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 Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 8:58 pm
In a poorly lit corridor beside a dented file cabinet stained red with rust and likely something more sinister, Mai sat on the chilled concrete floor, her back to the wall beside the cabinet and her knees drawn up to her chest, think mud-caked arms wrapped around her spattered dress and her blue eyes staring ahead at nothing. Straw-colored hair hung limply in front of her face, but she did not stir to brush it away.
She was lost momentarily in her own world, where everything was shapes and shadows, accusatory tones and colors running and blurring with ever-present tears. Occasionally she would blink the tears away and tense up, hearing the distant cry of a child. She could see her little Georgie in every reflection, hear his laughter in every sound.....he was gone, the last rational part of her whispered, and yet, here and now he seemed the only tangible thing left in her world.
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 9:35 pm
Heh, heh, heh... Mills was on her way back from a successful salvage mission into some of the more deserted rooms, her hand-mended satchel weighted down over her shoulder. The halls in these parts were almost always dimly lit. Why would they bother with the upkeep of anything nobody's using, especially when they don't where we're living? She kept herself close to the walls and avoided dead ends when possible, moved quietly and uttered not a word. Glaring silvery eyes scanned the corridor before her. It looked like there had been offices down here at one time, old cabinets scattered about outside the doors. Some were catawampus and others were left as they had always been; hopefully they had not been scavenged already. Ooh, more stuff to rummage through. Staple guns and pens and letter openers... This last idea sounded particularly good. Some are shaped like knives!One cabinet was accompanied by a body of all things, by all appearances female and possibly dead. The darkness left her expression, if any, unreadable and her lack of movement could have as easily been death as catatonia. Mills had seen both in her old life and admittedly just the presence of any body, living or dead, had been more startling than the idea that this girl might be dead. That's just how it was. Mills glanced around: No fresh blood. A cursory sniff, long, deep, and slow: No toilet smells... So hopefully she doesn't rush me if I start talkin'. She did have a heavy bag to use in her defense. "Um, hey..." she ventured, her voice coming back in her ears hollow and small so she cleared it, "You alive over there?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 10:06 pm
So lost in her own thoughts was she that Mai didn't even register the sound of footfalls drawing nearer to her. Perhaps a small part of her mind that was still on the alert was telling her that only a fellow patient moved with such a stealthy and careful tread. It still didn't matter much to her; most of the doctors had learned that she wasn't much fun to tease when she was so melancholy, and there was nothing particularly special about her. Outside she had been a nobody. Here, surrounded by powers and abilities that she only would have imagined from the comic books her son had loved to read, she was twice the nobody she had been before.
A small voice caused her to blink away the tears from her eyes and focus more on her surroundings. Standing a small ways away was a young girl, clearly unsure of who she had just stumbled across. The fact that anyone would perceive her as a threat was laughable, but Mai had not laughed since the night before her son had.......left her sight. The reddish-brown hair, the silvery eyes....she looked nothing like her little Georgie, but it brought more tears to her eyes just the same, which she carefully wiped away with a grimy arm before standing up rather clumsily. "Hello there.....have you by any chance seen a towheaded little boy with brown eyes about?"
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 10:41 pm
The woman was clearly wiping tears from her eyes when she stood but knowing this did not keep Mills from tensing initially. The more she watched the more impossible it was that she could be anything but incredibly sad. The fact that she was asking about someone made it clear in the girl's mind that Mai must be looking for him.
Mills straightened and frowned in thought. "Blond with brown eyes?" One blonde came to mind, though she could not remember the eye color. The events surrounding them had been a little strange so she simply couldn't. "Maybe..." she admitted doubtfully, "how old? Do his hands glow in the dark?"
This woman's voice seemed so old, she could have been the mother of someone about her age, maybe... Yeah she's gotta thirty or something. That'd be about the right age.
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 11:04 pm
Had Mai known what the girl was thinking, she might have cracked a smile. Certainly all the mud and grime and the trauma and suffering she had gone through would have taken their toll on her looks, but beneath all the sadness and ill-kept appearance, she was closer to twenty than she was to thirty. But she could not blame the child for thinking this way; she could remember other children and how they thought growing up to be ten was one of the worst things that could ever happen to them. Her dear Georgie had never gotten that far.
She nodded a bit eagerly at the girl's tone; it sounded as though she knew someone of the description already. She couldn't help but look confused at the query about the hands; what a strange thing to ask! Her Georgie had no such ailment with his hands, and she couldn't imagine any other child with such a feature, unless they had gotten into some glow in the dark paint. She smiled again as she recalled his smiling face, his mop of unruly hair that made him look all the more like a cherub strayed from Heaven...... "He's only five years old." Once again her serene look was replaced with worry. "He can't stay here. He has rickets; one fall and he will break his legs. I must find him; it's so dangerous here."
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 11:53 pm
Mills' eyes widened and she croaked, "Five? Lady, I've never seen a little kid here before. Doncha think they'd have taken him someplace else?" This lady must be one of the crazy ones. They look normal but they've completely fallen off the rocker. Well, if she was so crazy, maybe she was lost because she'd been looking for him. And not all crazies are dangerous, scary, or anything like that. "I mean," she muttered, "like you said, it's too dangerous here for little kids." Of course Lord of the Flies did not come to mind when she thought of where they would have taken him. Those kids were about that age, right? Well, maybe not... She couldn't remember. She forced a smile and fidgeted with the pack on her shoulder. "Yeah, I'm sure he's fine, wherever he is."
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Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:15 am
Had Mai taken even a small moment to clear her head of the grief that still lingered there, she might have remembered what had really happened to her son. But the sorrow that still draped her like an invisible tarp kept her from seeing clearly; Georgie was gone, and he wasn't coming back. She looked back at the girl, blissfully unaware of the other's uncertainty of how harmful she really was. "Would they? I have heard children here, but never seen them, save for him, and he should not even be walking about. He could barely run when he was.......when....." For a brief moment, her mind showed her what she had been trying so hard to forget; the image of her house in the pouring rain, torn open like a soggy box as the mud from the hill beyond poured into the gap with a force that pushed her back, even as she frantically tried to make her way to the door in what used to be the hallway, where she knew her little boy was, unable to rise from his bed as the torrent of mud smashed through his window and began to pool around his bed......
She took a deep shuddering breath and forced herself to nod. "Yes.....yes, he is fine. He's clever and he knows not to talk to strangers. I've often thought he runs because he doesn't recognize me." Matching the other's smile as best she could, Mai focused her full attention on her companion. "My name is Mai, Mai Candell. What's yours?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 1:04 am
"Really? You've heard little kids in the halls?" Well, it is possible, she thought dubiously. Just because I haven't heard it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, right? Still, seemed incredibly unlikely. Perhaps she's hallucinating? Off her pills? There's just no way to know.
"My name is Mills Napier. Nice t' meet you Mai." It was a standard greeting, but the steady hand she offered to the woman in front of her would give a firm handshake. She realized that this lady could still try something sneaky and quick, but the girl projected no air of fear, just confidence. If anything, Mai seemed to need to see that sort of thing.
"Listen," she sighed with a little frown and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear, "this part of the building is pretty empty. I don't think your boy would be here. He'd probably be hungry and look for food, doncha think? Why don't we go look for him in the kitchen and the cafeteria?" I can come back here later, she assured herself. It wasn't that she was getting soft. This lady was just too damn helpless and spacey for words. But she was also inspired something nostalgic that pushed away any disgust that a street punk might have felt. She was some little boy's mommy. Damn. Maybe I am getting soft.
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Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 8:38 pm
"Well...." Mai allowed herself a small pause. "I haven't exactly seen any in the halls, but I do hear them from time to time. Are you certain that children are so rare here? They are quite small you know; perhaps they all hide? Georgie never could get the hang of hide and seek.....he never moved fast enough to get a good hiding spot...."
Forcing what she hoped would be a decent smile, Mai took the offered hand and shook it, noting with a wince how dirty her hands still were. She hoped that Mills would not take offense at having her hand a bit dirtied. "It's lovely to meet you too. Glad that there are some decent people here besides little ones hiding from the monsters around this place." She meant the doctors of course, but remembering what also lurked in the many rooms of the asylum, she wondered if her new friend might think of something other than the doctors themselves.
At the mention of food, Mai's eyes lit up. "Oh yes; he dearly loves applesauce. Do they have that in the cafeteria?" She practically beamed at Mills; what a smart girl to think of this! Her little boy would eat applesauce for every meal if she had let him. Looking back, she sort of wish she had; if she had known that he only had a short time on this Earth, she would have given him anything he wanted.
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Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 10:08 pm
"Hm," Mills grunted thoughtfully, "well, little kids learn fast. If he and some other little ones do live here, they'd have to learn to hide really fast, right?" She reached forward and took Mai's hand in her own, tugging her off down the hall. Applesauce? Can any food around here be identified as anything other than 'goop' or 'stuff?' "Come on, I'll show you the way."
After a few moments, when she was sure they were well on their way, and when she was certain of their bearings in relation to food, she continued speaking. She felt like she was rambling, but maybe some of what she said would sink in. Maybe some of it would make sense to her. Maybe some of it would be true and help her find her son. "You know, I grew up on the streets. One thing you learn right away is how to hide, and scavenge, and all that good stuff. And if they're scared, maybe you calling out to the little guy isn't such a good idea for him and his friends. They're trying to keep out of sight, right? Away from the doctors and the monsters. But they really want to see you. They're just waiting to make contact with you. So you want to keep out where there's lots of people. Make yourself easy to find. No more quiet halls where it's dark and scary. Talk about your little boy and things he likes to your friends. Show him you're safe, and that it's safe to meet with you. Then when he finally feels safe, he'll follow you home. He'll finally be able to hug his mommy." She looked carefully over at Mai. Did this help? "Get what I'm saying? What d'ya think?"
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 12:27 pm
Mai was all too happy to climb to her feet and straighten out her dress, never mind that it too was crusted with mud, and follow Mills down the hall, her steps faltering a bit as her one shoe flapped loudly against the concrete floor. She honestly had no recollection of where her other shoe had gone, but she had a vague flash in her mind of a small white object sticking out of the mud in what used to be her backyard, slowly being swallowed by the gritty muck,the way her house had been, the way her Georgie.....
She felt fresh tears sting her eyes and she moved to wipe at them with her free hand, the mud at least a little too dry to leave little more than a tiny smear on her face. "Well, perhaps. If Georgie was able to find some friends like you describe, ones who are so kind as to take him in even though he can do so very little.....do you think there are such children here?" She knew that out in what was to be percieved as the regular world, the children had been so cruel to her little Georgie, making fun of his leg braces and calling him 'Forrest Gump' even though his mind had been as sharp as any of theirs. It hadn't been long before she took him out of school and hired a tutor for him, but the kids still watched the house, hoping to catch a glimpse of 'the Gump kid'. How often had she entered her little son's room, ready to comfort him, and instead leaving with comfort herself, because he knew he was undeserving of their ridicule?
She blinked and zoned back in to what Mills was saying. Friends? Home? She looked at Mills with a bit of confusion. "I.......don't have many friends here. And my home is gone......the mud swallowed it, swallowed everything." She took a deep breath before nodding. "But I'll keep hoping that Georgie found some good children, and I'll do everything I can to find him and keep him safe." She smiled at Mills. "You ARE a wonderful help; I think Georgie would like you."
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:24 pm
There was a strange sound that accompanied Mai's walk. Mills took a chance and glanced down at her feet when the light allowed. She needs shoes. Now where have I seen some laying around...? Of course, wearing a killer pair of leather boots herself, Mills had had no need to look for any, but that wouldn't keep her from taking notice. Barter is a great way to get the items you do want! That one time, when she first met Lennox, she had found a random sock. Perhaps that sock had a mate, and perhaps it had shoes to go with it...?
Mai obviously had no thoughts for herself because of her all-consuming need to find Georgie. Understandable, but potentially fatal. If she didn't take care of herself, how could this broken, tear-stained woman possibly find him? I guess... that's what her friends have to do, she thought with an inward sigh. She was practically as helpless as she claimed her son to be. "This place seems to be only a little different from the outside, Mai. But if they don't eat you, people will help you. And guess what? I'm not gonna eat you. I'm sure he's found other kids that will help him too." She hid a wince as she realized what she had also implied: that Georgie could have been taken by something... not-so-nice. Well, that's life. If that's the case, well, there's not much we can do about it. But hopefully we'll at least find out the truth.
She grinned her darker thoughts away. "Well I'm sure I'd like him too, Mai. He sounds like a great kid." She glanced down the hall and pointed a moment later. "That door down there is the entrance to the cafeteria. Don't be surprised by how gross it is, okay? As far as I know no one's died from eating there." Not very comforting perhaps, but there was not a nicer way to put it.
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:52 pm
With plenty of thoughts of her own to keep her occupied, Mail left Mills to her contemplative silence, choosing instead to glance about the halls they were traveling down for any glimpse that her son had passed that way. She could easily go without a shoe, but all the things Georgie must have! His braces, his medicine, friends to help him.....much like Mills was helping her.
She couldn't help but giggle a little at her friend's choice of words. She had meant for the giggle to sound light and cheery, the way she had laughed when her husband had been there to make her smile, but she fancied it came out sounding a little high and hysterical. "What a funny thing to say! I don't think you're going to eat me, but you are very sweet for helping me. I bet you must have plenty of good friends here."
Mai smiled and nodded. "Oh he's a wonderful kid! He has a way of seeing you for who you are and not what you look like; he knew that he himself was living proof that looks didn't matter. I just wish I could have been a stronger figure for him; so often he was stronger than me; if he could only walk, he would have been a better person than me in every way." She tilted her head and nodded understandingly. "Yes, this place is so filthy; I can imagine they make no special exception with the cafeteria. I do hope that nobody gets sick often from eating there; I can't imagine any poor children being made to eat something rotten and have upset tummies afterword."
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