They're he-ere [Active/Open, but ask first]

[sin_of_my_being]

Characters: Mello, Oz, anyone else
Setting: The dawn room
Time: Day 19, Around the time the beetles start to appear.
Summary: Oz and Mello meet under some odd circumstances and get attacked by beetles.
Warnings: Definite animal/insect abuse, a bought of insanity, nasty heat, and bugs. So many bugs.

Comments

[is_not_number1]

"...Oh dear," Mello sighed heavily, more to himself than to Oz. If the kid was talking about the house like that, he probably didn't know anything about it yet. He closed his eyes for a moment and pressed one hand against his temples, as if in slight frustration. "We really are very new here, aren't we?"

And he didn't know how Oz even knew his friend was here if he hadn't even seen her yet. Either he was crazy, the person who had told him that had been screwing with him, or... the person who had told him that already knew him and his friend. From the way he'd described it, it certainly seemed as though he already knew people around here. And he's just arrived. Really... what were the chances of that?

Mello took a deep breath and then glanced up at Oz again, his expression much more serious this time. "I guess it's good for you that you've already got a friend here, kid," he told the boy," but it looks like you've still got a lot to learn about this place." Oz didn't even seem to know the house was dangerous. Mello was

[sin_of_my_being]

Looking over onto his shoulder confirmed, that in fact, there was a giant beetle on his shoulder. "What?!" Jumping a bit at the sudden realization, Oz proceeded to again brush off the beetle. "I guess that explains where the buzzing is coming from." He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. He'd seen giant trump cards before, but jumping of an over sized beetle

[is_not_number1]

"...You haven't seen them yet?" Mello didn't know how. The beetles were all over the place, and they were very noticeable; it would probably have been much more difficult to miss them than not to. Oz must have been in this room for a while.

Carefully taking in Oz's words, he gave a short nod as he crossed over to the other side of the room. He sat down on the floor, leaning his back-- the part that wasn't burnt-- against the painting on the wall, and squinted with one eye in comtemplation. "I don't have a concrete answer," he said, "But I can guess. I think they're our predecessors." He gave the kid a small smile and crossed his legs, resting one hand behind his head on the wall. "You'll find out for yourself once night falls, but this house is full of monsters and ghosts. For lack of a better word, you can say it's haunted. And all of them used to be people trapped here, just like us, who eventually gave up and killed themselves." He paused for a few seconds, as if to add a dramatic edge, before continuing. "Sorry to

[sin_of_my_being]

Oz took a second to look over at the cursing man and then to the twitching bug on the floor. He had been in the room a while before Mello entered, and he wasn't sure how long the bugs had been around. But, one thing was certain: they were nasty things. Oz held the shoulder until the pain slowly turned into a soreness then turned his attention back to Mello

[is_not_number1]

Mello swatted away another beetle before answering Oz's question. "There's nothing we can do about the monsters. You can avoid them, and you can try and fight them-- some of them can be killed, but you can't stop them. They'll be back every night. And it's pretty likely that we'll become monsters too, eventually, seeing as no one before us has managed to escape that fate."

Damn it; there had only been a few beetles in this room just a couple of minutes ago, but it was starting to become infested already. Mello yelped again as another beetle bit his arm and dashed across the room towards where Oz was. "It isn't just you," he replied, "The buzzing is getting louder. And there's a hell of a lot more beetles in here than there were before. We should probably get out of this room, although I doubt anywhere else in the house will be much better."