Re: 3rd floor (just before the moon rises)
There was only a beat before she forced herself up the next step, eyes still on him. Her mind dwelled on the fact that she was obviously tired – she was being jumpy for no reason. What did it matter if she passed a strange person in the hallways? It was Bellum Letale after all and…there was another reason lost as she changed.
Her eyes shut as she felt her hair fall loose and the weight of her bag disappear. Worries about voices not quieted by pills and climbing nine more flights of stairs vanished. Steady paranoia replaced it, familiar and concerning the man in front of her. Her heart thudded in her chest, as something clicked. He hadn’t been there before, in fact she remembered someone else…unless there was another of his secret doors.
The blue skirt of her dress was gathered slowly as she stepped up and backwards. Her lips were pressed together as she tried to think desperately on how to not anger him, yet still understand why he was here. (Why he was here at all came a whisper from somewhere in her mind but she ignored it.) It wasn’t time for her to go back, was it?
“Erik.” She managed a faint, uneven smile. Her hands shook from where they were hidden in her skirt and she fought to look at him without glancing elsewhere. “What are you doing here? I thought you were composing-” Another step backwards and up.