[ No, Hei doesn't believe in ghosts. But he also knows it's not in anyone's best interest to engage in conversation with a disembodied voice. Korra's Who are you? gets a blistering glare from him in the darkness, even as he reaches for the elevator's controls. There's no response from the voice. But it's only then that he becomes aware of a faint stirring -- like a chorus of whispers rising and falling through the elevator shaft. It's loudest on the floor above. ]
[ Lifting his gaze, Hei squints through the wire-mesh, where pinpricks of color resolve themselves to his vision. Countless pairs of glowing eyes. It's like spotting wild animals in the nighttime forests of the Amazon -- first one set, then another, then another. Too many to count. The whispering comes from them, too variegated to decode into speech, and Hei can see dozens of tiny bodies crawling along the length of the shaft, peering at him and Korra with glinting eyes. ]
[ The lift is a cage. Surrounded by crawlers. ]
We had an audience. [ Flat, almost toneless, despite the burn of adrenaline. He hits the mechanism to make the lift descend. The floor rumbles and the gears creak as they sink painstakingly lower. He just hopes the creatures don't drop down onto the mesh and attack them. ]
⊕ Friday!
[ Lifting his gaze, Hei squints through the wire-mesh, where pinpricks of color resolve themselves to his vision. Countless pairs of glowing eyes. It's like spotting wild animals in the nighttime forests of the Amazon -- first one set, then another, then another. Too many to count. The whispering comes from them, too variegated to decode into speech, and Hei can see dozens of tiny bodies crawling along the length of the shaft, peering at him and Korra with glinting eyes. ]
[ The lift is a cage. Surrounded by crawlers. ]
We had an audience. [ Flat, almost toneless, despite the burn of adrenaline. He hits the mechanism to make the lift descend. The floor rumbles and the gears creak as they sink painstakingly lower. He just hopes the creatures don't drop down onto the mesh and attack them. ]