[quote]By the time her phone had landed with a loud clatter and an infectious jingle Berry was scurrying to the door. She had turned off the map but it lay imprinted on her eyes casting shadowy visages in the dark. The curtain tore behind her but Berry didn’t dare turn to look. She grabbed the door handle as something crashed behind her and she was through the door, slamming it shut behind her.[/quote]

Frenzied claws tore into the curtain, flinging and yanking the fabric to a rumble of hissing snarls; the rod snapped and crashed and toppled an old chest that dumped wigs and uniforms and bright gaudy necklaces to the stage.

Berry's abandoned phone cast a bright square of light on the floor below. Music echoed hollow throughout the walls.

[indent][i]♫ Wondrous and magical, adventurous and whimsical, it's the fantastic adventures of Corduroy Jack! ♫[/i][/indent]

Out of the shredded remains of the fallen curtain, a shadow emerged. It seethed and flickered like black fire, and it moved on two legs and then four, white gleaming eyes searching and slitted nostrils flaring. Immediately the creature flitted to the edge of the stage, leaning over it, hissing like a long-toothed gargoyle at the shining thing on the floor.

[indent][i]"What's the matter, Princess? Don't you cry!"
"But Corduroy Jack, a ghost stole my teddy bear away!"
"Aw, well you know there's no such things as ghosts! It was probably your little brother, y'know."[/i][/indent]

The Grit's head tilted deeply, and with a flicker and a scurry it picked up the phone by the corner, between two claws, and stared at the glowing screen.

[indent][i]"But my brother's been missing since we went to the Wall!"[/i][/indent]

With a sniff and a gurgling snarl, the Grit flicked the phone away and slunk on all fours after the lingering warm scent, to stop at the locked door. It scratched experimentally, then dug its claws into the wood with a cracking and splintering noise.

[indent][i]"Don't you worry, Princess."[/i][/indent]

The door slammed open and ricocheted against the wall, a splintered hole where the lock used to be.

[indent][i]"We'll find your brother -- and your teddy bear too!"[/i][/indent]

[b]"Don't run much closer, Miss Berry!"[/b] Roy's voice called out from the hallway ahead. When Berry had ascended the stairs, she was faced with a pillar of familiar bluish light -- it was the same sort of light that glowed beneath the hovercars and on the tracks of the bullet trains, the glow of an antigravity field. The robot was pinned to the ceiling, against a metal panel, completely unable to move any of his limbs while he was bathed in the blue light that shone out of the floor.

There was just enough room on either side of the light for Berry to squeeze through, but it would take a few moments to navigate this safely. On the opposite side of the light, should she make it past without being stuck to the ceiling herself, a small panel in the wall would surely give her access to the controls for the antigravity trap. Once the metal door in the wallpaper was opened, inside was a touch-screen and two simple buttons: ACTIVATE and DEACTIVATE.

Alternatively, directly to her right was a slightly open door to a dark washroom, where the water in the sink trickled faintly.

Much farther down the same hallway there came a dim hissing noise, and the scrape of scales against wood as another Grit was hot on Vincent's trail.

Meanwhile, the shadow-creature slinked and flickered out of the broken stage door and flitted up the stairs, chasing Berry's scent and gnashing its teeth with excitement.

[hr][quote]"Okay, Randy. We gotta figure this out. You clearly don't want me dying, otherwise we wouldn't be here and I'd be laying in that puddle of blood and be that Grit's next meal. I am not interested in running though. Together we've got more than enough to remove the threat, and thanks to the Queen I know how to kill the things. We-we got this. I just need you to work with me on this.

"Damn it all. This wasn't supposed to happen."[/quote]

[i]"This was always going to happen!"[/i] Randy snapped shrilly, a little shaken at the sight of dear Maribeth the maid standing stony in the narrow corridor. [i]"I have the estate protocol in the event of a Grit invasion -- your father knew this would happen, and we all thought he was crazy. There's a page with the security passcode folded into that Rounard Skip book about dreams and souls. I --!"[/i] He cut off at the banging and scraping noise in the walls -- then an eerie and unsettling quiet.

"Don't run much closer, Miss Berry!" Roy's voice echoed dimly down the hallway outside Vincent's bedroom door.

Randy was silent a moment. Something scaly scraped against the walls in the hallway, coming closer. The serpentine Grit slithered nearer, poking its head at each door in turn, eventually to find the one that led into the place where Vincent was.

[i]"That's Maribeth's soul, isn't it?"[/i] Randy said in a hushed voice, referencing the stone clutched in Vincent's other hand. [i]"Please don't do anything stupid. I'll strike."[/i]

The serpent, meanwhile, had found Vincent's door and pressed its nose into the wood -- but, of course, the door wouldn't budge. With a scraping and a hissing, it bunched and wound itself in front of the door and reared its ugly head; this Grit was unable to force its way through, but it was intelligent enough to know that Vincent would have to come out at some point, either through this door or through the narrow passageway -- and it would be ready to ambush him the moment he made a decision.