BatIM Five Trials

Chapter Ten

Limping down the hall, Jade found a nook of some sort with a desk, and she gratefully climbed up to it and out of the ink, trying to shake the foul fluid out of her shoe. Sitting down, she sighed. "I hope this will be over soon. . ." she muttered. Afterward, she noticed a recording with the name Jack Fain written on it. Pressing play, his voice spoke.

"I love the quiet, and that's hard to come by in this busy times."

Jade leaned toward the recording to listen a bit better as it cut through the silence.

"And sure, it may stink to high heaven down here, but it's just perfect for an old lyricist like me. Sammy's songs always got some bounce, but if I didn't get away once in a while, they'd never have any words to go with them. So I keep my mind singin' and uh. . . my nose closed."

She laughed a bit at this final comment as the recording clicked back off, and she looked at the rest of the desk. There were a couple of pieces of sheet music which were too faded to read clearly, and Jade wasted a few minutes trying.

Jade eventually got to a large room, well, larger than the hall. In the back of the room sat a lift of some kind with a large crate. Behind this, on the wall, read an ink message saying sing with me. Right in the middle of the room sat the searcher, holding the valve she needed.

I've got to find some way to get that valve, and chasing him down might as well be out of the question. Come on Jade. . . think. . .

Looking around the room to see what she could possibly use, she saw two levers with arrows on them, on the left lever, the arrow was up. On the right, the arrow was down.

Maybe that's for the lift. . . wait a second. . . The idea dawned on her, but she didn't like it. I'm going to have to crush him. Carefully, since she no longer had a wall for support, Jade limped over to the lever on the left and gave it a yank. The sounds of chains clanking resonated throughout the room as the lift with the giant crates lifted from its inky home on the ground.

Now to get him under it. It seemed simple enough, it just was getting there that was the hardest part, just like to both of the levers due to a lack of wall support. Of course, once she got close enough, he sank himself under the inky depths, and resurfaced below where the lift was. Careful once again, Jade limped to the right side of the room this time, to the lever.

"I'm sorry. . ." Jade murmured, and then yanked the lever with eyes shut tight to the events rapidly unfolding. The lift came crashing down loudly, sending a bit of a wave of ink. Since she did not see it, a bit got in her injury and more excruciating fiery bouts of pain made a tidal wave in her leg as she let out a loud hiss of pain. Opening her eyes again, where the searcher had been, the lift was now. She limped over toward the lift where the valve laid beside it. Carefully she leaned down and picked it up, and turned to make her way out of the inky mess of a way.

The shadowy figure that had been around before no longer lingered, and Jade felt something of a chill in her injury as she headed back up stairs. She placed her newly acquired valve in the pipe, and gave it a turn. As it stopped, Jade smiled with a bit of satisfaction.

I can go to Sammy's office and get outta here! Her mind immediately went to impersonating Wally saying 'i'm outta here!' which caused her to chuckle a bit as she headed up the second set of stairs. The way into Sammy's office was finally unblocked, and Jade opened the door. Only now did she notice the message It's time to believe.

Okay, that's creepy, Jade thought as she limped over to the lever labeled PUMP SWITCH in bold letters. Giving the lever a yank, the sound of liquid draining echoed through the entire department after the whine of protest from the switch.

That should do it! Hopefully, there's something outside that can help get the ink out of my leg.

She limped out of Sammy's office with a bit of a smile. Even though she had a bit of a battle scar to show her misadventure, she realized things could have ended much worse with the demon. As she made her way down the hall toward the lobby and the stairwell, she couldn't help but feel a bit of a chill for some odd reason. This chill only grew more present as she got to the lobby.

Suddenly, it was almost like someone was screaming "Behind you!" to her in an urgent tone. She turned around quickly, but it was too late. She was hit in the head with something cold, blunt and metal as she collapsed to the ground and felt a jolt of pain go through her entire body, especially her injury. Her axe clattered on the wooden floor as she dropped it. Her entire head ached as she struggled to keep her eyes open from her place on the ground, and in her ever blurring vision, there it was. The figure who had watched her get attacked by the second horde of searchers.

"Rest your head, it's time for bed." He murmured with Sammy's voice as Jade drifted out of consciousness, feeling one last surge of chills from this statement as she tried desperately to fight the ever-growing darkness. She of course failed, and her vision faded to black as she felt herself being lifted up from the ground, but had no strength to fight back.