[i]SKREEEEE KFF![/i]

The elevator stopped with a slightly seasick bob. For a moment, the only sound was an underwater gurgle just outside the elevator shaft; a dense closeness, even a threat that only thin metal lay between them and pressurized water.

For a moment, everything was suspended.

The lights on the walls brightened, and quietly the door slid open to reveal purple scales and yellow-green spines and bulbous jowls and tusks that dripped a foul stringy liquid. It wore an evening tuxedo.

The monster stooped and waddled, slippery, into the elevator, which dropped slightly with the added weight. The monster blinked once -- with six eyes -- at Arthur's face sticking out of the blankets.

"Argoo gala? Has supper finished?" it asked in a muddy voice, just before it stretched out a long finger and pressed the last button, which Riley would recognize had the same symbol as the marquis for the dining room. It hummed low, evidently not expecting much of an answer, while the door slid shut again and the elevator rumbled downward.