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A mass of blond hair, wings and outright fury tore through the corn like a hot knife through butter. Carthusia was hot on the heels of the cloaked denizens of the island (or so she thought) and had run herself clear of the cornfield before she knew what was really happening. She didn't notice as the corn began to thin out and she found herself racing down a path, the fog peeling away in sheets. Still, the cloaked people were just in front of her, if only she could reach out and grab one of them...! They were taunting her, using fragments of memories she desperately wanted to claim, pinning them just out of reach like a carrot on a stick. She was infuriated, frustrated, tired and had just run herself into... somewhere else.

"Get back here, Jack damn you! You bloody cowards!" she shrieked, listening as whisperings darted in an out of her ears from every direction. She wasn't frightened so much anymore, she was pissed. Carthusia was sick and tired of having this gaping black hole in her past, and was sick of having it dangled in front of her face. She wanted answers, and had worked herself into nigh a frenzy just trying to claw at one of the creepers. No dice. She'd run into some abandoned shantytown of a place, a run-down dump with nary a soul in sight.

Great, she'd run off from the group. Now what? "Oh, just try and come out here. Just try and call me bait." she spat through gritted teeth. "I want answers, you hear me? You and your damned pendants---!"

Carthusia didn't hear anyone approaching, no sir. She was much too busy yelling at the cloaks only she could see, retorting to the voices only she could hear. It was almost too late when Obsidian swung that crowbar - Pride nearly whirled around to eat it. The demoness backed up slowly until the other person semi-identified herself as Not Entirely Crazy and also Not One of the Hooded Creepers. Carry let loose the breath she held and leaned over to calm her nerves. She was on high alert ever since she was abducted and didn't want to have a face full of crowbar if it could be helped.

This was a student she didn't know, but allies were allies. Who was she to discriminate? Standing up to her full height again, she examined the newcomer. Black skin, wielding that crowbar pretty good too... "Boy if I knew the answer to that question, we'd probably be off this Jacking island, or closer to it." Carry held out an arm as if reaching for that imaginary Easy Button. It was no use though, and she knew it. Frowning, she continued. "The fog ate 'em, most likely. I'm surprised I can see you, Miss...?" The blonde shook her head and raked a hand through it. At least the smell was starting to wear off, thank Jack. "One minute I was standing near a good four other people and the next, poof! Gone. This island's either got a Jackton of magic and a side order of sentience to boot, or a group of someones want us to go crazy here."

Stepping towards Siddie, Carry tilted her head. "But, like they always say, 'safety in numbers', right? As long as you don't mind me tearing up some of the creepers on this island, I'd love some company. I'm Carthusia, by the way, but call me Carry." She herself brandished a not-so-mean-looking medical kit, but through the FEAR of the island or some other source, it had grown tiny wings and one angry eye it would blink every once in a while. Ooh, menacing.

Well, if anything, they were both disturbed by the island, which was probably what whoever was running it wanted. Carthusia frowned again. So everyone else was being tormented. Could Siddie see the glimpses of the cloaked people too? They looked like reapers, and that thought was unnerving, but one shouldn't have too narrow of a worldview - the school may not be a good representation of the world as a whole. The demon growled at the thought and took to surveying the area they were in. Old, dilapidated buildings in the looming fog were all that greeted her, aside from the voices. All she could hear was whispering about a plan, and taunts about information Carry felt she couldn't have, and that was incredibly frustrating.

To take her mind off of things, she turned back to the ghoul she'd just met. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Siddie. I wish it was under better circumstances though." she admitted, trying to spot anything they could use as a landmark, but nothing stood out. She then wished she had a hair tie, or brought better clothing for this trip. The least the staff could do was warn them of possible danger, not just send them out to the wild blue yonder unprepared as they were. And where the Jack were the staff, anyway? "My best guess is that if there are any other students nearby, they'd want to congregate someplace. It would make sense, I think and would you shut up out there, I mean really!" Carry shouted to the fog, sick and tired of all the whispering and the mockery.

"Therapists will be loaded by the time we're off this Jacking island..." Carry started to pace, wondering where to go next. "My best guess is that this is a town... or it was a town, up there someplace. What do you think - stay here in the outskirts or check out the center?"

At least they could agree on something, and fairly quickly too. Siddie wasn't so bad, not that the demon had anything against her. She wasn't the type to discriminate based on much of anything, really. It wasn't fair and it certainly didn't help them in situations like this. Brandishing her oh-so-menacing medical kit, Carry started to move forward, though she was slow at it and frequently checked to make sure Siddie was behind her. "Right, center of town it is. Last time I moved, I lost four or so people, so... don't think me unnecessarily paranoid." she said with a nervous laugh. They could use some humor at a time like this, she thought.

"Doing things over doesn't sound so bad, I think. I'll have to find you again when this is all over, Siddie. Maybe you can keep the crowbar as a souvenir?" All while she was making idle chat, Carry was wondering what became of the other group, and Livius too. She hoped he was okay. It was a moment of stupidity and weakness that lead her to run off like she did, but she counted her lucky stars that she ran into someone else. She felt incredibly lucky, especially after all the crap that had taken place on the island already.

Staring off to her right, Carry bit her lip. "They're taunting me with something I can't have yet..." Her voice was low, but it was an answer to Siddie's question. She could hear some of the voices, but it wasn't enough to satisfy her.

If only the fog didn't dampen sound. If only the fog and all the people in it that weren't students would just leave them alone, things would be okay. Hell, a this point, Carthusia would be happy to get a grip on one of them and go to town with her medical kit - something to vent the frustration she was feeling at the moment. The mockery was really pissing her off. "Which dorm are you in, Siddie? Can't say I could pin down your affiliation right off the bat... Are you a ghost?" Good conversation starter, right? Whatever they could do to keep chatting, that was what was most important. Keep talking and keep track of one another.

Carry took a few more steps, but they were still a ways from figuring out where the town center happened to be. It was too foggy to judge distance very well at all, and it wouldn't have surprised Pride to run smack into the side of a house or something. She could barely see two feet in front of her, and the rustling on all sides of them cut down on her ability to hear anyone nearby. "They're not laughing at you... they're uhh... they're just jealous. Yeah, jealous of you and your nice hair." A nervous laugh accompanied her statement, but if they could keep it together, the method didn't matter, right?

"A monster, huh? I never would have guessed. A lot of my friends are monsters, actually." And that was very true. Little-Wolfe was a werewolf, and the first person she'd marked at the school. She understood most people's apprehension of demons (being arrogant assholes seemed to be a demonic specialty in some circles), but she hoped she could ease the tension, if only a little bit. "You hit the nail on the head with me though - certainly a demon. I'm Pride, actually. Kind of embarrassing to admit sometimes, especially when I'm in the wrong."

At least they had something in common! Siddie's hair was to die for in her opinion, and sometimes Carthusia really considered chopping off at least some of the length. It was simply too long, especially during horrible field trips such as this one! "Amazing it's still attached to my head, I think! After this, I'll be surprised if it takes me less than a week to de-tangle it. I've got corn husk, dirt, grime, probably a gnome in there somewhere, but... thank you for the compliment." Pride went to check her map when she realized...

...their packs were gone.

"Jacking hell, how could I not notice losing the damned pack?" she cried, but spotted the sac not too far away from their current location. How did it get in front of them? Shaking her head, she stooped to pick it up, spying another part of her supplies just a few feet from the knapsack. She moved again to pick up that piece, and spied yet another. "What, did a wind whip through here when I wasn't looking? But... I didn't have this many pieces before. Did you, Siddie?" When all was said and done, Carry ended up with, what, something like five pieces instead of two?

Carthusia gave the monster a laugh in return for the compliment. "Don't worry, looking like a demon is hardly an insult." she explained. Sometimes must've happened to Siddie to make her distrust people as much as she did, but that could easily be attributed to the fact that they were on the Worst Island Ever. Scooping up another part of her own bag, Carry slung it about her shoulders and sighed at the whisperings all around her. She could see cloaked figures out of the corners of her eyes, but every time she turned to look at them, they skittered off. Incredibly frustrating, and it showed on the demon's face.

"It's messing with us again. I dropped my pack too somehow, but I don't remember doing it..." Tapping her chin, Carthusia decided it was best to simply keep moving. "Maybe if we talk loud enough, we won't hear the stupid voices and things. I'll get my memory back somehow, even if I have to beat every last one of your cloaked creeps to do it!" Pride shouted the last bit of that sentence out into the fog, knowing full well that all the answers she would receive would be in the form of mocking whispers and more general insanity. Her mind drifted back to the other group. Were they okay? She shouldn't have run off, but the answers were so close, she could feel them!

Taking out a bit of the map piece she'd picked up from the ground, Carry turned it over and over to study it. Her pack felt heavier with all these extra pieces, but who was shredding a map and just leaving it out for people to find? "There had better be buried treasure after all this."

Pride growled at the fog, her lips curling into a frown. "The least they can do is tell us something, not just whisper little fragments and run off like cowards. I want to know what this is all about, and where the Jacking hell the staff is. You notice how they were gone when we landed here on the island? Not a single trace of them. Not a one." The demoness wanted to know a great deal of things - what had happened on this island that somehow involved her, what everyone on the island was after, where this bloody fog came from, who the cloaked people were and where the staff had disappeared to!

UGH!

But just then, a thought entered her mind and exited her lips before she should think to censor it. "Do you think... they all got kidnapped or something?" she asked, turning around to face Siddie fully. The demon shrugged, not knowing whether or not this conversation would be constructive in the least. "Maybe this map helps us find them or something? I mean, otherwise, where else could they be? Or maybe they're busy fighting something... who knows." She turned about and continued on their way to the town center. They felt like they'd been walking for hours, but without the sky to really guide them, something like 'time' was all relative now.