Eber reached behind himself and rested a hand on Kumiko's waist, in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. His stomach was debating the merits of putting everything he'd eaten that day out on the floor.
"Quiet," he murmured, cutting Yamada's words off, "I hear something..."
He stepped forward, doing the best he could to keep his shoes silent on the polished floor. From somewhere above them, what he guessed would be the third level up, voices are audible.Two men and one female voice arguing in hushed tones. The latter sounds familiar. Stepping forward, you can just barely make out the edge of Hikaru from the ledge; she's upside down on one of the staircases, speaking in a harsh whisper. The closer you get the more you realize that they aren't speaking Japanese... And then it becomes clear that it isn't that she's speaking in a different language, it's that she's speaking backwards.
"What...?" Eber's question fell short of his lips as the open door on that narrow ledge slammed shut and Hikaru ran backwards away from it, each step she took leaving a frozen afterimage behind her. And then other doors opened, people you've never seen before moving as though someone had pressed the rewind button on a cosmic remote. Some move with purpose, some seem to be frantically trying doors at random, fear evident in their expressions. The German starts forward, determined, into the center of the room and suddenly everything freezes. It sets off a chain reaction of tiny bells that ring and jingle as though he'd hit a trip wire.
Then everything starts to quake.
Ishikawa/Junsui/Yoshida: In the same moment as the alarms in the opposite wing set off, the Pit begins to quake as well and the wailing you hear from below becomes earsplitting. The red light flares brighter and you see a burnt and blackened hand, easily the size of your own body, claw at the edge of the level below you.
Both exploring parties must decide whether to fight or flee.
