loadedparadox

Neither could be sure how long they lay on that floor. Watches were taken, the rooms remained dark and there was only the dim light just beneath the door to give them any frame of reference even to the shape of the room. Laying there on the floor, their fingers touched for a long time as the sounds outside ebbed and flowed. Shouts and yelling, fights and even laughter. More than one voice, though muffled enough it wasn't clear how many. Though the back and forth of conversation could be made out. At some point a door opened.

The man stepped into Ariadne's room, backlit from the light in the hall. The result was a shadowy hulking figure with something dangling from one hand that might have been some kind of rope of such, and a bit of a hard laugh.

"Off the floor, face to the wall and hands at your side," he ordered. "No arguments, no fighting, or they start with random shots into the other room."

It was obvious whoever "they" were, they had done their research enough to know that a threat against Arthur might do well to get them compliance from Ariadne.