Avery, followed by Flynt and Muriel, sprints through the nice carpeting over pristine hardwood floors toward the indoor couch, on which Deagon convulses. As Avery draws near Deagon, in an instant, Deagon stops being there as if he never had been in the room. Avery smacks around at the couch, looking for Deagon, before getting her head around toward Muriel, only to find Flynt standing behind her. Flynt turns around to face the now shut door. Avery approaches the door. As she gets close, the door cracks open without her input. Braellyn sticks her head through the doorway.
“That Muriel girl just ran through here; did something happen?!”
“Uh, I’m not sure what the fuck just happened. Deagon just did some crazy bullshit, and I have no idea if he’s okay, and he never really —”
Eleanor peaks her head through the doorway as well, with a thoughtful expression.
“Well, I tried my best to grab her on her way, and I don’t have a clue where she might have wound up!”
“So… Should I assume she’s hiding something?”
“Let me ask you: what do you think?! You say you watched Deagon disappear just before she ran out. Does he do this often?”
“Fuck you. He was supposed to pass out or something.”
Braellyn creeps into the kitchen just behind the two, followed by Flynt. She glances about the room for a moment, before everyone else falls silent, staring back at her. At once, she turns around and strides back down the hall, throws open the front door, and stammers out into the hall.
“Cool… That might make things a little easier.”
Braellyn cuts down the corner, inching her way down the hall. The lights above her flicker as her boots crunch down the smooth carpeting of the hall, past the ornamented wallpapers. She jerks to a halt, staring at the elevator to her right. She saunters up to the elevator before pressing the pristine key to its side. As the doors slide open with a faint whirring, soft footsteps make their way down the hall. She slides into the elevator, presses the button on its interior, and descends.
꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂꧁꧂
The elevator doors grind themselves open, spitting Braellyn out into a small concrete room. Hanging overhead is a flickering light bulb hanging from the ceiling by a thin wire. In the corner of the room lay a desk with a typewriter on it, surrounded by a clutter of damp papers. At the end of the room rests a pair of enormous steel doors. She paces toward the back of the room, halting before the curved doors, sliding her fingers between them, and tugging at them. After some time, they unhinge. Sweat pours down Braellyn’s face as her expression becomes tense. The elevator dings behind her as she closes her eyes, pulling the doors apart just enough to slide through into the observatory clouded with static.
The steel doors slam shut behind her as the elevator doors open with a smooth whirring sound. Flynt meanders out of the elevator, glancing about the room. He proceeds toward the typewriter in the room's corner. After staring down at them for a moment, he scoops the pile of papers off the floor, into his sweatshirt pocket, and he turns around, eyeing the room up and down. He hoists the typewriter off the table, tucks it underneath his arm, and turns back toward the elevator. He presses its key, steps inside, and ascends the building, standing still in the center of the elevator cab. The doors, once more, slide open at the surface, and two figures stare back at Flynt.
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“Uh… What’s that?”
Flynt holds the typewriter up toward Avery.
“My, my! What a nice find?! Say, did you see where Braellyn went?”
Eleanor steps out in front of Avery. Flynt steps off of the elevator and points behind him as he turns down the hall, pacing back toward the room. Eleanor brushes past him, settling against the side wall of the elevator. Her expression falls flat as the doors close behind her.
Flynt motions for Avery to follow him as he creeps down the hallway. She strides after him, halting as he halts before Muriel’s room, throwing open the doorway, and tossing the typewriter over the low kitchen table. He snatches the pile of papers from out of his pocket, crumpling them within his grasp, and he throws them all over the table.
“So, what… What’s this supposed to be?”
Flynt snatches up the papers, staring at each of them for a moment, before crumpling them up and tossing them aside. At once, he glances up and down the paper, and he hands it to Avery, who stands still at first, before snatching the paper out of his hands.
“Uh… This is to Godfrey on behalf of… Colbert and Florentine Harley?! Damn, okay? I see this shit.”
She pauses for a moment, glancing about the sheet. Wide-eyed, the paper slides out of her hands. She cracks her head down toward Flynt, staring at him for a moment before turning down and walking down the hallway of Muriel’s apartment. Flynt follows behind her, snatching the paper from out of the air, stashing it back into his sweatshirt pocket.
“The address… Do you —”
Flynt nods, while Avery pushes open the front door. She turns to the side and proceeds down the hallway, breaking out into a sprint. At once, she halts, as Braellyn stands just before the hallway, blocking the route. Dry blood drips down her gray suit, and a black, viscous fluid streams down her beak, pooling onto the carpet beneath them. Avery stumbles backward.
“I’ve seen everything.”
Braellyn paces after her.
“Everything you’ve done–”
Flynt steps between the two, pushing his arms out toward Braellyn.
“Everything I’ve done–”
Braellyn grabs Flynt by the shoulder, chucking him against the side of the hallway.
“And I’ve seen Deagon.”
She takes a deep breath, motionless, hunched over, as the lights within the building flicker. Eleanor creeps up behind her, snatching toward Braellyn. She turns around; her beak soaring through the air as she winds her arm back, striking Eleanor against the wall. Eleanor pulls herself back up to her feet, shakily.
“I’m not content to do nothing again, Braellyn–”
At once, Braellyn bashes her fist against Eleanor’s head, sending her reeling down the hall. She turns around to face Flynt and Avery, as Avery pulls Flynt up to his feet, leaning over his shoulder as he stumbles over one leg.
The lights flicker with a greater intensity. A bumping sound makes its way down the hall, like tremors in the Earth. From behind Braellyn, the floor bangs with greater intensity. The lights cut off as Deagon charges into view, tackling Braellyn against the ground. From out of the darkness, Flynt and Avery stumble down the hall, toward the apartment lobby.
“Don’t worry about this shit… Don’t worry about Godfrey… We’ve got something to do for Jack right now…”