Late one night

by **Roland Sackville** » Tue Oct 09, 2012 12:58 pm

It was dead quiet in the manor at about 2 in the morning.

Along the edge of the wall, one of the stones in the floor silently was moved out of the way from below, and Professor Roland Sackville pulled himself up onto ground level, having first checked to see if anyone was watching.

((open))

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 2:54 pm

About a week later, it happened again, this time closer to 4 in the morning.

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 4:05 pm

Haley was up later than she should have been, but she'd had another bad dream--relatively tame, really, compared to some of her other dreams that now seemed to be blocked by Nailah's amulet.

Still, seeing a dark form rise from the floor made her shriek, and a nearby potted plant went flying directly at Roland's head.

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 4:29 pm

"Jesu christe! Quid inferorum fuit?" Roland said, in a shouted whisper.

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:12 pm

Haley's brain was torn. On one side, she heard some hell beast speaking Latin sounding phrases ready to possess her. On the other...that...ALMOST sounded like her history teacher.

She shakily took two steps back, her heart racing and hand running along the wall to find a light switch and flicked it on.

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:34 pm

Roland shielded his eyes.

"Don't you have a curfew or something?"

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:58 pm

"I...uh...sorry Mr. Sackville," she fumbled, her heart still pounding. "I was looking for something to drink to help me get back to sleep....and wanted to give my roommate time to fall back asleep since she hates me enough as is."

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:01 pm

"Did you throw a plant at her, too?"

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:05 pm

"No," she said.

And that tree on the camping trip exploded only SORT OF near her...

"She hates me because I have nightmares that wake her up. Before that, I liked the same guy she did, so she headbutted me in the cafeteria."

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:07 pm

"....riiiiiight."

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:21 pm

"She's crazy. I don't know what the hel---heck I did to her to make her hate me so much."

There was a long awkward silence.

"Why were you crawling out from a hole in the floor?"

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:28 pm

"Pardon?"

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:03 pm

"I know it was dark and all, but unless you were just laying down in the hallway, you were like...coming up through a trap door or something. In the floor."

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:07 pm

"...are you sure you're quite alright? You said you just got up from a nightmare."

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:11 pm

"That was like 20 minutes ago. Definitely awake Mr. sackville...and what did you yell at me? Was it Latin?"

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:18 pm

"I yelled in Latin because you ended up throwing a plant at me. I'm entitled to a bit of a reaction, am I not?"

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:18 pm

"Isn't Latin like, a million years old and not spoken by like anyone?"

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:22 pm

"...I think we need to go more over the Roman empire next week in class."

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 10:24 pm

"I thought they spoke Italian..."

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 11:40 pm

"That's today, and linguistics are more Professor Weaver's forte."

by **Haley Crusek** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 11:44 pm

"Still doesn't answer why you were crawling around on or under the floor..."

by **Roland Sackville** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 11:46 pm

"I really think you should get back to bed -- or perhaps to the infirmary. Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

by **Haley Crusek** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:37 pm

"I'm fine," she said dismissively.

And just to prove she wasn't crazy, to herself at least, she tried to listen for his surface thoughts a bit, to at least see that he really had been under the floor.

by **Roland Sackville** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:48 pm

Roland's surface thoughts were...odd.

I mean, it wasn't like he was psychic or had a block up or anything like that -- Haley would know that if she had ever spent time with Professor McManus. No, they were just...oddly structured. Every time she thought she could grasp onto something, another thought barged in -- most of it old doggerel.

The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle's wreck
Shone round him o'er the dead.

by **Haley Crusek** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:59 pm

The hell...

"Guess I'll head to bed then..." she said after what has probably been a somewhat protracted silence while she "listened."

by **Roland Sackville** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:49 pm

"Good lass."

by **Haley Crusek** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:14 pm

weirdo...

Haley turned on her heels and shuffled back towards her dorm room. If it seemed apparent that she wasn't being followed, however, she stopped and hid in the stairwell, and waited for him to perhaps leave.

by **Roland Sackville** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:27 pm

And leave he did, headed back to his own rooms.

by **Haley Crusek** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:39 pm

After a good ten minutes, Haley eased back down the stairs and crept back towards where she'd run into her professor. She checked to see if the coast was clear by peeking around a corner and then moved to where she thought he'd come out of the ground, feeling around for something that could move.

by **Narrator** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:03 pm

It would take a while -- whatever it was looking for, it was well hidden. There did, however, seem to be an odd indentation between two of the stones on the bottom part of the wall, next to the part of the floor she thought Roland came out of.

by **Haley Crusek** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:08 pm

the hell...

Haley did what anyone looking for a secret panel would do--she poked and prodded the switch she thought she found, pushing, pulling, twisting and sliding.

by **Narrator** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:09 pm

And she would receive a significant electric shock! No burning, but definitely not the most pleasant experience ever.

But there was also a click as one of the tiles on the floor popped up slightly.

by **Haley Crusek** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:15 pm

Haley stifled a yelp and then held her breath after the noise, hoping she hadn't been heard. Looking around, she gingerly lifted the floor tile...

by **Roland Sackville** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:34 pm

A dark tunnel stretched below, deep into the manor's bowels.

It was pitch black.

by **Haley Crusek** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:41 pm

Haley pulled out her phone and a few taps later, the flash illuminated the corridor a bit. Her heart pounded--this was terrifying...but it was awesome at the same time.

c'mon...there's not really monsters...and you've got tk to protect you...

Haley held her breath for a moment and lowered herself gently into the corridor with her tk.

by **Narrator** » Tue Oct 30, 2012 10:02 pm

The drop was...well, rather large. It would take her some time to go down, and when she did, the dirty, musty passageway was only just passable on hands an knees.

by **Haley Crusek** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:07 am

"Gross..." She mumbled to herself, strongly considering going back up to the mansion. She looked around with her phone, trying to see if she could see anything interesting.

by **Roland Sackville** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 1:07 pm

The passageway seemed to continue for quite some time out -- well past the boundaries of the manor.

by **Haley Crusek** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:05 pm

Haley pondered whether she should go on or not...

...and finally decided to press on. They say facing your fears is good right? She squeezed into the passage.

by **Roland Sackville** » Thu Nov 01, 2012 3:05 pm

A little dirt and grime isn't gonna stop Haley Crusek!

The split in the passageway might, though, as one went off, down and to the left, and the other went more up and to the right.

Mind you, the only way she could really TELL this was from bumping into the junction, but hey.

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