CHAPTER TWO: Cecilia: Searching

[Kadael]

"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..."

[Seon]

"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!"

[Laraqua]

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?

[Kadael]

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.

[Seon]

"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?!"

[Laraqua]

"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.

[Seon]

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:

Rolled listen and Spot Hidden.

Bah, forgot to link listen, but I failed it anyways.

[Kadael]

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!"

[Laraqua]

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.

[Seon]

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.

[Kadael]

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?"

[Laraqua]

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!"

[Kadael]

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.

[Laraqua]

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

[Kadael]

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.

[Seon]

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!"

[Laraqua]

Katie grins up at Cecilia.

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

[Kadael]

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...?

[Seon]

"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!"

[Laraqua]

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.