The portal was open and Jaden and Kaitlyn knew the game was on.
Right now Kaitlyn was
shivering. She was cold as hell and she felt a thirst like no other. If only she knew she was going to be using her abstraction, but she would only be using it for a short time longer. Hopefully. The wave she and Rita were riding was at its peak, but Kaitlyn hopped off and landed on the ground. She created another wave that sent Rita through the portal before she turned around to face the impending horde. Her head arced towards Jaden as he grinned as he stuck his hand out. A violent wave appeared out of thin air as it cut through a large swath of the monsters, then after that one faded she created another one. However, with each wave, she took a step back towards the portal as her body couldn't take this any further. Jaden was firing on whichever one of these fuckers got close, unlike Katie he didn't take steps back. When he fired one last blast he was knocked off balance right onto his ass.
"Shit!" Jaden kept shooting at them from the ground to get them off... before a fucking shark made out of water cut through the air and bit down on his jacket. "Yoooo what the
fuck?!" It carried him through the air towards the portal and Jaden whipped his head towards it to see Kaitlyn on her hands and knees. Desperately sticking out one hand as the shark carried Jaden through. Once he was through, the shark disappeared and Jaden was sent rolling across the floor as Kaitlyn fell to the ground, unconscious.
The portal closed, and whoever was still on the other side was... well, trapped.
"Oooooooh
shit!" Unfortunately, Jaden was too high off adrenaline to fall that easily. He almost immediately hopped up to his feet. "What sort of fuckery was that?" As the adrenaline died down he looked around, they were back in regular Araminta alright. It was the middle of the night and they stood in the middle of a road surrounded by woods, illuminated by the bright street lights anyone familiar with Araminta would instantly recognize.
"... That my friends," The mysterious girl spoke as she turned around to the group. "Was the Outside."
"And the fuck is that?" Jaden asked before a better question popped into his head as he pointed at Brianna. "Nah, I got a better question; who the fuck are you?"
"Oh, me? I'm Brianna W- Grier." The girl introduced herself, "And as for-" she had to finger-quote, "-what the fuck was that...?"
There was a pause as Brianna looked at the group, she ran a hand through her hair stressfully.
"... That's what I'm trying to figure out."
"... Oh,
this is certainly interesting."
Two figures watched the group from a distance. One was a skeleton with frightening horns, wearing a black suit. He had his hands in his pockets as he casually levitated, he pulled out a box of cigarettes then slid one in between his jaw. Which was promptly lit.
"Kill... them..."
The other figure was gigantic Moose that stood behind the floating skeleton, but it was different from the average moose. Its flesh was rotted away, particularly at its face, legs, and torso. It was dripping blood as it stood... which was a mystery
how it can still even stand.
"Come now, Elk, we're not like the rest of those sociopaths that roam this town at night," The Skeleton said with a chuckle as the cigarette burned in between its lips. "They are, as it stands, no threat to the plan - but..."
The skeleton rubbed a hand across its chin. "Let's report this to the mistress, just to be on the safe side."
A mass of swirly black darkness appeared around them and eventually swallowed the two of them up. When it was faded, the two of them were gone.
Two days later.
Sunday, 12PM.
After the incident in the "Outside", the group went their separate ways and went back to their lives. Two days later, however, the strange occurrences in Araminta have not stopped. They've gotten worse, and it's getting much harder to ignore.
However, despite the growing darkness in the town; it was a sunny day in Araminta. One that anyone would enjoy.
...
A Recollection that Jaden thought it was called. These things happened every night on a strange rotation with every person in his Collective. Each night they would see a memory belonging to one of these people. First, it started with Reese, then Jaden, then Mariah, then Cierra - but sometimes they would see memories belonging to his late sister, Lynette. It was completely random - like the cycle would be normal, then they would see a memory belonging to Lynette, then the cycle would continue like normal. These Recollections were sometimes of innocuous like Reese practicing shooting with his father, and other times it was... quite scarring for Jaden.
However, yesterday was Mariah's turn, that meant tonight had to be Cierra's.
Jaden was transparent, blue as he looked around. He saw some abandoned warehouses in an oddly clean Araminta. Like no cigarette butts or methheads.
Which couldn't have been right because this city was dirty as fuck.
But, the Recollection began with his twin-sister, Cierra, making a break for it, just absolutely running down the streets of the abandoned Araminta(?). She looked behind her to see some strange figures chasing behind her, but they were so distant that they were merely shadows. Cierra ducked around a corner and threw her back up against the wall, she clutched her side... which was oozing blood. She groaned as tears ran down her eyes, she threw her head around the corner to peek around.
"... Come out, come out, where ever you are!"
A very tall man with a switchblade shouted, as he maniacally laughed. He had on a leather jacket with a plain black pull-over hoodie over it, but it was a few sizes too big. It completely covered his face... Cierra could see his orange eyes piercing through the darkness. He was a lot like the person that attacked them earlier, and while Cierra wanted a rematch with that fucker that wasn't going too well... she looked at the blood that was pooling at her feet.
Fortunately, Cierra had a regenerative factor.
Unfortunately, it won't work if she's dead.
Cierra had to muster the will inside of her to get through this. Fortunately, it was only one of them at the moment. She could risk it and take him out, but she already took a beating as is. She needed to retreat and recuperate at the very least. Covering her mouth with her other hand, Cierra disappeared out of thin air, activating her camouflage. Cierra, under the veil of her abstraction, climbed up the wall to the rooftop.
Meanwhile, her pursuer came across her last known location and saw the blood going up the building and grinned behind his mask.
When Cierra reached the top of the warehouse she turned off her invisibility. Okay, she just needed to get out of here...
"... Gotcha!" The member of the Horde shouted as he lep to the top of the building and Cierra screamed at the top of her lungs as she fell backward. He brought down his knife on her but she teleported in a flash of purple light. He ended up bringing his knife down on the rooftop as he looked up to see Cierra had teleported... three feet away. She turned that three feet into twenty feet as she hopped to the other rooftop, but he pulled his knife out of the rooftop as he sprinted after her with his knife ready.
The bastard was right behind her as he grabbed onto her hair and yanked her hard as he could and slammed his knife directly into her shoulder. Cierra screamed as fight finally turned on... she manifested purple-claws that were reptilian over her hands as gloves. The claws they had were sharp, sharp enough to cut through the man's stomach when she turned around and slashed him. Her attack made him scream as blood covered her claws, however, she grabbed him by the collar of his jacket as she slammed him over her shoulder directly onto the rooftop. Finally, she jammed her claws directly into the back of his head and got them jammed in...
... However, he grabbed onto her arm and tossed her to the side. Cierra rolled over as she used her claws to control her movement as she hopped back to her feet. He did the same and realized his switchblade was gone.
"Ready to start fighting for real?" The Horde put his fists up like a boxer. Cierra narrowed her eyes at him as she finally decided to stop running and fight. She was still bleeding, her abstraction was pretty much the only thing holding her together at this point because without it she would have died twenty minutes ago.
But, hell, she'd take what she can get.
Cierra charged the member of the Horde as he swung directly for her face and got a jab as he followed that up by grabbing onto the top of her head and slamming it onto his knee. Cierra stumbled backward as her head was woozy, but she was still in the fight. He moved forward for another punch as she ducked downwards and slashed at his knees as she whipped past him. He grabbed onto his knee as he cried in pain as Cierra hopped up into the air and hopped onto his back. Digging one claw into his back, she violently stabbed his neck over and over and over again as blood got everywhere.
"Get off me, you bitch!" The Serial killer shouted as he threw himself forward, grabbed onto Cierra and slammed her onto the ground. He raised his boot up into the air to stomp on her but Cierra was quick to teleport away. He slammed onto the ground so hard his boot went through it and Cierra stuck both of her hands out as she fired a shotgun-style blast of energy balls that made him put his hand up as she hopped up into the air. She brought her claw down directly into his eye and cringed as she felt her hand go into his eye socket. He pushed her off of him, but she was not done. She violently slashed at him over and over again... until he just threw out a violent haymaker that struck her across the cheek that sent her stumbling over.
The serial killer was pissed off now, he charged her, picked her up by the neck and slammed her only the rooftop they were standing on before he began punching her over and over again. Out of reflex, Cierra teleported out of his grasp, but she couldn't handle it anymore. She was stumbling over like a drunk, her vision was blurry as she walked towards the edge of the roof as her mind went back to flight.
However, in front of her was a woman with a gas mask on with a metal bat and she was quick to hit Cierra in the knee with it bringing her down. Cierra screamed as she was at the woman's crotch... she looked up as the woman had the bat over her shoulder.
"Don't worry," The woman behind the mask said. "the boss lady had a change of heart; so we're not gonna kill you."
She put the bat at her chin.
"But, she does want to have a word with you. Just a polite Lil' chat. You'll love what she's got to say."
Domingeuz Household > The Discovery Church
When Jaden came to, he was
pissed.
He immediately grabbed onto a nearby lamp and threw it at the wall. It put a huge ass hole in the wall as it shattered on impact. Those bastards! They were... they were... he was surprised he didn't wake up sooner. He couldn't bear to watch them do those terrible things to his sister. So, what? That Psychopath couldn't kill them as a group so now he's hunting them when they're alone. Smart.
However, that was
definitely not the masked serial killer that attacked them at the river. And there was
another one. Who's to say that's not
more? However, Jaden was barely able to think straight he was so pissed off. He needed to talk to somebody, now. Reese was off at Parris Island, but he knew of somebody else that was around...
Jaden pretty much immediately switched into some jeans, a long sleeve white t-shirt, threw his green jacket over it, and got into the black combat boots that he wears around just to prepare for boot camp. Jaden was out of the door and hopped onto his bicycle which, in normal circumstances, he would complain about needing some more swag, but he was on a mission. He biked over to the Discovery Church, were somebody he needed to talk to was here. It was about this time when it let out, so Jaden was met with a crowd as he approached the church.
He hopped off his bike and immediately went into the crowd of people that were conversing after church. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack looking the conventional way...
where the hell is she? Eventually, he caught her aura in the crowd... Maria Jaylin Phoenix. A member of his Collective. All he had to do was get he-
... You're telepathically connected Jaden.The Familial Reflection appeared and hinted to Jaden what he needed to do next. This wasn't something that Jaden liked to do, but Jaden closed his eyes and focused as he sent out a voice...
Mariah.He spoke again, with no response.
Mariah!He shouted in her head as she whipped her head around. Mariah awkwardly tried to slide her way towards the woodline as Jaden followed behind her. He pushed past some branches to see his sister's bespectacled friend wearing a white dress like she always did to church walking away from him.
"Mariah!" Jaden shouted at her in person, "I know you can hear me!"
"... What!?" Mariah screamed back at him as Jaden was stopped in his tracks. "What is it that you had to chase me here at church for?"
"You had that dream last night, right?" Jaden asked as he crossed his arms.
Mariah craned her head.
"You know, where Cierra was getting attacked."
"Look..." Mariah turned away from Jaden, "I really
would rather not think about that."
"Well, I'm asking you to," Jaden said as he approached her before a barrier appeared separated them. He stopped dead in his tracks. "Look, Mariah..."
"Jaden... what do you want?"
Jaden sighed as he wondered about how he can get to Mariah-
Don't be a dickhead, Jaden.The Reflection appeared just to say that then disappeared as Jaden sighed. "I want to know if anything seemed off about it like you know... in that dream; that was
obviously the warehouse part of town where all the meth heads have orgies and shit. Except it was completely clean."
Mariah still turned away from Jaden, and he sighed as he decided to cut to the chase.
"Mariah... I think I know where Cierra is," Jaden asked. "There's this place known as the Outsid-"
"Look, Jaden," Mariah said, cutting off Jaden, "Cierra is dead. They definitely killed her."
That sentence made Jaden's blood boil but he kept cool. "You don't know that." Jaden hissed.
"Well, it's the only thing I can think of that happened to her - next time it's her turn we're going to see them actually killing her. And if we do find her, I'm more than certain we're going to find her body. I don't want to see that."
"Look, I don't know what
your problem is- well, I know what your fuckin' problem is; you're jumping to conclusions, you're giving up." Jaden started, calmer than he thought he would sound, "I'm not giving up on Cierra. I don't know what kinda 'best friend' you are, but I'm not
ever going to give up on my sister."
"I'm trying to stay alive, okay? Keep my head down and honor her name," Mariah said. "I don't know if you realize it yet Jaden, but Araminta is... changing. Shit's going down here and I don't think any of us can handle it - it's best we just keep our heads down and hope it blows over soon."
"Oh, it'll blow over real soon," Jaden hissed. "I'm going after the Horde and I'm going to take out every one of them."
"Jaden, you're not that much stronger than she is," Mariah said. "But, trust me on this, you're going to get yourself killed for nothing."
"Fuck you, you're just being a coward." Jaden flipped her off as he turned around and activated his chameleon abstraction. He faded into nothing as Mariah quickly whipped out her phone and made a phone call.
Random convenience store > "The Site"
Something wasn't right.
However, Jaden had a theory about where Cierra could be. It's not much but its something! However, Jaden didn't have any clue about this Outside or how he got there... or how he got back. So maybe his first step is finding this Brianna Grier chick. Jaden rolled on his bike as he ended up at the same spot he was before he was sent to the Outside. He also remembered that, even with his abstraction, Araminta was a big place, full of a variety of different faces. And he honestly didn't remember her face. So he had another idea. He ended up at the convenience store and looked at the woodline in the distance. It came from one general direction...
Just start riding, I'll guide you there. The Familial Reflection appeared and Jaden felt a chill run down his spine. It put it's hand on Jaden's shoulder while he was on the bike and pointed in the exact direction the purple light came from. While he didn't like it... it was his only clue. Jaden rolled his way from one side of Araminta to the other as he approached the woodline and rolled directly into the woods. Eventually Jaden made it to a huge clearing that was surrounded by police tape. In the middle of the clearing was a crater as if the ground had given out and around it was gigantic cracks in the dirt.
Jaden walked up to it as the Reflection disappeared.
What the fuck caused this? More importantly...
... Can he cause it again to get into the Outside?
Araminta Serenity Library.
That was a night that Kaitlyn was trying to forget.
However, she couldn't take her mind off of it even if she tried. Katie spent a few days off from work while also off from studying like she usually does. Because of her abstraction's nature, it was hard to practice with it other than small as possible... she never used it like that before. She would have to remember that, or else she would push herself past her limits again. Also to keep a bottle of water on her at all times so she doesn't get overloaded. But, she had things to do; namely, see if there's any information on what the hell is going on in Araminta. Just if happened again.
And also return some overdue books.
Since the Library wasn't that far away, Kaitlyn walked over to the Araminta Serenity Library. She stepped in and the lights were dim as always and the person watching the desk was Daria Wallace. The woman was reading a book and didn't even offer to say hello. Her eyes were baggy and if Katie had to be... nosy, it was obvious she was crying as of late. Of course, Daria Wallace was a complex woman, who lost her husband. Perhaps she also lost the ability to get a good night's rest. However, she noticed a strange odor coming from her - almost as if she hadn't showered lately!
Quick to move on away from Daria, Katie moved onto the library. A part of her didn't know where to start - namely because she didn't even know what she was looking for. Katie gravitated towards the occult and free religion section and immediately began scanning. It was cliche but maybe there was a hint here...
somewhere. Katie paused for a second as she realized she was not alone.
Appearing seemingly out of nowhere was that girl that saved them that night... what was her name? Kaitlyn couldn't recall since, you know, she was knocked out. The girl was staring at her with similar baggy eyes to Daria. "Hi," Brianna said. "You're not going to find the information you're looking for here... or anywhere for that matter."
"And how do you know what I'm looking for?" Kaitlyn said with a catty grin on her face.
Brianna looked up at the sign that said occult and was about to spout a lengthy explanation about how she was probably researching the occult after what happened. Before she stopped herself and answered with a short and sweet, "Just intuition."
"Well, are you just sitting here in the library waiting for one of us to show up?" Kaitlyn said as she grabbed a book and slid it underneath her shoulder. "That sounds suspicious in and of itself, Ms...?"
"Grier," Brianna said, "I do volunteer work here, I help out Daria because... umm...." Her eyes drifted towards Daria who was staring dead at her. Before she went back to her book. Brianna leaned in as she said, "Her work ethic has gone down the drain since her husband died."
That doesn't sound fully correct. Kaitlyn trailed off as she turned towards the chairs in the back of the building. "I assume you know something about what's going on... let's talk."
"Of course, let's," Brianna said as she sat down.
.
Because of this whole getting teleported to Pennslyvania thing; Rita's bed was about a few hundred miles south.
In other words, far away from her as possible.
After that craziness, Rita was quick to beat feet and find somewhere to rest. Which was an abandoned house in the woodline that was conveniently broken into? She was no stranger in setting up shop in abandoned houses... or on hard concrete. So that made it easy to fall asleep... but, Rita was getting hungry out here. Like really hungry. She hadn't eaten a meal in an entire day and realized she couldn't stay in this place forever. Also, it was fucking cold. Super cold. Rita got up as she kicked open the door and almost pissed herself when her eyes landed on it. She would have pissed herself if she wasn't so dehydrated.
In the clearing in front of the cabin was a... ghost dog thing? It was about ten feet tall at its shoulders and made out of whispy black darkness. The red of its eyes immediately told Rita it was evil, Rita crept back into her cabin and hoped for the best. Peaking outside, the dog was gone. Or was it there?
Sighing out of relief, Rita took that as the sign it was time to leave as she quickly walked down the steps...
"... Follow me."
Rita immediately whipped around to see the Black Shuck standing right behind her and she screamed at the top of her lungs. However, since she's in the middle of the woods few were around to hear her. The Black Shuck ran into the woods and Rita decided to obey the spooky ghost dog thing.
Little did she know other people were being led to the same destination by the Shuck.
After the portal closed the lights snapped back on and all the monsters disappeared.
It may have been two days on the other side, but it was only a few minutes in the Outside. Or was it? Time seemed to change at complete random - given how the sun went down unnaturally fast. The group that was stuck there had no clue what was going on... but, they had everything a city could offer. Except for the people.
Tristan and June (and whoever else was stuck here) ended up in a different part of the "Araminta". Like they went from the industrial area to the suburbs, in which they set up shop for the night. There were houses as far as the eye could see... which was strange because there were never this many houses in regular Araminta. The houses had everything; food, water, and a place to sleep. Where they slept, taking turns keeping guard. What probably threw them off was that the sun remained exactly where it was.
Now it was up to them to decide whether or not they were going to strike out or stay where they were.
"̸̢̨͇̫̝̜̓̆͆̍̿H̵̙̟̣̊̾͊̓é̶͈̞̣͓̻͖͂̀̾h̸̰̠̣͖͇̋̽̎̑ȩ̸̝͑̑͝h̶̡̗̬̘̱̎̆͋̈́̍̎͐̕e̸̟͓̮͈̭̼͚͆͋̓͌̋͝͝h̷̰̭̗̮̪͇̥͙̓̈̊̋̕ė̷͚̏̌̍̓̇̅͜͝ȟ̵̟̈́̑ȇ̶̻̃̀h̷̲̻͒̾e̶̤̣̱̠͖̤̾͋͜ͅͅḩ̴̢͚̖̦̙̀̂̔̂͜͝é̴̺͍̖͕̈́̾̎͗̀̒̚h̷͉͉̮̠̱̦̓̂̾ȇ̶̢̲͔͉̐͛͊̀h̶̞̪̥̃̈́̄̉́̀͝ē̶̯̗͖̬̟̞͖̲͋̿͐̂̄͗h̸̝̐̓̓̋̈́e̶̯͓͛͛̄h̷̞̜̰͓̫͕͆̄̐̀̀͊͝͝ę̷̡̧̲̰̼̉̾̓́͊͝h̶̡̧̦̥͍̱̟̮̩̽è̷͉̞͖̝ḩ̶̭̖͎͚̱̣͈͐̈́̀̃͝ḙ̷̈̿̈̀h̴̛̩̣̭͔̙̘͙̀̎̑͋̓̓̀̕͜e̴̱̤͔̦͍̝̯͑̽̀͜h̷͕̺̤͚̪̮͋͐̂̀͗͜ḝ̶̨̭͔͚̻h̵̰̳̩͐̄͋͗͋̏̃̋ͅé̶͓́ͅh̶̨͙͉͚͆̂͊̍̒͝ë̷͖̣ḧ̷̨̛̪͖̣̲͍͐͒̿͑̌͑͝ͅe̶͔͖̰̥̙̝̬̅̈́̋̽͆̅͑̒̏h̸̝̙͍̬̩̖̺̬̆̈́̀͜͠e̸̡͙̝͍̭͐͜ḧ̸̢̛̥͍̺́̈́̋̈́̏̃̏̏ȅ̸̞̟̇͐̃ẖ̴̖̯͕͕̹̓̅͋̿̈́̌̐̌e̵͍̣̖̱͉̙͂̐̽̀̚h̵̡̰̰̭͍͎̜̮̍e̷͓̠̣̹̽͒́h̷̬͎͕̄͐e̶̠̪̮̤͈̪̳̊̀̌̾̕.̸̦̄͛̓̓̏"̵̢̡͔̭̤̫̒̇͌͐̄͝
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