The Midnight Ghost

Act II

With the amulet tucked into a pocket of her dress, her hands and feet got to work climbing the rope. The rope stung her soft hands, more use to the feel of a leather-wrapped dagger hilt than that of a hemp rope. Just as she was starting to get breathing from pulling her weight and fighting to grip the rope with her feet rather than her skirt, she heard it, the groaning and splintering of charred wood. 

"Oh, Mother of-" Her words cut off by a startled shout as she found herself in free fall before her rear end once more met the unforgiving ground this time decorated by the broken bits of the ladder. Rubbing her bruised backside she slowly climbed to her feet and brushed the splinters from her skirt. 

At the surface level, Aden was apologizing profusely while scrounging around for something to secure the rope to. The center beam of the house caught his eye, barely touched by the soot and ash it was laying on the other side of the hearth from him. He hauled it over with little effort and secured the rope, this time gripping the rope just below the knot to try and prevent another fall. Sorely missing her ability of silent flight, Ioana again attempted to journey to the surface. This time, she made it high enough for Aden to give her a hand and haul her from the pit. 

Entrusting the amulet to Aden, Ioana set to work trying to beat the dust from her torn skirt. "That was in a vampire's ashes down there..."

"This is a druidic item, but we don't usually wear things like this. Nor do we give items like this to unnatural creatures.."

"What does it say on the back?"

"Oh, Mother of all, may the wearer be seen as pure of heart. Be they born of dirtied bloodline, tricked into sin, or repentant of past wrongs. Please forgive them and take them back into your arms." 

"A little eerie sounding but alright. Did you find anything?" 

"No."

"I'm ready to leave this murder house if you are Aden." 

And so the duo set out, the amulet staying in Ioana's pocket for safekeeping. With the blackened entryway not too far off the floor groaned beneath their feet. Aden lept and rolled toward the stone archway, but Ioana wasn't as lucky. The floor gave way, sending the woman crashing toward the floor and sliding into the darkness. digging her nails into the wood she scrambled for a handhold, screaming for Aden before she finally found a grip on a support beam for the floorboards. She could almost swear she felt eyes on her from the basement below, a cold feeling climbed, clawed up her legs, wrapping around her ankles in preparation to pull her back into the darkness. She dangled there for a moment, kicking viciously to make the spectral feeling leave. 

Warm hands found hers and pulled her out of the darkness back into the receding light of day. Aden's embrace wrapped around her, holding her safe against his sturdy, dense frame. It took a moment for her to her ragged breathing before she pulled her face from Aden's chestto look up at him in bewilderment. 

"I'm at least ten times lighter than you. How am I the one to cause the floor to collapse?" She searched his face and couldn't determine if he was worried or amused. He had never been good as visually displaying his emotions.

"And the ladder, and the post." His tone held amusement as he began looking over the scratches that covered her forearms. "Let's go back to the Inn, I can bandage your arms up there." 

With a sigh, Ioana realized that her arms weren't the places she would be needing bandages. Her thigh burned like fire since her second fall, and she now realized that her skirt was sticking slightly, darkened with her blood. "Okay, I'll need to patch up my dress tonight too. I'm not presentable at all with it in shreds like this."