The doors stretched far back until the gloom hid them from her view. Not vertical like the one they had come crashing through moments before, or the stately ones inside Corax's home but ones that reminded her of the prison encampment. Small, uniform with tiny, tarnished knobs and peeling letters she didn't recognize across the frame. That non-electric light faded in and out. She pushed herself up onto her elbows. Not broken. From the length of the drop she was surprised nothing on her was broken. Only bruises and a spinning head. The opening had been at an angle so after the initial drop most of it was more like a slide. The last part though when the 'door' opened into the entry-way from the ceiling there was nothing to slow her decent. She could see Proga to her right, holding his wrist and grimacing. His eyes went wide a moment and without speaking he dragged her backward by an ankle. There was a hiss from above her and a curse. A moment later Spark and Kait landed just in front of her, where she would have been a second earlier. Spark landed on his feet. He had Kait over one shoulder. Her eyes weren't open.
"I-I-I think she passed out! I didn't see her hit her head or anything but she just let go of me all a sudden." Her head lolled back as he placed her on the ground.
"I'm not surprised. She really hates heights." Proga knelt beside her and pulled one of her eyelids back and then touched a finger to her throat.
Another hiss. Gabbro landed on his feet as well. His hair was slightly wild and he was breathing hard. His expression remained neutral as though they walked up a long flight of stairs instead of jumped from the back of a massive winged, shape-shifting demon into a fly-in only door of a random building in a floating demon city.
Gabbro tugged the collar of his shirt, readjusted his bag and examined the rest of them. "Injured?" He nodded at Kait.
"No she-"
"Good." He started walking.
The room grew lighter. And warmer.
Opal gave Spark a look. "Not in here!"
"Give us a minute to revive her!" Proga snapped, grabbing Spark's sleeve to keep him from doing whatever hostile activity he intended. "Opal, in Kait's pack. Let her smell from the clear bottle."
Gabbro paused at least. His expression was severely unimpressed as he pointed to the stone desk he was walking towards. He wasn't planning on leaving them. Yet.
He tapped a small machine a few times. A clanky 'ding ding ding' echoed around them.
Opal dusted herself off and gently as she could shifted Kait's weight to get into the bag slung over her back. The bottle was oddly warm. She unclipped the top and tried not to gag as she held it to the other demon's nose. Kait's eyelids flickered, and her nose wrinkled, she pulled her head away a little. Opal followed her. A moment later she coughed and then one of her hands came up to try and shove her.
Proga patted her face. "Kait, you ok in there?"
Her silver eyes blinked open slowly at first and then became wide as her hands clawed at the ground.
"W-" she coughed again. "Why are we in an ugly hotel?"
"If it's that bad you can stay somewhere else." A tall, thin demon with long ears and fragile wings that reminded Opal of Lilyfoot's, appeared from the gloom and yanked the bell away from Gabbro. His yellow eyes narrowed at Kait.
"We won't be here long." Gabbro's low voice drew the demon's gaze back.
"Gabbro- I didn't- I apologize."
"I need the key."
"Well, you know I can't just invite whoever in here. Who are they?"
"My entertainment for the afternoon. That's all you want to know. Key."
YOU ARE READING
Hell of Earth
HorrorOpal knows nothing. She's been told she cannot go outside the barrier because its unsafe. She's been told monsters aren't real. She's been told she was almost killed in a rockslide. She's been told that's why her memory is gone. But if that's the c...
