#* v003 .

𝙷𝙾𝚄𝚂𝙴 𝙾𝙵 𝙻𝙴𝙰𝚅𝙴𝚂 𝙼𝙴𝙼𝙴 : 𝙾𝙿𝙴𝙽

                she blinked a couple of times , holding the same little sly smile she so often offered out to her oblivious patients . this was a strange condition to EXIST IN ; neither dead nor alive , neither gone nor there … lenore busker was following a script written by someone else . but she still chose how to interpret her role . her GHOST WRITER gave her plenty of liberty , he trusted her ability to ENTERTAIN but , every once in a while , another actor would go rogue . and boy oh boy , was blondie over here making it difficult for lenny to follow her lines . she felt uneasy at clockworks ( or at least , farouk’s version of clockworks ) and kept whispering little upsetting things into other patients’ ears .  ━━━ TSK , TSK , TSK , SYD !  don’t go ruining it for everyone else just because you’re not having any fun , you sourpuss .

    ❝    you have a tendency to romanticise destruction , sydney . you ever noticed that ?  ❞   lenny asked, doing her best impression of a serious functioning adult . she had bitten her tongue , keeping any childish comments regarding recreational choking to herself . but lenny was surprised when she found herself wondering which part of her head had thought of wrapping her hands around syd’s throat  . had it been her’s ? had it been farouk’s ? the big boss man certainly had some major CREEP VIBES … lenny tilted her head, lips only curling further as she examined syd from head to toe .    ❝    get some rest .  ❞    said the fake psychiatrist . and then … something else . lenny’s lips didn’t move . but she still said something to the blonde .  a whisper in a voice that didn’t quite match busker’s .

* 𝙳𝙴𝚇𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙿𝚃𝚂 : 𝙾𝙿𝙴𝙽 

             there’s something soothing to his voice . something HYPNOTIC . and lenny thought that she ought to be comforted by it . this felt nice . there was no pain , no pills waiting to get shoved down her throat , no psychotic girlfriends FUSING HER with a wall … just nothingness . and a guy in sunglasses . lenny didn’t dare say it out loud , but she believed that three-piece-suit wearing middle-aged man to be GOD . ━━━ all those sundays spent wasting away in church seemed to have paid off . but he didn’t strike her as being holy . that wasn’t the word she was looking for , no . he felt … POWERFUL .             ❝   didn’t you get the memo , pal ?   ❞              lenny glanced at him through the corner of her eye .              ❝   i’m dead .    ❞         there was no humour in that statement . the woman ( or what was left of her ) sounded tired .             ❝   i’m fucking DEAD .   ❞       and then she sounded angry .             ❝     i was cut in half ! my spine ! i could feel everything ! my body was just  ━━━  LIKE FUCKING TARTARE , MAN !    ❞     lenny could feel HYSTERIA dangling on the tip of her tongue . but rather than let herself be drowned in the horror that had been her death , lenny flared her nostrils and looked away . she simply shrugged it off like everything else . not even losing her life was that big of a deal . if she doesn’t commit to it , it can’t hurt her .

      ❝   i’m history .   ❞   lenny said . but after a couple of seconds without a reply , she dared glance at the strange man again . huge dark eyes watched him unblinkingly , waiting for a reaction . and then something horrible happened . lenny felt a sting of HOPE .    

                                                    ❝   ━ right ? i mean … i am dead , right ?   ❞  

𝙱𝙾𝚂𝚂𝙰𝙽𝙾𝚅𝙰 𝚂𝙿𝙸𝙻𝙻𝙴𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙾𝚄𝙶𝙷 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚂𝙿𝙴𝙰𝙺𝙴𝚁𝚂 .  it drowned clockworks into a false sense of peace . patients would swallow their pills and feel reassured by the bodiless voice which spoke to them through soothing foreign melodies . but they only felt happy there because they were supposed to . those random people were just figments of david’s memory ; all those faces he had seen before : up in clockworks , out on the street , in magazine covers ... but none of them were actually there . they were extras to a cruel play SHE had set up . and judging by the way the corners of lenny’s lips quirked up , one could only assume she was having A REAL GOOD TIME . she leaned back against her chair , arm neatly folded behind her head so that she could watch one of her  PRISONERS  patients exploring the therapy room . touching objects and furniture only david had ever seen but that now BELONGED to her memories too ... everything that had once been his belonged to lenny .   ━━━━     𝙴𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚈𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 .