Night 57: Grand Ballroom

[ninelivesonce]

Taura jogged down the stairs, and looked around. The room seemed far too large to belong down here. More benefits of being at the bottom of a gravity well -- space was cheap, and air was free. The fountains wouldn't be out of place in a fancy hotel lobby, though the rest of the decor was a little macabre

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[razing_phoenix]

[From here.]

As far as Guy could tell, the ballroom was completely empty. What did that mean for the people who had come here ahead of them? Were they fighting in the coliseum or off working on one of the challenges?

Guy frowned to himself, not wanting to think too hard on either of those options. It was too late to stop any of their fellow patients from doing what they wanted down here, though he still wished that he could have prevented it all somehow.

Instead, they had their own reckless decision to carry out. Guy turned around and moved toward the doors that were directly behind them, ones he had never paid much attention to until now. Part of that was due to the fact that they were pretty unremarkable; the only thing that stood out about them was that they looked almost impossible to move.

Forcing out a sigh, Guy turned to eye both Claude and Anise. "So... are we ready for this?" They didn't know what they were getting into and that was made him hesitate.

[gald_digger]

Anise's heart sank a little when she saw the empty ballroom. She knew immediately what that meant: that whoever had gone ahead of them was already risking their lives with trials, or even the Coliseum itself. If they'd come sooner, maybe they could have warned them...

But there was nothing they could do about that now.

She turned her attention to the massive doors behind them. "Wow, I never really noticed these before. There's so big, I thought they were a mural or something from far away," Anise commented as she bent her neck backwards to look up at the top of the doors. On top of being enormous, they were pretty imposing - and ominous, too.

Though she felt nervous, there was really only one answer she could give Guy. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be," she replied, looking over to him with a small, uncertain grin. There really wasn't anything more she could do to prepare, so she'd just have to gather her courage and be ready to face whatever was behind those doors.

[full_score]

With how much trouble they'd gone through to get here, Claude had half-expected some kind of trap to greet them once they got to the ballroom. Then again, considering that at least one other group went ahead of them, maybe it wasn't so shocking. He hated to think there were other patients going through what their group endured, but, unfortunately, there wasn't much they could do. Landel had done a good job silencing their warnings.

And now, after everything that had happened, they were finally standing in front of their destination. As he gazed at those looming doors, the fact they had no clue of what waited for them sank in. It was scary, yet a small wave of exhilaration washed over him. Ready or not, they were here, and they were about to see what was inside. Claude sure hoped they were prepared