal," he offered, putting a small smile on to reassure her that he wasn't put off by her mask. He put an arm around her shoulder, preparing to left them up, and noticed how cold her skin felt. "Well. Perhaps we can see about warming you up, too." A real grin spread across his lips this time as he gave her a playful wink.

She eyed him, examining him- checking to make sure he believed her- but of course, Jarus was rather difficult to read, so Mai simply assumed that he was going to let it go with his quick change of subject. She let out a light laugh when he mentioned 'warming her up'. "I know, I have the body temperature of a corpse. It's terrible." Mai shook her head, "It's been like that since I was about thirteen. The same went for my mother. I guess it's genetic." She playfully elbowed him again, "That mansion is huge, are you sure you won't get lost?" She shook her head, "Neh, I'm sure there's at least three kitchens there."