SEASON 1 - The Blue Rose Bar and Grill

[Andronica]

Character: Freya Black Elk
Time/Location: Office | What is time?
Scene Status: Open
Tagging: Theo @sky. | Alan @Vinaein | Will @Lydia

---

Not. Fucking. Today.

Freya didn't know what the hell all of this was about and she simply wanted to get back to drinking and listening to music. She let out a breath she'd been holding the second Alan came into her view and blocked out any awful chance, however small, of seeing down the hallway to whatever lurked there. Its pervasive odour and heavy presence was only getting stronger until the door released under Alan's very tactical use of a shoulder charge. In a split second he had her again and they tumbled through the door.

As soon as they passed the threshold Freya pushed her back up to the door to slam it shut. She reached down fiddling with the crescent lock just above the knob.

Sighing with mixed parts relief and shock, her free hand came up to wipe away the light sheen of sweat that'd built up on her brow. A smirk cracked her terse mouth next while she relaxed into the door. "Where'd you learn to do that?" she teased Alan, actually impressed but trying to remain calm and collected. She smacked her slightly chapped lips and pushed off the door as a rush of black moved muted behind the hazy frosted glass, temporarily blocking the pervasive iridescent white light.

That was when she looked past Alan into the dim smoky room. It did smell like old cigarettes a bit, and the smell of perfume but this time it was notable man-made like vintage Dior. Emerald capped reading lamps hung over old typewriters on the three desks on the far side of the room.

"This might be where Zara does the book keeping..." Freya said, hopeful but knowing full well it was ridiculous the second the word left her mouth. She was weirded out by the strange place. Pulling away from Alan's hand to rub the goosebumps from her upper arm, she continued. "I like to think I know all the back rooms and halls in the Blue Rose. But this one and," she jut her thumb out toward the door, "that hallway just don't make sense." And in a wave of defeat she gestured around then brought her hands down to her sides.

"Theo definitely isn't in here either."

 

[Vinaein]

Character: Alan Cooper
Time/Location: Office | What is time?
Scene Status: Open
Tagging: Theo @sky. | Freya@Andronica | Will @Lydia

How had it all come to this? Alan had just wanted to see Theo and make things right. He had just wanted to have a drink and a burger at the bar and maybe even catch up with Freya. Goddammit, he still wanted that. Just a nice set of tunes to provide a soundtrack as they spoke again...what would he even tell her? He'd missed her? He hoped things were well? All the old cliches?

And now they were in a dark corridor being stalked and hunted by something that reeked of death? It was almost comical for how ridiculous it was, how it had come almost from nowhere. It had just come out, just emerged from the darkest recesses of nightmare and imagination, concealed in a cloak of anonymity, stalking them like an invisible dream.

Freya snapped him out of his reverie, his eyes peering against her own, seeing the brown eyes that were more enrapturing amber, the teasing tone in her voice so unsuited for the situation. "I've had my moments," he whispered as they pulled one another into the next room. Alan hated smoking, the stench of cigarettes a hateful thing to him, but...

The sheer emptiness of the room brought the reticence to him, the pale blue light flickering to cast lurid shadows. "whatever the hell that was....look, we can't just assume we're safe here."

A mad impulse made him suddenly reach to put his other hand over Freya's. He squeezed tight. "We're going to get out of this," he said, partially for his own benefit as he looked about the room.

"Any other doors? What do you see?"

And what the hell did Zara possibly know?

 

[Andronica]

Character: Freya Black Elk
Time/Location: Office | What is time?
Scene Status: Open
Tagging: Theo @sky. | Alan @Vinaein | Will @Lydia

---

Freya didn't get paid enough to feel her heart leap into her throat like that. Although she held Alan's hand and it provided some measure of comfort, it was barely a candle flickering against the backdrop of a roaring forest fire that became her rapidly increasing fear when she smelled that... thing. Whatever unnatural shadow of some other time stalked the hall outside the retro little office was rapidly becoming the bane of her existence. Not a lot managed to put a chink in Freya's armour like that but, this wasn't exactly a normal circumstance.

Overall the room was pretty dim from Freya's initial once-over. Apart from the light coming through those emerald shades on the desk lamps, it looked like a dated but well kept office from the 40's complete with clunky typewriters and a lingering scent of perfume and cigarettes. Squinting a bit against the mood lighting, Freya ended up just shaking her head. It took a few more seconds to build up the courage to speak.

"I don't see another door out of here except the one we came through."

Freya looked over to Alan and sighed. "I guess... back out?" It was the only way to go, right? And if that thing was still out there reeking of death like the old stories Grandma Sisi used to tell her....

"Hold on." Dislodging her hand from Alan's, the brunette broke away for a minute to surge back into the sparse office space. Her eyes flitted over and around desks with uncertainty as if she was looking for something. Then she stepped forward to a desk butting the left wall. Freya grabbed the base of the banker's lamp and pulled up only to find it wasn't even plugged it. The light flickered under the rectangular awning over the bulb and then died, although she wasn't about tot unpack how it stayed on in the first place.

Returning to Alan with her 'weapon' fresh in hand, her forearm flexed as sinew and toned muscle went taut under her golden caramel skin. "Ready now."

 

[Vinaein]

Character: Alan Cooper
Time/Location: Office | What is time?
Scene Status: Open
Tagging: Theo @sky. | Freya@Andronica | Will @Lydia

Alan held Freya like a lifeline. Like she was a prayer, a life preserver hurled into the waters of uncertainty. He held onto her, thinking that if he only could keep his grip, then everything would be alright. If he just held her hand and didn't let go, then something in the cold and unfeeling universe would take pity upon them, seeing their plight together and relinquish them from pain and fear.

It was good to dream.

And theo was out there. In danger. Maybe worried, frightened. He had to find her with Freya, damn everything else. He squeezed at Freya's hand, hoping to transfer a tiny measure of comfort from him to her. Not a normal circumstance at all. Usually he would only have wanted to get this close during a quiet walk in the park.

Was he contemplating that? He almost laughed for the absurdity of it all. Here they were, threatened by the unseen and he was considering taking Freya out somewhere? Just like nothing had ever changed for them.

"Don't these places have regulations? There needs to be more than one exit," he said, noting the old time feel and look o the place. The scent was what you would imagine from a 50s movie, the place looking like the hidden living quarters of a hidden secretary.

Freya's hand left his own and Alan tried not to associate the absence with disappointment, watching her head to the desk. "Something you see?" He waited as she retrieved the lamp. Now armed...

He instinctively reached for her free hand again, studying the room quickly.

"Is there something else in here we can use? Something that goes...anywhere?" He looked at the door they'd entered through, not fancying opening it to see what had been stalking them close.

"Freya, we can't stay here. It's just a death trap. There's no way out." Tugging her hand, he pulled the door open, aware the presence was still a distance away. "Down the hall," he told her, holding her hand even tighter.

There was a room at the very end, maybe one that led somewhere...

"We can stay here and wait for it...or we can run. Let's run."

Knowing Freya was with him, he ran. He ran ahead at the door, still fluttering like wooden butterfly wings. He pulled Freya through it, ran like hell itself was on their heels, burning away any fabric of safety behind them. Away they went, into a hallway whose walls were dyed scarlet, a pallid blood-like glow all about them.

And he hoped they would find safety.

 

[sky.]

Character: Theo
Time/Location: The Labyrinth | Hall of Nothing | Green Hall
Scene Status: open
Tagging:
@Lydia - Will
@Andronica - Freya
@Vinaein - Alan

---

Does it look like I know where the hell I am? Her expression twisted from slight comfort,
( finally finding someone within this place ) to bitter confusion. What is he talking about, Theo took a step back from Will, giving her head a firm shake. You’ve gotta be fucking kidding.

“Does it look like I know where the hell I am?”

Theo laughed, exhausted and more perplexed than before - something she wasn’t aware was possible at this point. Her black smeared eyes widened, throwing her lengthy arms into the air as if to scream - look at me! She only imagined she appeared as shitty as she felt. Not to mention she had practically ran a never ending marathon.

“Fuck me,” Theo rested her hands on top of her mess of ink colored hair, “He’s serious.” She shrugged, turning from him to let out a cough. I led you here? It was almost to ridiculous to acknowledge, yet she knew his type and wasn’t surprised…egotistical asshole. Slicking her hair out of her flushed face.

Her gaze moved around the empty space - perhaps something changed since Will entered the hall. Yet, nothing. Only endless white space. God, it made her nauseous. Theo felt the firm grasp on her arm before Will’s words filled her ears. “Games?” Feet stumbling one over the other holding a sideways glare. “Is that a threat? Look, I don’t know what kind of high you’re on guy, but you’re fucking out of your mind,” the brunette hissed between her teeth. If it wasn’t for the simple fact that he may know the way out she’d surely do more than smack him across that flawless face.

To her excitement and slight dismay, Will relocated the door exactly where he came from. How did I miss this? She had passed this way over a dozen times - only to be led back into the same spot started. If the man holding her paid any attention, he’d feel a light tremble. Stomach cartwheeling and dropping. Tiny hairs on the back of her beck standing at attention. Every instinct told her to stop, not to open the door Will impatiently tugged her through.

She delayed entering ( knowing it would only irritate the man further. ) Theo held her breath, feeling as a child not wanting to enter the doctor’s office. At least the music appeared to be fading further to some degree as the duo stepped inside.

“I..I don’t understand,” Theo faced another room never seen before. A green hallway in ways similar to the one just left. Her free arm reached to cusp a hand over her dropped mouth. Hanging like a door on it’s last hinge. What do we do?

Unless Zara was secretly pulling some Sarah Winchester type shit, there wasn’t an explanation she could fathom. Uncovering her mouth Theo did her best to clean off her eyes as she ripped out of Will’s grasp.

“Oh, didn’t your friend Zara tell you?” She spat, settling her arms across her chest. “This is where we take rich pricks to sacrifice them,” the sarcasm heavy in her tone. I think I preferred the damn song.

Of course he wasn’t that foolish to believe that this was the workings of some witchy bitch bullshit caused by her doings. Giving her pale hues an exaggerated roll, “Look, buddy. We can either stand here and do nothing,” Theo shrugged, inhaling deeply, “or we start trying to get the fuck out of here.”

Try. The keyword.

 

[Andronica]

Character: Freya Black Elk
Time/Location: White Hall > Red Hall
Scene Status: Open
Tagging: Theo @sky. | Alan @Vinaein | Will @Lydia

---

Freya nodded to Alan when he looked into her eyes as if confirming their only course of action left: to go back out into the long blindingly white hall. Although the thought of whatever lurked there stinking like sickly sweet death wasn't very high on her list of to-do's that day, she wanted to get the fuck out by any means necessary - with Alan and Freya. And Will, she supposed, hoping he was somewhere here too wallowed up in this yawning back hall in the Blue Rose. When Alan opened the retro office door to deliver them back into the white hall she watched as pieces of the already flaky old ink scuffed away like a sturdy breeze was peeling it off.

"Running sounds good about now," agreed Freya through slightly clenched teeth. Relying on Alan's firm grip to lead her this time, ahe would hazard a glance back down the hall where she sensed the dark mass. It was there, perhaps not noticing their quite exeunt from the hellish bright space. It bobbed and weaved in the way masses of small delicate birds flitted as a whole. Over all it was the strangest thing she'd ever caught a glimpse of, next to the experience of that smell making the small hairs on the back of her neck and arms stand up to attention.

Everything primal in her was screaming to go.

And they did. They ran hard up the hall when a whooshing sound came from behind her. Freya didn't have to look back to know that thing caught on to them. Up ahead on their left a door appeared flush in the pristine wall, breaking up that immaculate length of white space the same way the surprise office showed up when shit got real. Freya was just glad they had another way to go. Her limbs felt pliable when Alan tugged her through the door he opened with lightning speed and she rounded him inside the new hallway, immediately butting up against the door he just slammed shut.

The black mass slammed hard on the door, reverberating through Freya's panting torso. She was fairly active o a quick run (albeit for what felt like her life) shouldn't have left her with a haggard inhale, but she chalked it up to tasting adrenaline in the back of her mouth.

"What the fuck?!" Freya hissed to Alan, wanting in vain for some answers, but worried it might hear them through the door. She still clung on hard to the bankers lamp. Although now able to spare a few seconds to look around, Freya realized they were in a deeply saturated hall of red light.

"...This isn't getting any better," he commented lowly. Peering down, the emerald hue of the lamp was all but sucked out under the oppressive red light. "It's like one big red room in here." She blinked once, twice, trying to dispel the awkward transition for her eyes. When Freya reached out with her free hand to touch the wall for support she felt grooves like old patterned wallpaper, but sickly vermilion and rusty rather than the asbestos green popular in the Victorian era - and probably littered a few old buildings in Dawn Chorus still.

"Theo!" Freya shouted down the red hall with something akin to desperation. She tugged gingerly on Alan's hand to get a move on. Her stomach fell and she called again, more hesitantly.

"Will?"

 

[Lydia]

Character: Will Whitford
Time/Location: Unknown Time | Red Hallway (all together now!)
Scene Status: Open
Tagging: @sky. (Theo), @Andronica (Freya); @Vinaein (Alan)

---

Will's eyes remained trained upon Theo, disregarding their bizarre environment for the moment. The girl was a mess - a complete, utter mess, muttering to herself, makeup smeared. She looked unreasonable, irrational, but nevertheless cute - she was fortunate to be so attractive. Infuriatingly, he managed a smile. She was a waitress. He'd known a few waitresses ("known" them), and they were uniformly prone to making poor decisions, becoming overly emotional, panicking under stress. It brought out a particular patronizing, paternal instinct in him.

He could hardly be annoyed; she was too like a child in her mentality. She simply knew no better.

That familiarity, that certainty, gave him confidence and renewed his spirits.

"Oh, come on now," he smiled into her scorn, the expression tinged with arrogance. "There's no reason for Zara to show me the back of a restaurant. And if you're lucky, maybe we can discuss my rich prick after we get out of here - "

"Theo!" called the female voice from down the hallway, interrupting his digression, "...Will?"

Will turned, the crimson light of the hallway painting colors in varied shades of red, giving everything - even other people - a distorted, nightmarishly-monochromatic palette. Had it been like that a moment ago? He did a double-take back to Theo, noting that she too was bathed in ruby light, her fair skin now pink in color. His eyes narrowed as he turned back to the figures further down the hallway, recognizing both from the bar only minutes ago. Or hours? Without a functional watch, it was impossible to tell how long they'd been wandering these hallways.

"Hey - hey!" he called out, covertly relieved to encounter the others. A strong arm wrapped around Theo's reluctant shoulders, urging her along with him in a smug mimic of gentlemanly manners.

Remember Will: calm, logical, in control. The obvious leader. Not nervous, or confused, and certainly - certainly - not afraid.

"What are you two doing back here?" he asked as the distance between them closed. "We were just heading back to the bar."

His eyes fell to Freya's hand, and the lamp-turned-weapon that she toted with her, as well as her grip on Alan's in the opposite. Considering all of the outlandish things he had just seen in these hallways, this was far from shocking. "Nice lamp," he quipped, nodding his handsome countenance toward her hand. "I have one like that at the office. Antique."

"We'll follow you out," he concluded specifically to Alan, as if it were a gracious offer to allow the other couple to lead, rather than a rescue request.

 

[Andronica]

Character: Freya Black Elk
Time/Location: Red Hall
Scene Status: Open
Tagging: Theo @sky. | Alan @Vinaein | Will @Lydia

---

Freya's calls down the hall bounded off the red saturated walls into what looked like a whole new abyss. She chewed the inside of her cheek from nervousness at the prospect of having to go down another one of these hell rides, though her determination won over easily as she put on a brave face. That was what she was used to - moving through life when it didn't look like it was going to budge for her - and she'd do the same thing in this hallway with Alan. The grip on her makeshift weapon tightened when her long gaze down the hall revealed something like... movement?

Stepping forward and tugging Alan in the process, Freya's eyes narrowed in the crimson wash. Two figures started to emerge coming closer form the other end of the corridor. That voice sealed it: Will and Theo.

"Hey!" Freya called back when the pair came near enough she could make out their faces clearly. And somehow, Will still looked smug, if a bit out of place. Her eyes roved over them, spying their dark hair a matted black-red and pinkish skin more reddened in rosy cheeks, especially Theo's. Her makeup was smudged around her eyes and it looked like she was sweating a bit. Freya didn't blame her considering she was feeling a little hot under the collar, too, though there was more to it than that.

"Hey," she said again, more directed to the younger woman in their presence. Her chin lifted to gaze at Will's arm he slung around Theo's slender shoulders, and her mouth drew a hard line.

"Looking a bit worse for wear, Whitford. How about you let go of Theo?" Freya flicked her wrist, gesturing with the lamp carrying arm up at him. Every fibre of her being resisted the urge to do something stupid and instead her knuckles curled tighter on the brass stem. Theo looked like she'd been through something and, honestly, Freya never did buy whatever Will was selling with that immaculate million dollar smile.

A tittering snort came next about heading to the bar, although she didn't comment on it out loud.

"Wait!" a sudden interjection had her pull her hand away from Alan's. Freya lifted her lamp-free hand in front of them palm up. "Not through there." Her thumb stuck back toward the door she and Alan came through and her mouth hung slightly agape wanting to say 'because there's a shadow thing that smells like death out there' yet it sounded too ridiculous in her head despite the adrenaline high still roiling hot in her veins.

 

[Vinaein]

Character: Alan Cooper
Time/Location: Red Hall
Scene Status: Open
Tagging: Theo @sky. | Freya@Andronica | Will @Lydia

"What the Fuck," Freya said.

"What The Fuck" was a scarlet dye all about them. It was a room that looked as though fluorescent lightbulbs had been covered in those voluminous little Chinese paper lanterns. So damnably, inescapable red. Alan's breath rattled through his teeth as he tried to blink it away. Maybe the brief flicker between darkness and the return to reality might banish it away into the realm of fantasy where it all belonged.

It didn't change. Every time his eyes opened, he was still there. His hand began to tremble in Freya's, his knees knocked, his body shivering like his very bones were trying to run for cover and leave him behind; a discarded little coat of meat and muscle that could only impede its flight.

So red, just like back then. His hand in Freya's squeezed tighter, tightly, just as-

He had squeezed his hand, in the hospital bed, seeing the red there, hearing the pained promise, the whispered death rattle that carried with it a plea he could only agree to.. Seeing the little red spittle and froth upon those lips, the wound that could not heal. The walls about them were the same shade. They bled . They flowed down into the corridors of the ineffable abyss, a river of spilled carmine that flowed into the tenebrous void before them. The gentle, verdant pulse from the lamp was seized. It was tugged into the void, drowned out in a tempest of sickly red.

Alan had no true belief in hell. He wasn't sure he believed in human life persisting after the synapses of the brain stopped firing. But if hell was a place, if it had a color to it, he knew it must be this corridor, this hallway.

Courage was merely a word and a useless one at that. There was no visible wound upon him that their shadowy pursuer had placed upon him, but he felt as though something had been ripped open within him even so. He was trying to contain the rhythm of his heart. He was trying to stifle the rasping of his breath with nobody but Freya about.

But with her beside him, some of the strength in Freya Black Elk left her and made its way to him. Tiny, insubstantial little embers of strength, passed along from her determination. He found the strength to still his tremors. He found the fortitude in the next breath to steady himself. He found the power to hold himself in place.

Freya grasped on to her lamp, as though it might make a difference. Perhaps the presence of such a ridiculous excuse for a weapon was even a mercy; armed with a gun, a knife or a cudgel, it might have offered the most bitter, illusory taste of hope. It might have made them think they could stand and fight.

Such as it was, the only true option to them was a desperate flight. Quickly, he righted himself. He tried to look at Freya, suddenly praying that she had not detected the quail of his very soul. It had been months since they'd seen one another, but he could remember Freya from all the time they had known one another before that, years of experience. He had thought her fearless then.

But perhaps 'fearless' was a concept that didn't exist. The bite of her teeth against the inside of her cheek proved it. No, she was scared. Just like him. The bravery was a costume, donned like a waltzer at the masquerade. Alan answered disguise with is own, giving her the best smile he could.

A shared courage, fashioned out of nothing but what was within them, to link them ahead. He moved with her, down the hallway as she shouted with crystal clarity down the hallway, with the shuffling of movement. She was either alerting those they sought.

Or signing their death warrants.

"THEO! ....Will?" Almost like the man was an afterthought. But Freya called it and Alan stepped forth beside her. And to his surprise, to the palpable, overwhelming relief that was a living thing encircling his heart and vising it within its grip to tell him he might live again...

There they were. As if conjured from scarlet and shadow. Theo, with her hair in disarray, Will with her arm about her shoulders, rosy hues to their skin more healthy pink than the revolting crimson of the walls.

"Theo." He breathed it out like a prayer. And if he died in the next second, if whatever stalked these halls reached and seized him, to drag him into a black and red maw, he would have left with nothing but contentment just to see her safe. He could not even be angry at Will Whitford, no rage forthcoming at the smug expression, nor the rough arm draped around Theo's shoulders.

"Nice lamp," Will had quipped with the smile of a salesman picking his mark. Alan barely heard.

"Are you okay?" He asked his niece. Not with the condescending, demanding tone nor the haughty and pretentious anger. But with relief. Forced to contemplate, even briefly of a world without her stifled any hint of that. He merely looked into her eyes, letting her see the raw and honest emotion in his own.

"...I'm glad you're alright. Both of you." Even arrogant the arrogant Whitford. Alan suddenly looked so drained, so vulnerable when he saw Theo, trying to remind himself she was real, flesh and blood. Not just a mirage, not a cruel facsimile crafted by the Red Hall, like the lure of an anglerfish to glint within the darkness.

"Let's get the hell out of here." That was right, Alan told himself. They were leaving hell behind them now. He walked ahead, process of elimination providing one viable path. After all, Freya had said it best. There was a shadow reeking of saccharine death behind them, like sugar sprinkled over the fresh soil of the grave.

He walked back the way they came, one step turning into five. Ahead, and-

Emerged into the light, from whence they had come, into the Blue Rose. As though Alan was following Will's command, he stepped back to the comforting embrace of reality. He basked in the scent of the restaurant, nothing ever having felt so sweet. Alan took in the dim light of the restaurant. Thrust suddenly back into the tender, unpretentious grip of reality, he passed through a door not meant to exist back into the restaurant.

The hapless busboy he almost ran into yelped and jumped back, dropping a tray with a clatter. Alan managed apologies, kneeling down to assist him with a guilty smile, while the poor lad could only gawk. Alan turned for the others.

"Everyone...alright? Will? Theo? ...Freya?"