fallacias

[fallacias]

'Tell me... have you ever sewn people's skin back together? The stitches, have you done those? Or,'' even better perhaps, ''your own skin? Pierced a needle through the flesh and tied it shut?'' She imagined a fresh cut wound, all bloody and irritated by a sharp object of choice, a hole she wanted to pry and poke her fingers into and peel the skin even further apart. A piece of mind that quickly faded when her eyes fell upon a soft looking sweater she desperately wanted to touch. ''Where's he then?'' Sera went from one subject to another as if it was just a walk in the park, easily distracted by the new surroundings she was in - and truth be told there were a whole lot of distractions in this place. Glitter shirts, colorful jackets, she'd even seen jeans ripped by what she guessed had been by Them? ''Your boyfriend, I mean,'' she said, facing away from the fellow blonde as she got up to make her way over to the sweater she'd set her eyes on.

''Has he been, what you call, a hero?'' The blonde wondered out loud, surrendering herself completely to the fluffy material of the sweater. Moaning softly when her fingertips met the softness and she couldn't help bringing it up to her cheek to feel and get lost in the feeling. ''So soft this is, like silky soft baby skin. Has this been of one of those people who wanted shelter? Did you peel their clothes off of their bodies when they died?'' So many questions. ''It would be a shame if this sweater got all dirty... or muddy... or worse..... bloody.'' Sera hummed as she closed her eyes, smoothing the sleeve up and down her cheek in a soothing touch.

Huh. Maybe it wasn’t so weird, then. After all, so many people in parts of the world - parts of the world that were actually real - found comfort and refuge in religion all the time. This place felt like some sort of godless wasteland, and Valentina felt it wasn’t worth wasting time in pews when there was a very real, non biblical threat outside their walls at night.

To each their own, then.

“You do whatever you want,” she said. That’s the beauty of this place - of course, there were some semblance of “laws”, but it really came down to just common courtesy here, an upkeep of community. “Sera.” She tested the name out. She had a friend Sarah in high school, another cheerleader. Friend might have been a loose term, she was really just someone who let Valentina copy chemistry homework. She wondered what she was up to now - but that thought was pushed out of her mind as quickly as it came. Valentina often just imagined erasing an image away, like dry erase, to remove it. If it lingered too much it would take on a mind of its own, and she would start retracing every name and face she could remember, imagining them being crazy successful and happy… it sickened her sometimes. “Pretty.”

Her dark eyes flickered up to Sera’s face, as if a silent warning not to keep going - but why? Valentina didn’t have anything to hide, she didn’t think. “Sewing? Yeah, you’re basically just using a needle to pull the pieces of fabric together and keep them there. Sort of like stitches. And to answer your question, my boyfriend and I were drunk driving once. And maybe a few people over the years wanting shelter that I couldn’t give them. You have to learn how to be okay with not being a hero here.”

[fallacias]

Emmett's words hung in the air, but they didn't quite reach her. Not right away. Plenty of people had tried to explain the town's situation to the blonde when she'd just arrived, when she'd been too deep inside her own mind clearly not listening to anyone's nonsense. After the car accident, her blood stained clothes and hands, her sore back and shoulders, her headache had been her last worry with the concussion going on. She'd been too occupied with herself to even hear anybody talking to her. Faces though, she'd seen their faces and vaguely remembered them. This guy wasn't one of them, she hadn't seen Irish before until today. ''What do you mean?'' Sera wondered, perking up to the strange news of getting looped back around, her blue eyes clearly naive as she had no idea what was going on. ''That's a funny one, Irish,'' she tried to play it off with a soft punch to his shoulder and a chuckle filled with disbelief.

Surely anyone could just leave, Sera just didn't want to. She had no reason to go back from where she came from, to that damned psych ward where she was kept between walls with nowhere to go. And she hoped every single day that no one would find her to take her back there. The thought already made her want to pull out her knife, but she gathered herself together and focused on the boy's trail to the supposed car graveyard. ''Before what? Like before coming here? Uhh...'' she wasn't entirely sure about her past, if she should share such information with people she didn't know - with people who could know about her childhood covered by a thing called 'media', according to her previous therapist. ''I'm from a place called Massachusetts,'' there, that should do it! ''That's close to this place, right?'' That's where she was trying to get away from after all. ''Shit, I don't know, I remember being dragged into a car and who knows how long we've been driving...'' before she'd stabbed the designated driver as many times she could and she ended up in town.

“Gasoline?” Emmett was silently thanking the few lucky stars that still remained in his life that he wasn’t as clueless as this woman was. He was sheltered, for certain, but this was on a whole other level. He had so many questions, but little idea on where to begin. “Nobody can get out of here,” he said, his voice taking on a deeper level of exhaustion. It was hard to admit that to himself, let alone out loud. Emmett understood that this was his own unique type of penance - or that’s how he saw it, at least - but then what did that mean for the rest? Some people were doing nothing, stumbling here for no reason other than chance. 

“It’s not that they’re taking it so no one can leave, even if you walked it would just… loop you back around.” That’s how it had been explained to Emmett. He had never tried it himself, but he was scared to. What if the woods went on endlessly and he was stuck out there, running into Them without the protection of the walls of the cinema, or of anyone in the town? It was too frightening to think about a prospect like that. “I have,” he said, his pace not too brisk, but quick enough to hopefully pull the thought of violence at the church from her mind. “Where are you from? Before this, I mean.”

[fallacias]

''Tinkerbell was here?!'' She exhaled almost dramatically, blue eyes widened in disbelief, she couldn't believe her own ears. Had she just missed the fairy by only a few minutes? Fuuuuck. In comparison to the other blonde's feigned emotions, Sera's shock was very real. The gasp that left her mouth from the reveal of the fairy dying because she didn't clap had her feeling upset. ''Oh no...'' she whimpered, lowering her gaze towards the snow to see if she hadn't accidentally stepped onto her. To see if she could find her little fragile body buried in the snow. Her cold fingers took hold of her red apple cheeks as she shuffled around her own axis to look for the small fairy, afraid she'd already vanished somehow.

The thought of Tinkerbell having died made the blonde pout when she'd gotten close to the ground and dug her fingers through the cold powder and found absolutely nothing resembling to a tiny winged body. ''Oh no!'' The words were let out with a sob. ''You killed her!'' Sera exclaimed this time, looking up to a whole bunch of branches that made it hard to see the other up there. ''You murderer!'' However cruel her accusation was, her tone was much resembling one of a toddler that didn't get its candy they were wailing for. She stomped the ground with one foot and crossed her arms, sniffling but the tears weren't there.

But then the appeal of climbing was offered and her urge to climb was back on the table. Eyeing the stump of the tree, she tried to calculate which branch to start on exactly. Dedicated to see who'd murdered the fairy now, she squinted and licked her lips, ''I'm coming to get you!'' Sera made sure of that now as she set foot on the tree and slowly tried to make her way upwards.

margot's laughter bubbled into the cold air, a mischievous thrill coursing through her as she reveled in getting away without being caught. the sound echoed from her perch high in the tree, a ghostly giggle that gave away her hidden position. one last acorn, hurled for good measure, knocked against sera's shoulder with a satisfying thunk. the only damper on margot's fun was sera's lack of reaction—no attempt to dodge the projectiles, no playful retaliation. it dulled the challenge margot could have possibly thrived upon.

"some little yellow glowing fairy sprinkled her dust all over me," margot began dramatically, voice tinged with whimsy. "looked like glitter throw-up... and then it lifted me right up here." laying flat on her stomach, she peeked over the thick branch's edge to reveal herself, fingers clutching the rough bark that had long since shed its leaves for winter. "floated me right up here," she emphasized, patting the branch. "she said if i didn’t give her applause, she’d die !" margot shriveled up in mock agony, performing an exaggerated death scene. "so i didn’t clap," she admitted, lips curling into a devilish grin.

"don’t think she’ll be back anytime soon to get you up here." her fingers drummed against the branch as she considered the predicament. "you could always try to climb," margot offered nonchalantly. after all, that was how she'd really made her way up—through sheer stubbornness and a knack for finding adventure in even the simplest acts.

[fallacias]

She couldn't help but pinch his dimpled cheek, his smile was infectious. ''You're too cute,'' like in a little brother kind of cute, like in a she could eat him up kind of cute. ''His name is Irish, I haven't seen him in a while actually.... maybe something cruel happened to Irish.'' Though she hoped not, somewhere deep within, his presence had captivated her interest. His voice had engraved itself into her skull, those naive eyes that told her he had never inflicted pain upon anybody before. She had...once...twice....and then some more.

''You know...'' she started out when he asked about the settlement, though her head blanking when she wanted to continue and she bursted out into a chuckle, ''I actually don't know.'' The mix of alcohol and joy threw her into a fit of laughter. ''I really don't know!'' She curled up closer to him and rested her head upon his shoulder when her hysterical laughter turned to a mere chuckle again. Realizing what he had said, her gaze softened and she brushed some of his hair back into shape.

''Well fuck ... did they ditch you?'' Sera wondered out loud, her high shifting into some form of sympathy, even when she had a hard time feeling affection for those who once had called themselves her family. Family by blood. It meant nothing to her. At least, that's what she tried to tell herself every single day. ''I think you'll be okay here,'' it was a mere whisper that left her lips, ''anyway - fuck sadness. Fuck people - that's what we get to do here! Fuck and have fun and be free!''

Zale was in good spirits - he had no reason not to be! The music in here was almost as good as the circus band that ran around with the rest of them, and while he missed them terribly hearing the songs playing here, the sound wrapped him in a comforting hug while he waltzed around the floor with another Settlement occupant - a neighbor, how nice! He was only a good dancer when there was something choreographed, and on his own it was a lot of spinning and stomping, but nobody seemed to notice. 

The two of them twirled each other around and were in fits of laughter all night until they rested on the couch, where they sat while Zale twisted the ends of her hair into tiny braids, so soft under his hands and under the influence of the eye drops. “Was it me?” he asked, smiling. Funny, strange, they meant the same thing, right? Before he started racking his brain to think of the words he said (like he’d be able to remember), Sera explained more.

“Like the Settlement?” he asked. “I haven’t left in my whole two weeks. Everyone’s been very nice to me here. I don’t know where the caravan went, anyway, so I'll stay here for awhile.” He had nowhere else to go, and tried not to think about two weeks ago, when he was roaming around alone and scared of his whereabouts, feeling bad with the crushing weight of being left behind.

[fallacias]

''It's my birthday today,'' she gave her a false tremble of her lower lip when the kid was thrown her way, soon shifted into a playful grin, ''I'm thirty one now - is that trouble to you, my pretty lady?'' There was no denying she had set her sights on this one. Her mood was increasing by the mixture of alcohol and settlement provided goods swirled through her body and mind, by the warmth of all the people in the building, by the rhythm of the drums, by all the attention she'd gotten tonight, by the strangers that interested her, she was a walking bunch of crazy hormones right now.

''Maybe I like to take what I can get... there is freedom here I've never had before,'' she confessed with a voice wrapped in lace, Sera hadn't opened up about her past to anyone here. Not really. Whenever she did talk about her past, it was only a glimpse without providing any context and soon she'd close off again. What happened in the past stayed in the past. Locked inside her mind. For only her to remember. To feel and re-experience through nightmares from time to time. ''Perhaps that includes being watched....makes me feel seen,'' when once she had felt invisible, she now craved attention all the more. ''Would you...'' her tone changed to an inviting one, she caressed the woman's hair aside and drew her fingertips across her jawline to her chin so she could have her full attention, ''...like to watch?''

the toxins curling around rationality was creating a fuzz inside stella's mind. it calmed previous worries of earlier days; messy, attending meetings to ease her back on a track she hadn't realized she drove off. recovery. god, life had been all about recovery. grief in many forms. like grief, stella always circled back around. her choice to drink again was when hell entered her life. this town. could people really do any of this....sober ? release was needed for the sake of sanity.

"is that right, kid??" taunting to the voice that brushed against her hair. the hand on her shoulder. the flirtatiously laced voice. stella took notice. the nickname wasn't meant to cowar the other away — stella wanted to taunt the younger woman. younger years had a way of thinking everything was easily tangible. it made the woman chuckle. she was cute. tongue dragged along stella's bottom lip. anything to wipe away that growing lust that burrowed in the pit of her stomach. "you talk sweet, but im sensing a little trouble." liquor swiveled in the woman's cup, a brow arched. between the warmth of the dripping wax, and sera's closeness, stella was feeling her composure become fragile. "—do you like being watched ?" a small smirk curled before the rim of her glass lifted to her lips.

[fallacias]

''Oohhh, how kind of you, lovely stranger,'' Sera mused when her fingers connected with the other's around the cup and took it from her slender hand. ''Are you from here? I haven't seen you around - still here you are ... doing what I've been doing all night,'' the blonde eyed the redhead up and down, having no filter whatsoever. ''Such pretty hair,'' her free hand took a strand of red between her fingers, twirling it around as she admired the smoothness of her hair. Her blue eyes pierced into the other's before they dropped down to her lips, ''such a pretty face, too.'' She was well aware of how long she stared, perhaps a form of intimidation, perhaps because she liked to admire pretty people, perhaps because of the mixture she too had been consuming tonight. ''Don't worry,'' she added with a grin, a bit ominously perhaps, ''you're totally safe here.''

✶ 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 ; halfway through the party - before the blackout ✶ 𝐅𝐎𝐑 ; open

She’d been drinking far more than she would back home, but since the world was ending or whatever, Dee felt it was only necessary. Giggled erupted from her as she bit into her last piece of bread. Having started drinking pretty early, munching on some of the food set out seemed like the only way to lessen the alcohol’s effect. There was the obvious option of stopping her intake all together, but what was the point of coming to the party if she didn’t plan on enjoying it in its entirety. She did have water in between each alcoholic beverage, and ensured to take her time with each pour. Serving another set of drinks, Dilara found the next familiar face and extended her hand. “  I wish I knew enough about what was in the mixture to have a proper offer, but uh- drink?  ” she said with a large smile.

[fallacias]

''Oh come on,'' the blonde rolled back and forth on the ball of her feet, excited to show the other a good time, ''no one cares, I swear!'' Taking a look around the room, there were people talking to one another, some had taken over the dancefloor, and those who watched around the room ... well, she simply didn't care. ''I can't dance either, I just do whatever - and nobody gives a shit!'' Sera no longer allowed the other to say no, taking one of her hands in hers and blessing the back of her freckled hand with a kiss.

''There, hereby you are blessed by the goddesses of dance, of confidence and of rhythm.'' Without awaiting another second, she dragged her by her hand, however gently, towards an open space for them to dance. ''Don't think about it, feel the beat drum, yell, scream, screech if you need to...'' Sera moved to the music that she could feel pounce inside her chest with every drumbeat, she leaned a bit more in and brushed some of the other's hair aside to lowly say the following in her ear, ''...and if you need a little something to feel good, I got you covered too.'' Shamelessly she winked, jumping and dancing around similar to what could be described as a male bird trying to impress a female with their mating dance. Then again, Sera liked to live her new life to the fullest - and with that freedom came also the urge to dance, to fuck, to threaten and to sleep around with whoever she could and set her eye on.

''Are you enjoying yourself? This is fun, right!?'' A breathless laughter escaped from her wide grinning lips, her blue eyes pierced into the other's as she caught her breath for a second. ''I've never seen you before -'' along with the rest of town really, ''- how long have you been here? Surely I'd remember you....such a pretty thing.''

When Tessa had received the invitation to the celebration at the settlement hall, she had half a mind to dig out her lighter and watch it go up in flames for a few precious seconds. After all, Emmett seemed to have a rather unpleasant reaction to the whole idea. But, Tessa didn't know much about this whole 'settlement' place, but what she'd heard was...intriguing, to say the very least.

Not to mention, a party was a party - and while Tessa didn't exactly think there was much worth celebrating, a party was something that felt relatively normal in a place that was so far from it. What did it hurt to stop by and check it out? See what all the fuss was about...

She'd been quietly taking it all in when she'd approached, holding out her hands and bowing to her in such a formal manner that Tessa had to sink her teeth into her lower lip to stifle a laugh. When had anyone treated her with such formality? She knew that answer right of the bat - never. Not to mention being treated that way by a complete stranger. And yet she felt oddly flattered, like a high school girl being asked to dance at homecoming.

"Ah-um..." Tessa cleared her throat awkwardly, trying to come up with words that logically made sense and were put in the proper order. "I've - uh - I've never been much of a dancer, really...But - uh..."

[fallacias]

the end.

The palm of a hand against her cheek wasn't unfamiliar to the blonde. The town she grew up in - the parental figures that had fended themselves over her had used skin on skin whenever she'd crossed a line. Metal on skin. Wood on skin. Anything that had her correcting her behavior. Until she was pushed, shoved, kneaded into the woman they wanted her to be. Sera had learned to behave like they wanted her to - had kept up the facade as long as she could. Until the day she snapped and had been brought to a new home where she had to learn a new way of behaving herself all over again.

Perhaps that's what this was. Another correction to what she was and wasn't supposed to do.

Her fingers clawed, out of self defense - out of the need to breath - out of aching for air, immediately at Nika's hand that was around her throat. Panic kicked in and made it hard to think, the heat flushed to her face. From the slap, from the lack of oxygen to her brain, and still that voice seeped into her skull deeper than she could've ever thought. That woman's voice held power. Those eyes she stared into, even though she was struggling and still weakly trying to fight back - a habit of a body to do when it was cornered and fighting for life, she could not deny how Nika's eyes were drilling into her. It made something in her tick. It got her to obey when she was let go and heaving for air.

''Please -'' she barely managed to say, the words right there on her tongue but hurting her throat with each syllable she spoke, ''- I'll be good, I'll be good ...'' Sera wept the tears from her eyes that made her vision blurry and caressed her throat. A whimper left her lips.

''... For you.''

[fallacias]

''Drink moreeeeee, obviously.'' Her hand had found the woman's shoulder, as to keep her seated on the sofa with her. Candles around them acted as a source of light, which made the party even better in Sera's opinion. It brought her a sense of home - when torches had flickered in the woods, when dozens of candles lit up the altar of the church, when a massive bonfire got rid of dead meat, it reminded her of warmth on cold nights when no one would hold her.

''Stay with me,'' her big blue eyes tried to convince her, with a cherry on top, ''pretty please?'' She'd provided strangers with drinks when she hadn't been occupied on the dance floor, it was part of being a host of the settlement. ''The drinks have been nice, no? Besides... I have a lot more to offer to such a sexy lady like you.'' A giggle bubbled up from her chest as she leaned in to her ear for only the other to hear, her voice giddy and almost breathless when she spoke the following words, ''admit it, this night is too young to end and not only that ... I've seen you staring at my body more times than once tonight.''

location. ⁺the settlement - blackout.

well this was it. — the go softly into the night. life was expiring all around them at a constant. this labyrinth of land hadn't seemed to have any reward at the end. it was all the same. life taken. light gone. just as now, all of the light had been blown out like their last birthday candles. stella lifted her cup allowing whatever liquid remained to burn down her throat. a crutch for whatever was to come. "guess that's a wrap." arcadia was calling a curfew on their party. a celebration of life was beginning to feel less hopeful. remembering the dead was becoming their reality. darkness swallowed leaving the blonde woman unafraid. unbothered by the wave of panic, and confusion. "which devil on my shoulder should we listen to ?" stella let a sigh slowly deflate. "the one that's saying we should just drink ourselves to sleep ? ...orrrr the voice that's saying maybe we should get the fuck out of here ?" who was to say this wasn't all a trap ? an invite to all of their funerals.

[fallacias]

Her knees started to hurt in protest to the ice cold snow and frozen ground, but she pushed through the strain. ''Ah ... booooring.'' She turned her neck towards the deceased animal, observed how the light had left its eyes for quite a moment already. In her first hometown there'd been plenty of trophy heads hung gracing the walls of the huts in the woods. Some nights the imagery even haunted her in her sleep - but it also gave a sense of home, however fucked. ''Well,'' she flashed her knife out in the open in one hand and held the deer's ear with another, ''I'm sure you won't miss this.'' Without too much effort she cut its ear off. Her own trophy, even though she hadn't participated at all in killing the game. She wiped the little blood off her knife against her pants. A set she'd been given from the church girl in town. ''It's for a very special someone.''

With that, she'd gotten up and retreated her knife back into her pocket and held the ear in her hands as little blood still trickled down her pale skin. Without giving any more context nor clue where she was heading off now, she walked back towards where she'd come from, never losing eye contact with the other.

A big smile graced her features, reaching her big blue eyes that sparkled in the winter's sun. Without blinking or faltering, she disappeared back into the woods. Back to the grounds she'd gotten most familiar to. Her voice echoed through the snow covered trees, making it hard to pinpoint where it was coming from.

''See ya around, hunter boy.''

the end.

That wasn’t what he meant, but he wasn’t quite sure if she was being sincere or facetious in this moment. She seemed a bit scatterbrained in his opinion; then again, he’d been called that himself before, so he felt that he wasn’t the kind of person to be passing judgement on anyone. This was a weird place anyway, so maybe typical social cues were less accepted or cared about in a place like this. It made him wonder how long she’d been in Arcadia - he had a bit of an existential crisis when he discovered that there were children who were born here, people who had been here their entire lives. 

“I don’t know if animals really know the difference,” Ben said, before he could help himself and think of something less blunt to say. It wasn’t even that hard-hitting, but Ben was working on his honesty. “But, uh, no - none of that. It’s probably just going to the diner, or to the ranch so they can do whatever it is they do with the animals for the rest of us.” Surely there was more to the hunting gig than just hunting deer or whatever other animals roamed the woods, but he’d rather deal with this over those creatures that roamed the night. “I’d take my chances with an animal just… being an animal. I can’t fault it for that. I don’t know what the hell those… Things are, so. Better the devil you know, right?”

[fallacias]

who: @hcnlcys where: the settlement main hall

Funny thing about freedom - when there was no one to stop her from the things she usually wasn't allowed to do - life granted her suddenly a whole lot more paths to walk. She was no longer contained by four white walls, a small room cell in a closed ward she wasn't allowed to leave. She couldn't go outside, not without the supervision of someone licensed and those days she'd been granted to go out - like out out, were less than a dozen. In that second half of her life she'd been locked up, Sera hadn't seen much of the world. Only heard about it. In books. In movies. On TV. From other people.

And now she was free. In a sense.

She'd latched herself onto the first person she laid eyes on upon entering the main hall, which happened to be Zale. Sera's presence was off the charts today - vibing with excitement for the party. An actual party. She'd taken his hands in hers and twirled them around to the rhythm of the music until they were both out of breath and ended up on a sofa in the corner of the hall.

''Hey,'' she giggled as she thought of something interesting to share, ''I heard the strangest thing the other day, from a funny boy.'' Turning her head towards Zale, she couldn't help but chuckle at hearing his accent as clear as day when she thought of him, ''he said...'' a dramatic pause, ''...that we cannot actually leave this town. That's crazy, right?''

[fallacias]

who: @tessaendures where: the settlement main hall when: the first night of the event

Excitement roared through every fiber of her body. There was live music played by those who knew how to work an instrument, she got to borrow a black dress from another resident of the settlement. Juno's kindness meant a lot to the blonde. Sera promised to give them back the dress in their original state, however she was known to be clumsy often. Her first day in town had spoken volumes, some in town had called her Carrie when she'd failed to talk and explain herself like a functioning normal human being. Sera's idea of 'normal' was far off from one's common sense. She still had a lot to learn, be it about the world, about society, about people and their way of going through their days.

It was so interesting for Sera to people-watch. A trait she'd done as a little thing and still kept doing so to this day. So many faces she hadn't seen before that graced the main hall of the settlement. It made her want to listen to every conversation possible, get a glimpse of what was going on inside their mind, but then there was the music provided by people that urged her body to move. Her crystal blue eyes fell upon the crowd and she bit her lower lip to urge herself from chuckling when she mentally eeny meeny miny moe'd every person her gaze fell upon. Until her eyes fell on a younger face, about the same age as her - if she had to guess. Her feet hurriedly made their way over and she offered both her hands to the stranger with a small bow.

''May I have this dance, my lady?''

[fallacias]

@rainxm

SAMARA WEAVING & PHOEBE TONKIN. Babylon Australian Premiere, 2023

[fallacias]

The palm of a hand against her cheek wasn't unfamiliar to the blonde. The town she grew up in - the parental figures that had fended themselves over her had used skin on skin whenever she'd crossed a line. Metal on skin. Wood on skin. Anything that had her correcting her behavior. Until she was pushed, shoved, kneaded into the woman they wanted her to be. Sera had learned to behave like they wanted her to - had kept up the facade as long as she could. Until the day she snapped and had been brought to a new home where she had to learn a new way of behaving herself all over again.

Perhaps that's what this was. Another correction to what she was and wasn't supposed to do.

Her fingers clawed, out of self defense - out of the need to breath - out of aching for air, immediately at Nika's hand that was around her throat. Panic kicked in and made it hard to think, the heat flushed to her face. From the slap, from the lack of oxygen to her brain, and still that voice seeped into her skull deeper than she could've ever thought. That woman's voice held power. Those eyes she stared into, even though she was struggling and still weakly trying to fight back - a habit of a body to do when it was cornered and fighting for life, she could not deny how Nika's eyes were drilling into her. It made something in her tick. It got her to obey when she was let go and heaving for air.

''Please -'' she barely managed to say, the words right there on her tongue but hurting her throat with each syllable she spoke, ''- I'll be good, I'll be good ...'' Sera wept the tears from her eyes that made her vision blurry and caressed her throat. A whimper left her lips.

''... For you.''

What is in a name? The power to summon, to identify, to silence, to recall memories. Nika's name, the one that was given to her at birth, hasn't been uttered in years. In this clearing, spoken out loud, it cuts through the air and to her ears like the warble of a broken radio. It causes something volatile to shoot through Nika's normally composed demeanour. Her hand raises above her head and strikes down with an open palm against the flesh of the other girl's cheek, a loud CLACK reverberating against the trees.

Immediately that same hand grabs Sera around the throat. "Hold your tongue, you insolent child." She slowly tightens her hand around the girl's windpipe, her face inches away from the other's. "You want to belong to me? To the tree? Never. Utter. That. Name."

She released her with a shove back and then pressed her hands down the front of her pants as though she was straightening her clothes. A deep breath in to calm herself and then she looked at the woman again.

"Now, you've already caught quite the commotion on arrival. Do you think you can behave yourself at the settlement or should I sedate you?"

[fallacias]

''You're a fucking lunatic,'' there was the raw emotion leaving her lips - bubbled all the way up from her goddamn toes. Still, enjoying every little thing they entertained her with - just like she asked. That was right. She enjoyed the fight the other was giving her. In the heat of the moment where every moment could be their last one, with the storm raging outside, she needed more. And more. And even fucking more. When the spit from their lips ran down her thumb, she closed her eyes and took a beat. Her hand left the jawline she'd taken a hold of, left the plump lip that had felt warm to the touch. The spit cross-contaminated with the object she reached for next. The pocket knife that had sat idle for far too long in her jeans once more.

Revealing the blade with a simple click, a sound simply inaudible by the creaks of the wooden beams, of the wind twisting and pulling at the structure of the building. Placing the blade against the other's throat again only took a second. ''Would this steal your breath, huh? If I made a cut right here? Would that turn you on, my little jester?'' Her eyes entranced to see the other's reaction, her pace of breath only increasing when she pressed the blade just that little bit deeper, making a tiny enough incision that made light skin turn a nice hue of red. ''Like it turns me on too.''

The strident storm-notes nestle within your throat,   after the light protest when her hold finds your thin wrists.     You almost have to stand on the balls of your feet.     A shortlist of wriggles,   chafing skin on callus,   until you whisper a conciliatory of course you do.     Still,   your shoe finds hers,   differently,   with a gentle press on her toe-cap.     Absently.     The kind of touch chosen elsewhere but implemented by you.     Yielding to full goosebumps that rise where they shouldn’t exist.     On that which can’t breathe.     She unmakes your body’s language,   angled and chaotic,   into something placid and taut:   like an anticipatory rifle-trigger.     How you thrum up and down to each end that touches her.     Your breath struggles to reach clean air,   thick in the roof of your mouth.     Clenched fists,   wanting to bite without teeth.     Akami can play that game too.     They shake their head,   laughing breathlessly.     ‘   Leaving your spit everywhere   ( … )   you’re a cheap serial killer.   ’     Oh,   how a dark eye sparkles in such a thunder-dim room.     Among such electric company.     For a moment,   you think about biting her thumb.     Harsh in suspension.     You resort to scooping your spit out onto their pallid skin.     ‘   You’re supposed to steal from me.     Like from my tongue or my neck.     But you can’t even steal my breath.   ’

[fallacias]

''The gas?'' Sera wondered out loud, shifting into a more curious mindset rather than the bored one. The boredom that made her want to play with her knife. Now she was rather intrigued, curious to know what this boy knew and whatnot. ''What do they need the gas for?'' She hadn't exactly seen any generators so far and not much else came to mind what they'd need the gas for. ''So people can't drive out of here? Is that what it is?'' Surely anyone could leave whenever they wanted, right? Sera clearly had lost the memo somewhere along the way where people were trapped in town and the gas was stored and the cars stashed away for a reason, whereas Sera experienced freedom and didn't feel like leaving. ''Why would they do that? Who here takes the gas?'' An idea popped into her mind that had the blonde gasp and tap his arm in excitement, ''can we go hunt them down after? See what evil they are up to and steal the gas back so people can leave again!''

Rubbing her hands together, a naughty grimace had set on her lips again, reaching her eyes when she eyed him with a chuckle. ''We could be like Robin Hood, you and I. Steal from the rich and give to the poor, in the form of gas.'' But first, she would like to see the cars. ''You know,'' she toned down her excitement for the nonsense thieving plans, making way for a somewhat more serious tone, ''I, uhh, have never driven a car before.'' Sera followed him around like a puppy, with a skip in her step, her previous plans of stabbing a pastor having left her head - for now. ''Have you?''

“They are, but it’s like…” It took him a second to remember the actual name of it. “Like a junkyard? Sort of? Anyone who drives through here usually has their car driven over there, and they take all the gas.” He’s not totally sure what they do with them and he rarely drove in his life anyway, so he didn’t often venture out there. He did know there was a graveyard graveyard somewhere around here, but he’d only ever been there once and it was vast, to say the least, so he didn’t want to go back, and probably wouldn’t have been able to find it again quickly.

Emmett nodded along. Sure, he could be weird. He probably was a little, in comparison to others, but he was always the weird shy kid in school, in town, so he could settle into this role with ease. But this was an opportunity to lead this semi-vengeful woman away from the church, the safe spot for many; there were already too many places he’d seen that had random blood stains, he didn’t want the church to be another. “This way, I think,” he said, gesturing to the left, to walk further into town.  “They just kinda sit there. Some are really old.” Sometimes he went there for spare parts, to see if maybe newer, nicer car batteries would be able to somehow jumpstart one of the projectors. There were probably better things he should have been doing with his time, that would help more, but he could afford to be a little selfish.

[fallacias]

Sticking out her tongue at him, there was no shame present for her behavior whatsoever. Noticing how he didn't even flinch, she huffed but didn't spend too much time thinking about it. She guessed hunters were just harder to scare. ''Well uh, let me see,'' she turned around in her step to look over at the bunch of trees she'd just appeared from. ''I think I came from behind that tree,'' Sera pointed to one to add to the flair, ''or was it that one?'' Her finger moved to another one, and another, she wasn't quite sure herself anymore. ''Oh well, whichever one it was, I'm sure it doesn't mind too much that I can't recall,'' she exhaled with an added shrug before facing him again.

Briefly she watched his face, then her gaze went over to the wounded animal that laid on the ground past him. ''What a beaut, it was so full of life, now its heart has stopped beating. Do you think its family will miss her?'' She didn't miss her family - not in an emotional way. When she thought of the people who'd raised her, she felt nothing.

''What will you do with it? Skin it? Hang its head as a trophy on the wall?'' She'd kneeled down beside the deer, ran the back of her fingers over its now senseless cheek. ''I heard the strangest thing the other day - something about an elk charging towards one of you hunters... so interesting. The revenge of the wild life.'' Her blue eyes went back up to meet his, ''makes you wonder, doesn't it? If Them at night really are more dangerous.''

There was a brief spike of fear in his heart at seeing a woman's face in the viewfinder, and he quickly aimed it back at the ground. It had been a month now he'd been here, a month since he did do the unthinkable when an arrow was last pointed at another person...

Ben hadn't seen her before. There were lots of faces he didn't quite recognize, and there was a dormant part of him, once social, once seeking the company of others, that was scratching at his insides like a cat longing to be free of its confines. It was just reminding him how much he kept to himself, yet he couldn't bring himself to open that door. Her eyes were striking, and he knew he would have recognized her had they met. Obviously, he wasn't going to raise the bow again, but made no movements away as she stepped closer, so much so that they were practically nose to nose.

He didn't even flinch at the Boo! at his face, didn't move away, but his jaw rippled a bit as he gave a tight smile, as if entertaining a child. "I guess so," he said, exhaling through his nose and taking a brief look around the woods. "And where did you come from?"