Play@YSDC

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:36 am**

The room is dark, dank, and changed. There's a static-like quality to the air that makes their hand stand on end that is in complete contradiction to the heavily moist air that clings to them and makes their every breath heavy within the claustrophobic confines of the warped room. The doors to the Nurse's Station are gone ... utterly gone ... creating gaping holes that show their glow of flashlight to every monster around. The computer is still, by some miracle, working despite its new mould-specled exterior. Somewhere, further in the building, there's the sound of running water, but here at least all seems still and quiet in the terrifying silence that follows that horrifying siren's wail.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:02 am**

The alarms are still sounding in her head, pushing, clawing at her skull to escape. She remembers screaming, but her voice was gone. She was begging it to stop.

It's cold, now. The rotting, peeling floor is frozen where she lies, and the darkness is clearing from her vision.

"What..." Her voice is a dull rasp. She stands up on shaky legs, still managing to hang on to the stuffed animals despite her weakness.

And Jack is still here.

"What happened?" There's no anger now, only fear that echoes off the broken walls. Slowly, she walks up behind him, trying to get a look at the computer screen.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:04 am**

Jack slowly rises to his feet, blocking Cecilia from the computer screen, but stands so...absolutely...still...

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:11 am**

A closer look reveals that he has taken out his diary and is writing something furiously into it

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:16 am**

"Jack?"

No. This is wrong.

Cecilia backs up, digging through the mess of broken plaster and machinery to look for the shotgun. Every few seconds, she throws a wide-eyed glance at him, afraid that he'll spring to life like a doll that looks too human.

None of this seems real. Like a world molded from wax and frozen blood.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:19 am**

Her fingers grasp nothing through all of the damp mush that slips through her finger tips and she can't see itout of the corner of her eye. Maybe it's the fault of all of those soft toys in her arms but it doesn't seem a good idea to drop them either.

The kitten is growling in her pocket like a tense stone reminding her of the situation. It had been silent during the sirens but it's growling now.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:26 am**

Jack slowly turned around and threw the diary at her feet.

Spoiler:

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:44 am**

She backs away when he throws it, only coming forward when she's realized it's not a lethal object. The red words stare and scream at her, spreading across the pages like a bloodstain.

Jack's gone. He's something else now.

The diary falls to the floor, mere seconds before she disappears through a tear in the wall, and keeps running.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:52 am**

Jack grinned as he saw Cecilia run away and began to search around the room for his shotgun.

"Where are you going?" Jack called out after her. "Don't you care about your daughter? She's here! Read all about her! Come back or I'll oull the plug from this darn thing, and you'll never find out! You deserve it too!"

Spoiler:

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:58 am**

The shotgun is sitting there, clear as day for him, with its gleaming well-oiled finish it somehow seemed so much cleaner than anything else in this mush.

Cecilia rushes out the warped doorway and finds herself in a corridor with the same worn down style. There's a row of three low down, broken doorways in front of her (A1, A2, A3) and door slush in the corridor to the left of her (B) and to the right of her (C) and the corridor arcs back to the right as well (D). She has only a split second to make up her mind as she can hear him rummaging around in the slush.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:02 am**

Cecilia freezes, nearly out of breath when she hears him finally speak.

Katie.

Rushing back to the hole in the wall, she presses her hands to the crumbling plaster and glances inside. "You wouldn't."

"You know something about Katie? Tell me. Now." She comes back through, fingernails digging into her palms.

Katie's gone, sorry
You did it

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:06 am**

Footsteps patter in the wet mush from the corridor behind her and she can barely turn to whip the flashlight around when someone shoulders into her, attempting to grab her but missing the mark. She gets a glimpse of brown hair and a flash of red and white clothing. The nurse?

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:19 am**

Jack stood in the middle of the room, staring at the hole in the wall. He held the shotgun towards the ceiling and stood like a true psychopath in triumph.

His grin flickered as he heard Cecilia's footsteps coming back.

His grin faded when he first saw Cecilia's face around the hole in the wall.

"You," he said. "You came back."

He didn't even stir as he saw the figure attempt to grapple onto Cecilia, as if he considered the figure to be nothing but an annoyance for Cecilia. "It's in there," Jack said, shrugging towards the computer. "Whatever you want to find... it's in there..."

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:35 am**

Cecilia attempts to shove the nurse away and dash into the room, towards the computer.

Whatever happened, it must have set her free... if it is her. Regardless, she's trapped between two unpredictable, unstable people, and they both want to hurt her.

And she hasn't been sure of her own mental health for some time.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:48 am**

The nurse lurches for her with a whimper once more but her blindness works against her and Cecilia manages to slip through with ease.

The patient databaselooks simple enough to use. The only question remains whether she has time enough to use it.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:53 am**

Jack's grin flared and he aimed his shotgun at her as he saw Cecilia dive for the computer.

"But... why make it so easy?"

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:02 am**

Armed with the experience that comes with long nights of research and typing important notes, Cecilia puts her fingers to the keyboard and runs a search on "Katherine Brooks".

Her breaths are shallow; she's painfully aware of Jack and the nurse, too close to her. She needs to get this done now.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:18 am**

The program begins the quick and easy search before Katherine Brooks' results ping up in the Search Field.

It was last updated a few days from now.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:25 am**

"You work too hard," Jack growled. "Don't be such an annoying work-a-holic."

He put the shotgun around Cecilia's neck and tried to wrench her away from the computer.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:29 am**

Cecilia failed to dodge out of the way and keep typing and was wrenched solidly aside. The shotgun's metal dug deeply into her neck and she could feel the warmth emanating from him as she was pulled away from the Truth and Answers that she so desperately needed.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:53 am**

"No--"

She's cut off with a strangled gasp as her hands are pulled away from the computer. In vain, she struggles to free herself, but he's so much stronger than he was in the bar...

"Let - go!" she coughs, fingers grabbing wildly at Jack's arm. "Katie..."

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:58 am**

"Do you want to hear a joke?" Jack said, smiling.

"Have you heard about the one about the mother with a hole through her heart?

You better pay attention when I tell you a joke because otherwise you might miss the punchline!

Or you could become the punchline yourself!"

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:12 am**

Cecilia feels the weight of the shotgun against her throat but her hands are still free.

Wriggling out would be difficult, at best, though not impossible, but if she could find some leverage she could all hold against him...

...or some knife.

"Mommy! This way!" Is that ... Katie?

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:31 am**

Cecilia swallows uncomfortably against the gun pressed to her throat. "Get... away from me." She attempts to turn in his grasp, to stare him down, but she's not sure she can look him in the eyes after everything he's done.

Then, the child's voice.

"Katie?!" Her heart thumps loudly against her ribcage, and she resumes the fight anew, kicking and trying to wrest herself free... if she could just slip out...

"Don't come in here! It's not safe!" Tears sting her eyes as she finds herself doing the most impossible thing: sending her daughter away again.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:41 am**

"No..." Jack muttered. "NO! I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS!"

He tore himself off of Cecilia and knocked her away.

"Where are you?!" Jack screamed. "Where the hell are you, little devil?!"

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:44 am**

"Ohhhhhveerrrrr heeeere, you big stupid head!" cries out a delighted Katie. "C'mon, stupid head, come and get me!"

Her taunt is followed by a short, high-pitched cackle.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:48 am**

Jack looked wildly around, uncertain as to where the voice came from.

"Damn it, I'll find you!" Jack said, pacing around the room and peering out the hole. "I'll find you!"

Spoiler:

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:55 am**

Scrambling to her feet, Cecilia rushes at Jack, swinging her fist at the back of his head - she just barely misses.

"You stay away from my daughter!" she screams, lunging forward and attempting to lock her arms around him.

He's too damn fast...

Desperate for a way to distract him, she reaches into her pocket. Her fingers close around the small diary, and she hurls it toward him.

"You want to know something?! THERE! All about Jack, the bartender! See if it jogs your memory!"

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:46 am**

There's no sign of anyone in the darkness but the corridor does bend right and there are plenty of rooms she could be hiding within.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:57 am**

Jack reeled back as he felt the book impact him in the back of his head.

"What's this?!" Jack hissed. "Do you REALLY want to die?" He raised the shotgun and took aim at Cecilia.

He was just about to pull the trigger when he noticed the book on the floor. "What? Rochelle's diary?" Jack stuttered. "How... where did you find this?" He swiped the book from the floor and glowered at her before falling to the floor, dropping the shotgun next to him, and then reading through the diary entry with all the desperation of a dying man.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:11 am**

Cecilia takes this opportunity to run past him and through the hole in the wall, frantically sweeping the flashlight around the corridor.

"Katie?" she calls softly, glancing over her shoulder at Jack. "Katie, mommy's here - we need to leave right now, okay?"

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 7:19 am**

Cecilia left all the toys behind in her desperation to get at the keyboard and it's a lot easier to train her flashlight all around her. The nurse cowers by the wall, clutching at her face, and when the flashlight sweeps over her she scampers away, hiding her face from the light. "N-no, y-you dropped them ... they're lonely ... the children ... she's lonely ... you can't..."

"I'm down here, mommy," said her little girl's voice, and she sees Katie ducking down by the narrow hole to the stairwell. "You have to squeeze in through here. We have to get to the Lakeview Hotel, mommy. We have to! Quickly!"

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 8:35 am**

Ignoring the nurse, Cecilia rushes over to her daughter - alive - and inspects the wall, to see how tight a fit it'll be.

"You go in first," she says, placing a hand on Katie's shoulder. She's really here... "I'll follow you, okay?"

Despite the urgency of the situation, she can't help but smile.

Everything is okay.
Katie's safe.
That's all that matters.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:06 pm**

Katie's already on the other side within the hole and it's certainly big enough for Cecilia to squeeze through.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:20 pm**

Cecilia wastes no time waiting around and dives into the hole in the wall. Tears of shock and joy are blurring her sight, but she claws her way through to Katie.

Posted: **Fri Jan 20, 2012 11:13 pm**

Jack shoved the diary into his pockets and started after Cecilia. Cecilia... She didn't... She didn't know yet... Jack's heart tightened and he felt bile come up to his throat. Her happiness made him sick.

It wasn't fair.

"You aren't going... You aren't going anywhere!" Jack screamed out.

"You are going to die here, just like Jack did!"

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 12:40 am**

Katie grins up at Cecilia.

"We have to go," she said solidly, turning and running down the warped and broken stairs.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 1:34 am**

Cecilia runs after Katie, not entirely conscious of the state of the stairs. All she knows is that the closer she gets to her daughter, the farther away Jack is.

Just like Jack did? Does that mean...?

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 2:07 am**

"Why me?!" Jack screamed out. He was still there, following Cecilia, just as a maddened dog would. "Why me and not you? You're worthless! Do you hear me? Worthless! You can't save your daughter! You can't save Ash! You can't even save a freaking kitten, you selfish ingrate!

It's all about you in this world, isn't t? Oh, it's not my fault, the kid's just strange! It's not my fault, everyone else is just crazy! It's not my fault my life's so screwed up, it's my dumbass husband's fault! Oh god, somebody took my daughter! It's totally not because I was looking at something else when my daughter was alone! Memememememe! No wonder she's so brave and sassy, she has to compensate for your own birdbrain! She should have been your mother!"

"And now because you JUST showed bravery, now that you are at your very end, you get to have her back while I DIE because of some stupid drug deal that I stood against?! Fuck that! I'll kill you! Then there'll be SOME justice in this forsaken world!"

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 3:14 am**

Jack lunges against the gap in the door, wrenching this way and that, and the wood splinters around him just as Cecilia and Katie hit the ground floor landing. Katie's up ahead by a half dozen feet but she stops and backs up to grab her mother's hand, flashing her a winning smile. "This way!"

In the wavering beam of her flashlight, Cecilia glimpses the shapes of two more grinning nurses, their eyes wide and as though painted on, one holding a pipe, the other a scalpel, and they make a strange gasping sound, almost like they're choking on laughter, as they stagger towards her. They're between Cecilia and the way out.

"Oh no, uh, this way!" Katie rushes in the other direction, pulling on her hand, trying to get her to go down the corridor opposite them, to whip left around the corner.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 3:34 am**

It's not true... don't listen... you're a good person, you do what's rational. Right?

Right...?

Cecilia attempts to block out Jack's maddened shouting, but her barriers are crumbling. He knows - she doesn't know how, but everything he says sounds so... true.

And it's terrifying - being chased by a man who's convinced that he's dead; who believes that killing her will make something right. Because... she's worthless. Not enough.

If she'd been brave enough, she would have been looking for Ash instead of Jack. If she'd been a good mother, Katie wouldn't have been abducted; Katie wouldn't resent her. If she'd just shut up and put everything behind her...

Katie tugs on her hand. She follows blindly, still fixated on the knife carried by one of the nurses.

It could end now. But Katie deserves better.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 4:07 am**

"USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, IT'S ALL USELESS!" Jack screamed out. "YOU ARE NEVER... GETTING...OUT....OF...HERE...! YOU DON'T DESERVE TO EITHER!

SAVE YOUR DAUGHTER? FAT LOT OF GOOD YOU EVER DID! YOU GOT RESCUED BY YOUR OWN BLOODY DAUGHTER! YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BE A MOTHER. 8 YEARS OF NEGLECT, DENIAL, AND DISAPPOINTMENTS! DO YOU THINK A SINGLE HOUR WILL EVER FORGIVE THAT?

GIVE UP! WHY DO YOU PERSIST? CECILIA, WHY? WHY WHY WHY?!"

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 4:58 am**

Jack broke out onto the landing. He heard which way they went. Down. Down toward the ground floor. Down towards the exit.

Cecilia rush around the corner, heading further into the hospital, away from the nurses and the escape too. In the flashing beams of the light, a gurney with some figure lying under a blood-stained sheet stands crossways across the hallway. Katie releases her hand, snapping away, and crawls under the gurney, before leaping up and continuing. The elevator doors gape open, the lights over the Call Button suggesting that it still somehow has power. "Come on!" cries Katie, gesturing fervently for her to follow.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 4:59 am**

Jack leaped down the stairs. There was still time... still time to catch her...

Still time to end it all.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:09 am**

Cecilia ducks under the gurney and rushes over to Katie, grasping her hand like a vise. She's not letting her daughter out of her sight again. Not until they get back home, where it's safe.

Jack's screaming echoes off the walls. She's trembling with the desire to deny it all once more, to shut him up and make him stop telling the truth...

She dives into the open elevator.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:25 am**

Katie hits the button '3' over and over again. Jack roars around the corner, knocking the gurney aside, as the elevator doors slowly but surely closed before him. As though in open declaration of contempt, the elevator doors slide smoothly shut just as he skids to a stop before the steel elevator doors hiss firmly shut and the elevator begins its slow ascent to the 3rd floor.

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:43 am**

Jack roared out in fury before he flashed a wicked grin and rushed down into the basement. All he had to do was find the generator and switch it off...

Posted: **Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:54 am**

Slowly, the sense of urgency dissolves, and she breathes again. They're alone, at least for now, without the threat of Jack or the nurses at their backs.

Cecilia throws her arms around her daughter, holding tight as if she might slip away again. Repeated apologies spill from her mouth, made near-incoherent by choked sobs. "Katie, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you alone... I'm so sorry, Katie, I love you... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

good mothers don't fall apart in front of their children

But she can't stop. It's been like this for so long - shutting herself away, throwing herself into her work because someone who was guilty went free, because Nathan left, because she'd just had a bad day. Call the babysitter again, work for hours and hours, come home in the middle of the night and collapse into bed.

And then wonder why Katie is so eager to go to Daddy and Keith's house at the end of the week.

Posted: **Sun Jan 22, 2012 2:36 am**

Katie gives her mommy a rather perfunctory hug before patting her on the back in an attempt to tap out. "It's okay, mommy. I just went to the loo. You couldn't've guessed all this was gonna happen. Let's just go, okay? Let's just go, okay? Let's just get your car and go home?" She looks around and shudders. "I don't wanna be here anymore, mommy."

The elevator doors open onto the third floor.

"We're gonna have to be quiet, mommy, 'cause there's other nurses and you're bigger than me so you can't scamper about. You may have to fight 'em. Do you have a weapon?"

--------

Jack reaches the generator in time to try to turn the bloody thing off. It's a little more complex than a single button, however, being as this is the emergency back up generator for a hospital. It takes him a moment of looking over the big machine before he susses it out and hits the 'off' button.

--------

The lights over the numbers wink out, as do the overhead elevator lights, leaving them in darkness but for Cecilia's flashlight. Katie switches on her own that she wears around her wrist. "C'mon then," said Katie.

Posted: **Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:01 am**

"R-right..." Cecilia straightens, brushing her sleeve across her eyes. She keeps a tight hold on Katie's little hand, wondering how her little girl is growing up so fast. "Let's go home."

But the car's dead. How else will we get home...?

"No. I... I had a gun, but I left it with Jack." Cecilia sighs, looking at the tips of her shoes. "The crazy man."

It's true. My own daughter saved my life. That's not how these things go...

Cecilia hurries out of the elevator when the lights go dark. "Do you know a way out of this place? I have a map, but we're on the third floor..."

Why does she know so much about this place? How did she get here? She... still has her clothes and everything...

"I'm so glad you're safe."

Posted: **Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:04 am**

"You gave him your gun?" she asked, gaping at her open-mouthed. "Are you insane? Never drop your gun! Never!" She shakes her head. "Never mind. We'll have to hide out until he gets bored and goes away and then we can go down the stairs. There's only the stairs and the elevator here that I know of."

She shakes her head again.

"Who was that guy anyhow?"

Posted: **Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:18 am**

Jack slowly walks up the stairs, his pen and Rochelle's diary at hand. He had turned to the last, blank pages of the book, and was busy scribbling something in it...

"I can't take it anymore... My entire life's been turned upside down..." he muttered softly.

Posted: **Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:30 am**

"I- I didn't give it to him!" Cecilia meets her daughter's shocked look with one of her own. "I dropped it, and the hospital... it changed. He found it before I did."

Are they really going back to this so soon? Fights over every little thing? This is far from little, but...

"I... don't know who he is anymore. I met him when I was looking for a police station, and he was okay back then. He went off to look for somebody who could help find you." She touches her throat unconsciously, as though she can still feel the spaces where his fingers were. "When he came back, he was... different."

Posted: **Sun Jan 22, 2012 4:34 am**

"You're not ... different, are you mommy?" she asked, slight fear in those big, wide eyes. "I won't need to run from you, will I?"

-----

Jack runs back along the corridor toward the stairs and sees two nurses come charging towards him. He can easily get off two shots before they reach him but things won't look so good if neither of them go down right away. The first nurse is 20 feet away by the time he gets to make his first shot, the other is about thirty five or so feet away. Or he could try to just dodge past them and head up those stairs and jot down those notes that claw at his mind.

Posted: **Sun Jan 22, 2012 4:52 am**

"Get the fuck away from me," Jack muttered. He easily sidestepped the first nurse, but he did not have as good a luck the second time.

Posted: **Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:04 am**

"No. I'm still the same." Cecilia squeezes Katie's hand and tries to smile.

At least, I think so.

She puts her other hand into the pocket with the kitten, to check if it's all right. She'd forgotten it, with everything that happened...

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 12:10 am**

He ducks past the first nurse as she shuffles around to face him and starts pushing his way onto the first floor landing of the stairwell. But with a yowl the second nurse is on him, too fast for him to react, and the first he realises that he's been hit is when he feels the warm blood running down his arm, warming up his frozen, numb body. The nurse yowls again, sounding more like a wildcat than anything human, and keeps following him up the steps. He could turn and fight it or hope he can dodge aside and get out of the way.

-----

The kitten growls and chews on her fingertips, hard enough to hurt.

"Okay, well, let's find someplace to hide," said Katie, gesturing down the hall just as something yowls in the distance. "You lead the way, mommy."

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:34 am**

"No,no no... it hurts when you stab me, SO STOP STABBING ME!" Jack cried out as he continued to run up the stairs, barely being able to dodge the nurse's swipes.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:44 am**

"Ouch!" Cecilia yanks her hand out of her pocket and looks at the kitten. "What's gotten into you?"

She inspects her finger to see if it's drawn blood, then checks the map. "Let's see the patient rooms first. They're the closest."

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:53 am**

This time he manages to dart around the nurse shortly before the scalpel would hit and rushes upstairs, but to which floor? He'd run straight down to the generator so he hadn't managed to see which floor the elevator had stopped on. He heads up to the 3rd floor, reasoning that they'd just want to make him run further to get to them. It's just as dark up here as everywhere else but the water seems thicker somehow, pooling and puddling, everywhere. Only, the water seems somewhat rust-coloured, as though blood had somehow gotten into the water. The plaster is slashed in places, revealing the wooden struts and exposing the wiring within the guts of the building. Presumably they'd be close to the elevator, on the other side of the building, so he heads in that direction. Another nurse hobbles into view in front of him.

-----

The kitten hasn't managed to draw blood but it does seem to be quite antsy and upset. It's all she can do to keep the kitten in the pocket long enough to button it up and hope it doesn't squirm its way out regardless. It's hard to hold the flashlight steady long enough to check the map but soon she thinks she has a good bead on the place. Her sneakers splash through rust-colored puddles as she hurries into the first hospital room. There's two hospital beds in here but they're tangled up together and wrapped in wire that keeps them held down. Water drips down from a pipe that bulges through the ceiling, as though all the water damage is finally weakening the hospital enough that it's on the verge of collapse.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 2:03 am**

Cecilia shakes her head. "No, this isn't going to work. We... we need to barricade the door, or..."

A barricade against a shotgun? No...

"I don't know. It just doesn't look safe here... let's at least look at the next room."

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:06 am**

"THAT HURT!" Jack screamed. "IT HURTS WHEN YOU STAB ME, SO STOP STABBING ME!"

He quickly ducked out of another stab and rushed up the stairs.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:17 am**

This time he manages to dart around the nurse shortly before the scalpel would hit and rushes upstairs, but to which floor? He'd run straight down to the generator so he hadn't managed to see which floor the elevator had stopped on. He heads up to the 3rd floor, reasoning that they'd just want to make him run further to get to them. It's just as dark up here as everywhere else but the water seems thicker somehow, pooling and puddling, everywhere. Only, the water seems somewhat rust-coloured, as though blood had somehow gotten into the water. The plaster is slashed in places, revealing the wooden struts and exposing the wiring within the guts of the building. Presumably they'd be close to the elevator, on the other side of the building, so he heads in that direction. Another nurse hobbles into view in front of him.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:23 am**

"Damn you... DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!" Jack roared out as he aimed the shotgun at the nurse.

He fired once, dealing massive amount of damage to the nurse.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:41 am**

The nurse hits the ground in a twitching mess of gore and bone, revealing an otherwise clear corridor, at least as far as his flashlight beam can stab.

-----------

A shotgun blast interrupts Cecilia's words as a flashlight beam can be seen hitting the far end of the corridor, from where it bends right toward the stairwell. The next room is better furnished with two hospital beds, both with suspiciously stained mattresses, a wardrobe, and a curtain rail hung with a wet and glistening curtain. The window itself is open, the curtains billowing on a non-existent breeze in the cold, night air. The ledge outside isn't big enough to stand on but it's solid enough to hang from.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:49 am**

Jack briskly walked through the corridor, waving the flashlight into each of the rooms.

"Where are you..."

He craned his ears towards each possible hiding place, as if to listen to Cecilia's rapidly beating heart.

"Oh god... it hurts..."

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 6:06 am**

Cecilia pulls Katie into the room and, despite her panic, tries to close the door quietly. Then she runs over to the wardrobe and flings it open, to see if Katie can hide in there.

"How did he get up here?" she wonders aloud, glancing over her shoulder.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 6:24 am**

There is no door. Each room's doorway gapes open, affording no privacy. There's a scrape mark by the wardrobe, like it's been dragged there recently, but there's no time to think of that. Katie can most certainly easily fit in the wardrobe. She can hear Jack's maddened words as he moves his way down the corridor, pausing at the one sealed scar-like space where a door had once been and where a doorway should be now. Still, there's no sound but dripping water in there so it's unlikely to house anyone. There does seem to be noises coming from the room just one doorway down.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:09 am**

Cecilia gestures frantically for Katie to get into the wardrobe, whispering all the while: "I need you to stay quiet and hide, okay? You're my brave little girl, you can do this... If I'm not back soon, get out and run."

She swallows around a hard lump in her throat, watering eyes locked with Katie's. "I love you so much, honey. You know that, right?"

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:11 am**

Katie nods, face pale. "Shoot him if you can," she whispers seriously, the gestures for her mommy to shut the door.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:17 am**

"Dead I am the dog," Jack sang, grinning. He waved his flashlight into the rooms and then moved on as quickly as possible...

"Hound of hell you cry," Jack twirled around once as he entered one of the rooms and took a quick glance around.

"Devil on your back," he said, pulling out of the room.

"I can never die"

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:25 am**

Slowly, she shuts the wardrobe doors and tries not to think about how this may be the last time she sees her daughter. If everything goes well... it won't.

Cecilia makes an attempt to creep out of the room silently, towards Jack's singing, but she knows right away that she's too loud to surprise him. So instead, she raises her head skyward.

And screams.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:25 am**

Jack takes a few moments to ensure each room is empty between the stairwell and the noisier one. In one of those rooms, a nurse twitches and spins around, lurching toward him but giving him plenty of time to fire the shotgun.

Cecilia can hear his approach as he moves along with a sing song approach.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:35 am**

"Hmm?" Jack said. He nonchalantly emptied a bunch of pellets into the nurse and turned to the source of thescream.

"She really wants to die, doesn't she?" Jack muttered of before walking towards Cecilia's room.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:45 am**

The walls themselves seem to further decay as the walls bulge and pipes begin to split the edges of the sagging ceilings with the groan of strained metal, drizzling icy cold water into the hallway that forms rust-coloured puddles deep enough to form small streams. Cecilia is out in the hallway as Jack steps out into the corridor with his shotgun in hand. Someone, from someone around them, begins humming an old childhood song. The noise seems to reverberate through the halls but it's quite clearly coming from somewhere downstairs and from what appears to be a human female throat.

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:47 am**

Cecilia runs down the corridor, heading for Jack straight ahead. She's done it now - there's no other way this can possibly work. No going back.

"Where's your justice?!" she cries, balling her hands into fists. "Is it better now, Jack? IS IT?!"

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:02 pm**

Jack quickly raised the shotgun and grinned. "Jack? Jack? No, he's gone. He's not with us anymore. He's... oh god..."

Jack suddenly winced in pain. "Cecilia... I... I don't want to hurt you... Just...hahaha...hahahahahahaha...."

Jack glared at Cecilia. "That was close. You look tired, Cecie. Tired of it all. I can sympathize. He lunged forwards and missed by just a couple of inches from grabbing onto Cecilia. "These days, its hard to be you... Hard to keep you head above life's..." he waved at the surrounding water filled hospital. "Proverbial waters."

"I completely understand why you want to kill yourself."

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:38 pm**

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 11:20 pm**

"Are you happy?" She glares at him, trying to hold her ground and keep from shaking. "My Katie's gone. I lost her. Where is she, Jack? Why don't you tell me?"

Cecilia backs away and circles around him. "I just wanted her to be happy... you didn't have to..."

But her façade slips.

"...I don't want to die," she whispers. Her hands tremble, and her eyes drop to the floor. "Katie needs her mother! I'm n-not doing this for me... if you believed she was dead, maybe you'd leave us..."

No. It's done. She's gone and fucked it up now - it never would have worked. Jack's eyes seem to mock her failure.

"You'd kill my little girl?" The image brings wracking sobs that shake her entire body. She sinks to her knees in front of him, pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes, fingers grabbing at her hair. "You'd kill her mo-mother... never g-get home, nobody to h-help her... h-h-how will that make anything..."

This is the end. Kneeling before him, begging, crying for him to spare her life. What's it worth?

What has she done with thirty-one years?

Posted: **Mon Jan 23, 2012 11:44 pm**

"Aww, there you go," Jack said, patting her shoulders. "You know, studies have shown that most people who commit suicide have this one final moment of regret before they off themselves! Don't ask me how they got their data. I really don't know. But don't worry. I am here to help. I like helping. It's what I do best."

Jack knelt down in front of Cecilia to make eye contact with her. "Hmm... Maybe how's not the problem here. There seems to be an overabundance of ways to commit suicide at this moment. I knew I should have gotten a bit more prepared... MAYBE IT'S THE WHY!"

Jack gripped onto Cecilia's face. "I mean, I still can't believe that you are going to do this! What would little Katie think? It was so unexpected! So uncharacteristic of you! I'd even go to call it INSULTING. Don't worry, though. I've got everything ready here..."

Jack pulled out a crumpled note from his pocket and handed it over to Cecilia. "There you go."

Spoiler:

"It's your suicide note," Jack said, as if trying to answer Cecilia's blank stare at the document. "To inform your loved ones, if you had any, and the police, of your impending demise. Now," Jack handed over a pen. "SIGN IT."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:00 am**

"I am here to help."

Tears rolling silently down her face, Cecilia takes the pen, uncaps it...

"I like helping."

...and stabs it through the center of the paper.

"It's what I do best."

"Get your hands off me, you FUCKING PSYCHOPATH!" she screams, pulling back and slapping him across the face. "What the hell is WRONG with you?!"

"I met Jack. He was friendly, even if you didn't know him... he listened, he never forgot your face, and he didn't like to see people cry. He wanted people to be safe - happy! - even if it meant putting himself in a lot of danger. And he didn't care about how fair it was, or if there was any justice..."

"He was there to help."

Cecilia sweeps the tears from her eyes and stares at him.

"Who are you?"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:32 am**

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:54 am**

"Does it matter?!" the voice of hate hissed. "I EXIST! I AM HERE RIGHT NOW! DOES IT MATTER WHO I AM, OR HOW I WAS BEFORE?! NO!" Jack's body grappled onto Cecilia. "No, it doesn't. I. Just. Am. I am..."

Jack doubled over, dropping the shotgun beside him. A different voice, this time of pain, cried out.

"Cecilia... RUN!"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:21 am**

"Oh god..." Jack murmured. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry... It hurts... I'm so sorry..." He leaned against the wall and began to sob. "I don't know... I don't know what happened... I saw... I saw something... in the computer... something bad... And I couldn't... there was something else...I...I..."

"I don't want to die..." he said blankly. "I don't want to die... I don't want to die..."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:51 am**

Cecilia snatches up the shotgun and springs to her feet, taking a deep and shuddering breath. She's alive. And Jack...

She stands over him, wide-eyed as she listens. It's hard to trust him, as much as she wants to. Even though she feels compelled to sit with him, to tell him that everything's going to be all right, to say that she forgives him...

...it isn't true.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Her fingers twitch on the shotgun's grip, though the muzzle is pointed at the ground.

Not until you try something.

"Tell me what you saw."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:59 am**

"NOOOO!" Jack wailed. "I don't want to remember. Don't want to remember. God, it hurts... it hurts so much... why does it hurt so much?"

Jack sobbed. "I saw... I saw... my autopsy report..."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:09 am**

"You... but you're right here." Cecilia blinks once, then twice, and drops the shotgun on the ground with a clatter. "I don't understand..."

But it's why he thinks he's dead, right? It has to be false - like everything else in this hospital, in this town, it can't be trusted.

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:10 am**

Katie peeks around the corner of the doorway. "Mommy, we can't trust him, can we? If he's dead, then that means ... that means.... Oh, I'm scared, mommy. It's a trap. I know it is! Please, mommy, pick up the gun and let's just go!"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:12 am**

"I..." She looks back at her daughter, then crouches down to pick up the shotgun again. "You're right. Let's just - just leave."

Cecilia walks over to Katie and takes her hand, sighing. The sooner they get out of this town, the sooner they can try to forget.

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:14 am**

"And then I remembered it..." Jack muttered. "The knives, puncturing my lungs... filling them with fluid... the shock..." he shuddered. "I felt my heart stop. RIght there on the emergency table..."

Jack chuckled sadly. "It's what I get for trying to be a hero, eh?"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:17 am**

Katie takes her mommy's hand and gazes up at her with big, forlorn eyes as she says in a low voice. "He's not going to just let us leave, is he? He'll follow us and he's bigger than us. What're we gonna do, mommy?"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:19 am**

"She's not your daughter," Jack muttered, suddenly remembering something.

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:24 am**

"Liar!" spat the girl, clinging to her mommy's hand. "Y'see? He won't let us go!"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:25 am**

"But you're not dead," Cecilia says as she turns to him, not realizing the futility of her words. "And what are you talking about? Of course she's my daughter, she..."

Her grip on Katie's hand loosens, and she looks at her with raised eyebrows. "What do you want me to do? I- I can't just... Katie, what's going on?"

She's six years old. Does she even know the word "autopsy"? Are children - especially ones raised in safety and comfort, like Katie - capable of understanding death like this? She's taking it all so easily...

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:29 am**

"Mommy?" Katie looks confused, her lower lip trembling in fear. "Mommy, that noise, that humming, it's not good. It's not good! We can't have much time and he's gonna follow us and he'll hurt you and he'll hurt me. I don't wanna get hurt."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:33 am**

"Bullshit," Jack muttered, standing up. "Real Katie was admitted into the hospital. Cecilia and I both saw the files. It was a recent event too... Serious as well... Ash, a total stranger that you met in this town, seemed to be...so concerned..."

"And then there's this Detective, who mentioned this OTHER blond ponytailed girl running about in the hospital... I believe she visited Jack Fifer as well... when he should have been dead."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:36 am**

Katie looks confused at that. "What other ponytailed girl running around? I haven't seen anyone like that! You're crazy." She turns back to her mommy. "He's crazy. We should go before he gets his crazy on us and shoots us up with the shotgun."

She shudders and looks down the hall.

"Or when the humming lady comes and gets us."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:40 am**

"Right, you - you told me she was here, so that's why I came," Cecilia says, looking back and forth between Katie (Katie?) and Jack as she tries to understand. "What happened to you? her? K-Katie?"

I didn't expect to see her running around... I thought she'd be in one of the patient rooms...

Some other blonde girl...? She looks into her daughter's (daughter's?) eyes, expecting to see Katie... she looks the same, doesn't she? She's Katie. She has to be Katie...

"Katie," she says, her voice steadily rising. "Jack. Someone- someone tell me something that makes sense..."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:57 am**

"How the fuck should I know?" Jack muttered. "You know what? This is silly. The girl looks human enough. All that matters right now should be getting out of here. I..."

Jack looked around. "I'm...so sick of this place... I want to leave..."

He locked eyes with Cecilia. "You can't... You can't just leave me behind in here... I... I don't want to die again!"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:01 am**

"We can't take him with us!" pleaded Katie. "He's crazy pants! Please, c'mon, daddy wouldn't take him with us! We have to leave him here."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:08 am**

Looks human enough? What else would she be?

"You tried to kill me how many times?" She looks at Jack incredulously. "Why should I trust you? Or- or anything you say?" Her paranoia is mounting, though she's not sure it's unjustified. At this point, she can't even trust her own daughter - if she is her daughter...

How can they just leave him, though? Who knows what the former staff of this hospital will do to him? He needs to be treated, or at the very least, put where he can't harm anyone, or be harmed.

"You can come with us," Cecilia sighs, gesturing for him to follow. She turns to Katie and squeezes her hand lightly. "But I'll keep a close eye on him. And remember that he doesn't have any weapons, okay?"

What am I getting myself into?

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:10 am**

"Oh god... thank you..." Jack said. "And...uhh..." he handed over a switchblade to Cecilia sheepishly. "Not quite true, what you just said. I'll give this to you... if it means anything..."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:12 am**

"Oh my god, you're bringing him?" Katie snatches her hand back, backing away. "Are you kidding me? Daddy wouldn't risk my life like that! What kinda mommy are you, anyway?!"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:20 am**

Cecilia takes the switchblade and puts it in an empty pocket, nodding silently at Jack.

Tension lashes her shoulders when Katie breaks away. "Katie, honey," she says in a voice laced with false sweetness, "you know Mommy doesn't like it when you compare her to Daddy..."

She shakes her head, and holds her hand out for her daughter again. "I'm not risking your life. He can't sneak up on us this way. I'll know right where he is the whole time."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:25 am**

"He's bigger than you are!" snapped Katie, taking another few steps backward. "And scarier! And he's proven that he wants us dead! You should cut his ankles or shoot him or something or stop him from being able to hurt us! This place is scary and I'm not going with him anywhere. I'll just go back to the park and hug Robbie and wait for daddy to come and save me!"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:36 am**

"Last time I checked, she was bigger than me," Jack said.

"Not saying anything about your weight, of course."

"Besides, if I... or whatever the thing I was before... really wanted you dead, the thing would have succeeded. He didn't because I was there, fighting him. I never allowed him to pull the trigger."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:37 am**

"Oh, and...uhh..." Jack coughed.

"You did give Katie the kitten, right?"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:38 am**

Katie rolls her eyes. "Oh, now THAT makes me feel so much better!"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:45 am**

"So what are you proposing here, Katie?" Jack said, throwing up his arms. "I'm unarmed and wounded. I gave up my last weapon to your mother. I've surrendered, mind, body, and spirit.

Do you want your mother to kill me? Push me up against a wall, put the barrel up the shotgun against my head and blow my brains out?"

Jack quietely muttered kids these days under his breath.

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:48 am**

"Katie!" Cecilia takes a step toward her daughter, sighing in exasperation. "Daddy isn't going to come save you! He doesn't know where you are - if I could call him, I would, okay? But right now, I need to keep you safe by watching Jack!"

Robbie?

She turns her glare on Jack. "And you - I don't know what to believe about you, and I don't think anything you say is going to convince her!" Growling to herself, she covers her eyes with one hand, hiding the fact that they're welling up again. When did she start crying so much?

"And no. I didn't give her the kitten. It's in a bad mood."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:49 am**

She throws up her hands in irritation. "I don't know! Maybe? You're already dead, you said so yourself! And randomly you're gonna go on rampages?"

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:07 am**

Jack gasped. "Don't... don't test me..." Jack mumbled before turning to Cecilia.

"You... you aren't seriously considering this, are you?" he said.

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:25 am**

"Katie, don't," Cecilia mutters, sticking her hand into one of her pockets and grabbing a fistful of wool. "Look, both of you - I've made up my mind. Start walking, or stay here and argue for hours. I can wait."

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:28 am**

"Bad mommy!" Katie shakes her head and runs back into the elevator, hitting the 'close doors' button. "Find Robbie when you care about me!"

The elevator doors, contrary to all expectations, start closing with astonishing rapidity.

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:19 am**

"Katie?!" Cecilia rushes forward, but the elevator doors are too fast, and she's left pounding against the cold metal. "No, no, come back, Katie, please, I do care about you..."

Forgetting Jack for the time being, she turns on her heel and starts running for the stairs.

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:24 am**

Jack was already at the stairway doors by the time Cecilia got there. As she passed by him, she could hear him mutter that's not a normal girl, and then heard his footsteps as he descended the stairs after her.

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 10:15 pm**

As they rush down the stairs, the humming noise becomes louder and as they burst out onto the ground floor, they come to see the source of that noise.

A woman in a red cardigan over a starched white dress, lettering carved into her own forearms, stands in the center of the hall, between them and the elevator, hands clasped together over something, head bowed, back facing them.

The humming ends abruptly as their flashlights pass across her and she begins to turn...

Posted: **Tue Jan 24, 2012 10:50 pm**

"Is...she the one Katie was talking about?" Jack said.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 12:55 am**

Cecilia says nothing, just stares, paralyzed with fear and anticipation.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:37 am**

The nurse tosses her rust-streaked blonde hair somewhat as she turns her head in a few shuddering motions, revealing a sewn shut eye that has partially ripped its stitches, allowing her to gaze at them. There's something on the back of her neck. Some sort of awful tumescent growth.

Cecilia recognises her as the nurse from before but there's something different about her now.

And about the way her lip curls into a smile.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:44 am**

"You...umm... do know how to use that shotgun, right?" Jack said hopefully.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:10 am**

"I... shot a door. Twice." Cecilia looks at the gun, then at the nurse, then back at Jack. "But I... killing her?"

"Um... I'm sorry for dropping the stuffed animals," she says in a small voice. "But I found my daughter, and you see, the children in the ICU are mannequins..."

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:14 am**

The woman slowly turns around and with each jerky motion, fresh blood seeps from numerous cuts hidden within her hair line. The smile stays steadily on her lips, curled at the edges, but what draws their eye is what she is holding in her hand. A scalpel. A simple scalpel. Yet something about that scalpel, perhaps the way it glints in the flashlight, or the way it's being cradled, makes it seem oh so very much more powerful and dangerous than it first appeared.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:17 am**

"I...don't think she's listening..." Jack said. "I am in no mood to be dissected. Not...twice... anyways..."

"I...really... think we should get out of here... If you aren't planning on shooting her once she gets close, that is...""

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:30 am**

"Right..." Cecilia looks down the corridor to the left, to make sure it's clear. If everything's good, she breaks into a run.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:41 am**

Cecilia can most certainly run to the left but then she's running away from the elevator and not towards it. It'll let her out into the car park but she may never be able to find or see Katie again.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:56 am**

Or not. Cecilia bites her lip, looking at the still-closed elevator doors.

"Look," she tells Jack. "I think she's after me, so you make a run for it. I need to be here for Katie. Worse comes to worse..." She waves the shotgun halfheartedly.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:12 am**

"Make a run for it?" Jack said, raising an eyebrow. "From a person with the shotgun and into the great unknowns of this town? That kind of implies that you think you are going to die, you know."

"Well, I'm not leaving you behind with that thing. I'll do whatever you say now, I owe you that much, but I won't do that."

Besides, she really looked pretty when she was being determined.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:26 am**

The nurse's head tilts to one side and then to the other as she slowly turns around to face them.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:29 am**

"But you just said you didn't want to be dissected," Cecilia hisses, throwing her hands up and shaking her head. "I'm out of ideas right now - do you have some kind of plan?!"

"And I'm not going to die. Nobody's dying, Jack."

I hope.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:08 am**

Jack looked incredulously at Cecilia.

He pointed at the scalpel in the nurse's hand, then at her stitches, then at her blood-soaked nurse uniform, then at her wicked smile, then at her twitching body, and then finally at the giant unnatural tumor on her back.

He finally pointed towards her shotgun, then shrugged and hardened his face. There suddenly was something oh so familiar about him to Cecilia.

"You don't want to die... but you are unwilling to take a life to do so, is that it?" Jack said. "Even when it's obvious that it must be done? No... it's not that you are unwilling... I bet you ARE willing... don't tell me that you haven't had the mind to use the gun on somebody ever since you picked it up... Maybe you thought that it was alright to liberate a few people who you thought were suffering or you made up some other justification...

It's just that you can't steel your mind enough to pull the trigger, is it? You can't accept the responsibility of having murdered a living being. Because you don't like the consequences that you can see from the actions you take, you keep trying to think of a new solution to problems. Maybe there is a third way... Maybe there is a way for all of us to win. Maybe there's a way in which none of us would have to accept responsibility. Maybe there's a way to make sure that there's nothing to be responsible for!

There's beauty in that, Cecilia. I mean it. Maybe there really is a way for everyone to win. But there just may not be. That's how life works. You have to make tough decisions..."

Jack sighed. "I...I'm sorry. I... didn't mean to say it like that... I just want you to know that... whatever you tell me to do, I'll follow. I won't hold it against you either."

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:37 am**

His final apology is interrupted by a sudden movement as the nurse darts toward them silently, the blade flashing out toward Jack. He turns his head at the right moment, more luck than anything else, making eye contact with Cecilia as her blade brushes past him, drawing a fine line of blood down the side. There's a lot of force behind that blow. He heard it hiss through the air like it was splitting molecules. Like the kiss of death from a bullet, only this time from a blade. The madwoman nurse pulls back, almost seeming to be dancing in her low red heel, and falls back into a crouch, ready to do violence once more.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:55 am**

"Oh, and I don't think it's after you," Jack said hurriedly. He leaped onto the nurse and knocked her off her feet.

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 7:30 am**

It really bothers Cecilia that despite his clear insanity, Jack is so often right.

In court, not everyone wins. In a civil trial, somebody has to settle, or someone's dissatisfied. And in criminal cases... somebody's already lost something, no matter the outcome. It's easy to get caught up in this concept of justice, to automatically think you're doing the right thing, putting a dangerous person away...

Then new evidence comes out of nowhere. Or there's another witness. Or something. And there's no way this person could possibly be guilty. Then, the accusatory glares, and so many questions.

Not everyone wins. Especially not you.

Her thoughts are cut short by the ribbon of blood that appears on his skin - "Jack!" She raises the shotgun, but then he dives for the nurse, and if there's anything she learned from the door, it's that the shot will spread.

"Get- get off her!" she yells, the gun shaking in her hands. "I can't do this with you in the way!"

Posted: **Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:22 pm**

Jack quickly released the nurse and backed off.

Posted: **Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:19 am**

Jack grabs the nurse but finds it's much like grappling stone. She feels real, alive, like flesh and blood, and the iron tang to her ... oh so real. But he grabs her and her limbs don't bend to his whim, though he's so much bigger than her. The nurse simply tilts her head to one side, the fingers fluttering across the scalpel handle, as though waiting to see what Cecilia is going to do, and there's that slight smile on her face as she watches her. Waiting.... Unafraid....

Posted: **Thu Jan 26, 2012 1:15 am**

Cecilia deliberately avoids looking at the nurse's one exposed eye as she takes a deep breath. She doesn't feel any more steady - it's as though her nerves are exposed and raw all over her body. Slowly, she points the muzzle at her target and moves her fingers to the trigger.

It's in that moment of pulling, that split second of waiting for the shot to fire, that she realizes something is wrong.

Posted: **Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:03 am**

Jack's eyes widened in shock just as Cecilia did the same. For a split moment, he was at a loss as to what to do. But then he knew what must be done.

"Cecilia!" Jack yelled out. "Ru...Run for it! Go towards the elevator!"

"I...I'll be right behind you..."

Posted: **Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:43 pm**

"What are you trying to do, Jack?" She backs away from the nurse, but doesn't even look down the corridor. "I don't need you to be a goddamn hero!"

We've seen how well it works out.

Cecilia stuffs the shotgun into one of her coat pockets, and pulls out the switchblade. "I can run off and save myself, but you can't?" She leaps forward, intending to push the nurse over onto the floor - and fails.

Posted: **Thu Jan 26, 2012 11:44 pm**

"Goddamnit Cecie!" Jack hissed. "I can't handle her... You can't either! Just go!"

He placed himself between Cecilia and the mad nurse quickly. "It's for the best! You are right, you HAVE to live! You have to live for Katie! You have to go... Or she'll kill us both! Unless..." Jack gulped.

"Cecillia, give me the gun."

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:33 am**

The nurse seemed to almost jitter on the spot, rocking on the back of her heels during all of this conversation, seemingly content to watch for a moment before finally choosing her moment. The blade hand darts out, too fast to see, and sinks deeply into Jack's shoulder, twists, and retracts, leaving him staggered as agony shoots down his arm and warm blood runs down his back, further staining his trench coat. The nurse's lips twitch in a spasmodic version of speech and she hunches over, swaying somewhat with the blade in one hand.

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 12:41 am**

Cecie?

It's a thought that's strangely out of place, just before she sees the nurse raise her hand.

"Jack--" but she's too late - has to decide now...

She pulls the gun from her coat and pushes it into his hand.

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:18 am**

Jack staggered back a few steps, bleeding badly from his shoulder. He fumbled with the shotgun, desperately trying to clear the jam.

"Hold her back," Jack gasped. "I need some time..."

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:22 am**

The nurse charged forward, the blade glinting red in the flashlight, as she passes by Cecilia but, more from luck than anything else, Cecilia manages to jerk aside and the blade tears her coat instead.

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:35 am**

As the nurse rushes by, Cecilia spins around and locks her arms around the nurse's waist. "Hurry!" she shouts, unable to tear her eyes from the scalpel. "I don't know how long I can hold her!"

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 1:48 am**

Eventually, after manually opening the ejection port and shaking the shotgun, one of the spent cartridge fell off, clearing the jam.

Spoiler:

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 2:20 am**

It should have worked. It did work. It must've worked. But the nurse was impossibly strong and reverse the grapple with ridiculous ease, slipping herself out and grabbing Cecilia by her waist. The nurse tried to flip Cecilia over onto her back, or maybe slam her into a wall, but she struggled to lift her. Still, how does anyone move so fast?

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 3:09 am**

Cecilia squirms and kicks, but finds herself locked in the nurse's arms. The scalpel clutched in the nurse's hand gleams, still wet with Jack's blood.

"Help! I- I can't get out! Do something!"

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 3:45 am**

"Get the FUCK off of her!" Jack yelled out as he charged towards the madwoman. He stopped just before the two and then buried his feet into the madwoman's face.

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 3:50 am**

His sneaker-clad foot slammed into her chin, snapping her head back, but other than that ... nothing. No bruising. No broken nose. Nothing. It's as if he didn't even hurt her. Didn't even bruise her. The nurse threw Cecilia into a wall, cracking her nose against the exposed piping.

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:05 am**

Cecilia howls in pain, cupping her hands over her face. Something drips onto her fingers. Is she bleeding? She's probably bleeding. She curls up against the wall, dissolving into whimpers.

She opens her eyes, and her vision swims, making her nauseous. Dear God, she can't do one single thing right, can she?

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:09 am**

Jack quickly shoved the shotgun into the madwoman's chest and pulled the trigger.

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:16 am**

The sound of the shotgun blast seems eerily dampened in the moist corridor but it proves to the ears what the eyes can't see. The shotgun was fired. The shell did ignite and was sent on its merry way through the barrel to hit what stands precisely in front of it. But the nurse is undamaged but for powder burns on her red cardigan. There's no torn skin or shattered bone. There's no chunk of organic matter that has erupted from her back to make way for the kinetic force. The nurse seems completely, and utterly, unharmed.

At that, she tilts her head to one side and her lips flicker into a smile.

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:15 am**

Jack staggered away from the nurse, shocked. "Wha...but...how?"

He looked around him quickly and grabbed onto Cecilia. "Hey! Are you... Are you alright? We... have to get out of here," he said, never taking an eye off of the nurse. "Get up! Please!"

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:28 am**

The shock of pain has receded to a dull throb, and her head is clear enough to grasp what's happened. Against everything Cecilia knows, that woman has taken the full force of a shotgun blast, and come out unharmed. A dead weight settles into her chest. This is wrong.

Then, the touch of someone's hand - no get off me get off me - and she raises a bloody palm to fight them off. But it's only Jack.

"...Yeah, I'm fine." Cecilia slowly stands, trying to wipe the blood off her face with her coat sleeve. "It hurts, but..."

Her eyes follow his. The nurse.

"I'm right behind you."

Posted: **Fri Jan 27, 2012 6:07 am**

"You'll be fine," Jack muttered, trying to look strong and not show his own wounds to Cecilia. He took Cecilia's arm and ran as quickly as his feet could take him from the nurse.

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:05 am**

The nurse screams after them in desperation and horror as they run away, feet pounding the wet linoleum.

They could either head back upstairs and hope she came out on the 2nd floor or they could just make their way out of the hospital through the front entrance.

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:08 am**

"She said she was going to the park," Cecilia says, pulling on his arm to lead him out. "You know where that is, right?"

Bring Robbie when you care about me!

"And, uh, do you know anything about a... Robbie?"

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:14 am**

Jack grimaced in pain when she pulled on his arm. He did not really mind her touch though.

"A local mascot... Creepy as hell rabbit," he breathed out. "There's only two places where she might be... Yes... I think I know where..." he coughed.

"Listen... There's... There's a pharmacy next to the hospital. We can get you something for your nose there..."

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:38 am**

"A rabbit? Pink, wears overalls and a bow tie?" Cecilia frowns, remembering the one on top of the operating table. Katie's never owned a stuffed animal like that, unless Nathan or Keith bought it for her. "The mannequin had one of those on her... its lap."

When Jack mentions the pharmacy, she shakes her head and only runs faster. "No. There's no time. I'm fine. We need to find Katie."

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 2:01 am**

"Heh," Jack managed to breathe out. The wound that he received from the nurse continued to pour out blood, staining his clothes. "I think I'm starting to really like you..."

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:37 am**

Cecilia raises an eyebrow, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling she just got. He's really hurt, not to mention his still-shaky mental state. It's hard not to think about all the disturbing things he could mean by that.

Still, liking her is probably better than trying to kill her. Probably.

"We'll find Katie and then get you some bandages, okay?" She slips her arm away from his, not sure if the blood on her hand is his or hers. "I don't like the look of that shoulder."

That is, unless Katie argues that they should keep him in pain and leave him behind. Again. When did she start thinking like that?

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 5:09 am**

"It's Fine," Jack muttered. "Worry about your own damn problems...shit, I totally forgot about Ash. Hope she's okay..."

A guarded, but still somewhat sad and also somewhat dark look passed over his face.

"She and I need a little talk."

His expression quickly changed back to a normal smile. "By the way, is that Rochelle's coat that you got blood all over on? She's going to charge you for that."

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:12 am**

They escape into the car park without any further problems though the car park seems ... different now. The water easily comes up to their angles and the surrounding fence that blocks off the ambulance now looks sepulchral, like those cast iron fences that surround cemetaries. They slosh out onto the car park.

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:33 am**

"Fine, have it your way," Cecilia mutters, sweeping the car park with her flashlight. Jack's disregard for his well-being is unnerving - is this because he's dead? Or at least thinks he's dead? It's so hard to be sure of anything now.

It reminds her of the Jack she met in the bar, which may be the greatest discomfort of all.

She wonders what he needs to talk to Ash about, but decides against asking. The possibility of dredging up more memories is too dangerous. Especially now.

"Uh, it's probably hers." The water is freezing as it creeps inside her shoes and soaks her feet. She shivers lightly. "It's cold out here. I needed something."

"Which way?"

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 5:08 pm**

"Only one way out of the car park, lady, to the Canyon Street," Jack muttered.

"Say, you read Rochelle's diary, right? What did it say about me? I didn't really have the chance to read it in...eh...much...detail..."

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:36 pm**

"It was pretty vague. I thought it would mean something to you." Cecilia bites her lip, considering what to tell him. It might be connected to his death, and bringing that up can't be good. "She, uh, said that you're a ditz. And that you're too good for 'this place,' whatever that means."

"Some guy named Wolfe came up a lot. And... the last entry was dated three days from now."

Unless it's been a whole day. Has it? It's still so dark.

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:50 pm**

"Really?" Jack said, his voice slightly cracking. "She said that? Too good for this place? I..."

His face fell. "I... thank you for telling me..."

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 2:35 pm**

They can hear another scream coming from the hospital. The nurse again. She doesn't seem to be following them, however.

They walk through the icy cold water out onto the street, passing through the broken down cemetary-like gates that block off the car park. There's no sign of the giant chasm that circled the place like a moat nor any sign of street lights. In fact, even when they're crossing the street, there's no drop to a gutter or anything like that. The ground beneath their feet feels uneven, too, like a mixture between rock and sand, though it seems to be more or less firmly in place but for a few specific spots.

There's absolutely no light out here.

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 4:21 pm**

"Hey..." Jack whispered to Cecilia. "You okay in the dark? And... Uhhh..." Jack shook his head.

"Ever thought of what you are going to do after you find Katie and get out of here?"

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 6:21 pm**

"I'm all right." She really isn't - her small, shaky voice makes that clear - but it feels better to pretend. Here, the dark has a way of making her feel sad and alone.

Cecilia gives him an odd look. What's with all the questions? Is he trying to distract her? "Katie and I will go home," she says flatly, "and try to forget about all of this."

We'll bake cookies and build a fort in the living room. I want to give her the best day of her life before she's gone.

Her eyes fill with tears at the thought, but she takes a deep breath and manages to retain her composure.

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 6:48 pm**

"That's it?" Jack mumbled. "Nothing other than that?"'

Jack chuckled. "Well," he said sadly. "At least... At least you know what you are going to do. I... Don't know what I'll do after I am done helping you. Hell. I don't even know for sure if I am dead or not. No..."

He shook his head. "That's not true... I know... I know I am dead... Heh... Hahaha... It's kind of funny if you think about it. Or is it? I am not sure anymore. Wait... No... No... It's probably nothing."

He seemed to have remembered something, but also seemed to be unwilling to share it with Cecilia for some reason.

"Probably nothing."

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:09 pm**

"Yes, that's it," she snaps, clenching her fists so hard that her fingernails leave marks in her palms. There's the question of what she isn't telling him - is it that she doesn't want him to know, or that she can't handle hearing herself say it?

Cecilia softens once he starts talking again. "You're sure it wasn't some other guy with your name? I just don't understand how you can be..." She trails off on the last word. "You remembered something just now, didn't you?"

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:35 pm**

"Oh it's probably nothing," Jack said cheerfully. "Say, I don't remember you wearing a wedding ring. What happened to Katie's father?"

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:54 pm**

She's about to press him for more information, but his next question shakes her. The empty space on her left hand seems to taunt her again. "That's none of your fucking business--"

No. Stop it. Stay calm. It's about time she stopped having that knee-jerk reaction to questions like this. Jack doesn't sound like he's about to mock her or start a pity party. Besides, Katie did mention daddy...

"I'm sorry," she sighs, shaking her head. "We've been divorced for two and a half months now. He lives with... with an old college roommate, and Katie goes over there every other week."

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 8:09 pm**

"Oh, I am sorry," he said, turning right towards the general direction of the amusement park. "He... Moved on fast, didn't he?"

He sighed. "What are you going to do with Katie though, Cecilia? You can't just go on exchanging her every couple of weeks. It's... Going to be terrible for her. You going to fight for custody rights or something?"

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 8:38 pm**

"Yeah. Yeah, he did." Because there was nothing to move on from, right? She curls and uncurls the fingers of her left hand. "As... far as he's told me, it started out as him just needing a place to stay, and... then they..." Cecilia goes quiet, dragging her feet in the water.

When she speaks again, she sounds almost happy, but there's a deeply bitter tone to her voice. Almost like she's mocking herself. "Oh, I know. It's... been hard on her. But I'm not going to fight. I'm..." She sighs, and just comes right out with it. "I'm giving up."

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:11 pm**

"You're moving on too?"

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:21 pm**

"In a sense? I don't know." She stares at the water, wondering where it came from. Did it rain? "I know now that... well, I'm not fit to be a mother."

Her voice drops to a slow, meek whisper. "So I'll give Nathan full custody. He was always the... the better parent. And... it would make Katie happy, right? She loves her daddy..."

"I- I don't know. What did you mean?"

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:06 pm**

"I'm... just... sorry that you feel like that," Jack whispered. "I...never had a child of my own. Or a real girlfriend for that matter. I wouldn't know anything."

He grabbed onto Cecilia's arm and tugged it lightly. "I would have given you a hug there before, but I don't think it's a good idea to dirty Rochelle's coat further. She's going to burn my body if she finds out. And I liked my trenchcoat too. Come on, we have a dau- your daughter to find."

There's something so familiar about that voice...

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:09 am**

You seem to know an awful lot, she thinks to herself, remembering just minutes ago when he screamed at her. About how she doesn't deserve to be a mother, and everything else she's done wrong.

Cecilia pulls her arm away, raising an eyebrow. Her expression is otherwise blank. "No, I'm all right now," she says. "I... don't really... do hugs."

"Where are we going, anyway? This doesn't look like the way to the park I passed." And with that question, she's back to sounding like her usual self.

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:29 am**

Jack seems to be suddenly reminded of something and his facial expression grew even darker.

"Towards the amusement park," Jack said. "I bet that's where she is right now. Robbie is the park's mascot."

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:23 am**

"But she's never been there," Cecilia says, putting a finger in her pocket. Maybe the kitten is feeling better now? "How would she know about Robbie?"

If she'd been able to talk to Ash, she could have gotten some answers. Maybe she still can - she's not dead after all, right?

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 3:31 am**

"Does that matter? She said bring Robbie, so obviously she knows what Robbie is. If she knows what Robbie is, then she probably also knows about the amusement park," Jack said hurriedly. He looked around the streets to get his bearings.

"Hey... about before... when I tried to... erm... kill you in the bar..." he said, shakily. "I... I really don't know what happened. When I saw you in there... something... something just snapped... and I became a different person..."

"Why didn't I just stay in the morgue?"

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:15 am**

The kitten licks her finger happily enough, its tongue raspy against her skin. At least it remains warm and fluffy, a reminder that somewhere, somehow, there are places that are nice and decent. Places far from this one.

The buildings seem to have vanished, replaced by water-stained concrete walls sized like the buildings that once were there, sometimes with jagged tears or holes in places that bleed out more rusty water, often with chunks of barbed wire chain, thick and sturdy, that criss cross alleyways and drape across some of the walls. Every so often something seems to move in the water. Whether floating trash or something else, it's hard to say, as it's always on the edge of their flashlight beams. Luckily, the water's only up to their mid-calf, so there can't be anything all that big lurking within.

Maybe.

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:28 am**

"Did you see that?" Jack mumbled. "The water's just going to get deeper from here... do you really think that it's safe too..."

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:45 am**

If she didn't know better, Cecilia's response to his explanation would be "Does that happen a lot?" Fortunately, she's equipped with at least a bit of common sense.

"By the way, you were wrong about the kitten." She strokes its fluffy forehead, thinking of how much Katie will love it. "It wouldn't leave me alone, so it's still alive."

She waves her flashlight uselessly in the darkness. "Do we... I have a choice? If Katie's there, that's where I need to be."

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:44 pm**

"Wouldn't leave you alone?" Jack said. "That implies that you, at one point, tried to leave it, you know."

Jack sighed. "Nevermind that right now. Katie... this water's like, waist high for her? How do you think she went through this place?"

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:14 pm**

"I thought it would be safer in the bar. It followed me, so it's in my pocket."

She stops, and glares at him. "Well, where else would she be? You're saying we should just run all over town until something else tries to kill us?"

He has a point, though. If the water gets much deeper from here, Katie probably wouldn't bother. Especially in this cold.

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:15 pm**

"No..." Jack said. "No, I am sure that Something's there..."

He paused and stared off into the distance thoughtfully. "It's just that I don't think you'll like what you find."

"I... I wanted to talk to you about something else," he said. "Why... Why I came back."

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:34 pm**

"...I'm listening." She folds her arms, trying to see whatever he was looking at. Maybe he was just thinking.

Came back. Does he mean from the dead? That's crazy talk...

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:55 pm**

"I... I'm not really sure," Jack said. "I don't... I didn't remember dying... Nor coming back... But now that I do... I think I know."

"I came back because of you."

Jack suddenly shot Cecilia a glare.

"I don't know why, but you are the reason why I am here right now, breathing again."

"You did something. Something that neither of us can remember."

He walked past Cecilia deeper into the waters. "You know what? Forget I said anything. Let's go."

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:04 pm**

Cecilia's eyes widen as she listens to Jack talk, but she stays silent. What the hell? She hasn't even known him for longer than a couple of days, at most. Bringing people back from the dead is impossible.

And isn't it convenient that neither of them remember this apparent thing she did?

"How can I forget something like that?" she asks, but he's probably too far away to hear by now. She wades through the water to catch up to him.

Posted: **Mon Jan 30, 2012 10:08 pm**

"How can I forget being stabbed?" Jack said.

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:42 am**

"Touché," Cecilia sighs, deciding to chalk it up to Jack's instability.

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:55 am**

"Of course," Jack said, stopping. "You also seem to have forgotten a lot of things, lady."

He shot her a glare again. "A lot of things."

He sighed and began to wade through the water again. "Let's just say that it's normal for the resort town of Silent Hill to be suddenly be abandoned, filled with bulletproof monsters, flooded, terraformed, transformed, right before your very eyes within a span of five minutes. Let's just say that there's a logical explanation to all of this and...I wasn't dead..." he said the last line almost hopefully.

"What do you think I should do after that?"

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:11 am**

"Get out. As fast as you could." As if that isn't the obvious answer. What sane person would stay in a place like this without reason?

...Exactly.

"There's nothing keeping you here, you know." She shrugs, feeling uncomfortable under his glare.

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:29 am**

"Like HELL if I didn't consider that!" Jack hissed. "Did you know that I lived much of my life in New York instead of this godforsaken town?! Did you know that I graduated from the top of my class with a major in psychology? I don't need to be here. I can do anything I want elsewhere!"

"But this place it... it calls you back..." Jack said with a shudder. "You can't... you simply can't... you can't escape it... Even if you think it is the most horrifying place in the entire world... it will still drag you back here. It wouldn't let you go. As time goes on, you'll find yourself longing for this place again and again until..."

"No... no... that's not right..." jack shook his head. "It calls to you because you NEED to be here... Do you know... do you have any idea... how many drug addicts there are in this damn town?" he chuckled. "There's a lot, Cecie. A lot."

"And I tried to help them! Behind everyone back... there were too many eyes watching me... I tried to get them off PTV... Do you know what happened with them?! NOTHING WORKED! I couldn't help them. They were too far gone... they would do anything...absolutely anything to feed their habits. They would ruin their entire lives for the damn drug. NOTHING. EVER. WORKED."

"I couldn't do a damn thing..." he said.

"Never could do a damn thing."

"Enough about me though," Jack said, suddenly cheerful again. "I hope that you are still planning on visiting Katie after you... uhh... give her up. You can't just disappear from her life, right?"

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:09 am**

Cecilia backs away with a slosh of water, staring nervously. New York? Psychology? Is that how he always seems to be right? He's been reading her like a book...

But she takes a hesitant step forward, and lays her hand on his shoulder - the one that wasn't stabbed. "Jack, for what it's worth..." She pauses, looking to choose her words carefully. "You've done good things. I know that. And... at least you can find it in yourself to try."

She gives him a gentle sort of half-smile, tempered by her nerves and the tension in the air.

When he asks about Katie again, she falters. She was thinking of going to the ocean again...

Images of her daughter fill her mind. Katie getting picked up from school early. Katie asking why, with tears in her eyes. Katie in black, her hand full of soil.

"I... I don't know." She looks away, off into the distance.

Posted: **Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:14 pm**

"I really think you should continue to visit her," Jack said. "It's the least that you can do."

That's what I would want you to do if I was your child.

"It's going to hurt, but just simply disappearing isn't going to help anyone other than yourself."

He shifted his feet nervously. "Have you ever felt like you are going to die?"

Play@YSDC

CHAPTER TWO: Cecilia: Searching

CHAPTER TWO: Cecilia: Searching

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