CHAPTER TWO: Cecilia: Searching

[Kadael]

"What? Why?" Still holding the kitten, she tries to see whatever Jack is looking at. "There's nothing here."

[Seon]

"Just trust me," Jack hissed. "Something's around here... Look... Just... Try to move without making much noise..."

"We might yet be able to live if we do that..."

[Kadael]

Cecilia shuts up and stays still, save for shining her flashlight down towards the water. She hadn't felt the bristling tension in the air before, but it's here now, turning her bones to ice.

Jack is just being paranoid, right?

[Laraqua]

The park seems tense, poised on the brink of ... what? Ripples move across the rusty water, here and then gone again, but there's no sign of any fish nor monster to strike them down. They feel exposed, it's hard not to when your groin and legs are under water, and who knows what might be moving beneath? In the silent stillness, each muscle twitching with cold and from anticipation, it's hard not to feel each mild current as something brushing across the skin, when finally, something soft and silken brushes by Cecilia's leg, like seaweed.

[Kadael]

Cecilia shrieks, kicking her leg out of the water and promptly losing her balance. She stumbles on one foot, almost slipping on the unstable ground. It holds her there with a strange sucking noise as her feet stick.

So much for staying quiet.

"Something just touched me," she splutters, trying to pull her foot out of the swamp-like mush. It's a miracle that the kitten is still clutched in her hands, though it looks a bit dizzy.

[Seon]

Jack was immediately next to her side, desperately pulling her out of the water. He tried to look brave, but his eyes betrayed what he truly felt.

"Oh shit... Oh god..." he stuttered.

"You... You'll be alright... We'll be alright..." he pulled her up and started to pull her towards the direction they've been heading....

[Laraqua]

They moved further through the field of water and strange trees and as they drew nearer, those shapes began to show themselves more clearly. Bodies of handsome men, pregnant women, and small children decorated the trees, their limbs still moving, heads twitching from side to side, mouths moving and eyes rolling. One pregnant woman was pierced by the tip of the tree through her collar bone, her legs drumming a staccato rhythm against the metal-and-wood construction. A child lay sidelong against a 'tree', the metal straps wrapped tightly around her little chest, her arms and legs hanging limp, though her hair seems to billow in a non-existent wind, changing direction this way and that. One man was pierced through an ankle and his arms wave slightly, his fingers twitching and balling into fists. Another man half hung out of a 'tree', his torso swallowed by the construction from the waist down, his head limp and his arms swaying. The water ripples around them with increasing frequency and the kitten yowls in terror and horror, head whipping around as it gazes at the gruesome display.

Show,1/1d10 Sanity Loss for this display!

[Seon]

"What is this I don't even..." Jack muttered.

[Kadael]

"The... those children..." Cecilia's fingers find Jack's arm and clamp down, fingernails digging into his coat sleeve. As if she might be pulled forward to become like them if she can't manage to just hold on.

It's so quiet here. She can't hear the lapping of the water, or the kitten's cries - only the bodies of the dead, their limbs flapping about uselessly. Like they're still alive, conscious even, and trying to escape.

"Nothing's all right."

[Laraqua]

The ripples seem to spring forth here, there, and everywhere, but this time something soft tangled around Jack's legs, almost tugging him off his feet, before gliding smoothly away. The water is deep enough that nearly anything could hide in there if it didn't need to breathe.

[Seon]

Jack shivered. "Something... what was that..."

"We... we need to hurry..."

[Kadael]

"Which way?" Cecilia gestures wildly at the bodies, breaking into a bitter, sarcastic half-chuckle. "We're lost, Jack. We're lost, and now we're going to end up just like them."

"How far on does this go? I don't want to see any more of this, Jack. Please."

[Seon]

Jack looked at Cecilia, exasperated. "Then close your eyes," he said. He turned to the direction of the amusement park, holding Cecilia to him, and began to walk...

Spoiler:

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3357925/

The Fuck.

[Laraqua]

Somehow Jack recalls where he should go and knows just how far they are. They stand within the center of the park and are a short walk away from the bridge that spans the river that would soon take them onto Nathan Avenue. But all of that comes to nothing as something, or someone, lifts itself out of the water like a mermaid. Thick brown strands of hair hang long and lank across a naked torso, clinging to a bulging belly that splits down the middle, undulating open likes lips to reveal glimpses of pincers, claws, and glistening teeth. The flesh of her forearms have run into each other and move with a rubbery, inhuman quality, ending in ten long, bony fingers tipped in black claws. Her face is impossible to see through the mass of her hair that runs down her back, across to where her hips fuse into a steel-and-wood construction that looks almost as though it were devouring her, and her hair billows out around her in a mass. She whips around once, near spinning on the spot, her clawed hands whipping past just inches before his face. If he'd been a few steps forward, he would have doubtless lost his face. As it is, both he and Cecilia have a chance to act before she disappears back underwater.

[Kadael]

Cecilia was about to snap at him and push him away, but now she clings ever tighter, her breath rushing out in a scream. "Dear God... dear God, what is that?!"

She's one of them. It's the wood. The wood and the metal. It changes them, right? Hell, in this town, it doesn't seem so crazy. They're alive. They're all alive. And they're going to wake up.

Her fingers tap at her pockets with the shotgun, but she remembers it's with Jack. How did she forget that? "Jack. Jack, kill it. Kill all of them!" It's barely a squeak over the splashing of water and the pounding of her heart. "Do it NOW!"

[Seon]

Jack grunted once and then quickly aimed the gun at the creature and pulled the trigger.

[Laraqua]

There is a terrible screaming like a cross between a baby hurt by a windy belly and that of metal snagging on metal and then the thing crashes down into the water, leaving a large ripple behind it that moves steadily away. Then the place drops off into silence but for the terrified growling of the kitten in Cecilia's hands.

[Seon]

Jack quickly moved forward, pulling Cecilia along with him.

"Quick, the bridge across the river is just that way," he said.

[Kadael]

Cecilia glances over her shoulder at the bodies, but follows. That was a crazy line of thought anyway. People don't come back from the dead, and those corpses are not alive.

Nothing explains what that... thing was, but that doesn't matter. Not right now.

The brushing against her leg. Was that its hair? It was swimming around them this whole time...

"Thank you," she mumbles, gazing up at the sky. How far could Katie have gotten in this mess?

[Seon]

"You're welcome..." Jack said tenderly, pulling her even tighter to himself.

"That thing.... it's... it's not dead yet..." he said with a shiver. "Watch your step."