Ash - Nurse Sarah

[Laraqua]

Sarah feels herself floating in an incredible darkness. She feels nothing but warmth and sleepiness. Thoughts of Cael linger in her mind.

[Mr. Handy]

[OOC: I take it I'm no longer allowed to read Cael's thread?]



Sarah tries to look around, but the darkness is complete and she can see nothing. Her pain has ceased. Am I...dead? she wonders. "Cael?" she calls weakly. "Where are you? Can you hear me? Can anyone hear me?"

[Laraqua]

OOC: No, you can't read any other threads in Ash, currently.

Someone familiar sobs in the distance. Dahlia's voice speaks over it: "Oh dear... Please...it'll be alright. Don't be afraid. Are you afraid of this Cthulhu....dreaming?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Dahlia!" calls Sarah, excited. "It's me, Sarah! Are you okay? I'm not afraid, not any more. Uh...what's a Cthulhu?"

[Laraqua]

"What was down there, Sarah? Like how come you were all running? Was there something chasing you?" asks Dahlia.

[Mr. Handy]

"That's exactly what you said when we escaped from the hospital," says Sarah. "I told you before, I couldn't see what it was, but it just...slaughtered that constable. He never saw what hit him, never even had a chance. Oh, Dahlia, I love you so very much. So does Cael. We miss you terribly!"

[Laraqua]

"Umm..."

[Mr. Handy]

"Cael and I came back from the medical bay and you were gone," says Sarah. "We went with Morrison to try to find you, but then I got a call on my mobile from...myself, in the future. It was horrible! She...I...said not to trust Blackworth, that I made a mistake and everybody was dead and it was all my fault! Then I heard your voice for only a second. Cael and I were discussing what to do and how to find you when Morrison sealed us in the breakroom with a steel plate. But I found a way to escape! We crawled out through the vent shafts and made it back to my room, but my weapons were gone and you still weren't there. Then we met this older girl, Bree. Did you meet her?"

[Laraqua]

"Should I stay here? And hide? But I thought...." Dahlia's voice trails off.

"Your theories intrigue me," says Blackworth, but his voice is different. It is him speaking, but it is also Sarah's voice, speaking simultaneously.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah gasps, her fears returning. "Oh, no!" she wails. "Blackworth, please, don't! You're making a mistake! If you go through with what you're planning, we'll all die, even you! You can do whatever you want to me - I can't stop you - but I beg you, spare Dahlia and Cael..."

[Laraqua]

"I don't think you know who I am," says Blackworth/Sarah's voice, cackling cruelly. "I don't think you know what I have already done. The slaughter you saw in your dreams has already happened. It is already too late. I feel such pride in my own hands."

[Mr. Handy]

"NOOOO!!!" screams Sarah, her heart shattering into a million pieces. "Cael...Dahlia...I just met you...you can't be dead...it was all my fault..." She tries to face the entity taunting her, though in the eternal darkness she cannot be sure of its location. "Who are you? What are you?"

[Laraqua]

"I think you already know, my dear," continues the voice. "I'll be with you, always. We will have plenty of time to get acquainted."

[Mr. Handy]

"First you say you don't think I know who you are," says Sarah, "then you say you think I do!" Whatever this thing is, it's far, far worse than Blackworth, she thinks. "You spoke with my voice. Did you send me that message?" Then what the being said earlier finally clicks with her, and it terrifies her anew. "What do you mean, you'll be with me always? Wh-what are you going to do to me?"

[Laraqua]

"Idiot!" the voice that is both hers and Blackworth's snarls. "Don't you see? You sent that message to yourself. You must survive to send it again. I will be there, waiting, watching, I will be with you forever." Her own voice fades, leaving only Blackworths' to speak calmly. "And you thought Lyle was bad, I am far, far worse."

She sees his face then, a bullet hole between the eyes drooling blood across his nose and cheeks, down to his chin. He smiles, showing bloodied teeth. His hands are thrust deep into the pockets of the jacket of his three-piece suit, the grey vest and black jacket pierced by holes that reveal yet more torn flesh.

The two stand in the bedroom where Bree had burned her.

[Mr. Handy]

[OOC: Sarah was burned in the hallway, not in the bedroom.]



Sarah sobs uncontrollably, quivering in fright. There are worse things than rape, she realizes, and this thing is going to do all of them to me, forever! She backs up against the wall, trying to find that well of courage deep within her. "What happens if I refuse to send the message?" she asks.

[Laraqua]

Blackworth laughs and raises one hand, the two middle fingers are destroyed. Shot off, perhaps? "I think its a little too late for that." He sidles closer in a dancing little fashion. "Oh, I know what you're thinking." He giggles, then calms. "And I could! I'm entirely capable of everything you think I am." His laughter grows. "But that's only just, isn't it?" He steps back, raising his hands to the heavens. "And the seals shall break! And the minions of our terror will break free and all that is good and just in the world shall die in a hail of gunfire and smoke!" His laughter ascends, rolling and rising, and the room becomes so much colder.

[Mr. Handy]

"That's why you're doing this to me!" says Sarah. "It's because I'm good, because I care about people! You can't stand that, can you? You can't understand that! That's what intrigues you about me. The concept of kindness is alien to you. You already made it clear you're going to torture me for all eternity anyway, and I've got nothing left to lose. I won't send myself that message now, no matter what you do to me! If you hadn't shown yourself I probably would have, but now I won't and you can't make me!"

[Laraqua]

"Oh, you will send that message to save yourself from me," he says, moving towards her again, and his face melts to become hers and his voice changes to become hers. "Precisely because you are good and pure is why everyone will die. Time is fluid. Perhaps this time you can figure out a way of making the true message go through." Sarah's face giggles. "Perhaps this time you can keep your father's mind from shattering completely. They're all dead or soon to be and it's all because of me. And that's why you can't be rid of me."

[Mr. Handy]

"My father..." Sarah chokes out, tears flooding down her cheeks. "You never had a father, did you? Or a mother? Nobody ever taught you what love is." She takes a deep breath. "I don't hate you. I...feel sorry for you. 'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.'" She reaches out and touches her doppleganger gently on the cheek.