Skipping over the piles of trash left over by what she guessed were the homeless, Louisa hummed to herself as she started to walk towards the decript old warehouse. It looked like it had been abandoned for years, and if it wasn't a place for the homeless to hang out it was definitely the perfect place for a massive rat's nest. To Cadence though with no other person in sight, it looked like a good roof over her head for the night. Sure it wasn't the Ritz or even a nice abandoned house she could break into but she would take what she could get. It was already starting to get dark and it was the best location she had seen all day so she might as well do. I mean it just needed a few touches anyway, a little clean, a small bed and maybe a shield to keep her protected from anyone who decided she was an easy target.
Walking into the structure she knocked on where there had once been a door,
"Hellooooooo, anybody in?" She called out into the ominous dark.
At first, there was nothing. No answer from within the darkness, no shining light or foot stepping out from the shadows. Nothing.
Then, there was a noise, one that sounded like it came from a random creature in the woods. It was like a hyena's cackling laughter, which became deeper in pitch within the span of a few seconds.
Tap, tap. One pair of footsteps sounded in the dark, and then another, and another. They multiplied in number until there was a cacophony of quiet feet from the void... that is, until one stepped out. It was a figure in a labcoat, a man in an advanced state of decomposition that walked rather unsteadily, as he had a broken leg. It gave out a growl; it sounded hungry.
Hearing the footsteps, Louisa sighed to herself. It didn't look like this place was as empty as she had hoped. It wasn't until she saw the telltale lab coat of the first stranger, did her chest tighten. What in the hell?! Seeing a familair sight from her childhood instantly made the small animalistic part of her brain screaming for her to run.
Than her eyes caught something, wait... why were they hurt? It then growled, and she couldn't help herself. She started to laugh a high pitched gasping laugh as she tried to calm herself. She didn't even care if it was the same people from her childhood anymore because fuck them. They deserved whatever this was that happened to them.
"The nightmares of the past
this shall be your last
may your bodies carrode
and from this world fade."
A bright neon glow came from her hands and stretched out towards the monster like beings from her past.
The first of the eldritch monstrosities crumbled into ash, it's remains tumbling unto the floor like a sack of potatoes. The two behind it followed suit, and then the next four, the next right, and then the rest. In a few seconds, all of them were destroyed by Cadence's spell. But it wasn't over. Not yet. Another pair rushed out of the darkness, this time running full speed towards her, teeth bared and leaving drops of blood in a trail behind them.
"Hey Nathan." Alfred cackled as he watched through the eyes of his minions.
"This is a good catch. Don't you think?" "Screw you, every night, you're like this." Nathan grumbled from the corner of the mind that they both resided in. The two of them were in what appeared to be an office space, though all the lights were out except for the ones inside the cell keeping 'Nathan' imprisoned.
"You should let my body go to sleep." "And leave out the fun? Aw, no. Besides, I'm the one that does what is necessary. You don't have the guts."
"Just... wait." Nathan pointed at the TV screen that represented what his dark side's minions were.
"I know her. It's Louisa... from the facility we were taken to!" "Oh? I'll go and say hi then. But first..." Absolute darkness enveloped the entire warehouse, including the area in which Cadence was standing on. The creatures would simply look upon her with dead eyes as another pair of footsteps began to sound in the dark, though this one was far more stable in movement...
She smiled to herself with a little pride and started to relax as she watched the creatures from her often nightmares started to crumble. It looked like she had celebrate victory too soon though as the same monsters lunged out of the darkness. Louisa quickly took a fighting pose, this was not the first time she would have to defend herself from others in an abandoned lot. Though it was definitely the first time she would have to defend herself from what looked like the undead.
Nevertheless, she tried to calm her erratic breathing and readied herself to only see them suddenly stop as all the light in her world seemed to suddenly be turned off. I mean it was dark before but now she couldn't even see her readied fist in front of her face. What the hell was going on. This was not normal in the least and all that Cadence knew at the moment was she was not planning to spend the night here. Screw a possible roof over her head, she rather sleep on a street bench. Oh good, she thought to herself as she heard the heavy footsteps, what is this now?
Nathan threw a metaphysical pencil at Alfred, who was still sitting on the computer that represented their control over the mind they were in.
"Get off the wheel you idiot, I should be the one to talk to her." Alfred chuckled.
"Awww, it's not daytime, baby. But... okay. Just for now, hehehe." The dark ego stepped aside from his station, and bowed slightly as Nathan quickly rushed towards the seat, taking control of the body that they shared.
As soon as he got down on his 'seat', the undead creatures that Alfred had summoned crumbled into ash, and the darkness dissipated. What would appear before Cadence's eyes was someone vaguely familiar; someone she knew.
"It's really you, huh, Louisa." Nathan said, looking down at her due to their marked height difference.
"It's been a long time." Wait where are they going? Cadence looked dumbfounded as she just stood in her fighting pose just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Instead in the place of the terrors, she was looking up at a normal enough looking man who was just a bit older than her.
What the actual fuck, Louisa thought as she stared bewildered at the man in front of her. It took a moment but hearing her old name, it all started to click into place.
"...Nathan?" She asked as she started to relax her body out of the battle position and then with what seemed like a spark of recognition she squealed and jumped on top of him hugging him with all her strength,
"NATHAN! Oh my god is it really you?! Where have you been? How did you get out? Did you escape back then too? Did they let you out? Do they even still exist..." And then she started to question her thoughts,
"and ... was that you? you couldn't do that before." Stopping squeezing him she looked up at him with her arms still around his neck,
"wait where's Alfred?" Nathan only shook his head.
"He's been dead for a year, Louisa. Shot when we escaped. But... it seems that he is not entirely gone..." At that moment, he suddenly began to spasm and fell down to the ground... and shifted into the form that the younger Salazar had when he was still alive.
"I'm right here! Hahahahahahaha! Scaring the crap out of people has been soooooo fun! And... yeah. I'm dead. Kind of. But not really. We now share a single brain and body, though he's quite icky about the whole thing... hah."
"What do y-," Louisa suddenly stepped back as she looked over her childhood friend in worry. She was about to try to find out if he was alright but then to her surprise Nathan started to transform and instead she was now looking at Alfred. Her bright smile came back to her face as she stared at the younger boy, not really caring about his little manical laughter and pretty much his confession that it was him who had scared her.
"I'm so happy to see you too!" Cadence said as she jumped on him and hugged him as tightly as she could. She had no idea how this was possible but she honestly didn't care how weird the situation was, because she could accept it all if it meant she had both her friends back in her life. As a teenager she had escaped hoping that they had only been right behind her, but the truth that she never saw them get out was a thought that liked to be recalled during those dark lonely nights. Now with them in her arms, she wasn't going to let them go so easily. Pulling back to look at his face she then pouted and pointed out,
"That was a mean trick." "I had no idea it was you." Alfred winked. He held her in a hug, keeping Louisa close as he sensed that Nathan had missed her quite a bit.
"So, it's really been a while, and yet, you haven't gotten taller at all. HAH. Either way, it's really late, so why don't you crash in my place?" "Our place, you idiot." Nathan grumbled from within.
Louisa smiled brightly back at Alfred, but she couldn't help but wondering how much truth was beyong the tricky younger brother's words. Though she really didn't mind at the moment and all she did was release her hug and stand in faux annoyed position and stuck her tongue out at him.
"I did too grow," She huffed in fake annoyance before then she did a light twirl around the area as she took it all in.
"Is this where you two live? I can make beds appear" She finished and then looked back up at them with a her familiar beaming smiling.
"Oh, not really. I just like to wander around at night, see who can I play tricks with." Alfred snickered rather gleefully, as this kind of deed was a lot of fun for him.
"You should meet a friend of ours, too." "I was gonna sleep here. Big empty space, no drug addicts and a roof over my head," Cadence pointed out still smiling as she showed the charm of the area to her old childhood friend. She happily grabbed his arm though,
"but sure, I would love to meet your friend and see where you live," before she started to pull him towards the exit.
"Okay, then..." Some time would pass before they reached the apartment building where Nathan and the other friend lived in. It was a rather decrepit building, with dysfunctional light switches and a broken doorbell. Either way, they just came in and knocked on a door on the third floor labeled '21'. It quickly opened, revealing a man in his mid 20's and wearing pajamas and a bed coat. "Oh, hi, Nate, and, uh, girlfriend." Zach extended his hand... and at that moment, Louisa would feel that her mind was being read...
Louisa happily followed Alfred towards the old apartment building, it didn't matter how ancient and broken the place looked, to her she was just so happy that her old friends were not only doing well but had a regular roof over his head. She was curious on why he was knocking though, if this was his place why didn't he have a key. Either way she was all smiles looking at the disheveled man in front of her, well that was until he called her Nathan's girlfriend.
Her face scrunched up in confusion as she looked at him,
"but it's Alfred right now and I'm not his -" There was a niggling at her brain and she looked at Nathan and Alfred's friend and raised an eyebrow as she recognized this feeling. There were many thoughts that were going through her brain at that moment, but the main ones were that he was like them and that he really didn't want to be looking into her head, he probably wouldn't like what he found. If he looked under that all that though and really saw into her mind, it would have been deafening colours that swirled vibrant shades, screams of fear, a young voice talking to herself and a woman with a permanent fixed smile who skipped around her mind reciting rhyming words.
Zach immediately recoiled after trying to read Cadence's mind, his head hurting from all the pain and suffering. He swung the door open and motioned for them to get in. "Alfred? You mean Nate's long dead brother?" Zach had no idea. That was a secret that Nathan had kept this past year; though Zach was a telepath, he did not know that his friend has a split personality, as said split ego is rather discreet when around him. Oh well.
Once they were both inside, Zach crossed his arms and faced them both. "The name is Zachary Bennet. I have been his friend for a year now, and maybe only friend in this city, that is, until you came along. Uhm, how do you two know each other?"
Watching the telepath's face scrunch up in pain, all Cadence could think was
'I told you so' but what she said out loud was,
"That was rude," and humphed as she walked inside the apartment. She had no idea why this guy had no idea it was Alfred, I mean sure he looked like Nathan right now but shouldn't it be pretty easy to tell the two apart. They had completely differently personalities and he was a telepath wasn't he?
Louisa instantly made herself at home and went to lay down on the couch, with her feet over the side of the arm,
"My name's Louisa but you can call me Cadence." Kicking her feet over the arm of the lounge she looked up at both of the men with a bright smile back on her face and then also added,
"We grew up together." "Ohh, I see." Zach nodded his head. "I see, in that... place. Terrible place, he told me. Anyway, just feel at home. There's pizza on the table." He would then shamble towards the refrigerator, and pulled out a jug of water.
At the meantime, Alfred looked back at Cadence with a scowl.
"Hey, he doesn't know." He shook his head, telling her not to let off any more.
"Don't tell." Her relaxed smile faltered for a second when Zach talked about the facility. Her eyes quickly moved from Zach to Alfred and then back at Zach as she tried to keep her pleasent smile on her face. Her arm slammed over towards the table and she took a slice of pizza. Mouth full of food, she looked at Alfred in confusion. Why did he not tell Zach? Wasn't he living with him? Wait how did Zach not even figure it out? Whatever that didn't really matter, why he wanted to keep that specific thing as a secret was up to him.
Looking up at Zach coming back with water, she smiled brightly and said,
"Do you or Nathan need money for the pizza?" Then looking around the small apartment she also added,
"Oooooo do you and Nathan have bunk beds?! I love bunk beds." She pat herself on the back with her flawless recovery. She then smiled up at Alfred hoping he thought she did good and was no longer annoyed at her.
"We do." Zach answered, setting the water back on the table. "Though sometimes I will find him sleeping on the couch like a bloody puppy. And... well, we do what we can. And no, the pizza has already been paid for, thank you." With that, he bowed a little and left the room; he was going to sleep.
Cadence happy that it looks like she had managed to trick Zach, relaxed into the couch as he left the area. With half a pizza slice still in her hand, her eye lids started to feel heavy and before even a minute had passed, she had fallen asleep in that same position. Alfred put his hand on her sleepy head, and drifted off into the night...
"Bloody aliens." Nathn grumbled as he let loose a fiery surge of solar energy and radiation towards a group of aliens, turning them to ash. The invasion was in full swing, and it won't be long before his dark side decides to take over and continue the job of killing these invaders. They all must fall...
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Punished GN
