Snippet #2391540

Residential Hall
1315 - 1325

Sarah remained resolute in finding Jack - before lunch, apparently. The girl rolled her shoulders in some attempt to relax. Matt offered a small nod and, still with fingers linked with Sarah's, trailed along after her. They moved briskly past the nurse's station, where Sarah's enthusiastic call perplexed him momentarily until he realized she was trying to throw off the staff. That was smart. Sarah was smart.

Deciding he should be of some help, Matt began to tune up the amount of air he was inhaling, sifting through it as they moved; but the air was stale and blank, like a freshly cleaned hospital that only smelled of linoleum floors, disinfectant, and various medicines stored away in musty cabinets. Even the staff seemed to carry such an odor... The only distinct scents he picked up were those of Sarah and the other patients they had left behind. His brow furrowed a little. This place didn't really seem that big. Even if Jack was locked away in a room somewhere, Matt should be able to pick him up. It felt like the walls and doors must have been airtight.

As they neared the infirmary, however, a scent became clearer that stood out from the standard cleanly odor of the facility. A human smell. Male. By the time Sarah led him to burst through the infirmary doors, Matt felt sure Jack was nearby. His olfactory detective work grew more noticeable as he inhaled quicker, deeper snorts of air, and absently pulled away from Sarah to step closer to the empty hospital beds of unmade sheets. Dark eyes alert, had he wielded canine ears at the moment they most certainly would have been perked - Matt turned away from the beds, trailing through the room. He paused from his focus only to call a quiet "This way," for his companion's sake.

Stress. There was the dark odor of stress, fear, anxiety seeping from the pores, and faintly, a soft, subdued breath, male. "Jack.." A mere murmur Matt realized was more to himself than it should have been. "... Jack?" He called a little louder through his soft-spoken tone. Another sweeping turn of his head for a proper directional test, and his gaze moved swiftly for a small closet. "Jack," Matt called again, toward the cupboard, convinced of his friend's location now. "It's Matt. And Sarah." Cheerfulness as much as reassurance crept into his tone at the mild joy of their search's success. They would certainly be on time for lunch now, and Jack would be with them again.


~


Residential Hall
1315 - 1320

The dark-haired boy turned upon noticing his presence, and appeared to sweep the other up and down just as Devan had exercise a moment before. Dark eyes stared unwavering, and the youth stood frozen like a raccoon caught in the garbage late at night... Finally bristling when their gazes met. The other boy appeared perfectly blind, with eyes such a milky hue as to completely contrast with Devan's own. Yet the stranger was clearly, distinctly studying him. How could this guy see with eyes like that?

Feeling another gaze on him, Devan turned to spot Aveline tilting her head at him. His expression darkened a little as if in warning, but was soon pulled back to the stranger on his other side, who had begun to pace carefully closer. Devan bristled again, tension creeping readily through his lanky frame. But the other boy kept ample distance as he stepped past, even safely moving a little beyond Aveline before he was brought to pause again.

Dark eyes flickered to the small girl he took a moment to recognize. The quiet, Japanese girl he had only seen fleetingly before. She appeared to have snuck up behind the stranger from some other hall. They made a short exchange of words before the more-or-less-blind boy resumed a steady shuffle away, presumably to the dining room. Skittish little thing. Didn't want to stick around to introduce himself, it seemed.

Devan eyed the two girls remaining before deciding to move for the dining hall and wait for lunch to open. It was proving difficult to keep his mind on anything else when he was so hungry, though a venomous sense of spite persisted in the absence of the scalpels he had gone through so much trouble to acquire. Gaze cautiously shifting between the girls as he passed them, the boy strode off for the dining hall, quickly outpacing the stranger scuttling in the same direction.