Corona

[thegoodsamaritan]

The front door opened with an ominous creak. A sliver of the dim moonlight shone in through the crack that had been opened in the door, blocked slightly by the tall, haunted man who stood in the doorway. His corduroy jacket rasped slightly on the doorframe as he shuffled hesitantly inside. Is this the place? he thought incredulously. He pulled the cream-colored paper that called him here out of his pocket, and read over the small card once again. The invitation said tonight, but the house seemed as rundown and abandoned as ever.

Another man might leave, annoyed at whatever perceived prank had just been played on him, and forget about this whole affair. A different man than Jasper Davidsen, that is. A less desperate man.

Jasper sidled his way into the decrepit lobby, stepped forward into the lobby, and looked about. Dust, he thought. Lots and lots of dust. He turned toward the stairs and, without warning, the door boomed shut behind him, like a period on his action.

And suddenly Jasper felt very much alone.  

[NativeForeigner]

Tom's bullet struck the man's foot, but he didn't seem to react in any way beyond a slight flinch as a small amount of sickly brown blood flew. The man began to continue his heavy-footed advance, but was interrupted as Jesse threw the flash bomb.

The man turned just in time to receive the full flash of the explosion. He let out a loud, guttural sound as he stumbled and clutched his eyes. The mini-bomb had managed to catch his pant leg on fire.

In his struggle to regain his vision, the man began to lean down the stairs, about to tumble down.  

[thegoodsamaritan]

Jasper walked about the lobby, slightly impatiently. Where the hell is everyone? he thought. This was supposed to be some big event, wasn't it? There weren't even any lights on, for Go--

A series of sharp, rapid, and extremely heavy thuds sounded from higher up in the manor. As of an obese man (or woman, as it may be) falling down a flight of stairs. A couple more thuds. Perhaps several flights, he mused. He hurried up the steps to the second floor, clutching the silver coin in his pocket. Whoever it was, they might need some help.

I'm not a paramedic, but... He reached for a door handle, feeling slightly uneasy. This place is a madhouse...  

[SiberDrac]

Jesse threw himself against the side of the stairwell, making himself as small as possible, which, given Alex's (and naturally by extension, his) considerably short stature, was not too difficult. He could only hope the grip he threw around the handrail was enough to hold him up.  

[Isa-sama]

Ton'yell (and presumably Rebecca) had followed suit.  

[NativeForeigner]

The obese man tumbled down the stairs, grasping for anything to keep himself from falling. He grasped the railing and nearly ripped it out of the wall before losing his grip and rolling past Jesse and nearly colliding with Ton'yell and Rebecca.

***

Jasper, following the sounds and eventually finding a stairwell, was met by an obese, Hispanic man tumbling down the stairs towards him.  

[Isa-sama]

She contemplated on letting go of her broom stick, but only gripped it tighter. This thing has been useful so far - don't wanna lose it.

After the hispanic man fell (and thankfully didn't bring anyone down with him), she climbed up to see Tom and some woman. "I'mma guessing this is your wife?" At Tom's nod, Ton'yell started to look around the room. "Is there any way out of here other than taking the stairs?" She didn't want to go back down and face the fat man along with the crazy boy.  

[SiberDrac]

Jesse watched the Hispanic tumble by and stuck his tongue out as he did, though the sheen of sweat on his body belied his apparent courage. At the bottom of the stairs was another person, though. Please don't be insane please don't be insane, he pleaded in his mind, then abruptly started blinking.

A few moments later, Alex's body briefly flattened even more against the railing, his face became composed almost to the point of sterility, and he sighed in exasperation with the whole ordeal. Chris had surfaced.

She stood on her toes, holding lightly to the rail and waving at the newcomer. "Watch out!" she called sharply, and then beckoned him up the stairs. "Come join us - we're trapped in here and there are a bunch of nuts in here with us." Her voice was just barely higher than Alex's, and so the difference between it and Jesse's was somewhat pronounced.

She looked pointedly at Rebecca, Rebecca, and Tom and then turned back with a sniff. "But we're all safe with one another, so far. The more people we have, the safer we are." She continued watching him, waiting impatiently for an answer. Being in this house was no good at all. Must be a mental hospital. As for the brown blood... well. She had heard of strange diseases before. This was just another one.  

[Dreamshell]

Tom shook his head at Ton'yell's question, uncertain. “I—I have no idea. There’s all these doors and… Goddamn, what the hell did you guys just throw?”

Seeking a mental anchor, he took his wife’s hand. “Beck, let’s start checking these doors, one of them might lead to a way out of this place.”  

[NativeForeigner]

Jasper side-stepped past the Hispanic man and up the stairs. Tom began to try the doors and found that several of them were locked. The first door on the left only opened to the wall itself, and the second to an empty blackness that somehow led back into the room when walked through and through another door when tried again.

As Tom continued to try doors, the pressure in the room began to shift. The floor beneath their feet started to feel as though it were shifting or sliding. A noticeable drop in the level of the floor was noticed and then it began to rise slowly towards the ceiling.
The floor began to shift wildly and teeter from side to side, wobble, wiggle, and begin a series of malformations.

Suddenly, the floor seemed to become paper-thin and the 'guests' could feel themselves sinking into it as it continued it's erratic motions.

Then it stopped.

Then it was gone.

With nothing below them, everyone in the room began to fall.

And fall.

And fall some more.

They fell for an indeterminate amount of time, what seemed to be a good hour or two (though according to any watches, only about five minutes had passed).

In the distance below, a light could be seen. Upon closing the distance, four figures could be seen within the light, two extravagantly dress and other two dressed obviously much more normally.

The point of impact became imminent.

((Please refer to the Empyrea thread for future posts and the conclusion to the above post))