Part IIThe entry way led into a large foyer, octagonal, with four large paintings on every other wall. The lighting was dim, but at least there was lighting. Duo was rubbing at his arms through his leather jacket, still shaking off some of the rain.
“Whoa, this place is pretty cool,” Duo started, inspecting the paintings. Heero surveyed the foyer with little enthusiasm, until he looked up at the odd candleholders. He tapped Duo’s shoulder, pointing upwards. Duo blinked, his grin widening.
“Gargoyles, how cool!” Duo laughed. Wufei tilted his head, surveying the paintings and candleholders.
“Maybe, but what kind of people, besides Duo, would use gargoyles as a light fixture?” The black haired youth asked. Duo cackled. Quatre giggled. Trowa finally piped in.
“Um…has anyone else noticed that the door is gone?” Trowa asked, his voice kept in the usual monotone, though his heart was beating a million miles a minute.
Heero spun on his heel, looking behind his group, his stomach lurching. Indeed, the door was no longer there. In fact, there was neither door nor window in this strange little room at all.
“Have we been caught in some kinda trap?” Duo asked, knocking on every wall, listening for a hollow spot. Heero grunted.
“Guys…” Trowa said quietly, his face tilted upwards. Duo blinked and followed Trowa’s gaze.
“Well. That’s not normal.” Duo said, his head also tilted back. The other three followed suit. Quatre squeaked.
The four paintings were stretching, or they seemed to, at least. A lady who had simply been standing a minute ago, serene with her sunshade umbrella, now stood hazardously on a very thin tightrope over an alligator. A distinguished gentleman was now caught with his pants down, standing atop a lit powder keg. Another woman was now sitting on a tombstone and what had been one man was now three, the trio slowly sinking into quicksand. Quatre ran to Trowa, clutching onto the brunette’s drying rain slicker. Heero, immediately thinking mission oriented, and in his variation of a panicked state, ran into the nearest wall. With a loud thunk, the wall moved aside, allowing passage into a dark hallway.
“Okay, everyone, move it!” Heero barked. It didn’t take long for his four companions to rush into the hallway. Upon looking behind them, they could see an arch over the door they just found and walked through. The room before had been intentionally built to appear inescapable.
The small group stopped to catch their breath; not from the sudden exercise, but rather from the shared fear each was experiencing. This house was not normal.
Duo was the first to notice the interesting paintings in this hallway, and by the number of the art pieces, looked more to be a type of gallery. He studied the picture of what looked to be an Egyptian princess.
“Whoever owns this place has a weird taste in art. I mean, check this stuff out,” Duo said, motioning towards the next few portraits. Following the Egyptian lady was a knight on horseback, a rather dull image of some red headed woman, a ship on the high seas, and some other dark haired woman seated with a book. Duo shook his head, turning to look down the hallway. He shuddered when he saw a pair of ugly busts staring out at him from recesses in the wall.
Trowa wrapped an arm around Quatre, who was visibly shaking, trying to calm the frightened man down. A sudden crash of bright lightning shocked the group, most of which tried to retain an air of being in control and not scared out of his wits. Trowa’s attention turned to the paintings Duo had been looking at. He noticed something curious about the images; they were changing.
“That isn’t normal, either, I don’t think,” Trowa said, turning everyone’s attention to the hanging portraits. What had been a young lady in Egyptian garb was now turning into a panther, her eyes bright and yellow. Trowa smirked. “Never liked panthers much. I prefer lions.” He smiled down at the shaking Quatre, hoping he could make his companion feel a little more at ease. Quatre turned frightened eyes up at Trowa, trying his best to smile back.
The saddled knight was now nothing more than bones, an image of the Angel of Death himself. Duo was quite obviously enjoying the transformation of the gallery.
“This place just gets cooler, yanno that?” Duo grinned, going back over the images he originally thought dull and uninteresting; the red headed woman was now a gorgon, the ship was no more than tattered sails and aging wood, and the dark haired woman was an elderly hag.
Heero had gone completely alert, and he wasn’t appreciating the changing pictures at all. In fact, they made him more suspicious. Why would paintings change on their own? How? Was someone doing it on purpose, watching him and his friends, testing them? He didn’t want to stand around and wait to find out, he preferred to be on top of things. He gently pushed Wufei forward, motioning for Trowa and Quatre to also move it along. He had to literally grab Duo by the arm to get the morbid boy to move.
“Aw, but Heero! Can’t we just--” Duo started. Heero glared at him.
“I don’t trust this place. Come on, we need to keep moving. If someone is here, we need to find him or her. Either way, if there is or isn’t someone here, we need this place to keep us out of that storm and I want a more defensible position for all of us tonight.” Heero said patiently. Duo nodded grudgingly, sticking his tongue out at the busts in the hall.
Wufei almost stumbled into a table leading down the hallway towards another. He tried not to disturb the small table and lamp, barely noticing the open dictionary, covered in cobwebs, on it.
“Be careful, Chang, we don’t want to damage anything here if we can help it.” Heero said, his tone more like giving advice rather than ordering. Wufei nodded and stepped away from the table, filing in behind Trowa and Quatre.
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