InsaneJournal

curiosity killed the cat
Who: BB & Daniel.
What: The daring duo investigate the key hall.
Where: Pax Letale, fourth floor.
When: Mid-morning, Oct. 9.

BB left Daniel to chase after her as she ascended the two flights of stairs to the fourth floor. She'd felt only a moment of hesitation upon hearing that the fourth floor had transformed—again—but both curiosity and worry for her friend pushed her to go next door to gather Daniel's help (summoned via several loud knocks and obnoxious yelling at his door). He hadn't needed much convincing, also having seen the network post that announced the change.

Slamming the doorway to the fourth floor open, she had to catch the door as it bounded backward on its hinges from too much force. Her attention, however, was wholly on the hallway itself—every inch of the ceiling was covered in keys, as had been described. The actual visual image, however, was so different; it would have taken a team of people working all night, probably even longer, to have done this. And to do so without alerting any of the apartment tenants? It was just as strange as everything else that had happened before. She paused for a moment, overtaken by the sight; then she took a few careful steps forward, as if testing to see if any of the hanging keys might fall. They didn't.

BB tentatively reached out toward a rabbit-shaped key, having to rise up on her tiptoes to even brush the edge; she held it between her fore and ring fingers for a moment, before snatching her hand back upon feeling what felt like a heartbeat.

"I don't even know where to fucking start," she said, glancing back at Daniel. He was shaking his head, his mouth agape, his dark eyes still sweeping the ceiling above.

"No idea," Daniel said. He reached up, his height allowing him to brush the ends of several keys in succession. Some were warm, some cold, some sharp enough to cut. There were duplicates of some, he noted; enough keys in sum for each tenant to take more than one. He chewed the inside of his lip. "OK. Do you… I dunno, do you like any of them? Wanna grab a couple and just start tryin' em?"

Suddenly his eyes snapped wide. He looked to BB, a sharp grin tugging at one corner of his mouth. "Do you think one might open that closet we found? Or another room like that?"

BB shrugged, nearly dancing from foot to foot with unspent energy. "Maybe... Maybe we can finally fucking find out how they pulled April off..." She watched as he reached again, for a moment feeling slightly envious of his height.

His fingers closed on a key that felt strangely like wood. Intrigued, he gave it a single hard pull, yanking it from its loose moorings in the ceiling. He turned it over in his hand, intrigued; the thin ribbon hanging from it tangled around his wrist, and he could not suppress a shudder.

"Is that—" BB took a step toward Daniel, hands reaching out for what had touched him. She shied just short of actually touching what appeared to be skin (human, perhaps) wrapping itself around him. "Jesus, eww!" She stepped back. He nodded, a grimace twisting his lips, and with index finger and thumb pried the fleshy ribbon from his skin.

"So hold up, how...how do we even know what these open? I don't, like..." BB spun away from Daniel, her eyes unavoidably drifting upward for a moment to soak in again the sight of the hundreds of hanging keys. She pulled her gaze down, trying to focus, ignoring Alice's door blatantly in her sight. She turned back to Daniel.

"I don't, like, see any other doors, Daniel. I mean, we could go try it on that freaky lobby door, again," she finished, sounding less than convinced that such a thing might work. Her eyes looked back to the key in his hand, and slowly, she reached out to take it from him. She held it with the utmost care, moreso to keep the key's ribbon from grazing her, and turned toward one of the empty apartment doors that were still left in the fourth floor hallway.

Glancing at Daniel, she raised a brow, but didn't wait for his approval. The key slid into the lock with ease, fitting without a hitch. In a sudden burst of movement, BB turned it; tumblers fell into place, and she could clearly hear the door unlock.

"Holy shit." The words were hushed, more unconscious than intended. With her other hand, BB pushed the door open; the interior was not a standard Pax apartment layout. Daniel, standing behind and towering well over her, was able to look inside with her while remaining safely outside the room. In a moment, though, his curiosity got the better of him.

He pushed past her and entered a banquet hall, empty save a single man. The table was laid as though hundreds more were expected, though no chairs were set out to welcome any guests at all. The man was rail-thin; his bony hands were dwarfed by the size of the platters they reached for. But he did not seem at all daunted by this. In fact, he looked utterly ravenous, as though even the feast laid out for him alone would prove insufficient. A deep crease knit Daniel's brow. He looked to BB, chewing at the inside of his lip.

"Well it smells fuckin' good," he said, "dream or no. You wanna see if we can talk to him or somethin'?"

BB shot Daniel a look like he'd grown not one additional head, but two. "Fuck yeah, we are. Maybe... Who knows, maybe he, like, actually knows something. Though, not gonna lie, I could eat..." Her eyes wandered over the plates; she could only name a small fraction of what she could see. Small peasant, cooked vegetables, something that looked like a giant cow's head with horns intact, were scattered over the immense table. She walked into the room without hesitation, noting the lowered lighting of candles that flickered over the space, making it seem more malicious than seemingly intended.

As soon as she stepped away from the door, it closed, taking the key with it. BB glanced at Daniel for a bare moment, and then continued on her course forward, starting the long walk down the long table that looked like it could have easily fit a hundred people or more.

Daniel reached for a bunch of grapes as they passed, unable to resist the temptation they posed or the chance to goad their host into some kind of reaction. In his haste to gorge on the food before him, the man did not appear to notice this small theft. Daniel popped a grape into his mouth and marveled at its intense flavor. "Doesn't seem like a dream," he said, half-whispering to his neighbor. He held the bunch out to her, eager to be reassured of his assumption. "Maybe he'll share some of that roast boar. That looks awesome."


At last the man looked up. Grease slicked his lips; flecks of food dotted his brittle beard. They earned no greeting save a wild gleam in his eye as he shoved a hunk of meat into his mouth.

BB did nothing to hide her disgust as a glob of something ran down the man's mouth, over his chin and back onto his plate; the sight made her feel less than hungry, her stomach turning inside out as they moved close enough to bring the man completely into view. He was, almost quite literally, nothing but flesh and bone, as though he had some tapeworm or other parasite eating him away from the inside. BB grimaced, stopping just shy of a handful of feet away from the man.

She paused, and then waved her hand like she was talking to a non-native speaker. "How. Hi? I don't even know what to do here—do you speak English?" The latter part was spoken a few octaves higher, causing the man to arch a brow.

Daniel snorted laughing. The look on the man's face made clear he did not understand her words, but he understood their intent well enough, and he answered all the same. His voice was thin and reedy; he sounded utterly exhausted. He did not, in fact, speak English, and yet somehow Daniel quickly realized he could understand him without issue.

"—impertinent," the man was saying. "You were not invited here. This is my feast, and mine alone. Put those back."

Daniel tossed the bunch of grapes onto the table. One popped, sending clear juice seeping down over the edge of the board. "You celebratin' somethin'?" he asked, quirking a brow at their elder. "Looks kinda lonely."

"Have you brought more? I ordered more. Salt fish and fowl, specifically. Where are they?"

BB glanced over her shoulder at Daniel, the amused offense at being referred to as nothing more than waitstaff playing over her face. She looked back at their alleged host, shrugging.

"We're not working here," she continued in a deadpan, leaving enough space between words to fill an auditorium as she continued to attempt to make contact. "Besides, I think you have more than enough going on here... Which, like, speaking of..." She motioned to the food, reaching forward for what looked like a piece of bread baked with olives and rubbed in garlic; before she could actually grab said food, however, the man reached forward to intercept, holding her wrist tight.

"What the fuck?" BB screeched. "Lemme go!" She jerked back, but the man seemed to have some deep well of strength that belied his appearance.

"I said, I want more," the man intoned, his voice reaching bellowing heights without much effort.

"Well we don't have more," Daniel snapped. "So fuckin' relax." He stepped up to the table, taking BB's hand in one of his, the other grasping the thin man's wrist. He held BB tight as he tried to pry the man's grip from her. His hand was hard and cold as steel, unyielding even when Daniel's nails drew blood. Daniel broke his grip and reached for a carving knife, buried almost to the hilt in a whole, spit-roasted deer.

"Fuckin' let her go, man, I mean it."


"Take no more of what is mine," the man said, hissing each word from between clenched teeth. He let go of BB, leaving a dark circle around her wrist where he had held her. "Or I will add you both to my table." Laughing, he gnashed his teeth at them, yellowed and worn down as they were. BB fell back against Daniel, her hand going to her opposite wrist to cradle the whole arm against her chest. She jumped away, reaching out to grab Daniel by the shirt to tug him back, her eyes going wide at the next surprise the room had to offer them.

The man fell back against his throne-like chair, laughing; everything seemed to slow down. He brought an arm to his mouth, yellowed teeth ripping into his own flesh. Blood hit the open air with a tangy copper-like scent as the man ripped away the meat from the bone, red coursing down his chin.

"Fuuuccckkk," BB said, the word almost as drawn out as the action itself. She tugged harder at Daniel, as though she'd pull him out of the room herself.

For a moment Daniel felt as though his feet were fixed to the floor. He could not move, though she continued to tug at him; he could only watch transfixed as the man dug grimy nails into his skin and pried another strip of flesh free. Daniel found his footing as the man thrust the bloodsoaked piece of meat into his mouth. He took BB's hand in his and pulled her toward the door, taking off at a full run.

The man's laughter followed them, echoing off the ever-extending walls. The table only seemed to grow longer, the door forever ahead of them and out of easy reach. BB's feet slapped the floor, doing their best to keep up with Daniel's longer ones; it seemed they could not move fast enough, that the room itself was stretching.

And then, as if through sheer wishful thinking, it was there. BB ripped her hand away from Daniel's, thrust the door open, and hurled herself out into the hallway. Keys tinkled overhead from the force of her movement, swaying back and forth while still remaining fixed to the ceiling. BB doubled over, her hands on her knees, as she fought back waves of nausea. She dry heaved for a moment, but nothing came up, and she slowly came back to standing, pirouetting in place to face Daniel once more. Her hands came to her hips, her stomach rising and falling with her slowly calming breath.

"What," she said, "the fuck?!"

"I don't know," Daniel panted, shaking his head. "I don't know, I don't fuckin' know." His hands were shaking as he fished his cell phone from his pocket. It was there, unbroken, not covered in flecks of blood and grease. He dialed Chris' number, then just as quickly thumbed the screen black again. He looked to BB, his eyes wild and gleaming.

"The key's gone," he said, "but there's more up there like that one. We've gotta tell people. They can't go in there. Jesus Christ." He looked up at the keys, now seeing something far more menacing in their subtle swaying back and forth. "Jesus, dude… do you think they all go somewhere that bad?"

BB shook her head, the movement erratic, and she looked up again. Her shoulders shrugged, followed by her arms.

"Only one real way to find out," she said, the lure of further exploration doing its best to push aside the fear of what potential lay behind each door the keys might open. She shivered.

"First thing I'm doing, though," she said, gaze falling to her bruised wrist, "is taking a long, hot shower and making sure that there's no blood on me."

"Damn right." Daniel nodded toward her wrist. "Sorry if I hurt you, BB. I'm gonna… yeah. I'm gonna shower and get a fuckin' drink. Not necessarily in that order." He turned on his heel and led her to the stairwell, more than ready to be back in the comfort of his own home. She followed, dancing around his wake. She shrugged away his apology.

"I've gotten bruises doing stupider things. If I was lucky, it'd be a scar with a bitchin' story attached to it..."