I stifled a yelp and panicked. I jumped back out of the way, so I wouldn’t be seen when their gaze came to the door.
At least, I’d meant to jump back. Instead, I jumped up, and with far more ease and effect than expected. I put my hands out, using my arms as buffers before I hit the ceiling with my head. When my hands touched the ceiling… they stuck. I didn’t fully register this as I pulled my legs up after me. I was still in my nightdress with bare feet and I curled my body around to press my feet to the ceiling as well, crouching awkwardly. My feet stuck too. Only then did I realize I was curled up on the ceiling, not the floor. I was freaking out but didn’t have time to do anything about it as a figure poked their head in from the doorway below.
“Arick?”
Another voice outside asked something, but their voice was low and I only heard “… happened?”
“I don’t… I guess the door just opened on its own. Odd.” The figure poking their head in slipped back out. I then heard her say, “if he’s not done soon, I’m going in.”
Blackened, bloody bones!
I didn’t want to be here when they came in, so I crawled away… on the ceiling.
Birch…
No time now, Auwei. Yes, I know this is odd as The Black Pits.
No, Birch, this is important, you’re using my powers!
Yeah, I was aware of that. Normal humans did not stick to ceilings. And I was freaking out on the inside, not knowing what this meant, but I couldn’t think about that. I had to get away. I skittered down the hall to the far end and was about to open the door to the common room — from above — when all the hair on my body stood up and I felt the strangest sensation thrum through me. I was… hearing people talk, very quietly, on the other side of the door. Only I wasn’t hearing with my ears. The sound reverberated into my body through the thousands of standing hairs all over me.
At first, I couldn’t decipher the noises I was taking in from this new sense, but I quickly adapted.
“…freaks me out.”
“Yeah, I know. I can’t believe we’re working for her. She scares The Pits out of me.”
“Hopefully this job will be over soon and we can…” I didn’t need to hear any more to be both terrified and certain I couldn’t go throughthatdoor.
So, I couldn’t leave through the doors at either end of the halls. I probably should have gone back to my room and out the window, but that didn’t occur to me in the moment. No, I could only think of the one other way out of this hall: the stairs down to the baths.
I crawled down the wall and back to the floor, slipping into the open archway to one side of the hall, and treading lightly down the stairs into the baths.
I don’t know if you’ll be able to get out this way, Auwei said sounding a bit desperate herself.If they have guards on these doors, they’re probably watching the other dorm as well.
I gave a manic chuckle as an idea started forming in my mind.I’m not going out. I’m going to stay down here. Yup, I had a plan. It was a stupid plan and very crazy, but I couldn’t think of anything else.
Oh? Auwei breathed, curious, then…Oh!As she found my thoughts on what I planned.That’s… interesting…
You’re being kind…My plan wasn’t to run but to hide. And if they came looking for me. I’d be ready. I didn’t know why I thought I could fight them, but I did.
I reached the baths. The room was completely dark, but I did have a bit of light — Auwei — and in the complete darkness, it was enough to carefully make my way along.
I moved, with as much speed as I dared, to the first shower stall, and slipped inside, grabbing the large bowl of liquid hair soap. I snuck back out to the entrance, where the stairs ended, and dumped the bowl out all over the last step and the area below that. It wasn’t quite enough so I went to another stall and got its bowl, making that last step a slippery mess. I then did the same with the bottom step at the entrance from the other dorm. Then I went into each shower stall and turned them on to the highest heat setting, leaving the doors of each stall open. Soon steam was pouring out, making the room very hot and humid as a thick fog clouded the area. In the last stall I grabbed the towel and the scrubbing brush from the stall before turning the hot water on. They weren’t much as weapons, but they were something.
Then I moved into the far end of the room where the baths were located. There was a large common pool if girls wished to bathe together, and past that several smaller pools with half-walls around them for private bathing. I got more of the liquid hair soap and doused the area coming out from the showers, making a path straight to the large bath.
I wrapped the towel I’d taken around my left arm and tied it off as a bit of protection if I needed to deflect a blow. I held the body-scrubber like a knife, not knowing what I’d do with it, but I was ready.
I waited.
The room grew hotter and hotter, and the thick, wet heat began to steal my breath and sap my strength, but still I waited. My nightdress stuck to me like a second skin.
Then… I heard it: soft voices approaching
“…by surprise. Her window wasn’t open so she’s in here somewhere.” That’s when it occurred to me to have slipped out my window, but it seemed they might have been watching that too… so perhaps this had been the best plan.
This also confirmed a suspicion I’d had. Whoever these people were, they were here for me. Bloody Pits!
