While he apparently hadn't heard her question, his mumbling had nevertheless answered it. His accusing question took her by surprise.

"How would I know where she is? I've only been here a couple of months, and I haven't seen any creatures that might be your daughter." She paused briefly before adding, "Not unless your daughter is a metallic snake-woman." It didn't seem likely, but that was the only female monster she'd encountered so far.

Lillia is human...just as I was. He answered, looking straight at you, his eyes half glazed over, a half dead expression on his face, he appeared to be ready to take Susan again...

The creature's claim was the last thing Susan had been expecting. Between the shock and her fatigue, she didn't really notice that he was preparing to attack again. Still, she had to know.

"You were human? What happened?" Something told her that whatever had happened to him and his daughter was something she should be aware of.

Siferus began to walk toward Susan slowly, his gaze never wandering, staying fixed on the lustful body of the student.

I got too close to the secrets of the school, and the lab rats at the N.I.C.E. turned me into this. I have no idea what happened to my little girl... His voice lacked any real emotion other than disappointment. The fact that his daughter was nowhere to be found upset him greatly, as it would any parent.

Susan could almost feel sympathy for the creature. If it hadn't attacked her,...

Even with her hatred of it and what it had done to her, she still thought that she'd try to get word to it somehow if she did happen to learn something about this Lillia. Not for his sake, but for the girl's; if she really had vanished, this creature wasn't likely to be any worse than anything else holding her captive in this place, and he did seem genuinely concerned.

This line of thought didn't distract her so much that she failed to notice the monster's approach. "Hold it... Stay back." Her voice was still weak and her legs were beginning to shake from the effort of staying upright in her condition, betraying that she still wasn't in any condition to put up much of a fight.

Siferus continued to walk toward Susan in his exhausted state. His eyes were glazed over as if he were there but not there. He stopped a few steps outside of Susan's reach and slowly extended his arm. Much to Susan's surprise, it wasn't to grab her, it was to tear the restraints off the door. He was letting her go. Siferus stumbled back to underneath the sky light and leapt through the glass and was gone.

With the creature's exit, Susan's fatigue took over and her legs gave out from the strain of trying to remain upright. She'd been sure that it was going to attack her again, even though it had seemed nearly as exhausted as she felt. She considered what it might have been up to. It was possible that her last display of bravado had convinced it that she was strong enough to fight it off...

Yeah, right, she thought, looking up at the skylight it had left by. It could still leap that high easily, and tear that goop of its from the door, in its tired state. Besides, why would it let me out if I'd scared it away?

It might have been heading to the locker room to ambush her again...

Not likely. I don't think it would give me that much of a chance of escaping if it wasn't done.

She had to admit that it was most likely that she'd been wrong about what it had been doing at the end. It had sated itself and, in a show of... mercy? humanity?... had let her go rather than leave her trapped until the webbing went away.

Even if she was wrong, it didn't really matter; the thing was almost certainly capable of taking her again if it was waiting in ambush. She might as well assume it had finished with her. Gathering what strength she could, she pushed the door open and headed down to the locker room, leaning on the wall for support. She hoped she'd have recovered enough to manage a quick shower before getting dressed and heading back to her room.