The barren corridors of Las Noches, greeted by the pale light of the crescent moon, seemed to make the colorless prison even more bland then it normally was. The still first evenings that somehow had developed into the long, quiet nights seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. There was usually no sound except the wheeling of a cart a ways down the hallway, the emotionless tones of the supposed keeper and rarely, the low growls of another Arrancar whom seemed to despise everything except the great power he would attempt to obtain beyond his own limits. Through the open window that reflected the night sky, the feelings of an upcoming battle ran through her veins.
She had been granted permission to take a walk, the closing feeling of the room wearing on her second by second. Her mind had been filled to the brim with so many things, it was hard for the young girl to keep them from spilling out with simply pacing around the room. Even so, the narrow hallways proved nothing less of a perfect white and the only color the stuck out in particular was the tangerine of her hair which swayed as she stepped. Orihime had assumed Ulquiorra would have been keeping an eye on her during her walk, but he had seemed to of left her somewhere down the line. The optimism in her heart wondered if maybe he felt the need to leave her alone, but it was stricken down by the sense that her keeper didn’t feel such human emotions. Maybe he really didn’t feel the need to watch her. After all, escape was inevitable and she knew fairly well that attempting to break down walls wasn’t going to do her any good.
She paused somewhere down the corridor, her footing ceasing in its echo for but a moment before she glanced down at the floor. Her once shinning honey eyes glazed over with red; the sleepless nights of endless crying suddenly falling rather heavy on her shoulders as she trotted. Broken fingernails traced their way against her cheek as she breathed in, her shaky breath the only sound bouncing off of the walls.
A few moments of silence passed before the walls surrounding her began to bleed, the slow dripping catching her attention from the corner of her eyes. The pure white suddenly began to stain, more red spilling effortlessly from the cracks near the ceiling. Orihime side-stepped, unsure of how this was happening as she whirled around to find the cause of it all.
The steady waterfall continued and she moved backwards until her body collided with another wall that was beginning to close in on her. In the distance, a dark chuckle surrounded her and she heard a dangerous voice that followed closely behind.
Orihime's eyes snapped open, her breathing ragged and sparse as she gasped for fresh air. Her hands flew to her chest, to her arms and then to her face as she made sure that she hadn't sustained any injuries. Steely hues quickly surveyed her dark surroundings, assuming that she'd be in the confines of her once prison.. but she wasn't there.Â
There was no lone couch that she was sleeping on, no cart of flavorless food to her right and no towering walls that encircled her. Instead, she was met with the ransacked library of the forgotten town that she had now been cursed to reside in. She snapped her head to the left and then to the right, noticing that the cans she'd attached to strings and hung around her in a small circle were untouched.Â
".. A dream," she said to herself, attempting to calm her racing heart as she reached out to touch the flimsy wire in front of her. She'd been both mentally and physically exhausted upon her arrival to this forsaken valley, so it was no wonder that she would of passed out eventually. "It was just a dream.."
Orihime felt herself let out another breath, her shaky hues surveying the area once more. She'd taken up camp in the deserted place after she'd had a run in with something she couldn't explain. She was still unsure of the extent of her powers, so she'd decided that it would be best to find shelter before anything. Many of the other buildings had already been overrun by the beings akin to those in horror films if not a mound of survivors already trying to seek shelter themselves. She'd traveled for hours in an attempt to find a safe haven, only to stumble upon this place shortly after she'd thought there was no where left to go. The library--
Orihime suddenly stiffened, her ears catching onto the sounds of low moans coming from the other side of the door. Following the seemingly distant howls, scratching came and then a ruthless pounding that sent a shudder down her spine. Something or someone was outside of the room... and from the sounds of it, it didn't seem like it would take too long for them to get inside..
The fairy-wielder quickly got to her feet, her legs bumping into the cans that rattled and caused whoever was struggling to get inside to thrash more then they had previously. She was still weak, still weary and beaten down from everything that had transpired. How in the world was she going to defend herself? As if to further prove her sapped state, her vision blurred for a moment and she stumbled back against the broken shelves behind her. Â
She muttered something incoherent to no one in particular, her arms reaching out to steady herself as the door suddenly broke off its hinges and a hoard of Shamblers entered the room...
