It was a dark and stormy night...

As was befitting of such nights surrounding Halloween, an aura of darkness shrouded even the most vibrant lands of Stella. Strange things happened around this time of year, and today was no exception. It seemed that the holiday began to make the spirits stir; it had been ages since most have had a proper haunting. And with the gathering of mages still lingering from Empyrean Divine's gala? What poltergeist could resist.

A handful of people-- perhaps sought for their affinity with magic-- would find themselves waking up in an abandoned hotel. As for how they got there? Their memories would be fragmented... if they were even there at all. No harm would have been done to their bodies though. That was not the poltergeist's way. Not at the start at least.

Atani was one such person who had the misfortune of being haunted by the ghost. When she awoke, she saw that she was alone in a derelict room. The carpet smelled of must and the curtains looked as if they'd been torn by a werewolf. "Hello?" she called, unable to remember how she had gotten to the place. For a few moments, the only response the elf had received was that of deafening silence. But then a banshee's cry. A window shattering. A knife scraping against tile... the latter of which seemed to be coming from the bathroom within her suite.

Atani eyed the door cautiously. She could already feel the mana pouring into her hands as she braced herself for what surely must have been her captor. As the old door knob jiggled, she clenched her fist. The door slowly creaked open to reveal... nothing. Just as the elf found herself caught in momentary shock, a knife flew threw the shadows and thudded against the wall behind her, its silver blade mere inches from her head. But still, there was no visible threat.

This was bad.

The mage made a beeline for the door doing her best to watch for any more phantom knives. She made it, but then had to struggle with the knob that was not locked, but was rusted over from years upon years of neglect. Just as she managed to break away enough of the rust, another knife embedded itself in the door. That was her cue. She darted out of the room and slammed the door shut behind her. Using her magic, she jammed the lock with some vines. Turning back around, she now found herself in the lengthy halls of the abandoned hotel.

"Hello? Is anyone else there?"

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For a brief moment, Atani was afraid that after saying that she would be greeted with yet another ghastly sound of the supernatural in response, but instead she heard a human voice. Or at least a voice that sounded human. Though surprisingly, the voice sounded rather calm. But not the eerie calm that sent chills down her spine. A genuine calm that Atani figured either meant whoever she was about to run into was either clueless or fearless.

"Preparing for the evening?" Atani muttered before jogging to where she heard the voice coming from. Rounding the corner of the hall, she ran into a young woman with long raven hair. She was accompanied by a large feline beast of the likes the elf had never seen before. "Woah," she said, coming to a complete stop in front of the two. "I uh-- hi. Did you get stuck in this haunted hotel too?"

Atani glanced behind the girl to see if she was being followed by a ghost of her own but did not see anything as of yet. She then looked over her own shoulder to see if the invisible knife thrower had busted its way out the room, but nothing yet. "I don't suppose you know how to get out of here."

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