CHAPTER ONE: Katie's Journey: The Play Date

[Laraqua]

"Yup," said Laura. She pulled a small, ornate knife, and before Katie can say anything, she nicks her finger and presses it into the dirt. Moments later, the dirt falls away in front of them, revealing a glowing, fog-shrouded hole into somewhere. Tinny music echoes up from the confines of the grave, sounding equally creepy and joyous. "Down there is the Amusement Park. Well, not really. Down there is a portal that'll take us to the Amusement Park. You ready?" Laura grabs for her hand. "We can be back in a flash."

[Raiko]

"I knew it!"

Katie lets Laura grab her hand and steps towards the misty hole with the joyously creepy music!

"I'm ready!"

[Laraqua]

Laura nodded and together they stepped down into the pit and as the world blurred around them, Katie could dimly make out her mother's voice calling to her. Laura giggles as she holds both of Katie's hands, a big, pleased smile on her face, and she shouts out over the rush of the wind. "Don't worry! We'll be there soon. It'll be dark, but that won't matter. Don't get scared. No matter what you see. We can have fun. Nothing can hurt you so long as you're not scared and you're with me. They can smell your fear! But that's all that calls them. Fear. Well, fear and guilt, but don't worry about that. We can go on all the rides we like!"

And then they both drop down into a brick courtyard where a Robbie the Rabbits sits on a nearby wooden bench, the walls are dirty, and the sky is pitch dark. Luckily, there's plenty of lighting about the amusement park and Katie can make out the lights of distant amusement park rides beyond the inner gates. There's a map nearby on a big old mildewy sign.

[Raiko]

Katie smiles bravely, she doesn't like the dark at all, but there were lights on and Laura seemed to know all about things, so it must be alright. And besides she always felt much braver in the dark holding mummy or daddy's hand, and Laura was holding her hand now, so everything was just fine. And hadn't Laura just said they could go on any ride they liked?

Katie's smile grows wider and she giggles, mummy only let's me on the baby rides! Even though I'm nearly a big girl Eager to start the adventure she asks, "We can go on all the rides?"

OOC,Do 6 year olds feel guilt? I'm not sure that they do. My experience is that they make a decision and than just go with it (eg leaving mummy in the car park). If they're punished for the decision they tend to have a sense of injustice rather than feelings of guilt! :lol: Having said that, I've been lucky enough not to have experienced divorce in my close family, so I don't know how it feels. I'd imagine that Katie won't fully understand her dad going off with another man, and might feel that she's in some way to blame. Is the rabbit scary? I've found with my children that when they're younger (say 3 or 4) they get

[Laraqua]

"Yup, all of them," said Laura, grinning. "We can also eat anything we like, though not everything's good to eat, and we can win whatever toys we like, too. It'll be amazing!" She does a little jig of joy on the spot and giggles. "And later, we can go to the hotel and I can show you my old friend. He was always the bestest, always real brave, but then he chickened out when his dad sent him away." Laura looks a little sad and begins to pace back and forth. "I did miss him so very much...." She brightens and whips around to face Katie. "But he's here now! He came back for me! All I need is a little help and all my best friends will be together again..." She clasps her hands together. "Wouldn't you like that, Katie? For a big group of best friends?"

Show,Oh, I think they do feel guilt but not for the sort of things we expect them to feel guilty about and they easily use those nastier defence mechanisms like turning it back on us if they can. Trouble is I think they feel mostly empathic guilt rather than perspective-based guilt. Mummy gets hurt and loses a finger because I scared her while she was chopping carrots ... massive guilt. Mummy gets worried because I was exploring? Well, that's dumb. I was safe! Mummy dies because I was exploring? It's all my fault! So yeah, I think they feel guilt, but generally only for the big stuff involving tears and pain. Also, the rest of your conversation was missing.

[Raiko]

"Oh yes! I'd love that!"

Katie is beaming with happiness, she jumps and claps her hands. This is the best vacation ever! I can't wait to tell mummy about Laura!

"Let's go on a ride! And get some candy floss! And ice-cream!"

[Laraqua]

"Okay, sure," said Laura, heading through the gates to take her to the The Sweet Factory Store which is a souvenir shop in the Souvenir Alley. The Sweet Factory sells Robbie the Rabbit dolls in various colors and sizes, as well as candy, Butter Cakes, Lindsey Street Chocochip Cookies, Health Drinks (yuck) T-shirts, and other souvenirs. Mountain Coaster keychains and a Borley Mansion calendar can be seen over the desk. "You can eat what you want. Tastes good!" Laura pulls open one of the snack bars and bites down into it. "Mmm."

[Raiko]

OOC,Sorry I'm the worst player EVER! :oops: There should be nothing stopping me from posting for the next few weeks if your typing hands are feeling better. :)

Katie goes straight for the pink Robbie the Rabbit stuffed dolls, she picks one up and hugs it tightly, "Can I take one of these?"

She spins around staring greedily at the various candy bars and cookies.

OOC,As soon as Laura has answered, Katie will follow her lead and tuck into the nearest chocolate bar.

[Laraqua]

"Yup, you can have whatever toys you like! There's no adults in the way to stop us."

"Oh wait," said Katie, whipping out a red pen. She hastily scribbles a symbol on the back of a few different candy bars in a crimsoney-brown substance and then nods at her. "Yup. You can eat it now. We gotta draw a symbol on it to keep it from being all bland or spoiled. This symbol adds a touch of paradise to it."

[Raiko]

Katie bites into the chocolate bar.

Assuming that it tastes of paradise she asks, "Laura?"

"Can you teach me to do that?"

[Laraqua]

Laura nods cheerfully. "Absolutely. I can teach you all kinds of tricks and magic spells but first let me show you around." She shows her to a few of the rides, and lets her ride on them, then gathers up some armloads of candy and popcorn (after making the popcorn machine work with another chalk drawing). It's dark and there's figures always in the background, in the darkness, moving with loping strides or twisted gaits, their motion sending Katie's guts roiling, but Laura always distracts her at key moments, laughing them off as 'stupid evil fairies'. After awhile, even Katie realises that she's left it for too long and her mom will be worried and angry.

"It's okay," said Laura. "Your mom will look for you at the hotel. I know where she's staying. She's staying where all adults stay when they vacation here. Lakeview Hotel. Let's go there and meet up with her and you can blame me."

[Raiko]

"I won't blame you, you're my best friend."

"Can you use magic to get me back to mummy?"

[Laraqua]

"Hmm, well, she's prob'ly at the hotel right now so let's just go there. It's not far." Laura takes Katie's hand and leads her back through the Amusement Park and out through the entrance onto a dark and cracked asphalt road. Laura hums and swings their hands back and forth as she walks, then breaks into a skip, and starts recounting all the fantastic rides they should go on later on if Cecilia lets her. It's pretty dark out here but there seems to be some ambient light in a bubble around them and whatever dark figures are out in the shadows seem to slink away as they walk. It seems pretty safe, if more than a little creepy, like they'd stepped into Halloween town!

Soon they're jumping a short fence and hurrying across a carpark to the front porch of a rather big and pretty hotel. Laura pulls open the door, releasing some ash motes from the door handle, and leads her inside. Everything is covered is ash and all of the wooden counters are covered in charr -- which kinda looks like a black, flaky alligator-skin patterning. "Don't worry, it's safe," said Laura. "I'll let you back through once we reach the room where you're staying." She heads over to the counter and peeks around through the various letter boxes, finally pulling out an envelope that's been torn open, and she pulls out the letter, reads it in the gloom, then puts it in her pocket. "This way!"

She leads Katie up the stairs to the 2nd floor and takes her up to one of the rooms. She draws on the charred black door in white chalk, a rather complicated scribble, and then pulls open the door with a "Tada!"



The room is gloomy with a thin light pouring in through the fog-shrouded windows but Katie recognises the baggage sitting on the bedspread and over on the couch. It's all of her mummy's things. There's even some of her colouring books and pencils lying on the floor near the television, just as she would've liked to put them. Her mommy normally didn't bother with things like that so obviously she wasn't mad. There was even a bowl full of cookies on the coffee table. The weird thing were all the used tissues beside the bed. The last person to rent this room must've had a cold.

"Well, your mommy will be here soon so I'd better leave you to it," said Laura. "I promise I'll come by to see you later."

[Raiko]

"Oh yes!" Katie gives Laura a big hug, "Can we play hide and seek in the hotel?"

She frowns suspiciously at her friend, "but remember magic is cheating, unless I can do it too!"

Releasing Laura from her hug Katie skips happily over to her colouring books. If I finish colouring the page I was doing in the car, then mummy will KNOW I'm a good girl!

Before sitting by the books, she grabs two cookies and turns to wave bye-bye to Laura.

[Laraqua]

Laura waves back as she skips on out the door, shutting it behind her. It closes with an eerie finality and Katie can hear a key turning in a lock and then something scrabbling against the wood on the other side. Time passes. She eats the cookies, colours in, and waits but her mommy doesn't come. Every so often she hears something loud and noisy pass by the hotel door but if she tries to open it, she finds it locked. The DVD player contains the Care Bears movie but there's nothing else to watch because there's no signal to the television. Hours pass. Long, boring hours.

[Raiko]

Katie tries the door three different times before starting to cry; by then she is becoming desperate, Laura said mummy would be here! Where is she I don't want too be on my own!

Once the tears start, they just won't stop, Katie shakes the door handle as hard as she can and then hammers on the door with both hands while she sobs.

"Mummy! Mummy! Help me MUMMY!!!"

[Laraqua]

Katie's tears go unanswered and no one answers her wails. Finally, the exhaustion gets too much for her and she barely manages to stumble, whimpering over to the bed, before falling asleep on the comfy quilt, desperately hoping her mummy will be there when she awakens.

She's startled awake by a sudden thunk - crack sound. The light outside is rapidly fading, dwindling away to darkness. There's a crack opening up in the door. Another thunk - crack, this with the crash of tearing wood, and she sees the glint of an axe's edge appear between the edges of the wood. The light is rapidly fading but there's a creepy fiery glow coming from the cracks in the wooden door. A final crashing sound as the axe bites deeply into the wood and yanks back, tearing loose whole planks of wood.

[Raiko]

Katie squeals and looks for a 'good' place to hide. If she can't spot anywhere better she crawls under the bed!

She tries to be quiet, but she's so scared that she's not sure if she can be.

Why did Laura leave me here? Where's mummy?

[Laraqua]

The wardrobe looms large nearby and it doesn't take long for her to quickly squirm inside with some of her mother's baggage.

[Laraqua]

"Maybe nothing..." A man's voice mutters, muffled by the wood. "But I have to try... I had to try..."

"Is... Anyone here?"