[img]http://i.imgur.com/8mPMSWF.png[/img]

[b][u]Aliquam: Tobias' Gala - Second Floor (Recreation Room)[/u][/b]

“Is… everyone alright?” 

As the lights suddenly died and threw the entire mansion into darkness, Marcus and Angel’s pokergame had been in the moments before the revelatory card turns that would decide the current betting round. With the lights having coincidentally died just then, everyone was at a loss to know who would have won between Hannah and Sebastian.

Marcus scrunched his eyes, and turned his head about as he tried to adjust his sight to the full darkness about. He could make out the odd shapes of people and objects about him, but only their presence – the details were lost to him. His acute sense of hearing also picked up everybody’s worried, and almost panicking voices, from the shrieking of the terrified Hannah who threw herself over Angel for his protection (much to the sculpture student’s suffocating dismay), to Sebastian snorting grumpily, who knew he would have won if it wasn’t for this! There was the other worried murmurs and concerned gasps from the other students in the hall, as well as one woman screaming in exasperation after having spilt her drink down her fine dress, and a male student near the exit swearing angrily after banging his foot into a table. 

The lights suddenly going off? Why?

“I think I’m going to go investigate,” Marcus said, scooting his chair backwards. Angel, meanwhile, let loose another heavy sigh as his breathed out in the time he had from Hannah’s bosom shifting off his face again just slightly. 

“I’m sure it’ll be on again soon, umph!” Hannah fell on top of him again. With great difficulty and much wriggling, he managed to move Hannah off from his mouth again, just barely. “But getting the lights back on again quickly would be a good ideUMPH.”

Marcus uneasily stood up, and stumbled as carefully as he could towards the room’s entrance. He didn’t make it halfway across the room before he suddenly stopped – his ears picking up a most unusual sound. The sound of something shuffling, extraordinarily quickly, growing louder, and louder, and louder…

And then in the blink of an eye, Marcus was sure he had seen it - a shape suddenly darted from one side of the door frame to the other. Coupled with the particular sound that was being made, Marcus was almost positive that it was footsteps, and that that was a person. But… who could be able to run around in the darkness like this? And why?

Upon reaching the door to the second floor balcony outside, he looked down both aisles of the corridor, seeing it as black and devoid of light as the room he was just in before. And no sign, either sight or sound, of the person who had been running. What was going on?

----

[img]http://i.imgur.com/WDVJyuu.png[/img]

[b][u]Aliquam: Tobias' Gala - Second Floor - Balcony overlooking the Dance Floor[/u][/b]

“Yes,” Tobias said, his eyes narrowing into a frown as his eyes looked up at the tall and wide ceilings above them, and the glorious chandeliers that should have been sparkling with light but were now home to an inky blackness. “We have a generator, down in the basement. But regardless, this shouldn’t be happening.” With a grumble, Tobias walked to the edge of the balcony besides Lucien, and peered down at the sudden light that had erupted from below, courtesy of Amy’s gem. He frowned somewhat as he looked at the glowing jewel, and then towards Amy herself, before focusing his attention on the light again. It bore a respectable light, almost enough to illuminate the floor below, but still leave a considerable amount of darken crevices from where the light couldn’t reach. 

“You there!” Tobias pointed at the waitress besides Syed, pointing to her and addressing both her and the Pride. It was an almost difficult job thanks to the echoing chorus of voices below, but the waitress recognised her patron’s voice immediately, and the turn of her head helped guide Syed and the others’ gaze as well. “Go with them to the basement, and make sure these lights are turned back on, immediately!”

What niether the waitress, nor the Pride would have expected upon investigating the basement, was that both the fuse and generator for the mansion's lights and electricity had been sabotaged, and destroyed beyond repair...