entrancelogs | (no subject)

Who: Bela Talbot and Clint Barton
Where: Mansion, tenth floor.
When: First day of the fog event.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Bela gets dosed with the fog. Cue freakout. Insert helpful archer.
The Story:

Bela was having a bad day.

Actually, make that a terrible day.

It had started like any other day in the mansion and Bela was alright with that (even if she still wanted to go home) until she saw the fog seeping into her room. The incident with the mist not so long ago had taught Bela that it wasn't a good thing and, fearing for her life, she left her room as quickly as possible, intending to get far away from the offending fog. Of course, that didn't prepare Bela for the fog on the tenth floor.

She ran straight into it before she realised what it was, coughing and spluttering whilst trying to find her way out. The real fun happened when she began to see and hear things: the growl of a hellhound, red-eyed demons, steadily making their way closer towards Bela. She was scared and that wasn't even the worst part.

"Abby."

A familiar voice filtered through the sounds of the hellhound and the demons, making Bela freeze in fear. No. Not him. Please God, not him. Anyone but him.

He said the name again and Bela let out a wail, scrambling along the walls to get away because she couldn't face it right now. It was too much and she ran as fast as she could, becoming more exposed to the fog. Bela stumbled and fell to the ground, cutting her knee in the process. It stung like hell and for a moment, the pain brought her to her senses.

Bela used that moment to find a corner to hide in, covering her ears with her hands.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Clint had been seeing the fog, all over the mansion, wafting through corridors and out of vents. This didn't seem to kill people, which was good, but he still wasn't interested in finding out what it did do, if he could help it.

Seeing Bela Talbot scrambling into a corner to hide from, as far as he could tell, nothing whatsoever, well, that alarmed him one way or another. Clint jogged up to where she cowered in fear, in horror, grabbing her firmly by the shoulder.

"Hey. Hey! What happened?"

The worst thing he could do in this situation was to grab her like that.

Bela let out a shriek of terror, bringing her hands away from her ears to push at him, trying to get him away from her. She also pulled away from Clint in a bid to wrench herself free from his grasp.

"Let go of me!" It was bellowed out but there was a definite edge of fear to her tone. "They're coming for me. He's coming for me! I can't..you have to.."

The rest of her sentence was cut off by another scream from her as Bela pointed with a finger in a random direction. She was visibly shaking and looked very pale.

As soon as it became clear that she reacted badly to being touched, Clint let go, hands raised with his palms open, indicating no threat. It was hard to make sense of her words, but it was clear that she was scared out of her mind. Clint shot her a look when she pointed past his shoulder, not so sure if she wasn't trying to trick him, but her eyes followed where she indicated anyway.

"Who's ...?"

But there wasn't... anything. Nothing to either hear or see. So was she having a panic attack? She didn't seem like the type. Never the less, he turned his focus back on her.

"No, come on. Look at me. There's nothing here. Okay?" He kept his eyes on hers and his voice calm and firm as he could. Hell, he hoped there was nothing there, couldn't exactly put invisible monsters past Wonderland these days.

"No. They're there. You must be able to-"

They were advancing towards her, getting closer and closer and Bela felt her throat tighten in panic, letting out a gasp, her eyes widening with fear. She clung onto Clint then, holding his arm tightly.

"Clint. You have to get me away from them. Please. I'm scared." She was becoming more and more anxious as time went on and there seemed to be no end to it. "You can't let him hurt me. I won't-" Bela broke off with a sob, reaching for his other arm with her free hand. "Please."

She had never sounded so desperate and pleading before, a far cry from how Bela usually acted.

Christ she was scared. Clint wrapped his arm around her reflexively. "No-one's gonna hurt you. Don't worry. I'll get you somewhere safe, alright?"

Not that he really knew where to even go.

"Come on, get up. Let's get you away from here." He tried to get her back on her feet, hoping for some cooperation.

This time, she didn't pull away when he put his arm around her, looking up at him before she nodded. "Okay."

Just about anywhere would be good for Bela, as long as she couldn't see them anymore. She didn't want to be scared.

Nodding again, Bela allowed Clint to pull her up until she was standing and she held onto his arm with a hand, unwilling to move away. She seemed lucid for now.

"Where's your room?" he asked, simply because it seemed like the first safe place anyone would go to, but after a moment it occured to him that that was where she might have fled from. "Or are they there, too?"

He glanced around, still unable to see anything anywhere that was worth being scared of. Just some fog hovering around the corridor. At least, this kind did not seem inclined to turn him or anyone into stone.

"It was in my room," she explained, sounding a lot more hushed now. "I don't want to go back there." Bela didn't want to stay here for much longer if she could help it. She felt unsafe.

Then she heard the growls again, much louder than before and Bela closed her eyes, unwilling to look at the things that she could see. "The sooner we get out of here, the better."

"Alright. Let's go." So he took the lead, towards the stairs and down. The idea was to find an empty room, a place this fog had no business being in. He kept his steps fast, but without dragging her along if she wasn't keeping up.

Bela nods before following him, moving surprisingly quick even in the state she was in currently. She realised that she had to put her trust in him and believe that he would get her somewhere safe. They would have to come across somewhere soon as the mansion was spacious.

"You didn't see them, did you?" She asks after a few minutes of silence, glancing over at Clint.

"No," he admits honestly, "I didn't see anything."

He glances back at her, but mostly keeps his eyes on the stairs and the corridor, not wanting to run into any surprises.

His response worries her. Maybe being here had succeeded in driving her mad or there was another reason for it. The fog she had seen, it was possible.

"Okay. Well, it isn't but at least one of us is still with it." A nervous laugh.

He glances over at her again, out of the corner of his eye, deciding he's safe enough to give a half-joking answer.

"Well, either Wonderland has made an attempt at invisible monsters, or you're seeing things. Not really sure which I'd like better."

He steps off the staircase and into the hallway. No fog to be seen here so far. "I'd like it if this event didn't drive everybody batshit though."

"I'd rather take none of them to be honest," Bela says, her tone lightening for just a moment. She just couldn't get the images of them out of her mind.

Her eyes dart around the hallway and she swallows, hoping that she doesn't see anything else. "Yeah. That would be nice. But I seem to be fine for now, so it could be just a temporary thing."

Bela almost tells him what she saw but holds back, not entirely ready to say it.

"I hope so." Temporary would be nice. And hey, in theory, the events are always temporary. At least so far they've all gone away again.

He picks a door at random and steers her towards it, grabbing the handle. "We'll check this room. If it's clear, it'll be the safe room. Sound good?"

"Sounds good, yeah." Bela nods firmly as she waits for Clint to open the door for the both of them. "Hopefully it will blow over quickly."

She looks around anxiously, checking for anything that may have followed them. A part of her still believed in the things she saw.