Bala walks with the Captain out to the dance floor. She seemed to be in a dream. He is so wonderful, so kind. She feels his bare hand lead his arm around her bare waist. For some reason she realises that she shouldn't pull quickly away from him lest she suffer an embarrassing "wardrobe malfunction". She begins to wonder at the delay in the music resuming when the lights flicker and then go out. Perhaps there was going to be a light show that didn't work? She sees scary creatures crawl out from under tables and she thinks the thing with the lights was done by some boys from the Dark Elements prom.

A nightmarish scene unfolds in front of Bala's eyes as hideous monsters rip clothing off of her classmates and do terrible things to those girls. More monsters emerge from under tables, some from set walls, some were the boys transforming into nightmare figures. Bala's eyes grow wide and she holds the Captain close as she witnesses the scene. Besides the screams coming from all around her, Bala hears a scream from very close. In a moment she realises that she is the source of that scream.

Witnessing a monster throw a table that stood between it and its prey, Bala worries about the Captain. He will certainly move to defend her and these creatures are simply too powerful. "Run!", she shouts to her bueau. She grabs his arm and tries to lead him to a clearing that looks safe. "If only we hadn't come out to dance", she pines. Blocking the door that until moments ago they had stood next to was a particuarly gruesome creature with three of Bala's classmates stripped and dancing at the end of its tentacles.

"Don't worry. I've had some training in martial arts." She wasn't being modest. While she was a championship calibre Zardari practitioner in her pendant class, she didn't think that would be much use against these things. She just wanted the Captain to know that he didn't have to sacrifice himself to defend her.

Luck seemed on their side as none of the creatures made a move towards them. If Bala had less punch in her system, she might have wondered why every other boy around had turned into a monster while her Captain, conveniently, had not.

((Sorry! For some reason I thought I had posted already. Then I look and I hadn't even finished it, let alone posted it. Sorry. I'm a ditz.))

((Happens to the best of us ))

In seconds, hell had exploded into the room, stealing sense and reason entirely as a tableau that was too surreal to be reality swallowed up their surroundings. It was a sight that would drive most mad with shock and horror... certainly, her 'Captain' was frozen in shock as the insanity erupted.

She was the first to recover, or so it seems. Her pull snaps him to his senses, and he dashes along with her. There were still some girls shrieking and running, crowding this way and that. Those caught in the middle were all almost certainly being captured and ravaged... it did not bode well for Bala.

Ahead, a creature that resembled a giant clam pulled a shrieking girl into its maw, tentacles finding their way into every orifice she had. To the side, by the door, something with slick black skin and dozens of tentacles coming off of its arms was pinning down several lovely girls at once, turning their faces to one another as tentacles pried open sensual flowers to violate their precious depths. All about her, more and more women were going down, often in groups, to these hideous things.

It was a wonder that she did not go mad. Perhaps that was what impressed her 'Captain' the most right now... "Martial... arts? What kind? No, never mind. ...over there, I think I see a door." Looking up, he gestures to a nearby corner... the way she was moving, through the gaps that appeared in such crowds. Lucky as she was, nothing edged towards her, not yet. They dashed around, reaching the wall... some of the creatures were beginning to glance in their direction, but those closest were far too occupied with pounding their captives into shrieking bliss. The cacophony of howls, screams, and grunts were filling her ears, settling in her memories as a nightmare that surely would haunt every night for months to come...

Bala clung to her Captain for dear life. There was no escape. Everywhere they ran, monsters preceded them, ravaging classmates and friends. Bala screamed when a particularly hideous monster captured a friend of hers, ripped off her clothing, and over-filled every hole with slimy tentacles.

They had reached the corner and Bala couldn't see a door anywhere. "Where's the door?", she screamed at her date. She could no longer bear to look at the spectacle around her and she buried her face in the Captain's chest. That only made it worse as she now just heard the sounds of the massive orgy. Besides the screams, Bala heard the sounds of her friends being violated, a sort of repetitive squishing sound that caused her to shiver.

Bala looked up to her Captain. "We have to get out of here!", she said with tears in her pleading eyes. The enormity of the attack had finally broken her and she looked to her date to think of a way for them to escape. And even though it really wouldn't matter, she now deeply regretted leaving her panties and bra on her bed.

Exposed. That was a word that would describe her, in more than one way. Her fear, exposed, surely. The lack of protective underclothes was teasing her now, a faint whisper at the back of her mind saying just how indecently exposed she really was. She could practically feel them, inhuman eyes gazing through her outer layers to see the nothing underneath.

But the truth was, it didn't make a difference. That didn't make her feel any better. Fabric of her costume pressed tightly to her shapely body, tight against her taut skin, which was now becoming alarmingly sensitive and sharp with the adrenaline and fear.

She saw him lean out more, pointing. At first, she couldn't see anything... but no, there it was. It was a small door against the wall, up near the corner. It probably was a service entrance, used by janitors and staff. It might lead into other areas in this section of the building, but it might not lead all the way out... or it might lead to a back exit. Anything was better than here.

But there was a creature in the way... a big, hairy thing with thick arms and a nearly-equal thing hanging open between its legs. Like a werewolf, or something equally monstrous, and it had no mate to call its own. So it had locked its eyes on Bala, and was trying to circle around a bloblike creature holding two poor girls towards them...

Breathing hard, Bala feels the silk fabric sliding over her breasts. She had stepped away from Jefferson and now feels alone and naked. The dark beauty reflexively covers her breasts with her arms and hops back to her Captain. For the sake of authenticity, Bala had even eschewed a petticoat. A cloth belt tied to her waist was all that held up her sari. Six metres of silk didn't seem like a barrier now.

"Please! Get us out of here! Maybe you can distract that monster while I get around him. And then I can distract him while you join me." Bala begins to think that her plan sounds stupid. She needs the good Captain to devise a plan.

It was a crazy plan, a poor one, if one thought about it for a while. But it put him in more danger than her... theoretically. Perhaps that was why he heroically volunteered for it. "Ready. Go!"

If she went forwards, he acted quickly. Using the foil, he drew and started painfully 'thwacking' the monster, finding points that look soft to strike and hurt. The hairy thing's hide was tough, however, and it only roars in annoyance! It swipes at him, but he rolls to the side, avoiding danger by a hair, and then starts striking its legs and knees, racing around it hurriedly.

"I'll join you! Just get out the door!" He shouts, getting the thing to at least face him, but weaving back and forth wasn't helping him get past the thing... and it was dangerous, even for her to get by! But maybe he can find the timing, even as her heart pounds at the danger...

Bala lifts her sari and makes a mad dash for the door, her bells ringing as she runs. Somehow she makes it to the door. She turns to see the... thing attacking her Captain. Bala is too frightened of the monster to attack it.
But she doesn't want to lose Jefferson. Standing next to a table with full cups of punch, She reaches for them and begins throwing them at the monster. "Hey! I'm over here you pile of hair!" Bala never moves very far from the door. She'll try to keep its attention until the Captain is clear. But if worse comes to worse, she's running through that door into the hallway.

Her captain was locked in a desperate struggle, barely keeping ahead of the hairy thing. Even with her at the door, he can't get by... her shout to the thing, however, seems to anger it! Turning around, the beast GROWLS at her, eyes flaring wide as it lumbers in her direction...

Then SQUEALS in pain at something! Whipping around behind it, it rounds on the Captain agan... but he's not there, racing around it during its confusion and dashing towards her. The beast turns back around slowly, brow furrowed...

But by the time the man is back with her, ushering her along towards the door. [talk]Let's go.[/talk] Jefferson whispers urgently, reaching the door and trying it... the handle turns, but stops. It's locked.

"Locked." He hisses, confirming the fear that was jumping in her throat. Blinking, he starts patting himself down frantically, as if looking for something... she was sure, at any minute, more monsters were going to descend upon them...

"NO!" Bala moves past the Captain and takes on the door handle with both hands. "It can't be locked! It's illegal to be locked!" She vainly tries to turn the handle while pushing and pulling on the door.

Giving up on the door, Bala returns to Jefferson and holds him tightly. So tight in fact that she disrupts his search. She looks to the table of punch. But another monster is using it as a table for his "dinner". The poor girl looking at Bala and crying for help. Unable to stand looking at the 'carnage' all around her any more, Bala buries her face in the Captain's back and sobs.

The door jerks a bit against the frame, but it was firmly locked. No matter how she wrenches it, it won't open. His arms come around her tightly, squeezing Bala as she clings desperately to him. "Sh..."

One hand settles in the small of her back. The other slides up, running over her well-decorated hair, turning her head way of the horrors in the room. He strokes her almost comfortingly... her headdress shifting about under his hand. And then he pulls away, causing it to slide off her head!

Quickly, he pulls her up against the door, ignoring the horrors raging around them, and then carefully pries the hairpin he took apart... snapping it into two parts. While it seems like they were trembling by the door, he was quick at work, picking it...

Of course, there were other security measures that could keep the key-based door closed. But those had already been handled before they got there... "G... go!" He pushes her through as the door swings inwards, dashing in after her!

They... they've escaped?! Into a narrow hallway... it's definitely used for janitors, and probably technicians. It was narrow, poorly lit... she could see something like a ladder beside her, and she nearly trips over a toolbox left over the ground. Ahead, the narrow hall turns a little to the right... she can't tell where this leads, but it must be better than here!

"Murgi chutia!" Bala curses as she stubs her toes on the toolbox. In the dimly lit service corridor her bare feet are at risk from debris on the very cold concrete floor. She runs anyway, albeit with a limp, away from the horrible scene behind them. Even now, she looks beautiful as she runs: sari flowing, hair and garlands whipping about, bells chiming, and breasts bouncing.

After a bend in the hallway, Bala stops underneath a lamp hanging from the ceiling. The single light bulb illuminates a small cone below it. It's not much, but the light makes her feel safe, at least safer. She looks back into the darkness for her gallant Captain. "Jefferson? Hurry up. I'm scared." Her stubbed toes throb with pain. But flexing them tells her that they aren't broken.

Bala cannot see the faint smile that crosses his face at her curse. Something about it was cute... even lovely, as he watches her begin to retreat into the darkness. He was following as well, but slower, his footfalls beginning to disappear as he walked silently and carefully after her.

The name of the game was ready to change. But how to change it? The only options were terribly cruel...

Slowly, she sees him approaching, stepping out of the shadows into the dim light by her source... it was almost eerie, the way he approached, although maybe it was the terror of what she saw, and the dark atmosphere of the service hallway.

He did not linger in the shadows long, though his sudden appearance was startling. He did not say anything either, not until he stepped into the light with her.

"I'm here." He says, a steady and verbal reassurance. ...but he didn't say the obvious, where to from here? There was only one route, deeper in... but the way this hallway was bent, it may just circle around the area they were just in. If it fed back into those series of rooms, would there be any escape from this?

Bala tenses as the Captain approaches. She resumes breathing with a sigh when she sees that it is him. She takes a step to hold him when she stops herself. He's different somehow. Bala shakes the feeling with a shake of her head and wraps her arms around him. After what they just saw, she must be different too.

She holds him tight, soaking in his warmth along with comfort. Not only is the floor cold, the service hallway itself feels cold. What? Did they crank up the A/C in here to make up for the extra warm gymnasium? She shivers in his arms as she is not dressed for this temperature.

"Come on", she implores. She doesn't know where this passage leads. But the monsters saw them enter and will be chasing them soon. Bala didn't know what the Captain did to slow them down. But they were extremely strong and Bala didn't think Jefferson could do anything that would stop them.

She grabs his hand and begins to run into the darkness. Within a few moments he hears a loud clang and Bala shouting, "Lavde ke bal!!" She stops and says, "sorry about that", and starts to push him in front. "You lead", she says as she gives the overturned, metal filing cabinet a quick kick. Where upon she curses again, "Apni ma ko ja choos!!!"

She was interesting... enticing, exotic, intelligent, and peculiar. The uneasiness she surely felt was being reasoned away, her mind forcing clarity. Of course, in this case following her instinct might have been right... but that would have just been reacting to the emotion of the situation. Bala was showing a surprising calmnes and control..

It was a delightful surprise to him. Jefferson held her close, letting her take in his comforting warmth, the intimate closeness, giving her a moment to gather her will and strength... she would need it.

The closeness parted soon enough. It had helped steady her, but the fear and urgency was still there. The need to escape... his hand still held hers as they began to move again. Pushing into the dark unknown, the cold passageway could not be more foreboding. The chill was strange, sending shivers through her as she pushes ahead...

Until she slams into a filing cabinet with a 'CRASH'! It hurts like hell, but she stays on her feet... it breaks the tension she's feeling, but only for a moment. Jefferson doesn't say anything, putting a hand on her shoulder that doesn't really calm her. Her curses made him smile faintly, something she barely make out from the faint light now far behind them...

And then he's pushed ahead, speaking in surprise. "Oof...! Are you ok?" He stumbles ahead of her, starting to walk on. She realizes belatedly that they are no longer holding hands. No longer touching. She hears his footsteps for a moment, barely seeing him.

And then silence, and darkness. She... doesn't see him at all... nor hear him at all... just like that, he was gone?

Bala vainly reaches for her Captain-Knight-in-Shining-Armour. She looks ahead unsteadily, hoping to see him. Jefferson is somewhere in the darkness ahead of her. The only light and monsters are behind her. Was that a noise? Is there a horrible monster in this passageway?

She looks again in the direction of her Captain's disappearance. "Jefferson?", she calls out in a loud whisper. After a few moments, she calls out a bit louder, "JEFFERSON!" Bala hops up and down in distress, causing a melodic tinging of her anklets and an eye pleasing bounce of her breasts.

She finally screams, "JEFFERSON!!!"

Without the calming influence and confidence her Captain inspires, Bala panics at another sound coming from behind her. She begins to run in the dark in the direction of her lost Captain.

Surprisingly, Bala manages to run quite a distance in the total darkness. But her luck runs out when she trips over some kind of cable stretched across the floor. A scream, the crashing of empty, cardboard boxes, and the discord of anklet chimes replaces the concord of bare foot falls and tinging bells

Bala spins among the boxes and comes to rest with her bare back on the floor, butt resting on a box a foot above the floor. The skirt part of Bala's sari has gathered around her waist and the top has flown somewhere to her side. Now wearing merely a swath of clothing around her waist, Bala takes a moment to gather herself. Her heart racing, her chest quickly rises and falls to her rapid breathing.

When an air conditioning vent above her starts blowing frigid air on her, Bala sits up and pushes her sari over her hips and legs and wraps the rest of her sari around her chest, more for warmth than for modesty. "Jefferson!", she shouts again. Bala looks all around in the total darkness hoping to reestablish physical contact with her Captain. She decides to keep moving. There could be a monster in here and it could be getting closer. She quickly walks down the hall only to bump into a wall.

"Tatti!" (Bala has quite the potty mouth in Hindi.[1]) Bala had thought she was walking in her original direction. But hitting a side wall meant that she had no idea which way was which. It seems the air conditioning vent above her is set for blizzard. "Isn't forty below cold enough?", Bala asks no one in particular. She wraps herself a little more tightly with her sari. But the sari is made of a summer weight fabric, intended to keep its wearer cool. She has to get away from the vent so she blindly chooses a direction and starts walking. Bala clutches her stomach for warmth and calls out her Captain's name again, "Jefferson!"

((I'm back! I'm struggling to kick off the rust but I should be back to my post-a-day pace soon.))
(([1] - For speakers of Hindi: No pun intended.))