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 Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 9:24 am
The bag was empty, and Coyote had been given a pair of scissors, a task, and little else to go on. She wanted to question it, but these were the wills of the Goddess, and it was not her place to doubt.
Everything was still so blank. They were there, they were alive and conscious, but Coyote for one did not feel whole. Not entirely. She wanted to fill the hollow that seemed to plague her mind. Seek out and discover what was going on and who they were. Blindly following was not her thing. She didn't know what was, but it was not that.
So she took what she'd been given and she approached the doors, taking time to examine each one before making any choice. In the end it was the middle door that she came back to time and time again. She couldn't say why for sure, but no matter how many times she passed it and looked at the first or the second her gaze returned to that gouged spiral.
If this wasn't a sign that she'd made her choice, then she didn't know what was.
Steeling herself she stepped forward and pushed at the door. It opened easily, and she stepped inside, into the unknown, with nothing but a bag, a pair of scissors, and faith.
Faith was good. Faith would get her throw this, right? Right.
She clung to that thought.
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:14 am
As the door pushed open and Coyote walked through it she could hear something, faint at first but growing louder, and when she realized what it was it made her stop, breath catching for reasons she could not explain. One word, over and over, as if in a cheer, and she would swear she saw the images of faces of people, all cheering someone on. Was it her?
Peyton! Peyton!
The door closed behind her suddenly and unexpectedly, and she whirled, pressing the hand with the scissors against it. She wasn't a coward, but she didn't like that the door had closed, and there didn't seem to be any way to open it again. It made her uneasy, despite the cheering voices, and she stood for a moment with her back pressed against the door and and stared into the darkness, half expecting her eyes to adjust.
They didn't and there was nowhere left to go but forward.
When she hit the crack she gave a strangled squeak, heart jumping in her throat, and she swore she heard it pounding in her eyes.
Thud. Thud.
Even as it began to slow.. It was so loud.
Thud.
No, that wasn't her, that was something else entirely.
Thud.
She stared down at the open top of the crate and reluctantly reached inside. There was fabric, layers and layers of it, all covering a small, softly glowing object the pulsed and moved beneath her hand. The heart.
She pulled at it, the pulse pounding in her ear, struggling to free it from the fibers and connective fabric that clung to it. Finally she resorted to the scissors, snipping carefully at the braided threads.
"Daddy?"
It was the voice of a young girl, maybe ten. She stood staring up at the grief hunched figure as he stood at the kitchen counter, a butter knife in his hand smeared with peanut butter, four pieces of bread laying before him, torn, ruined. He was crying, elbows resting on the counter, and the tiny girl could only watch helplessly as her father broke down in front of her over a pair of peanut butter sandwiches that had not turned out.
The problem was deeper then that, of course. The man had just lost his wife very suddenly in an accident that had almost claimed the two precious girls now under his sole protection.
"D...Daddy?" It's okay." One small hand came to rest on the back of his leg, and he hunched even further before drawing a deep breath and looking down at her with red rimmed eyes, puffy with tears, and a water smile.
God help him, he didn't know how to do this. "I'm sorry, I ruined your sandwiches." His voice was so thick with his grief, it hurt to hear. She frowned up at him, tiny shoulders drawing upwards. He'd always seemed so strong before, untouchable, and now he was this broken thing.
With two small, blonde girls depending on him.
Peyton didn't know the man standing in front of her. She didn't recognize him at all.
Her eyes stung and she didn't know why, didn't understand what the memory meant, only that it hurt. She tore at the heart, ripping at it to free it from whatever still held it in the box until every last thread snapped and she could back away from the crate, from the layers of cloth, and from the memory of that hunched, broken man.
The heart lay still in her hands, silent at last.
She turned to leave, shaken, unsettled, with the first hot tears rolling down her cheeks.
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:43 pm
The ground changed, shifted, and she had to tread lightly, even as she hurried along. Afraid she'd slip, but even more afraid the foot steps that echoed behind her would catch up. She didn't know who, or what, they belonged to, but she did not want to find out.
By the time the water was swirling around her ankles she was in a flat out run, the heart in it's bag clutched to her chest, still and silent, and the exact opposite of her own pounding frantically in the cage of her ribs. She could hear it following, getting closer. So close now she could hear the slosh of it crashing though the water.
"Give it back."
The girl whimpered, racing forward, the water was deeper, she was running out of land to run on, there was no where to go, but she kept charging forward.
The voice was a haunting echo at her back and as it screamed for the heart she answered it, crying out. "It's broken, you can't have it!
There was no ground under her feet and she went under, helped along by a pair of thick knuckled hands that grabbed at her ankles first before clawing up her legs until it could grab her arms, dragging her down deeper as it loomed before her, eerie and broken, eyes sunken, gray, glassy, dead.
The icy water was crushing around her and she sucked in a lungful as the need to breath over powered common sense. Everything as dark, everything bot the thing that held her down, and even that faded as her vision began to run in black streamers.
"Peyton, what? I don't have time for this, I have to get ready for work." He was rushing around the house, thin hands, then then they used to be,pulled at his tie to loosen it so he could pull it over his head and begin to work on teh buttons.
"But you just got home," came the stubborn, haughty protest of a thirteen year old that only came up to the bottom of his rib cage. "Besides, you promised last week that you'd take Astrid and me to see Up." Small hands were planted on her hips as she stood int eh hall, staring in at her father as he stripped off his nice work shirt and changed into the dull green, name tagged uniform that was required at the plant he worked third shift at.
"What?" He sounded distracted, and that only seemed to make the tiny blonde scowl harder. "Was that supposed to be today, Princess I'm sorry. The boss is calling for mandatory over time, and we could really use the money. I'll have to give you a rain check."
It was the same thing he'd said last time he'd broken a promise. Not those exact words, but close enough. It knocked the wind from the pre-teen's sails, and the scowl melted into something helpless and damn near heartbroken, but her father didn't notice as he slipped on his work boots and tucked his wallet in his uniform pants.
She was gone when he left the room and headed for the door. Vanishing back into the shared room with her sister, the younger girl having dissolved into quiet tears of disappointment.
"I'll be home before you go to school, you girl behave!" The door closed, as he left.
the memory shattered.
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 6:55 pm
Everything was going black. Her lungs burned with the icy water that crawled down her throat. She pushed at him ineffective, hands still full, then realized she still had the scissors.
Teeth grit, she stabbed at the shrunken thing that clung at her. Over and over until those hands loosened at it let out a pained, hollow shriek.
She lay on the ground wet and frozen, and coughed and choked until all the water had been expelled from burning lungs. It hurt to breath, but she greedily sucking in the air, as she lay there, unwilling to move, arms curled tightly around the heart and the handle of the scissors still clutched in her hand.
Only when the coughing had stopped, and she was nothing but a curled, shivering ball, did she sit up, get to her feet, and pay any attention to what was around her.
The light caught her attention quickly and with an intermingled mix of dread and relief she hurried towards it.
Out. She wanted it. She wanted it to be over. She wanted to get away. From the memories, from the baleful, half glimpsed figure that stood behind and watched as she walked into the light.
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 7:47 pm
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:21 pm
Coyote woke up shivering, teeth chattering loudly as she shifted, hands sliding along the table top she was laying on before the very implications of the situation sunk in completely and she jerked up, eyes snapping open only to slam shut just as fast as she presses the heels of her palms against them. It was ******** Bright! She wasn't used to that s**t!
She sat there, squinting in the brightness, very aware of the electric hum of lights, and ground her teeth as she waited for her eyes to adjust.
When they finally did she slipped off the table and moved immediately towards the only door and yanked it open. Blessedly it was unlocked, and she slipped through, edging next to the wall as she moved down the hall until the harsh slam of a door behind her made her jump and turn.
The room she'd left was open, and she stared, paranoia beginning to creep in and tighten her shoulders.
She needed to leave, that was all there was too it. Find an exit, get the hell out of the place with it's harsh bright lights and empty rooms. She walked faster, hand gliding along the wall.
Minutes stretched on and on as she walked, it felt like foreverm but finally, there ahead, what looked like an exit.
Thud!
She gave a clipped scream, turning again to stare at the still open door. Feet moving along the tiled floor as she backed away from it.
No, she was leaving now.
THUD!
She whipped around again and whatever color may have been present in her features drained away as her eyes fell on the dark figure. ******** whatever they'd been holding, Coyote didn't wait around to find out, she turned on her heel and ran the ******** away!
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Beejoux rolled 1 4-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:22 pm
She screamed, racing down the corridor until she crashed into the door, pushing at the handle, and it's unyielding, locked.
Desperately she searches for a bolt, a release, a catch. Anything! Anything that would let her open the door.
Behind her she could hear the distant thud of the figure approaching, and as she slammed her fist against the door she could hear laughter drift from behind. It was laughing at her. No. He was laughing at her.
"Are you still afraid of the dark, Princess?"
The voice was low, and it struck her as familiar but there were no memories to fill in the gaps.
"Go away!"
[40-5 = 35 Feet]
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Beejoux rolled 1 4-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:33 pm
"How many fifteen year olds still sleep with a nightlight. Peyton come on, you'e not a baby any more. It's time to grow up." Scorn, there was scorn in that voice, and a sliver of something worst. Resentment.
She pounded uselessly at the door, finger nails digging at the edges as if she could pry it open. "Come on, Open! Open open open!"
[35-5 = 30 Feet]
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Beejoux rolled 1 4-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:49 pm
"I don't have time for you right now!" He was yelling, he never used to yell. The child stood there, stunned, eyes wide. "I have to go to work, again, so I can make sure you girls have a roof over your head and food on your plates."
Her hands were wringing, and she had retreated a step, regretting have asked for the ride to the park.
"You girls have no idea what it's like or what's going on."
Coyote cringed, pressing herself against the door as the memory washed over her. She didn't know what it meant, or who the child or the man had been. She didn't know, and the footsteps were growing closer.
[25 feet]
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Beejoux rolled 1 4-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:54 pm
Daddy, wake up.. Daddy?" The same girl, a little older now, tugged at the arm of the man as he slept on the couch. There were rings under his eyes, and a five o'clock shadow darkening his jaw.
"You're going to be late. Dad?" He couldn't afford to miss another day, hadn't he said that?
"Stop it!" Her voice was high and thin as she brought her hands up to press against her ears, as if that would some how block out the memories.
She pawed at the door again, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks as it continued to hold solid.
The figure was growing closer. She could hear the crisp, shilick of the scissor blades.
[20 feet]
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Beejoux rolled 1 4-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:55 pm
She was sitting at the table, head hanging, hands in her lap, as the man paced beside it, voice raised. "Fighting again? What is wrong with you. Why do you have to pick fights? Why can't you just get along with people?"
It didn't matter that it hadn't been her that antagonized things. It'd happened too many times now. He didn't believe her anymore.
She was hammering against the door but it didn't move. It was unyielding. "Let me out!"
[15 feet]
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Beejoux rolled 1 4-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:56 pm
A paper, crumbled up and crammed int other corner. Coyote snatched it up and unfolded it, staring down at the letters without any comprehension. What did it mean! Did it have anything to do with the passcode? ******** tried smashing her fingers into random buttons, nothing happened.
[10 feet]
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Beejoux rolled 1 4-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:58 pm
Another memory flashed into her mind, but this was shorter. Just a glimpse, a quick snippet, of two girls sobbing, clinging to the hands of the tall man, and him looking absolutely lost. A sign behind him read Emergency Room.
Coyote was sobbing now, desperate to get away, to escape, to live. She didn't want to die! "Go away! I don't know what you want!"
[5 feet]
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Beejoux rolled 1 4-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-4)
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Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 8:59 pm
The foot steps stopped, and Coyote froze, shoulders hunched. She didn't want to turn around. She didn't want to look. She kept herself pressed to the door and could barely hear above the sound of her heart slamming against her rib cage.
A hand touched the back of her head and she flinched, turning suddenly to press her back against the door.
He was smiling, fingers trailing through her curls before abruptly closing into a tight fist and jerking her head back.
"Don't worry," he cooed, tenderly, fatherly, "It only hurts once."
The blades sank into her chest and for reasons even beyond the immediate she let out an ear split scream. Struggling against his hold, kicking and punching as he carved out the glowing crimson orb of her heart.
When the eerie glow met her eyes she stilled, staring at it as she reached up to touch shaking fingers to the hole it'd come from. "Why..?"
There was no answer. Only the hand releasing her hair so she slid to her knees, propped against the wall for a moment before toppling over.
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Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2013 8:00 pm
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