It's like she's there, again. TW: VIOLENCE/TORTURE

[callmeemily]

Trigger Warning: This thread contains violence, and torture. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to tweet @thestarsplay for clarification. Thanks!

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When he'd closed the bathroom door, when he'd turned the light out, the room was plunged into darkness.

Raleigh had screamed until her throat was raw; she sobbed until she had no tears. She was in that basement again; that basement where she'd been so sure that she would die; her leg was numb but she tried to crawl, tried to crawl and reopened her foot, blood smearing the floor. She'd finally stopped, her cheek flat on the ground as she stared at the minuscule crack of light that was coming from under the door. She may have slept; she didn't eat the meal they brought, although after they brought it she tried to pull her hands from the manacles, streaking her wrists with blood.

Finally, she waited. She lay on the floor and waited for them to come. Help wasn't coming. Maybe... maybe someone had noticed; it'd been a day. Maybe Jason had wandered to the bakery. Maybe Spencer wondered why she didn't bring him soup like she'd promised.

Maybe nobody had noticed. Maybe they'd noticed, but nobody cared. Maybe... maybe they'd just assumed she'd moved on.

She was going to die here. She was going to die here. She thought, still. She thought about things she could do, that there'd be anything she could do... besides die. She heard the door open, and she squinted at the light, shrinking back from the light and all that would come with it.

Comments

[tarnishedbadge]

"You didn't follow the rules," Joseph said, turning to look at the baker girl, expression completely blank. Not even disappointment on his face. "I made it clear I must hear it from both of you. You didn't say that you agreed he would die. This man was going to give his life for you and you threw it all away because you couldn't follow the rules."

Joseph let that sink in for a moment, impassively watching the realization dawn on her that she had just killed herself, that a man had been willing to sacrifice himself for her and she had thrown it away. She had ruined his gift. He didn't take any sick, sadistic pleasure from it beyond the fact that this girl had been so enraged at him for being willing to take a life for his, now she had done the same. Or tried to.

"But not to worry. I was never going to spare one of you. It's absolutely necessary that both of you die during the ceremony. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to prepare."

With that, he had his partner both walked through the door that separated the two rooms and shut it. It would take a moment to prepare everything but none of them were going anywhere.

[callmeemily]

"No, no- No, I'm sorry-" She tried to twist herself up so that he'd listen, so that he'd listen to her when he never had, and she's not understanding that it doesn't mean she's not free at first; she didn't expect to be let go, not after everything. Maybe she wouldn't have been a part of a fucked up ritual, but there was no way she was walking out of here. She knew that, she'd told Wulfric that, but he'd just told her they had to take the chance that for once - for once - he might not be lying.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, and she closed her eyes before he stepped out. He stepped out and closed the door with a click, and Raleigh finally, finally looked at Corry.

"I guess me asking you to tell my mom I love her would be stupid, right? Given that you'd rather help?" Her voice is sharp and strained and raw, and she wonders, idly, how much it's going to hurt. How long she'll be awake. If she'd see Wulfric die before her - and if Corry will be glad.

[starsfallen]

It hurts. The words. Her words. The condemning stare. It snaps Corrine back to reality and she's angry. At the baker at Joseph at the world. "You think I'm getting out of here?! He's going to keep me! Make me his slave like that - that thing!" Her words are raw and hoarse. Sharp. Filled with bile. But the girl has every right to accuse. Corrine fated her to this. "I offered to help because I thought -" Sobs well in her throat. " I thought if he let me near you I c-could help you escape." Escape. It's just them now. She has to. They have to escape. She starts rocking her body, trying to tear her hands from the tape, shift the chair to the girl, to something.

"I'm sorry!" Her wrists are raw and stretched and torn but the tape stays all the same, he sobs are too overwhelming to bear. It doesn't matter if they can hear. This is probably all part of Joseph's sick game. "I d-I didn't know. I'm so s-sorry. God I'm sorry." She rocks the chair so hard it falls. She crashes to the floor hard. A leg breaks. She can't escape the chair, but it seems she can break it. And she has her body on the ground now. It's horrible tedious work but she snakes closer. Closer to the baker. They are in this together.

[callmeemily]

Corry talks about her being his slave, and Raleigh actually rolls her eyes, even though it hurts. Everything hurts. "Let me cry you a river from where I'm all hacked to pieces so that he can have eternal life, or whatever." The words are harsh, but she looks away then because she's somehow found the ability to cry again, and she can't not.

"Her name's Emily Gregson. My mom."

Corry continues then, she looks back, her face twisting in confusion. "They'll kill you. They'll kill you, too, for helping me.For even trying to help me." She's saying me, like Wulfric wasn't there, like he wasn't already a walking dead man. "There's no way out," she says lowly even as Corry's chair falls with a crash, and Raleigh's eyes flick to the door. "I can't walk.... much. He made it- He sliced my foot open so I couldn't run." It's horrifying, but she says it the same way you'd just talk about a normal injury.

When Corry falls, Raleigh just can't see her anymore; she's gone, and she hears this sickening crack, and she has to ask - "Are you alright?" Not that it mattered.

[starsfallen]

The baker's words bore into her. Hurt worse than anything Joseph has done. "I'm on your side." She's pleading, whispering, crying. She's not sure the girl can even hear her words. She remembers there someone else there. "Please, I'm on your side." She's on the ground now, wiggling, crawling. trying to capture the broken chair leg with her. Trying to get closer to the captives. She will be on their side. If they die, she will be with them. Maybe she will die too. But maybe. She strains harder than she knew possible. She has the chair leg beneath her, moving with her but it means nothing without her hands. She wonders if she can use the jagged edge to tear the tape. If she could free them all. It is a pipe dream, but it is hope.

She cries out as she strains her hands. Futily, but enough that her fingers graze the tip of the wood. "I'm - I'm trying - I'm trying to help us. My life is over anyway." Alive or dead. Corrine Flynn will be no more.

And then she remembers something. Name. Emily. Her mother? Corrine tries to distract herself as she works towards - something. Getting closer to Emily, getting closer to the broken chair leg. "Y-you're Emily."

[callmeemily]

She knows, now. She knows - the beginning, it was Joseph first, and then Corrine's own words. Even though Raleigh knows that it's not right, that she shouldn't think that it would be better to be a slave then to be dead to make Joseph live longer...

"I know. I know." She says it to the ceiling as the tears slip back into her hair, and her lower lip wavers as she doesn't want to think of it. As she tries to think of what they'll do to her - and given how this was a lie, how this whole thing was a lie, she wonders if they'll do the one thing that he said they wouldn't.

She wonders, now, why he told her that they wouldn't violate her. If it was so she'd think it wouldn't happen.

"Your life isn't over. You... You can- You can get away, later, when he's sleeping, or... I don't know, but you can get away. Everyone knows who you are."

She starts to cry, then. Really cry. "Nobody's even going to know I'm dead," she says thickly. "Nobody would miss me, so- so it's good, if you survive." It's gotten to her. The stress, the pain, the exhaustion - the things Joseph said. A young girl that no one would miss walking alone before the sun is up... perhaps you should have valued your own life more

"You have to get up. They need to think that you're okay." That's when she finally said it. That she was Emily, and Raleigh couldn't even say anything but the truth. "Emily's my mother. Emily Gregson. Please, just- just tell her I'm sorry, and that I love her. That I loved her, okay?" Her words are thick with tears, and she's just staring up at the ceiling now, letting them run back to her hair.

[starsfallen]

Corry barely whispers. She doesn't look at Emily - at the girl now. She doesn't want to know it herself. "No. He uses magic. If he... I won't even have my own will to escape." She shakes her head, then her body, rocking it harder, trying to break the rest of the chair. This is not a pity party. This is not a contest of whose fate is worse. They should be consoling each other. Saving each other!

And then she remembers something. Emily, not being missed. A conversation that seems forever ago. Leslie. The realization of him again. That he is real, that he is shared, that he is not some figment that she has made up. It gives her hope that she hasn't felt in an incomprehensible stretch of time. "Leslie would know." She lifts her head from the floor to look at the girl. "Leslie." She starts to laugh, her beautiful wonderful Leslie. She feels something like giddiness. Maybe she is beyond gone now. "He told me about you. That he was telling you about the supernatural world in exchange for cake. He got such a kick out of it."

She can't get up. The chair's half broken. The most she can do is stay in place. Or keep going. She's going to keep going. She remembers why she has to again.

[callmeemily]

There was, as far as Raleigh knew - especially because she had no idea what was going on with Corrine and the chair - no saving each other. There was the chance that she'd maybe be able to mess up the ritual - maybe die now, before he needs her - but she can't even make that happen.

She can't move. She can't sit up. She can't do anything, and that seemed to be Joseph's purpose. That she couldn't do anything but die.

"He made fun of me," she says thickly, when she turned her face away as Wulfric made peace with whatever afterlife that was supposed to exist. "He thought it was funny, I think, that I was scared of all this. Because I'm human and I can't- and now look." She remembers what Les did bring her, though. That was how she ended up in Jason's arms, how she had the best night she'd had in months because of the way he was so entirely clueless about people who weren't like him.

[starsfallen]

"No, but that's Leslie. He's a good guy. He's the best guy. W- when we get out of here... you should try making him something with pickles. His favorite." She's at the foot of the girl's bed now. On the floor. Banging the chair against the frame of the bed trying to get more to break, but it is a cheap motel frame and only succeeds in rocking them both. She hurts. She hurts so much. The jagged wood and dragging has scraped and opened wounds. The closer she gets to the girl the farther they seem from any feasible escape. But talking. There's some solace, some normalcy here. Maybe she can give the girl some comfort at least. They are still people. Joseph hasn't taken that from them yet.

"Your name's not Emily. What is it? Tell me your story. We deserve that. A good complete story." She rests her head on the floor, closing her eyes and just - attempting to find some peace in another's voice. She's a siren. Voices are entire worlds. Voices are power. "I was born in Siren Cove to a renowned adulterer and a pill-popping mother who likens herself to the height of society. When I was 3 I started singing and dancing. I was in my school play at 4 and never stopped. My parents thought I was too much, too wild and vibrant, so by the time I was old enough I spent all my free time on the boardwalk, performing for whoever would watch. That's how I met Leslie. He was my best friend. My everything as kids. And there was Owen and Lou... I grew up I got out, I found all the stardom that I ever wanted. I saw the world. They called me America's Sweetheart. But then... things happened. And I came back. But it was going to be better. It was going to be better..." It should make her cry. But there's peace here. She has lived. She has loved. All she can see is their faces now, and the scenes of her life. This is what they say happens before you die, isn't it? She is her memories now. They bring her peace.

[callmeemily]

"Pickles and peanut butter," she said as she shook her head. "I really don't think I'm going to be making anybody much of anything, sorry to disappoint you." She's staring up at the ceiling, taking big, gulping breaths of air as the tears still just slipped back into her hair.

"He found out. He must have found out, I don't know how, but they told me to keep it quiet and I didn't, and now I'm here." Her voice cracked, because where Corrine's finding piece, Raleigh isn't. "My mom- Tell my mom, okay? It's Raleigh Harper. Tell my mom-" She can't stop crying, and she wonders why she had to break; why she had to tell Jason, why Aoife was here. Why the man who brought her here brought her to the place she was in danger, when he could have just left her in fucking Bangor or something.

Why this is where she was, now.

Suddenly, all she can think about is Jason's damned dog, about how she'd said she'd stop in and check on him and she hadn't - it makes no sense, what happens when you're staring death in the face. "Can you-" She was going to say something else, anything else, but she can hear the rattle of a door, and all she can do is make a strained noise of fear before it swings open.