Otto's eyes widened as the figure raised its weapon upon both himself and Eva. Stubborn as always, he hadn't been willing to play along with the figure's game. Suddenly there was fog everywhere, and Otto felt a little weaker, and his mind felt even more unstable.
Otto opened his eyes, realizing he'd squeezed them shut at some point. Was everything okay now? He couldn't quite see that well. But his hands felt warm and sticky, and he seemed to be kneeling.
Finally, some semblance of a shape took form, and he found that he was pressing down on a wound. Not his own, he realized quickly enough. Was it Eva? That had been his first thought, one that made his stomach clench and hurt. Did his decision lead her to harm?
"Eva, you here?" He asked aloud in case she was still nearby. There was someone under his hands, and they needed help. He feared to let go of them, less the blood spew out like a fountain.
Please don't be Eva...
"What do I do..."
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 11:24 am
"Otto?!"
Eva was suddenly aware of the fact she was alone, surrounded by white fog and a heavy silence. Or at least, she thought that she was alone until she actually looked down, noting with a kind of horror that her hands--which were suddenly coated in something red and sticky--were pressing down on a figure's side.
...What?! W...who...?
"...Otto?" He was the only one who had been with her, after her. Looking panicked, she leaned forward and tried to get a glimpse of their face, only to realize that it was impossible to tell anything about this figure. Not their gender, and nor even what they even were. For all she knew, this could have either been Otto, or a dangerous monster that a fellow Hunter had taken down.
...
But if it was the former, then she couldn't risk it. "Hang in there, okay? I'll try to heal you."
Otto's heart clenched with panic. Immediately he pulled out the scarf from his pocket and tried to stop the bleeding that way. Was this his fault? Was she dying because of him? Because like usual he just didn't think about consequences like he should?
Please be okay..
He repeated this in his head and through a quite murmur over and over. Don't die, Eva. Don't die... She was the first person he really hung out with on the island, one of the first to even try to get to know him. No matter how blunt or mean he was. His throat hurt imagining if this was the end for her.
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 8:57 pm
Eva tried to keep herself calm, mentally going through what she had learned at nursing school. It was hard to stay relaxed though--this was the first time she had ever had to treat someone that she actually knew, nevermind it being someone that would kill her to lose. As she tried to focus, she was suddenly aware of movement from the corner of her eye--the figure mouthing "thanks"--and then they stopped moving.
"Wait, Puppy--Otto--no! Hang in there--"
And then the fog lifted.
...An enemy? Slowly, Eva drew her hands back, staring at the spot where the figure had been laying. So that hadn't been Otto? Relief welled up in Eva, but it was quickly washed away by a feeling of guilt. She had just failed to save someone, and the first thing she felt was relief?! What kind of person was she?!
Staggering to her feet, the girl lifted a hand and clutched at her head, squeezing her eyes shut. Wait...wait, why was she so angry? No, this wasn't the time to be angry and...Otto. Where was Otto?
No... nonononono she was dying! Why couldn't he help her? Why was he so helpless? Otto felt despair overcome his senses as her breaths drew more shallow and less frequent. Why did Eva need to die? He liked Eva... Many hunters died every day, but this was someone close to him. Someone he cared for. Did she even know that? He never said so, never told her that he appreciated her or even liked her. She was always so bright and cheerful. She didn't deserve this.
Don't die! You can't leave me!!!
But as they breathed their last breath, uttered a soft thank you, the fog cleared enough to reveal...
It wasn't human at all.
Otto gasped, scampering backward and leaving his bloodied scarf behind. He'd almost helped the enemy. Was it a Horsemen?! One of those horrid Famine scumbags who...who...
Otto wretched, clamping a hand over his mouth. But his hands were stille covered in that monster's blood. He could feel it, smell it.. He felt even sicker, more unstable. He ripped off his coat and tried to clean his hands and face with the inside of it.
So if that had been a Horsemen.. where was Eva? Suddenly he really, really needed to find her.
Otto staggered to his feet, shoving his bloody coat back on and searched frantically for any sign of Eva. "EVA?! EVAAAA!!!" He called out as loud as he could. That feeling of losing her was still raw.
And then there she was. He could see her just a few feet away. In an instant both arms wrapped around her as tight as they could. Doubt and paranoia lingered in his mind. Maybe she isn't real either? Her shook his head. No.. no he needed to believe this was Eva. He needed to convey to her just how he had felt.
"DON'T WANDER OFF, IDIOT!"
That... wasn't how he had planned to show her appreciation..
Meanwhile.. a dark yet familiar inky black mass seemed to be waiting for them.
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 9:51 pm
Eva was already jumpy, and skittish, and paranoid as hell, so when she had a pair of arms suddenly wrap themselves around her, the girl's first instinct was to make use of what she had learned in self-defense and break some noses. Fortunately, before she could act, the figure suddenly spoke (or rather, yelled) at her, immediately snapping her out of her panic.
"...Otto?"
Oh god. Oh god, he was safe, and alive and...thank goodness.
She was more than happy to return the hug, giving the boy a tight squeeze around the middle before slowly letting go, drawing back. Was she shaking? It certainly seemed like it...though unbeknownst to Eva, the shaking was not only from her worry, but from the anxiety sowed by the insanity. "Are you okay? There was this injured person, and I thought it was you, but...but..."
She wanted to get out of here. She wanted to get out of here with Otto, and find of all the others--Reine, where was Reine?! And she hadn't seen Gale or Dakota for a while either?!--and make sure that they were all safe. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a roadblock.
Eva immediately whirled around when she heard a girl's voice, weapon summoned and up at the ready. Who...who was that? They looked like a shadow or like a pool of ink, completely black except for their eerie grin and--
--...were those...those Halloween minipet things on the counter? And the figure wanted to bake them into something? This scenario seemed quite reminiscent of something. Or rather, of someone. "Wait. Otto, she's..."
Eva was shaking like a leaf, and she'd just been through the same ordeal he had. Otto refrained from letting go of her completely, keeping both hands on her shoulders; as if breaking contact with her would make her disappear like another illusion.
Otto blinked and turned to see the form of---- Julie. Black ink or not, it was definitely her. Or at least the crazy part of her. The only part Otto remembered. Perhaps it survived and carried on torturing anyone willing to stick around. However, it felt as if she wouldn't be letting them go anytime soon, just like the last few scenarios had been. No exit, no options.
Crap.
Otto stared at the wriggling pets with a curled lip. They were looking at him. He didn't like how they stared. How Julie stared.
Keeping one hand on Eva's shoulder, Otto grabbed a grey vial and shoved it toward Julie. "HERE! Make your own damn mystery cookies and go away!" His thoughts were starting to scatter, his nerves getting more sensitive and chaotic. It was difficult to keep control.
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:41 am
That was Julie. That had to be Julie. Although the figure’s facial features were not visible—excluding the eerie grin, that was—everything about this whole situation was reminiscent of the one Eva had found herself in months ago. But that being said…Julie was dead. Eva had seen her—she had even fought her, struggling with the other trainees to put the shell of the girl out of her misery. So whatever it was standing in front of them now…
She didn’t protest when Otto picked out the gray liquid to give up. To be frank, Eva wasn’t sure whether she could have given Julie any of the minipets herself…though it had been a little tempting. The way they stared at her was unnerving. It was like they knew something about her. Were they taunting her? The way those creepy white eyes followed them…
She lifted a hand to her shoulder, reaching back so that she could grasp at Otto’s sleeve, as if to reassure herself that the boy was still there.
The closer it got, the stranger he felt. Warmth? Sunshine? Happy things. Nice things. And an oddly unnerving unease that he associated with the word Joy. Without really thinking, he'd taken a sip.
Suddenly he was losing his inhibitions. Julie.. she was..
He felt like she understood. Yes. This light hearted sensation was good. It was wonderful! It was a strange thing. To feel happy. Otto very seldom ever did feel that particular emotion. To have it in sudden abundance was alien, yet fascinating.
Otto kept a hand over his mouth, a part of him still trying to stop from smiling.
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:50 pm
Although a part of Eva's mind tried to struggle against it, the girl suddenly found herself filled with a strange happiness, her lips curving into a smile. This was...this was nice, wasn't it? It was like all of her worries and fears had suddenly just been wiped away, replaced by much more pleasant emotions.
She glanced over to Otto, laughing suddenly when she realized that he was smiling. My, that was a rare sight to see! She moved to sling an arm around his shoulder, giving him an affectionate squeeze. "Come on, grumpy puppy. Stop trying to hide your smile!"
Eva reached up with her other hand then, trying to push the boy's hand aside. However, before she could, she suddenly found herself alone and in front of a big door.
Otto turned to to Eva as she spoke, but in that short moment she was gone.
Fog again.
No amount of strange gray liquid could really make this happy. Otto's drug induced smile faded as the situation sobered his unstable mind. "Eva..?" He called, looking around slowly. "Eva?"
Left alone. Just like he always was. That thought pushed his insanity to crumble his resolve to dust.
After a long time of staring into the fog and murmuring her name deliriously, a door shifted into view. He didn't touch it. Didn't move. Why move forward anyway? Why did he ever move forward? Would it lead him out of the terrible fog that toyed with his mind? Likely it was just one of many games it was playing.
But what else could he do?
Otto reached out to open the door, but a sudden call from behind him stopped his movements.
"Wait, Otto." The deep, steady voice he thought he would never hear again. Insanity blurred the line between reality and illusion. Possible or not, that was his grandfather. He turned around as he felt the big, wrinkled hand grasp his shoulder. His grandpa smiled down on Otto warmly just like he always used to. Not the most handsome of smiles thanks to a few missing teeth, which he had always told Otto was because he never ate his broccoli as a kid.
"Grandpa?" Was it that joy formula confusing his sense of reality? His grandfather was long dead. But then again, Julie was also dead, and he'd seen her. Sort of.
Otto's grandfather chuckled, ruffling the boy's hair. "Hey there, kiddo. My oh my. You got real big, huh?" A sad gleam crossed the figure's dull blue eyes, as if the years spent without his favorite grandson had just hit him. "You're almost 18 now, right?"
"I.." Otto turned to look at the door, but his grandfather grasped Otto's cheek, making him keep his gaze on him alone.
"Listen, son. Why'd you have to go and make your momma worry, huh? I told ya to keep an eye on my baby girl, right?" Otto felt a weight drop down on him suddenly. Burden and guilt. "Yeah, but..."
"The monsters under the bed?" His grandfather had always been so much more understanding and sensitive to Otto about his fears. That was why when he'd died, Otto had felt abandoned and alone. Like no one else would ever understand him again.
"It's not too late, Otto. You can go back. Stay here with your grandpa, okay? I'll make it better." The old man wrapped Otto in a firm yet gentle hug. The faint scent of his strange cologne lingered on his clothes. It was painful how familiar it all was. How tempting it would be to pretend he could go back. "I don't wanna go home. I hate it there. Dad never wanted me. He practically said so tons of times..." Otto's heart ached. As much as he always said he didn't care, it never ceased to hurt that his father never seemed to accept him.
"I don't belong back there.." Otto insisted as his grandfather hugged him tighter. "Oh but Otto.. You have a future there. What will become of you in this place? It breaks your grandpa's heart to think you'll die before you're an adult. Don't go, Otto. Please don't go."
Otto's heart was breaking apart little by little. Stay.. and maybe go back home. Sure, terrors haunted his sleep, but other than a few sleepless nights, he'd been safe. He didn't have friends, but he had routine. A future. A purpose, no matter how much he didn't want to run the Funeral Home his parents owned. Warm Louisiana summers. Open fields. A small town with a mix of cranky and friendly old people. Some hated him just because he was a kid, but others pampered him since they had no next of kin anywhere nearby.
Maybe he'd taken it all for granted. Maybe he could...
Faces haunted his mind. Terrors and tragedies replayed in his memories. The Horsemen's lair, the horrible black bug, the nightmares, the death, the sadness, the uncertainty. Why was he risking his life to be a hunter?
Just... why?
Friends.
Eva... Clerise..
Dakota, Bix, Sasha, Wash, Ami, Rin...
Ceres, Wilson, Molly, Reine...
More and more faces washed over the sadness and sorrow. Friends, rivals, annoyances. But all of them people who he trusted and cared for more than any other person since his grandfather died. Friends who felt more like family than his family ever could.
It hurt so bad, but Otto gripped the figures arms and shook his head. "No.. As bad as everything is.. I can't stay here with you. I can't go back. I have people I actually kinda sorta like now.. so...
Otto. Where was Otto? And…where was she? Eva whipped her head back and forth as she tried to get her bearings, trying to catch a glimpse of the blond boy or or the strange Julie phantom or…or something. Unfortunately, the only thing in sight was the massive door that had appeared from out of thin air. Staring at it warily, Eva tried to move around to observe it, only to note with some surprised that it followed her, blocking her path—and her view of whatever may lie behind the door. Frowning, she backed up a few steps, looking it up and down before reaching out to touch it.
Just as she reached out to touch the door, she was suddenly startled by a rather familiar voice calling for her to wait. Freezing, Eva swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat, blue eyes wide as she slowly turned around.
”…M…mom?”
The figure moved forward to wrap her arms around Eva and, after a moment of hesitation, Eva hugged the figure back, burying her face in her shoulder. She was just as Eva had remembered her: hazel hair, gentle smile, and gentle blue eyes—the same blue eyes that Eva herself had inherited. She even smelled the same, her clothes smelling of a pleasant mixture of cinnamon and pumpkin spice, a scent that stemmed from all that baking she usually did during the autumn months.
"Don't go. Please. There's still another way. You don't have to do this!"
Eva stiffened, but she couldn’t bear to pull away despite the alarm bells—and Chara—telling her that she should. Though she had tried to suppress her feelings for her own good, Eva had spent the past year—ever since she woke up at Deus Ex—thinking about her parents. Were they well? Did they miss her? How much pain, if any, had she caused them with her disappearance? There were many times where she wished that she could drop everything and just run back home, monsters be damned…but there was always one thing that never failed to stop her and toss that thought out of the window.
”I can’t.” Lips pressed into a thin line, Eva staggered backwards, tearing herself out of her mother’s arms, ”I’m sorry, mom, but I can’t leave them. Whether or not they need me, I just…the idea of letting anything happen to any of them terrifies me”
She took another step back then, pressing her hand against the solid frame of the door. Slowly, her hand slid down to the knob, her fingers curling around it.
”I’m am going, and you can’t change my mind.” And with that, she turned the knob and slipped through the door.
Otto's heart stung painfully as he felt his Grandfather disappear. Maybe he'd just been a figment of Otto's own mind, but it had felt real enough to leave a feeling of regret. A feeling of loss.
The fog began to clear, the door vanished. Were these illusions finally over? One thing Otto hated was battling his own mind.
"Eva?" Otto turned, relieved to see Eva was there too. His head turned to find the stairwell leading down. Like the door, it held an air of finality. Either that path would lead them out of here, or it would end them.
Staying was not an option.
"Come on." Otto beckoned, tilting his head toward the stairway. "Let's get outta here."
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:40 pm
Eva's own heart ached when she realized that she had chosen to leave her mother--and her father--alone all again, but when she noticed that the illusion had lifted and that Otto was back, she was quick to shove these thoughts away. What was important now was the present, the people here, and the task that they were given. If she wanted to dwell on her regrets, it would have to wait until this was all done and over with.
She turned to look at the stairs when the blond motioned towards them, a weak frown tugging at her lips as she moved forward to look at them. So was this it? It was the last step they had to take before...what, exactly? Although this had started as an observation mission, Eva wasn't so sure that it would remain one, especially once they descended down those stairs.
Taking a deep breath, the girl straightened up and turned to grin at Otto, giving a nod of her head. "Yeah, let's go."
