Previously in NWC-
Reno and CeCe slid down a long and seemingly endless tunnel until they emerge in a room full off bones and an odd symbol. CeCe, out of fear for anything undead, begins acting hysterically, opting Reno to attempt to calm her down. After being slammed against the wall, almost lit on fire, and having his nether regions kicked, Reno finally manages to get CeCe stable. He slowly takes charge and begins looking for a way out. After getting frustrated, he kicks a skull which shatters against the wall and draws his attention somewhere...
Reno uses one of his feet to make a clearing on the ground, pushing the skeletons away from a small tunnel in the wall. He bends down, pulling CeCe with him, and begins inspecting the hole. He puts the torch in it, poking his head in afterwards. He looks down and sees that it goes for quite a while, even turning to the point where they'll have to crawl through it to see if it continues. The tunnel was surprisingly larger than expected, easily fitting his entire body in a crawling position. He looks back at CeCe and smiles. "CeCe, I found a tunnel. I don't know where it goes, but it's the only lead."
CeCe, without saying another word, pushes past Reno, getting on all fours and quickly crawling through the tunnel. "I don't even care if it's a dead end! I'm getting out of this room!"
Reno watches with disbelief, getting on his knees and crawling behind her. Reno takes longer than CeCe as he does his best not to let the torch go out. They crawl for seconds that quickly stack into minutes. Their knees hurt with every new movement forward, but they carry on, nonetheless. "CeCe! Slow the hell down! Getting separated is the last thing we want to do!" Reno shouts at CeCe and she suddenly stops in her tracks. Unprepared for this, he crashes into her, causing her to lurch forward with surprise.
"Eek!" She turns back, a look of anger and embarrassment on her face as she blushes. "Pervert!"
Reno, previously holding himself back, finally snaps. "Oh, shut the hell up! You're the one who pushed past me and then just randomly stops in front of me! I'm a lot of things, but a PERVERT is NOT one of them! You've got a pretty big set of balls on you to label as a pervert the very one to whom you were clinging not even 5 minutes ago!"
CeCe's blush grows even larger as she get's more frustrated. "Let's just stop talking about it!"
"Oh sure, call me a pervert then claim you don't want to talk about it. I should charge you extra for this shit." Reno grumbles to himself as they slowly continue, nearing an opening.
"No way!" CeCe yells with excitement as she crawls faster, emerging into another room that's lacking in skeletons. "Freedom!"
Reno finally makes it out of the hole, standing up and holding out the torch to better light the room. The room was full of standing shelves, giving off the image of a storage room. They both stretch and sigh. Reno is the one to break the silence. "Look, we're both stressed out. But let's try to play nice, okay?"
CeCe scratches the back of neck and chuckles with embarrassment. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I just REALLY hate dead things, or rather, dead things that SHOULD be dead, but aren't."
"I get it, let's just act like the last 10 minutes didn't happen." They both nod their heads in agreement and begin searching the room. The shelves were empty, nothing but dust cloaking them. "It's so hard to breathe in here. CeCe, could you-"
Before Reno could ask, CeCe begins filling the room with fresh oxygen, created by her magic. "I got you. I'll keep a small amount going while we explore, so don't worry, and let me know if you need more."
"Thanks, I appreciate it." No longer feeling like he was suffocating, Reno makes his way to the other end of the room, finding a locked door. "Dammit, of course it's locked! I wonder if I could knock the door down?" Reno takes a position as if he were about to charge the door, but CeCe steps in front of him, smiling with a cocky grin.
"Leave it to me! Old locks like these are nothing compared to my skill!" CeCe pulls out a lockpick from her pouch and unlocks the door in less than 2 seconds. "Ta da! Easy as that!"
Reno looks at the now wide-open door and shakes his head. "Good to know you can just steal whatever you want form me one day."
CeCe giggles as she shakes her head. "Hey! I would never steal from party members! … Usually."
"What the hell do you mean 'usually'?!" Reno's eyes narrow with irritation. CeCe giggles as she ignores the question and quickly begins entering the next room. "Don't just ignore me!" Reno follows behind her, entering the hallway with her. The hallway is short and the next room has no doors. They look to their right as they enter the next room, seeing rows of what appear to be stone beds. "And I thought I had it rough sleeping on hay."
CeCe chuckles, glancing at Reno. "You sleep on hay?"
"Look, man, don't judge me just because I can't afford a house."
CeCe shakes her head and waves her arms. "No, no! I just thought the idea of you curled up on a pile of hay was cute, that's all!" CeCe tilts her head slightly, trying to look cute in hopes of getting a funny reaction from him.
Not realizing he was being flirted with, Reno sighs. "You think me not being able to afford an actual place to sleep is cute? That's pretty fucked up, not gonna lie."
CeCe pouts, slightly disappointed that she couldn't get a rouse out of him. "Fine, fine, I didn't mean it like that. Let's just keep going, shall we?" They continue, walking past the room and entering the doorway in the left corner of the room, straight ahead. CeCe walks slowly, making sure the two of them don't get separated. With no more skeletons in sigh, she seems to have regained her confidence. She was about to speak when she believes she hears something. She stops, listening intently. She stood in a 3-way intersection, one way leading back to where they came from, a path straight ahead and a path to the right. She stands in the middle, toning out the flickering flame of the torch and narrowing in on the path to the right. Just before she was about to assume she heard nothing, her ears pick up a faint moaning sound. The noise sounded like a mixture of human and demon, an echo to it that didn't seem to come from the walls of the ruins. The voice moaned and groaned, sending a shiver down CeCe's spin. She slowly looks over in the direction of the sound, her eyes adjusting to the difference in light. She isn't entirely certain if she's imagining things out of fear, but she feels like she can almost see red eyes, watching her. Reno places a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump and yelp. "Ahh!" She turns to face him before quickly turning back, no longer getting the feeling that they were being watched. She strains her eyes, but no matter what she does she can't see the eyes anymore.
"What's wrong? You've been standing there for a minute now."
"It's nothing, just… don't worry about!" She tries to force a smile and speak with the same tone, but Reno sees through it.
"Look. We're lost and the only thing we have is each other. Just like how I promised I'd tell you if I start feeling sick, you need to tell me what's going on with you too, okay?"
CeCe sighs before genuinely smiling and nodding her head. "You're right. I'm sorry. I thought I'd seen something watching us, but I guess it disa-" As CeCe was speaking, she's interrupted. The echoey voice one again rings out, but this time just on the edge of the torches light, hiding just out of sight. The voice whispers, but it's voice carries.
It speaks a single word. "Suffer!"
CeCe's body immediately turns cold as she stiffens with fear, her body covered with goosebumps. She whispers, hoping not to alert whatever was with them. "Reno… Did you hear that?" She waits for a response before she tries glancing over at him. "Reno?" She looks and her eyes widen with horror. "Reno?!"
Reno stands there, his eyes glued down the hallway. CeCe finally raising her voice is what snaps him out of his trance, He doesn't look away, but he finally responds. "CeCe, what do we do?!"
CeCe panics, her voice naturally rising in volume. "I don't know! I've never had to deal with this before I can't even see it!" Their voices are plagued with panic and fear as they try to figure out what to do. Suddenly, the voice cackles, the laugh echoing even more and causing them to jump due to the volume. "Why did it have to be undead?!" CeCe suddenly bolts farther down the hallway in the direction away from the room and away from the seemingly haunted hallway.
"Wait! CeCe, what the fuck, dude?!" Reno begins running after her, glancing back the entire time, hoping that nothing follows them. The voice continues to laugh, the volume seems to remain constant no matter how far they run. He turns around to see CeCe make quick work of a locked door, and throw it open, getting behind it in preparation to close it. Reno rushes through the door, almost running into the wall on the other side and CeCe slams the door shut, relocking it. Finally, the voice disappears, seemingly vanishing into thin air.
TO BE CONTINUED...