In the Walls
Chapter 19 - In the Walls
Before anyone could find her, Charlie was still following the rats, until she got up on the second floor, where everyone’s doors were. She was confused for a second when she didn’t see any rats on the floor once she got there. Then the blue bow blonde heard squeaking, turning to see that one rat was struggling to get behind a painting hung up on the wall.
Curious, Charlie goes up to it and tentatively pokes it. She found that it opened much like a door. So she opened it all the way, surprised to see a tunnel behind the painting. There were faint cries in the distance for her, causing the girl to turn around in the shouts' direction. She was rather conflicted about whether to investigate her discovery or to go back to face the music. And not the good kind of music, either.
Finally, Charlie turns back to the tunnel and figures ‘why not?’ when going through the gap and closing the painting behind her. It's bound to be better than dealing with Vaggie, anyways. The blue bow blonde sees the cracks on the wall go higher and higher. Then she jumps at feeling a rat brush by her ankle.
Charlie watched as the little rodent goes further into the thin chasm, highlighted by the glowing piece of vision. She saw that the vision was being lifted higher and higher, like someone was picking it up. It was getting the girl to think 'is that...?'
Well, to answer the question, in the flashes of lightning, the blue bow blonde saw a person in a red hood, who was looking her way.
Charlie jumped back, obviously not seeing that coming. However, she started to pursue the cloaked figure when they started running. “Hey!”
Of course, the hooded person didn’t stop. Instead, they just turned corners, scaled up to platforms, swung on rungs… they clearly moved like they knew the territory well. And considering it's in the fucking walls, it's amazing that he was able to move as well as he did in such a small confined space. In sharp contrast, the blue bow blonde did her best to keep up, smashing a bit through some floorboards of a makeshift staircase that the cloaked figure was running down on.
At some point, the two in the chase were closing in a room where Pentious and Angel were. The former was waiting down on the chair and trying to relax so that his cloud goes away and the latter was trying to help with that with a cup of tea.
“Listen, Pen, while ya got a damn good reason to get your pants in a twist this time, it’s okay, okay? We’ll get this shit sorted out, ya will see. For now, though, deep breath in and deep breath out…”
Of course, while the hooded person managed to pass by gracefully, Charlie was rather clumsy and so slammed against the wall. It had spooked the weather manipulator into zapping the shapeshifter with a little lightning bolt and triggering his powers for a second.
Angel had first transformed into Molly, then Vaggie, and finally Husk, all before turning back into himself. The shapeshifter had to put everything he had to not curl up into a complete ball, considering where he’s been struck by that lightning.
“Sorry! I’m so sorry!” Pentious cried out, looking on in horrified worry.
Angel gave his best smile that he could when he was feeling great, great pain, despite it being lingering. “It’s okay! Just a… a little zap, that’s all…”
Charlie was still chasing after the cloaked figure, who was still running away. “Stop! Stop!”
The blue bow blonde got close at one point but still no dice. Especially when the hooded person made it to a huge gap and jumped across it with some jutting-out floor boards. The pursuing girl stopped herself, then looked on where she saw the cloaked figure ran away. Finally, she stepped back for the sake of a running start and then took a shot at getting across.
Well, Charlie managed to do it but, right when she landed, the floor at her feet snapped. She was lucky grabbing at a piece of bamboo still left. Then she wasn’t so lucky when that started bending in half. Also, it so as fuck didn’t help that her grip was slipping.
“No! No, no, no! HELP! Help me! Vivienne! Vivienne! Help me! Please help me!”
Charlie had finally let go of the wood, yelling as she fell. Well, she would have, if someone hadn’t caught her.
The blue bow blonde looked up and gasped at seeing who it was. Sure, the murals and moldings on the walls may not have been the same as seeing a person for real but she recognized the one she was pursuing only moments ago was none other than her Tio Blitzo. And it was rather shocking to see that he had gray eyes instead of yellow ones.
Of course, Blitzo’s first words to her were, “you’re so damn sweaty.”