alkəmɪst

tw: drowning, death

Riza had already lived through death, and somehow, facing it for a second time, made it no easier. It wasn’t like it was the same scenario, there was no gun to her head, no life inside of her clinging desperately to keep surviving, there for her to protect. Still, there was an eery calm about her as she walked away from uptown, moving as quick as she could to find Skylar. She needed to gather her wits about her, work to try and restore some form of calm to Braddock. 

As Carly kept her imploring gaze on the woman’s wild eyes, the hair on the back of her neck was standing straight on end; there was something in the air that was familiar– and not in a good way. She was grateful when the other woman snapped back to reality, unsure what she would have done otherwise. It was against her nature to leave someone in danger, but every instinct in her body was screaming at her to move. Now. Her shoulders slumped a bit in relief as the brunette pulled herself together, and Carly dropped her hand from her arm.

At the question, Carly shrugged, the gesture almost flippant despite the circumstances. “Your guess is as good as mine.” Her face was grim. “If I had to guess though, I think He’s back.” She could feel it in her chest, though the words froze her blood cold. And people having dreamworld hallucinations? That held all the hallmarks of Him. “Whatever it is I don’t think we want to be out in the open, we have to find cover.”

She froze a little as the woman mentioned a he, “He?” she whispered, eyeing her curiously. “You know who is doing this?” she asked, before she nodded a couple of times, realising that they needed to get away and get somewhere safe. Somewhere where she could try and piece together what was happening, try in time to try and stop whatever this was. She scanned the area to see where would be safest, she indicated to the nearest building, the shop closed and bordered up. She didn’t blame them. “Here, we can hide in here.”

Chaos. There was no other word for the scene before her. It had all happened so quickly, the world coming undone at the seams– and yet it hadn’t really been a surprise. Since waking up three months ago, Carly had constantly been looking over her shoulder, waiting for the other shoe to drop. There was absolutely no comfort in being right. 

People were running in every direction, to the point where she couldn’t even tell anymore which direction the threats were coming from; it seemed the screams came from all around. Pausing among the chaos, she turned in a circle on her heel, and caught sight of a woman not too far off. It was clear she was distraught, and as she grew close enough to hear the frantic whispers, Carly could guess as to why. She didn’t have to know what the woman thought she saw to know she was hallucinating something tragic. That was something she herself had become somewhat of an expert at.

Jogging forward, Carly grabbed the other woman’s forearm, tugging her back to reality with a sharp, quick jerk. “Hey– they’re not real. Whatever you see, it’s an illusion. But we need to get out of here.” 

She was shaking by the time the blonde’s figure emerged through the hallucination of the boy, and frantic hazel hues desperately scanned her features as she was told that what she was seeing wasn’t real. Her breathing coming in short, raspy gasps she looked back over the woman’s shoulder to find that the boy was gone, though the screams were still ever present, mingled in with that of the people of Braddock around her. 

She tried to access the more rational part of her brain, the part that screamed to get going, get herself to the safe points to help those that would eventually need help and she slowly began to pull herself upright and nodded firmly. “Do you know what it is?” she asked urgently, wondering if there was a way they could stop it, or someone they could contact to work on it whilst she attended to the wounded that would inevitably occur. 

She’d been out for some fresh air, a walk, trying to clear her mind when it began, the screams, the agonised yells of torture as someones’ life was taken for the sake of their research. She stopped in her tracks, dropping her bag, her phone to the floor as her head turned left, right, left again as she tried to see where it was coming from, who was doing this to her. Who knew? She was about to turn back to her right, still positive someone was playing a trick on her, when she saw the sight of a small child, one that was all too familiar. “oh my... it can’t be you’re--” 

“Dead?”

It wasn’t often that she got the entire day off in both her regular work life, and her research, and today she had been making the most of it. She was hiking, when she came to a stop and just stared at the breach in the sky with a puzzled frown, thoughts and ideas beginning to take over. What on earth could be causing it? She had no idea if it had anything to do with the amount of ghosts popping up, or the curse disappearing, though both were definitely too closely timed for comfort, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. “What are you up to...?” she mused out loud, unaware she was no longer alone. 

The past few weeks have been especially rough for Griffin since he discovered the passing of his brother best friend. He spent most of the time either sleeping most of the day away, inviting strange men to have relations with, or binge drinking until he passes out in order to escape his reality. Even now it’s hard for him to accept the truth for what it is, but he just could not bear to stay inside his stuffy apartment any longer. In his aimless wandering Griffin seems to have stumbled upon some kind of party where he seemingly does not know anyone, but then again that was never a real concern for him. He gets a drink from someone, starts to sip from the glass, but for some reason he just puts the drink down on the countertop near him. His buzzkill of an attitude seems to be rather noticeable considering someone makes their way over to him in what he assumes is to kick him out since he’s bringing down the entire mood.

Riza wasn’t too keen on the idea of after work drinks, not when she had so much more extra curricular work to be doing with her spare time, yet her co-workers had been insistent that she needed to join them after all, it wasn’t everyday they had a birthday to celebrate. She’d been watching him from the corner of her eye for a while now, noting the pure heartbreak obviously radiating off him, though it was a common sight these days it tugged at her heartstrings a little and before she knew it she was up and walking towards him. “Rough day?” 

Although the town was still locked down by the CDC, people had been getting better since the night the sky had opened up. With the disease somehow curing itself, people were getting braver. Life, it seemed, was determined to move on and that was how Mark found himself being called in for a shift at Spring Leaf Market. Technically, the store wasn’t open. He and a few coworkers were in the store cleaning and stocking the non-perishables they still had while throwing out old produce that hadn’t sold before the store had shut down weeks ago. His manager was hopeful that the town’s boarders would open up again soon and the store would be back in business in the coming weeks.

Mark had drawn the short straw and was tasked with throwing out the old, mushy vegetables. That also meant he was in charge of turning away anyone who wandered inside thinking the lights being on meant they were open for business since produce was located in the front of the store. 

He had just opened up a new trash bag when he heard the bell over the door jingle. He turned to address the person, but didn’t see anyone. Strange. Maybe one of his coworkers had gone out? Shaking his head, he went back to tossing out what once was lettuce and was now a slimy, brown heap of grossness. And then came the crash. Mark sighed, placed the garbage bag down, and made his way toward the swearing that was definitely not one of his coworkers. 

“Can I help you with something?” he said once he’d found the source of the noise.

She hadn’t expected anywhere to be open, though desperate for something fresh after a long night eating the hospital food and drinking copious amounts of coffee, she was detirmined to stay awake long enough to do so and to obtain said fresh food. She was already thinking about surprising Skylar with a cooked breakfast, and she knew her roommate would be awake soon which only caused her to speed up somewhat. However, her plan to rush was foiled when she snagged her foot against the shelving and began to trip, accidentally taking a rack of vegetables down in the process. “Fuck--” she hissed before she stopped and covered her hand with her mouth and looked around, stunned at her own language slip before she scrambled over the floor to collect the vegetables. “I’m so sorry, I was rushing and I--” she sighed, “I’ll gladly pay for all of this....” she finished, indicating to the spilt vegetables. 

“Ouuu so fucking mysterious.” Ethan sarcastically commented while throwing his hands up as if he was fed up with everything. A sigh of defeat soon escaped his lips as he did his best to suppress his anger and frustration by focusing on the question at hand. “A week ago or so? I eventually got bored of being in the apartment, so that’s when I ventured off to see how far I could go.” He had to give the woman credit for a) being able to keep up a conversation with a dead man and b) being determined to prove him wrong. “Sure Doc, whatever you say. I just gotta see it to believe it….Hey while you’re at it, if you do end up finding a way to also bring me back to life, then it’s a given I’d choose that option over the latter.” 

Riza rolled her eyes, “And the award for most immature ghost goes too...” she replied sarcastically, unable to remain polite in the face of such sarcasm.  She leant back against the bench as he gave up and gave her the answers she needed, truth be told it was quite difficult not to mention how much his stubborn ass was helping her, yet somehow she managed to refrain as she folded her arms across her chest. She stiffened briefly as bringing him back to life was mentioned though she hid it quickly, “That would be playing God. Who are you to say who lives and who dies?”

Intrigued now, Mica tilted her head to the side. Was there another person out there besides Melanie that believed in those old legends? “Not those old legends of Braddock or something more interesting than those?” There was a small smile on her face as she hoped Riza didn’t find her being intrusive.  

She exhaled softly at the girls’ question, wishing the research was more into the legends and not the very real danger the town seemed to be in again. “More recent, I’m afraid.” she admitted, “The uh, the recent disease. The giant hole in the sky. It’s all strange timing. Don’t you think?”

Vincent’s stomach dropped, she knew. “Wh-what, what could you mean by that…I-I mean what else could I be aside from human?” He laughed awkwardly. While he could be slick in lying, he got anxious and twitched nervously. Especially when Logan wasn’t around to keep him level. Around the right people, he could keep his story straight. “Okay, you got me…I’m dead, sort of.”

She nodded a little, a small smile tugging at her lips as she got a confession from the boy. “I thought so.” she admitted, shrugging slightly. “How did you die?” she asked quietly.

“A paycheck.” Penny laughed, shaking her head. “How about you? Or have you always been here?”

“No, I’ve been here about a year now.” she replied, “I followed a friend here.” she didn’t but she preferred to use Skylar as her excuse for being in town, considering they turned up around the same time. 

        With the situation quickly unfolding as the dark-haired woman addressing the waitress, Yael goes back to what she had been doing before: quietly staring at ( since now that commotion has made Yael unable to concentrate ) reading her book. She couldn’t of any reason why the waitress would spit in the mug. But, people did all kinds of debatable things, — some far worse than this. She tries not to dwell on it too much. "She probably wants to be fired,“ She says to the woman, but her gaze drifts to the waitress. "I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.”

There were no hard feelings, she just didn’t want to dwell much on the mishaps. A smile grew as the conversation moved passed it all. “The Librarian, she normally helps me sift through stuff. Had an idea on how to find my birth parents, though it will probably lead to nothing, closed adoption. What are you working so hard on?”

“Oh, I can imagine that would be frustrating, especially with a closed adoption.” whilst the experience wasn’t one she’d had, she had seen it through many hospitals over the years. “Oh, just some things about the town, I suppose.”  

“Really? So what? You can relate or something Doc cause you look pretty alive to me?” he asked while narrowing his eyes suspiciously on her. Ethan immediately rolled his eyes for what seemed to be the hundredth time for he had expected that kind of response from her. “Well they’ll give a shit in the moment.” he retorted back with a glare. “And besides, I fully just told you I can’t leave this damn place—so I have no fucking choice, but to just stand here.” He then turned his body to the building behind them and pointed at it. “Right there, build a memorial while you’re at it.” he muttered under his breath. “Whatever. I’m not going to expect much from your research Doc, unless you disprove me otherwise.” 

“Given what your species was, I presume you are aware that just because someone looks alive doesn’t mean that they are, or always were.” she replied, not bothering and not intending to explain exactly what she was to the ghost, unable to bring herself to tell him that she was perfectly aware of what it was like to die, and violently too. “You said I was the first person not scared, when did people start being able to see you?” she asked, the main question being what had happened to cause the spirits to be visible. “I’ll take great joy in disproving you then, I’ve done it before with people far more arrogant, I’ll enjoy doing that to you as well.” the mere thought had brought a new spark in Riza that had been slowly returning since she had arrived in Braddock, a spark she hadn’t really felt since working with Skylar all those years ago.