2019-11-26 - Children of Shadows - Part 1

The soft noise thing triggers at least one reaction, that being Everly's somewhat shitty parenting instincts, and there is a whole thing that she's about to say about go back to your room, you've got to sleep in your own bed. Only. When she opens her eyes, expecting to find her child, there is a whole lack of a child thing happening. She sits up, hands raising up to rub at her eyes before they drop and she looks around, spotting at least one of the twins, "Joey..."

There's a groan from Diana's bed, and she mutters, "Who the heck is Joey?" And then her eyes widen from their squint as she realizes she's not in Kansas anymore. She goes very still, like maybe the strangers won't spot her if she doesn't make a noise. Still, she's eyeing the others curiously, all the same.

Nicole awakes not at the sound of footsteps, but at Everly calling out Joey's name. Opening her eyes, it is but a moment before they focus enough to see that they are in.. some strange bunk house. Tapping Joey lightly to wake him. "Joey... uh.. Joey..." She looks over to his cousin, Everly, smiling a bit awkwardly and shaking Joey a little. "Joey," is said a little more firmly.

Joey grunts as if answering to his name and the shaking. Man getting woken like this he's waiting to hear someone was dumb enough to burgle their house. This... this ain't theirs. "Ev." Eye cracks open and he might not have any knowledge of who or what is here but answers, "I'm the heck that's Joey." There's a pause. yeah, that doesn't roll off well at all, but it will answer the question. His eyes crack open and he murmurs, "...The hell?" He pushes himself to a sit to assess the area. Right, Uhhh he does not remember the Holiday Inn. There's 3 people here? Awesome. "Everly, Jess with you?" Eyes shift back to Diana nodding to her trying to figure out who she is and the answer is: confused. Looking to Nicole he questions "Nicole?"

"No." Everly shakes her head, although as she's giving the no she's looking, just to make sure. "No, she's not here." Which is good, one less person. There's a shrug offered to Nicole before her attention shifts in Diana's direction, looking her over, "Who the fuck are you?" She points towards Joey, "Joey." In case Joey's response wasn't clear.

Diana nods to Joey with a frown as he answers her, and she double-checks to make sure she's got PJs on before pulling back the covers. Everly and the others are looked over briefly when she's asked who she is, and her frown deepens. "Diana. Any of you know where we are or how we got here? Is this familiar territory to any of you?" She walks toward the nearest window, carefully peeking out.

Staring at Joey with a look on her face that can only be read as, 'Duh', Nicole looks her arm around one of Joey's as she further looks around. some more. Nodding towards Everly she says, "I have a feeling we'll be glad she's not here... wherever here is."She then looks across to Diana, whom she very vaguely knows, though not enough to figure out why they might all wake in the same room together. However, seeing her check to see what she's wearing has Nicole's eyes going wide and pulling back the sheets enough to look down as well, breathing a sigh of relief after.

"Not a clue, sorry." Everly doesn't exactly sound sorry...much. Resigned, maybe. "I'm Everly, that's Joey, and that is..." She pauses, then snaps her fingers, "Nicole?" She hopes she's remembering this right. Doesn't matter, though, because as soon as the name is out of her mouth she's twisting around towards the door, "You hear that?"

Joey looks across to Diana and Everly aince there's one armthat's moved slightly in front of Nicole since she's there. What is this a car in motion? Narrowing his eyes looking to the door there's a slow nod to the question. He looks around and failing to see anything precicelypeels the coveers off to take the topmost layer. He pus his finger to his lips and points to teh door so Diana and Everly can see. There's a glance down to check the floor. Hey, it might be lava! He murmurs, "See somethin..."

The floor was not lava.

Nodding her head to confirm she hears it, Diana looks concerned about the sound, pointing toward the bottom part of the door to also indicate she sees something, too. She begins padding toward the door, as slowly and as quietly as she can. Though let's be honest, she's also not going to rush to be first, either. Still, if she can get to the door before anything heads in and close it...

"Feet...there's a few of them." She nods when Joey points to the door. "Yeah.. I see the shadows..." She squints, then reaches up with one hand to rub her eyes. "Are those... like, eyes? They're green like neon lights or something..." She frowns and when she sees Diana approaching the door, well, she looks at the woman like she's done lost her mind. She does sweep the sheet off though, showing that she is wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top and not much else.

"Eyes?" Everly hasn't a damn clue about eyes. Just shadows, and there is a mildly curious look for Nicole at the eyes comment, but then she just shakes her head, hands reaching up to catch her hair, twisting it into a bun that she secures with a hair band on her wrist. "Fuck this bullshit..."

The sounds continue to grow louder as the others talk. Diana can hear the footsteps growing closer and gathering outside the door. Nicole and Joey can see the shadowy shapes with their lambent green eyes. Several are crowding close to the door when Diana reaches it and manages to close it. There's silence, for a moment, and then the doorknob rattles violently.

Joey can't even begin to explain why he treats to everything with violence. His feet are on teh floor and if nothing else he's going to try to be a human barricade if they end up needing one. As someone's out there he yells, "Nah, it's cool. We already got one. Try the other room." It makes absolutely no sense, but it might make little enough sense to actually work as a deterrent. WHo knows. His heart starts pounding in his chest. "Can someone figure out where we are?" Everything feels so damn wrong. Looking down at his sweat pants and his t-shirt and the room he hasn't felt this underdressed in a long, long ass time.

Diana looks briefly triumphant as the door actually closes; it's clear she didn't think that would work. But then the doorknob rattles, and her fist pump seems premature. She nods to Joey's question about where they are, running toward the window again and seeing if she spots anything familiar or helpful on the grounds outside. "Anyone stronger than me, maybe they could push some furniture against the door?" she suggests hopefully.

Scrambling out of the bed finally, she beckons to Everly and asks, "want to help me move one of the beds in front of the door?" She heads towards whichever bed is closest., ready to push it in front of the door while Diana heads back to the window. "I can't hear any talking yet... just their footsteps... Where are we?" She repeats, because she too is wondering.

"Yeah, sure." Everly replies with a faint frown, but then she follows Nicole over towards the bed to help get it pushed towards the door, "I don't know where the fuck we are, but I want to make sure we get the fuck out."

The doorknob continues to rattle violently, and then there comes the pounding of what sounds like small fists against the door, lots of them. It begins to cause the wall to shake, and a picture that was hanging precariously by the door falls off of its nail and crashes to the ground, the glass inside shattering and sending shards scattering. Fortunately, it wasn't immediately where anyone was standing.

The room itself almost looks like the sort one might expect in a dormitory or hospital from the 1800s. The beds have metal head and footboards and are on wheels. There are no curtains between the beds, but at the far end of the room there are some panels of movable curtains that could be set up around them.

The rattling outside continues to get louder as the pounding continues. It's very easy to miss, in all that commotion, that there seems to be movement behind those spare curtained panels.

Joey looks around and looks to Diane, "Good plan. I'll hold the door. Grab the furniture, move it up." He tries to step over the glass and tries to keep his breathing under controls and his head focused. Something about being locked in here just isn't sitting well. "Fuck, focus, Kelly." He tries to shoulder the door and makes an attempted , pressing his hand ot it, to will it to lock in place. "PEOPLE. ARE. SLEEPING." Nicole, Everly let's get what we got to barricade this til we can figure it out. Diana, good plan. Keep the sheets. We might be able to throw them over anything that tries to get through and blind it maybe?"

"Crap! I can't see anything out there, just about. Just... lawn, trees-- could be anywhere! There might be more useful stuff beyond, but I can't make it out to be sure one way or another." Diana turns toward Joey at the crash, looking pretty startled, herself. "You okay, Joey? And yes, definitely keep the sheets! Worst comes to worst, we escape out the window, use those as rope!" She has yet to spot the movement behind the curtained panels, and so she walks over to help move the beds and other furniture.

"These things are on wheels... we have to try to turn them over on their side or something... or Shit.. I dunno...Push the mattresses off?" The rattling doorknob and ponding gets to Nicole's nerves and she starts looking a bit more panicked as she works. She totally misses the movement behind the panels.

Oh...OH!!! If anyone wanted to see Joey Lee relive his football days now's the time. "EVERLY!" That voice can fill a room, and right now his will behind it is not enough to change the outcome. A hand goes up to vault over the end of the bed and tries to make a dice for Everly, just past Nicole and Diana, "FUCKERS! Give her back!" Yup. It's go time! Those curtains are being ripped down to find out who or what he needs to hit of throw out a window to get his cousin back. This is panic fueling actions and desperation. God he hats a shifting environment he can't control.

Diana is wiping the sweat from her brow when she hears Joey shout, and she turns quickly, seeing him tear back the curtains. She looks wide-eyed, nervous, even as she looks about for anything to use as a club or other weapon. "What happened?" she asks him, trying not to panic, herself. "If they got one of us, we'll need to make a stand."

When Everly screams and is dragged away, Joey running after her, Nicole looks stunned for a moment. "What happened?" she echoes Diana's words, not having seen the fingers curling around the curtains. With the door locked and barricaded, she goes chasing Joey though. Safety in numbers, right?

As Joey tears back the curtains, knocking them over, the metal frames clattering to the ground, it is just in time to see Everly's feet disappearing down what appears to be a dark passage, narrow, not very tall, hollowed out in the walls, only large enough to be crawled through. Her screams can be heard getting rapidly further away. Whatever is dragging her is dragging her /quickly/ away from where they are.

Joey just eyes that hole with dread and his head is racing. Oh, well this is a new look. He takes a deep breath, heart thundering looking at that confined deep hole. well... balls. "Something took her." Looking at the door and the rattling he says to Diana and Nicole, "It's out of the room but I... I don't know." And with that he flinches s and he tells himself he's not going to head back without his fucking kin. Into the hole he scrambles.

Diana nods her head to Joey with a frown, and then looks to Nicole, saying, "We should follow him. We're sitting ducks here anyway, so we might as well fight these jerks head-on." She doesn't wait to hear a response, since Joey's no doubt already moving forward. "I'm following," she calls into the hole for Joey's benefit, and then crouches down, crawling forward. "This is gonna suck," she mutters to no one in particular.

Nicole was already following Joey. There was no stopping her. When the hole was revealed, she isn't even sure it's big enough for them, but when he goes, she does too. "This does suck," she says, ducking her head down so the sound of her voice can carry back to Diana. "I hope .. now would be a bad time to discover if one of us is claustrophobic." She is trying to listen after that, behind and before them.

Joey murmurs something strained about not being claustrophobic and liking all sorts of people so long as they don't do dumb shit. As if he's really one to talk at times. He keep stalking and though it doesn't necessarily make sense it is keeping the boxer from hyperventilating or fighting everything in the path of the damn room and forgetting about Everly. Nope! focus. He takes the roll when he lands knowing it pulls the momentum out. He pulls to his feet and stops looking around for Diana and Nicole. At least they aren't int eh tunnel. Looking around at the abandoned yard there's a pang of nostalgia in that way that time seems determined to shit on everything. "Ev? Everly swear if you can hear me!" Might as well ask something that can be complied to. "This house... ain't up to code. but I think we're on teh ground."

Diana doesn't fall down nearly so gracefully, and when she rises, it's a little unsteadily for a moment, rubbing at her behind. "Ouch," she says idly, and then looks around, frowning. "Think it took her here? Or do we think she's further down the tunnel? I've got no clue, myself." She checks on Nicole, making sure the other woman landed at least somewhat okay, like her. "Everly!" she calls out, just in case it gets heard, and frowns.

"Guys?" Nicole whispers when she sees the green glow following them. Green like the eyes she had seen before. But before she can worry too much about that, the floor falls out from under them and they go tumbling into the porch area. Her shoulder smacks into something with a thud, but fear and need keeps her going. The merry go round turns slowly, creaking. "Creepy..." she whispers. "Everly?" She calls out, as if her voice would make a difference with Joey already calling out. "She... the floor fell from under us, so she's probably further in that tunnel." She looks back and up towards where they fell from.

"Everly!" comes a chorus of voices, childlike, high pitched, and between the green leaves of the mountain of Kudzu one can see shadowy faces with lambent green eyes. "Ev!" the cry goes out again, another chorus of voices. Then there's the titter of laughter, to the left, then to the right, and a rustling among the leaves, though it's difficult to tell where the rustling is coming from exactly. There's movement all around them, to go along with that slow steady creek of the merry-go-round. "Ev-er-ly" the voices sing song over and over again, then there's laughter once more.

Joey looks around and slowly starts to relax from being in the damn tunnel. "Right... figures." Slowly he wades out into the yard and he walks over, transfixed by the rusty merry go round creaking in the night. His hand takes a hold of it and tries to see if it'll move at all. He murmurs, "all we gotta do... is take back the yard." He doesn't elaborate but tries to keep from wandering too far. Group cohesion is important. "Hey, who are you?"