Telluric

Chapter XXIX: Graywood Manor

The minute she thought of it, the door slammed with a chilly gust of wind, trapping Mayla, Diego, and Clary in the darkness of the house. The blanket of darkness was threatening... as if a tidal wave was drowning them all in the absence of light. Suddenly, Clary lit her hand, and the darkness seemed to flinch and waver slightly. How could darkness flinch?

"Where are you, Elizabeth?" Mayla called in the near-darkness. An echoing laugh was all that responded, which didn't really help their current situation that much. Clary frowned angrily in the light, and Diego just stood silently, watching the surrounding darkness.

"This way," He began to run up the stairs and into the darkness. Mayla wasn't sure how he knew, but she decided to trust his intuition. They followed Diego up the stairs and out of the parlor, arriving in a small corridor overlooking the floor they were just in. A painting of some Graywood family member loomed angrily at the top of the stairs, as if it were staring hollowly at them. After turning from the unsettling painting, she and Clary followed Diego to the left of the stairs, where a door to another hallway stood.

After unlocking the door, Diego ran swiftly into the light that the door portrayed. They weren't prepared for what was on the other side of the door; a ball in full swing.

Soft waltzing music drifted into their ears and Mayla felt her body become slippery and dizzy. In front of her, a golden ball room was littered with people waltzing swiftly. She heard the door behind them shut, and when she turned, there were only golden walls. Golden drapes loomed over the sides of the walls, obviously being very expensive. The waltzing dancers were dressed in garbs of silver and white, with black masks that hid their faces.

The chandelier above the dancing glimmered with crystals and jewels, lit by candle flames. The candles dripped wax every once in a while, and when it hit the dancers they didn't flinch. In fact, the dancers didn't even seem to notice them at all, and they kept dancing despite the three people that pushed through them in search of a way out of the ballroom.

Something felt off about them though... they hadn't seen any other humans in Monotory, so why are there suddenly a bunch in here? Diego weaved through and seemed to be trying to pick up some sort of sense of where he was. His eyes shifted uneasily as he watched the people dance, as if he were wary of them, though it was probably good that he was. Clary stood outside of the dancers, searching the walls and tapestries. The silver cloths of dresses and suits, and the black feathers and masks that stuck out of the peoples' hair obstructed Mayla's view of Clary, until Diego and she were trapped in a ring of dancers.

"We've got to dance our way out of this..." Diego whispered to her solemnly, as if reminiscing something. His body seemed to be encased in shadow, metaphorically. His expression was dark, and his eyes glared thoughtfully. "Take my hand."

"What?" Before she could think, he snatched her bat, threw it in her bag, and they began to dance in the center of the ring. They waltzed softly to the music; a violin rendition of Danse Macabre had begun to play. Tears began to well up as she remembered Noah's version. The soft violins and other instruments led the in circles as they dipped and turned quickly and darkly. His face darkening with sorrow, Diego scowled when the song begun to play, his eyes obviously showing both anger and tears.

As they began to dance, the song swung into motion and the dancers quickened, attempting to throw Mayla and Diego down and trample them over. Diego just growled inhumanly to himself and Mayla nonchalantly spun around under Diego's arm. The people waltzed to and fro, like the magic tea cups at Disney World, and there was a different group every time Mayla looked out at the surrounding circle.

Looking at the golden marble floor, she saw patterns of skulls and flora growing out of them, with the sun creating a ring that they were dancing in. As they danced, the shadows around them seemed to grow thicker, and she could tell Diego was planning something. The darkness underneath her and the dancers wove around until they met Diego's own shadow. As the darkness crept up his leg, Mayla couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed and nervous.