CHAPTER TWO: Cecilia: Searching

[Kadael]

He's so much braver than she is. It's always that way. Honestly, did she want to bring Jack along so she could watch him, or so he could protect them?

Cecilia doesn't exactly feel safe in his arms, but there's more security here than there is walking alone in the dark.

"Do you have some kind of pocket higher up?" She gestures with the kitten.

[Seon]

"I have a breast pocket, but I don't know if it will fit in there..." Jack mumbled. "We'll worry about it once we get to the bridge... Or out of this damn water, at the very least..."

[Laraqua]

That soft, silky hair whips past Jack's legs, entangling him and slowing him down as they pass between two pillars that hold broken and pinned human ... corpses? Victims? The hair tugs insistently but does little else thus far. There is no way to see it through the dark, rust-coloured water that simply reflects the flashlight's light back at you.

[Seon]

Look of horror passed through Jack's eyes and he locked his gaze with Cecilia.

He motioned downwards and nodded once, indicating that the creature was still locked to him. Having done so, he mouthed "What should I do?"

[Kadael]

Cecilia freezes, swallowing hard. It hasn't reached her, but she can imagine the feeling winding around her legs, that terrifying mass in its stomach spreading apart to devour everything.

She presses herself against Jack and stamps down, hoping to catch its hair under her foot. Flinging her arms around his chest while trying to keep a grip on the kitten, she tries to steady herself and pull upward.

OOC,Awkward yet? What's this thing's resistance (or the resistance of its hair)?

[Laraqua]

The hair wraps around her foot, she can feels its resistance against her wet pant leg, but it takes little effort to pull it up towards the surface of the water, and soon strands of blonde hair are visible beneath the rust-coloured water and something about that patterning reminds her for a terrifying, heart-stopping instant, of her own daughter's hair, but it's too long, there's too much of it, and soon the resemblance fades from view.

[Kadael]

Shifting the kitten to get a hand free, Cecilia reaches down and yanks on the mass of hair, pulling in hopes of getting its head above the water. Briefly, she glances at Jack and gestures toward the shotgun with her head. "Get ready."

[Seon]

Jack quickly brouhght the shotgun down towards the mass of hair.

"Ready," he whispered.

[Laraqua]

The hair is thick and wet in her hands, surprisingly heavy, there's just so much of it. She grabs hold of two handfuls and tugs, slowly pooling the hair around her as she hopes to pull the creature into range, but there's just so much hair around her, slack and seemingly unmoored. She drops it behind her, pulling on it like a rope, hoping to gather up enough of it to tug at its head. The hair is slack in her hands, then suddenly tenses, wrapping around her wrists and yanking her down under the water, dragging her across the sandy, rocky ground, grazing her face and body. She holds her breath, struggling, but there's hair and water everywhere, weighing her down, though the hair no longer actively keeps her there, it's so heavy, there's so much of it.

To Jack she is there and then gone again. The water unblemished by ripples. The bodies around him, stuck on the piercing trees, begin to scream, gurgle, and thrash in a horrifying demonstration of fear and impotent rage. The very air seems to redden, the sky turning from pitch black to a warm red, even as he undoubtedly searches the water for any sign of her.

[Seon]

And I've been trying to tell Rochelle that the Lake Toluca Monster is a real thing too.

I mean, ohfuckgodshitc-

And why does these things keep happening to me anyhow? First Ash and now... Why couldn't he finish anything properly?

"Shut up!" Jack yelled out to the screaming bodies as he waded as quickly as possible towards the location where he saw Cecilia get pulled under. "I can't concentrate."

He splashed around the water wildly, looking for any sign of her.

[Kadael]

It takes all of her will not to open her mouth and scream when she's pulled under. She tries to reach upward, stretching her hands towards the surface, but the hair is so impenetrably thick that not even the beam of her flashlight can get through. And that's even if it's even functioning anymore - are these things waterproof? The water isn't even very deep; she could swim out if only this creature would leave her...

Cecilia kicks and thrashes in the mass of hair, only managing to entangle herself like a fly caught in a spider's web. Maybe, if she tries hard enough, Jack can see where she is.

[Laraqua]

He can see the ripples play out across the water from where she is struggling and starts wading towards her, all the while the air grows more red and the screams more intense, as though the sounds themselves were burrowing into his brain. His nerves feel afire, a warring contest between the singeing heat of the air and the icy coldness of the water around his waist and legs. The pain grows so intense, it's hard to keep his eyes open, but he can see those massive ripples. Just a few feet more.

Cecilia's fingers clutch around the kitten, holding it steady, even as it struggles and claws at her with its tiny claws, and she knows that if she lets it go she might be more likely to free herself but it's certain to drown, certainly incapable of struggling out from under the weight of all that hair with its tiny muscles. Perhaps if she struggled a little more, she might be able to find her feet, but it would be so much easier if she had a hand free. Her other hand clutches the flashlight and it is, by some miracle, still working through the water, revealing multiple strands of fine blonde hair.

[Kadael]

Up - that's the only way out of this. Desperately trying to reorient herself in the water, she once again raises her arms and tries to part the mass of hair floating above.

She's not letting the flashlight or the kitten go. The light is too important, and the cat... how could she just leave it to die? It'd be like watching Katie run away all over again. She won't let herself fail this time.

[Seon]

It hurt. Everything hurt. The air burned the skin right off of his body. His ear drums seemed to be about to burst from the high-pitched shrieks of the dead. The water threatened to chill him to the very core.

It felt as if dying was easier path to take from here on out. He collapsed into the water, barely being able to keep his head above water. But how could he let himself go now when she was there in front of him, gasping for his help?

He lunged weakly forward, desperately trying to grasp onto anything...

[Laraqua]

His hands burst through the hair, wrenching them back, and his fingertips grasp onto someone's shoulders. He can't see her. He can't know it's even Cecilia. He can merely feel the coat and hope that it was from Rochelle's coat rack. With a lurch, he pulls backwards and she comes floating with him, floating through the mass of hair, though the screams vibrate in his skull and he feels like he's dying...

-----------

Cecilia flounders in the water, barely managing to hold her breath, kitten in one hand, flashlight stabbing through the hair-strewn water in the other. Her tugging and pulling and struggling finds weight at the end, and before she can disentangle her hands, a body comes sliding into view. A woman's body, seen from behind, and in panic she pulls her hands back, but the slight tug of hand around her wrists slowly turns the body, lit up with the flashlight, and Cecilia sees her face, lit by flashlight briefly through the water. A face so familiar, eyes so wide and blank and staring, lips moving in a whispered word: 'Mummy'. But it can't be her. Too old. Too adult. Or is she? The features are the same, slightly aged, the same, and then there's a grip on her shoulders and she's being tugged back, lurched back, and the pressure of the water against her ears floods her mind with pain and....

He tugs her into the light.

Show,Congratulations! You've just beaten another chapter. Feel free to narrate your thoughts during all of this in the posts below, then make a roll for your (+) skills to see if you can increase them.

[Kadael]

Cecilia surfaces with a gasp, water streaming from her eyes like tears. This is air, and light, and life! There's a crushing pain in her head, sounds are dull and deadened, and she's exhausted... but she's alive.

Violent shivers seize her as she tries to get some kind of control over her breathing. It's so cold. The sky is red, the air is hot, but her clothes are sticking to her skin, sapping the heat from her body.

Someone is holding her. Jack. Cecilia tries to say something, but all that comes out is a choking wheeze. Water pours from her mouth in a fit of coughing.

Panting, she struggles to stand, to speak. "Katie," she rasps, stumbling. "Under... water..."

So tired. Jack is here. He'll catch her.

And she falls backwards, conscious but limp.

[Seon]

Jack falls backward under her weight, plunging them both into the lake water before managing to scramble to his feet. The air continued to burn his throat like scalding blood. The water sapped away heat from his body, just like a knife.

"Sorry... sorry... so sorry..." Jack hurriedly said. How could he even think of simply letting go when she needed him? "I won't ever let you go... please... tell me you'll be alright..."