Participants:
| Scene Title | Lost Lamb |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A old gift and new home. |
| Date | Various |
???
Crickets chirp as an owl hoots into the night, a bright moon shines overhead illuminating what the tall trees don't block out in the nature space. A young couple cuddles up on a black and white checkered blanket under the pale light, the two men mid kiss, absolutely absorbed with one another with not a care in a world full of heavy burdens. This deep into the green affords some sort of privacy save for the random loner or animal no echoes of other human life could be heard. A herd of deer bound through the trees, rustling the leaves as they pass by. One fawn is nosed by its mother as the herd comes to a stop at a small clearing with holes filled with water not too far from the couple who continue to ignore even Mother Nature for each other.
Each of the deer take their fill of the water before beginning to groom themselves and each other, the mother giving the most attention to her child.
There is a shift in the wind and her nose twitches as a familiar scent wafts into the clearing: blood and death. The alpha doe snorts grabbing the attention of her family. There was death nearby but no scent of a predator or hunter. Not nearby, nervously the deer continue to lick up the water and it's then that a blood red fog begins to seep in around the clearing.
One of the men nearby takes his shirt off and tosses it behind him, hitting a tree it hangs on a branch like a white flag of surrender. Or a beacon. He looks down at his blonde date and grins before reaching to undo his belt. Hunger in his eyes.
Something else hungers in this space, a hunger that eclipses lust or even the basic appetite.
Crimson wisps curling in on themselves and spiraling out, fanning into everywhere which direction. Though it looks just like fog the animal intuition wins out and the alpha doe stamps her feet and snorts to warn the others: we must flee.
But it was already too late.
The red mist slides over the first of the deer and it lets out a horrifying scream that shoots up and through the area. Crumpling to the ground with legs askew, one by one. Each falling with that terrible cry of pain, as if their energy was snapped and they could no longer move. The mother kicks and withers on the ground as the fawn cries not too far away. Desperation and fear reek in the air, this must be the end of it all for them. This strange, blood red mist.
A hitch of breath from the dark haired man beneath his boyfriend.
The black almost empty eyes of the fawn widen in fear.
The cries of pain from the animals makes the man on top look up with wide blue eyes, "What the fu-"
February 29, 2020
Outskirts of Detroit
A white pickup truck speeds down the highway in the dead of night, the moon hangs above like a glowing orb pulling at the attention of the driver. Having stolen a vehicle the first opportunity she could find, Eve Mas has one goal in mind. Home. The sounds of some atmospheric, moody song boom from the sound system, the melody curling around Eve's mind.
Long pale fingers curl around the steering wheel as she leans against it looking out at the road in front of her. None of this makes sense. What was that dream? Something about it felt familiar. Something about that encounter…. The woman shakes her head and takes one hand off the wheel to smack herself in the forehead. "Makes no sense, nothing does. How? How did you do it again?" Questioning herself gives no clear answers and the raven haired woman sighs through her nostrils.
Why couldn't she remember?
What had she done?
She's been thinking of her friends but she didn't stay in what looked like a war torn Detroit, not when she had to get home. Was Gilly home yet? Her best friend would be worried sick she was sure. How long had it been? "The year is 2020 ya nut." Chiding herself and reminding herself of what the woman in the morgue said to her.
She was dead.
But something else… something else they said.
She didn't look like this before.
Eve looks down at her hands and recognizes her fingers still, painters hands with the sign of wear from the weapons she was used to dealing with. "All ten fingers…" She doesn't look to her toes but she wiggles them and counts. "All the piggies feel the same." There's an inward sigh of relief and the breeze blowing in from the open window ruffles her mess of hair.
Almost as if it was the last test Eve's eyes flick up to the rear view mirror and what she sees makes her eyes widen and face twists into a mask of confusion.
Blonde hair flies in the rearview mirror, a few strands stick to the hospital gown, Eve's gown. Unconsciously Eve's foot slams down on the pedal and the truck spits forward and begins to swerve.
"Jes-"
The truck tips over after hitting a ditch in the road, something Eve couldn't have paid attention too. Now it was all she should focus on but her mind wanders and she sees a flash of a memory. A face.
A young man.
The feeling that blooms within her isn't one she's familiar with but it's rooted in such deep love. The emotion brings tears to her eyes as her body jostles and bangs around the tumbling car. Finally the pale woman lets out a scream as she flies forward to the windshield for impact but that never happens. With a gasp, Eve's doe brown eyes widen and flicker and change to a deep and glowing crimson.
She bursts into a roiling cloud of red smoke. The cloud seeps out of the truck as it comes to a stop on its back wheels in the air. Wisps of red curl over themselves and plume upwards. The gentle wind moves through and pushes it forward until the crimson mass makes its way towards the ground, sometimes battered by a stray gust of wind leaving a trail of blood red tendrils in its wake.
Eve's mind opens and she "looks" around herself while in the air. This wasn't the same as her gift… this felt different. She felt hungry. On the ground she spies a couple white lights shining like beacons for her. Drawing her in. Eve collides with the ground and the smoke spills out in every which way. Inching towards that light, reaching with the smoke. Eventually she rolls over it and dives in closer. Circling the light and feeling something loosen from the white light, she was pulling something from it.
And it felt good.
She can't tell how much time passes but eventually she finds herself laying on the ground her gown dirty and allowing her back to feel the earth beneath her. Eve groans and tries to sit up, she felt so tired. Her foot nudges something and she looks down. The truck behind her, wheels spinning and dark smoke billowing up from the engine.
A dark wing flaps weakly against her big toe and she shrieks as she notices an owl lying there barely able to move. Wings outstretched fully and head cocked to a weird angle.
Eve watches in silent horror, pulling her knees up to her chest and shaking her head. "No, no, no, no."
It shakes her as the owl slowly regains itself and flies away weakly to perch in a nearby tree shuddering.
Something was off.
New Jersey, Pine Barrens
March 16, 2020
The red cloud slowly rolls through the woods, the last of it leaving the couple that lays sprawled on the floor hyperventilating from the shock of it all and the fatigue placed upon them. Slowly the cloud darts upwards and curls into a mid sized ball not too far from the two men. The family of deer had begun to stagger off, crying out in fear. Something unnatural was here. Something unnatural had returned to this place. The cloud begins to elongate and divebombs into the earth and explodes outwards. From within the smoke a faint face can be seen as it begins to reverse its trajectory as if being summoned back home. Eve steps out of the faintest bit of red smoke that wafts to her shoulders and slithers into her ears as she stretches and sags a bit.
Tired.
Holding that form for too long, it made her just as weak as the people trapped within her cloud. She would need to be careful, breathing heavily her crimson eyes slide over the prone couple. The dark haired man's face is angled towards her form and his eyes widen in shock at the sight. "Sorry dearies, still working out the kinks but you shined so bright. Passion, mmm young love, it's heavy in the air. Reeks." Chuckling she staggers forward leaving the exhausted couple in her wake. Using the trees around her as supports to move forward.
The ragged black dress she lifted in a small town on the road snags one the branches but the woman tugs and presses on. Maybe she was close to home? Where was she? There was a sense of knowing, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Eyes flicker from red to white and back again and she tilts her head. Remembering something, a place. Somewhere she could go when she was r… here, she felt that in her spirit. When she died? Eve's eyes squint shut and she massages her temple. "Where…" The question hangs unfinished in the air. She feels something in the back of her mind. Something she hadn't been able to quantify but it felt like home reaching for her like she does for the white lights. "Fallen oak, fallen oak," She whispers frantically at the same time as a voice whispers the same in her mind.
Fallen oak, fallen oak.
A flash of a oak tree splintered and destroyed fills her mind and she rubs at her forehead and gasps. Her sight. It all comes rushing back, her time in The Middle. A place she could touch the pulse, dive beneath the covers and peer.
And boy did she look. The sights you could see in the In Between. Her vision of the Entity comes into more clarity, that was her gift. A reward for services rendered. Whether this was a gift given freely or stolen in the night mattered little to the pale woman at the moment.
Tears of joy spring to her eyes as Eve sinks to her knees and beats at the ground with cries of elation. A piece of her had returned, the echoes surge within her mind and embrace her like a long lost friend, her longest known companion and her own set of hell and demons. "You're backkkk," In a singsong voice as she chuckles and rolls onto her back. "You're back." A sigh of relief.
"You're back."
Sometime later…
She watched the trailer for the rest of the night, waiting for any signs of life from within as the dawn begins to break behind her where she sits in the dirt, fingers playing with a leaf. Finding the splintered oak tree felt like destiny, Eve's faith in the fates renewed and burning with a seeming everlasting fire. She would not take this for granted, this piece of her soul returned.
Trees were all around, one dead and almost completely uprooted. It leans to the side with branches grazing the dirt.
The dark haired woman climbs to her feet and allows herself to be free from her corporeal form. Body dissipating into a blood red mist it darts forward and slithers into the faintest of cracks in the window.
Laying like a blanket over the dirty trailer floor she comes together and steps forward with a sigh and slight stagger in her step. "Hellloooo, is anybody home?" There's no answer, no sounds of a shotgun being prepped to take her head off.
The place looked a mess. Dust coated everything. Mason jars with what looks like pickled vegetables inside can be seen in the sunlight beginning to filter into the place. Taxidermied animals decorate one side and Eve's head tilts as she looks at a beavers face staring straight at her. "What interesting tastes," Tapping a nail to her chin and humming as she sweeps a pile of newspaper to the side with her barefoot. The rustling is the only sound i the narrow living space besides Eve's humming which is growing increasingly loud as she moves forward pass a caramel colored couch with a stack of VHS nearby.
The tattered ends of her dress graze over the animal bones in the piled up in a laundry basket on the floor. Sniffing the air and coughing for her effort Eve waves her hands in her face. "Musty musty, someone's been living very fucking crusty." Eyebrows lift as she comes to the bedroom where a closet, vinyl accordion door laid open grabs her attention, there were papers pinned to the wall. Newspapers. Nobody here, not for a long time. Her sense of unease of you could call it that flutters away and she grins too wide showing all teeth. "Maybe home… you silly goat you found a home!" Somewhere to hide with the things that were running on the news. Someplace to learn. Herself, what she was now. Somewhere there might be a moment of peace. What if she stayed here? Lived here? Made everyone's lives simple.
That was a thought for another day. There was a bed and for that Eve was grateful, she falls onto the mattress so she can wiggle on it over to the closet and peers in with a curious expression lighting up her face. In the dirty mirror positioned towards the bed the reflective glass catches Eve's back. Blonde hair falls down to just past her shoulders and through a hole in the dress, the curved line of a black tattoo can be seen, "Extra extra read all about it!" Snorting at herself she claps her hand to her mouth as her eyes scan the clippings on the wall. Completely missing the mirror behind Her.
Eve notices faces, dozens of them and she squints at the articles around them, "Boring, not… so boring, kinda boring," Flapping her lips as she looks at each one, what was the significance? She couldn't place it, were these… all obituaries? It sinks in that they were and she takes a step back.
What previously didn't scare her makes her think twice, what sort of person had a pile of animal bones laying around in a laundry basket? Well the answer could very well be Eve herself but out here, "Trophies." Was the previous occupant a dealer of death? Eve grins despite herself and leans a hand against the wall, "Death's always around me. I'm Death." Alone it doesn't feel so bad to say it but a piece of her feels some pride at surviving against the odds again. This life she would hold precious, it was very likely her last.
While she muses her eyes slide over a pretty woman with blonde hair and she almost ticks over to the next face but something makes her eyes bulge wide and she leans back and then very close to the wall, nose pressed against the woman's photo.
The Odessa Register April 9, 1984
OBITUARIES
RIANNA PRICERianna K. (Mas) Price, 36, passed away on April 8, 1984. She is the daughter of the late Terrence and Amelia (Beaumont) Mas. Born in Manhattan, Kansas on May 8, 1948, a graduate of the University of Kansas and went on to achieve her nursing degree. Rianna is survived by her daughter, Odessa Price. Rianna also leaves her brother Eric Mas of New York, NY. All services were private for the immediate family.
Mas.
Eve makes a choking sound and shoved herself backward onto the bed, eyes rolling backwards as she tries to get a grip on herself. George Porter. Your father was nothing. Words from the Entity, words she didn't know she if she believed. Mas was her name. Eric her father and this…?
"Aunt Rianna?" Voice cracking and a hand goes to her chest as she begins to laugh, a slow and throaty sound before it escalates to a full blown cackle. The sound is muffled from the outside by the walls of the trailer and the seer hoots laughing before they descend into chaotic sobs.
She had followed fate indeed.