[center][h1] A Challenger Approaches
Act 1.4: Close Encounters of the Family Kind [/h1][/center]

[b][i][color=lightcoral]Location:[/color][/i][/b] Abandoned Factory, Industrial District
[b][i][color=lightcoral]Time:[/color][/i][/b] Night
[b][i][color=lightcoral]Mentions:[/color][/i][/b] Destiny Light [@Silver Carrot]

The lack of real lighting from overhead, minus whatever natural light filtered in, coupled with the dancing beam of her flashlight, as far as the beam penetrated into the darkness, already had begun to put Serene on edge as she'd begun to explore. She hadn't gotten far from her point of infiltration, but already her mind was racing a mile a minute, putting all sorts of ideas through her head. Ranging from the mundane like something breaking and falling, to the exotic, like a portal to hell active beneath the factory sending up a demon lord to aliens using the place as a cover for their space ship, like in Predator 2! Every sound had her gaze darting around, nervously trying to determine if that was just the sounds of the dead factory, her imagination, or something worse, like...well Freddy Kruger was in a dream world, and this wasn't a dream, and Michael Myers was...yeah. She was so caught up in thinking about it that even if Destiny had made a sound prior to the door slamming, she wouldn't have heard it. But the door slamming shut...

...She heard that alright.

[i]"FUCK!"[/i] Serene nearly jumped out of her skin, clearly spooked, as her head whipped around at the sound of the rolling stone/rock, her arm following in short succession, the flashlight beam blazing a trail through the dark air in the wake of her movement. She was going to probably have whiplash later from the sudden head movement...but what came next was about to make such a thought pale in comparison. For as the light flew around, it caught the figure behind Serene. And as Serene turned to look, the first thing she saw was the black hair...which at once brought memories of Japanese horror films to mind. The second thing, was the pair of eyes staring back at her. This, coupled with the black hair, the silence of the person, and the overall setting...made Serene stumble backwards, slipping, and landing flat on her ass, sending up a small cloud of dust. As she had fallen back, she let out a soft screech of fear. The impact was bone jarring, sending a course of pain up her spine. Her arms flailed a tad, before she peeked through one eye, refocusing her flashlight on the person, realizing the person was...just staring at her. Not moving to attack, or anything. Hopefully the wildness hadn't blinded the other person with her flashlight being right in her face.

A million things raced through Serene's mind. Was this a trap? Were there others about to attack her, and drag her backwards into the deeper part of the factory? Or would the same happen to the woman in front of her? Who, the more Serene gazed, started to look strangely familiar. Something about the posture, coupled with the form overall. Her eyebrows scrunched together, as she tried to figure out what was going on, who was this woman? Meanwhile, she also wondered if a monster would appear behind the woman, or if her face would distort, and turn into a wailing ghost mouth thing. But suddenly, something made her drop her head, which, to anyone viewing the footage later, would make them mad, and say "if this was a horror movie, this was where looking up she'd be in your face about to bite!" Into the pocket of her tool kit her hand went, pulling out a small item, a photograph. Pulling into the camera frame showed a man, a woman, and a baby. The baby was her, at only a few months, the man, her father...and the woman, her mother. Who had supposedly died within the first year or two of Serene's life. And yet, the more she stared at the face, the more she felt that there was some sort of connection between this woman in the photo...and the one before her. She looked back up, the camera rising with her, as she took in a breath, the air hiking in her throat as she did so. Hair color was different, so were the eyes, but the rest...it was too uncannily similar to just be chance. Her pulse was racing, her other hand, the one with the flashlight, was trembling, the same as the rest of her, as she stared ahead, at the woman before her...as her lips parted, and a single word made its exit, hanging in the air, Serene frozen in place after speaking, as if the mere saying of the word had petrified her.

[i]"M-Mom?"[/i]

A single word. Stuttered out, but holding a myriad of emotions to it. Confusion, fear, wonder, excitement. So many thoughts. Was this all a mirage, a trick of the light, a grand prank by someone? Or was this...really her mother? She'd always accepted the story as a child, never questioning the specifics of her mother's death, and even if she had wanted to, her chances dropped to nill after her father died. Only he had known the specifics. And it was doubtful her grandmother would have permitted it, given what she herself knew about her son's activities...in the Old World. Still, could one blame Serene for being shocked at such a sight? A ghost of her past, brought to life, at a moment when she felt alone the most. Providence, perhaps, a guiding angel in her time of need. Not like she could have expected eyes like those. Initial shock aside...part of Serene kinda liked them, they looked badass. But for now, she was motionless, waiting for some sort of response from the figure before her.