Utter Darkness

Charlotte awoke from a dreamless sleep. It felt weird to her that she had fallen asleep at all, it seemed she could never sleep of late. Nor eat. She hadn't touched the food in her old room, though it had been weeks. She was starved and weak, but even the thought of eating made her stomach wretch. It took her a while to connect the sleeping with the headache. It seemed she was often having headaches, but she knew it was due to her lack of care for herself. This headache however was different.
Gasping, she opened her eyes as she realized there must have been a roomswitch, but as she opened them she saw nothing but the same utter darkness which had been present in her sleep. It scared her more than anything else so far had done.
Darkness could mean anything. Was she blindfolded? Blind? Or was it simply dark? Such complete darkness made it hard to orientate herself. For all she knew she could be in the basement, being prepared for a game she had no interest in playing. Was she with the new villain now? Or someone else? Was she alone? All these questions made her head ache worse when she opened her mouth to release a choked, terrified cry.
"Hello?" she asked with a broken, scared voice. "Is anyone there?"

Mulan awoke to complete darkness. She wasn't certain at when she fell asleep. The last thing she remembered was talking to Jasmine, so it was probably sometime during their conversation. It hadn't been so dark then, though, which was the unsettling part.

"Hello?"

Hearing another voice, Mulan called out, "Jasmine?" It didn't sound like Jasmine's voice, but Mulan couldn't be sure.

The other voice slightly calmed her, knowing at least she was not alone with the new villain somewhere. Even if he was hiding in the dark, she was not alone, and that felt somewhat comforting. She wouldn't have to go through this all alone.
"No," she sighed knowing this would probably disappoint the girl. She didn't know Jasmine, or didn't remember, she remembered extremely few from the first kidnapping, and so she didn't even think on who she might be. All she knew was the girl had been taken from her friend and Charlotte was the crappy replacement she didn't want. Surely she wouldn't like that fact.
"I'm Charlotte," she said, but her tired voice left no hint whether or not she was curious as to who the other woman was.

The few moments of silence before the woman's response were perhaps the hardest in Mulan's life. She was surprised by the reply.

"No."

No? Who was there, what had happened to Jasmine, was Jasmine alright, where had Mulan ended up now? So many questions ran through her mind.

"Charlotte," Mulan echoed, nodding in the dark. "My name is Mulan." Whatever had happened, there wasn't much she could do about it now. Moving to sit cross-legged, she sighed, futilely looking around to see if she could make out any outlines or anything. The room was too dark to even see her hand in front of her face. Nibbling on a fingernail, she thought a moment before asking, "Do you know how often will roomates get switched around?"

Charlotte groaned as she moved, feeling the sudden shifts in her body giving her nothing but a stronger headache.
"Once every few weeks I guess," she said. She didn't remember much from her first visit to this hellhole, but she had guessed that was how long it had been since she first arrived. Seeing this was the first roomchange, she assumed it would stay like this.
She stayed on her knees, scared to run into anything if she stayed on her feet, and crawled along the floor with her arms stretched out in front of her. She didn't go after the sound of the woman's voice, she wanted to know where she was and what was in the room. Fear struck her as she realized what horrors she could risk touching, a skeleton, a pool of blood, but she sighed out releaved when her hand struck a hard chest. Wood it seemed, and she stroked it gently a while before realizing what it was.
She almost laughed with relief as she realized this was the room she had stayed in before, and granted nothing had changed she had a fair clue in her mind of what everything looked like and where everything was. She would need that knowledge for as long as the dark kept up.

Once every few weeks? "Wow," she muttered. lowering her head. Hearing movement, she tensed, uncertain of what it was until she heard Charlotte laugh, meaning it had to have been her. At least, she hoped it had just been Charlotte. Straining her hears, she could make out nothing else aside from the two of them, and breathed a small sigh of relief.

"What is it?" she called out, shifting to crawl slowly towards the general direction she'd heard the woman's voice from. After several moments of careful crawling, her hand bumped something hard. Knocking on it revealed that it was something made of wood. As her hand ran across the surface, her fingers brushed something else that moved, and she jumped before realizing it was Charlotte.

The touch surprised her, and for a second she froze still, but of course it had only been the girl, and nothing to be afraid of.
"This wooden chest," she said with a smile the girl couldn't see. She had told her her name she knew, but she had soon forgotten it as her mind was clouded with other things. She couldn't very well ask her again now, but she felt somewhat disappointed that she had not listened, it would be fun to know. "We're in the same room I was in earlier. I should know my way around."

"Really?" Mulan asked, expression brightening some. "That's something good, at least."

Her hands felt along the wooden chest, searching for any indicator that it was locked and finding none. "What's in it?" she asked, wondering.

"I don't want to know," she answered darkly, afraid of what morbid things could hide within. She already knew it was unlocked, but saw that as a bad omen. It meant the new villain had wished for her to see it, and that could not mean anything good.
As the girl touched the chest Charlotte made herself busy trying to remember the girl's name without luck. Malin? She thought it was that, or at least something similar. In this place it didn't matter and she shook the thought remembering that it was best not to know. If she were to look upon the girl's face as she died she would rather know as little as possible about her.

What's the worst that could be inside it? Couldn't possibly be that horrible, right? Then again, there wasn't any telling what was in the trunk. There could have been absolutely anything inside it, useful or otherwise. Considering their predicament, it was doubtful the trunk's contents would really be of any significant use.

Deciding to open it, Mulan paused a moment, staring down at what she knew to be the inside of the trunk, but pensive about the inky blackness that remained unchanged. Taking a breath, she reached a hand down into the trunk, steeling herself to be ready for anything. Fabric was not an expected find. It was fabric, a fair bit of it...encrusted with something Mulan couldn't place.

"There's fabric in here," she said, rifling through things some more. It was just a bunch of dirty fabric, some of it softer than other bits. Picking some up and laying it out on the floor, several minutes of feeling about led her to a second conclusion. "Clothes...dresses. At least, this one's a dress, I think."

As she heard the familiar creak of something being opened she instinctly wanted to shut the lid immediatly, but kept herself from doing so in fear that she might crush Malin's fingers. She still did not want any of it and she prepared herself to cover her ears, expecting a scream rather soon. The panic didn't fade until she told her what she had found, but she was still hesitant.
"I swear nothing in this place makes sense," she said angrily and kicked the chest. It barely moved, and she successfully managed to hurt her foot, but she bit her lower lip, not sharing her pain with the girl. There was no need for her to know.

Hearing a thud, Mulan looked back towards the direction of the sound. "What was that?" she asked, gathering up the dress. Groping her way back to the trunk, she put the dress inside it, closing the lid before sitting with her back resting against the wooden item.

"So..." she began, not many options besides small talk in the pitch black room. "Where are you from?"

She didn't answer her first question, not deeming it important enough, and the girl besides quickly seemed to forget the question as she asked a new one. Smalltalk seemed so stupid in a place like this, so pointless. It would lead to nothing except perhaps friendship, and that seemed a bad idea. It was almost funny to her how quickly she had wanted to bond with people the first time around, always afraid of being alone. This time around she was almost scared of making friends, scared of being hurt again.
"America," she sighed, knowing she could not ignore the girl forever. If anything, she could only try not to let her words get to her. She had no interest in knowing about her home, or her family, or anything that may lead them to bond.
"You're new here, aren't you?" she smiled, and though it could not be seen, it was obvious in her voice. The girl seemed so much like her four years ago. So full of hope and happiness still. It almost annoyed her now, and she wondered if that was how others had seen her as well? As a foolish child with no knowledge of the world? She wouldn't deny the truth of that.

She almost thought the woman wouldn't answer, but a response finally came.

"America."

Mulan smiled. She had visited the country before, several times on trips with her family. Thoughts of her family made her smile falter and slowly fade. Mulan was certain, she had to find a way out, somehow, before anything bad happened. Though, a plan like that became that much harder in complete darkness. All she could do was wait for the lights to come back on.

"You're new here, aren't you?"

"Yes," Mulan replied, soon adding, "But, my brother was here the first time. Did you ever meet Shang?"

Charlotte froze at the name she uttered, it was one of the very few names she could remember from this place. He had been her best friend, the only one to keep her strong when she broke down. The memories of their small games and the easy laughs filled her face with both a smile and tears. The fact Malin didn't know who she was only meant he hadn't spoken about her, but it might as well be. She hadn't spoken of him either, scared of even thinking about the time in this prison, that didn't mean she didn't care.
"Yeah," she said eventually, but her voice was a broken whisper. Coughing, she cleared her throat.
"Is he okay? He's not here is he?" she asked, her voice filled with worry. If he was, then her plan had already gone down the toilet, and the villain already had means of harming her mentally. If anything happened to Shang, she wouldn't know what to do.

Silence fell in the wake of her question, and Mulan almost began to worry she'd said something wrong. Maybe Charlotte hadn't known Shang. He never exactly said who he'd met when he was here, preferring to not make his captivity a subject of conversation. Mulan couldn't blame him, it was scary to be somewhere like this, especially in the dark. Old childhood fears were beginning to resurface, and part of her hoped there weren't any closets where some monster or other might hide. Not that their captor wasn't a monster, whoever they were.

"Yeah. Is he ok? He's not here is he?"

Mulan shrugged. "I don't know...I hope not." She hoped he was at home, with Snow, safe and sound. She hoped they were waiting for her to come back...whenever that would be. She hoped she'd see them both again.

Fear struck Charlotte, and for a moment she was grateful that Malin could not see her face. He couldn't be, only being here in this hotel was horror enough, he could not have taken her friends as well. So far she had not encountered any familiar faces, and the only people she had spoken to had both said they were new. All of the old ones could not be here, so she hoped that was the case with Shang, as with someone else. Mayhaps she was mad at him, but she didn't mean him any harm.
"Your brother's the nicest person I ever met," she said kindly, remembering how sweet he had always been to her.

Mulan smiled, a grin that stretched across her face, even though Charlotte couldn't see it. "He's the nicest person I know," she said, quickly adding, "Well, aside from Snow. She's kind, too."

She smiled to herself, but quickly shook her thoughts away. It would bring her no happiness to dwell on the joy of the past.
She looked around almost by habit, but could see nothing. The darkness scared her, but not for common reasons. As soon as her eye stopped sending her images, her mind overtook the responcibility, and the mental images that came out where seldom pleasant. Never had she been afraid of the dark, until the events four years ago. After that she had been afraid only to close her eyes.
"He talked a lot about you," she said to fill the silence, mostly as a gesture of courtesy and little else. She didn't expect for her to say the same, knowing very well she hadn't heard a word, but she did not mind that, she already knew.

(ooc: im a terrible person. As I read about mulan checking the trunk and charlotte being scared, I thought how funny it would be to have mulan touch the fabric and then scream bloody murder just to scare lottie XD)