#empathiiquc

  @empathiiquc

"Just remember: if you look in the face of evil, it's gonna look right back.          And what are you gonna do do if it likes what it sees?"

A weak laugh left her bloodied lips, what a fucking joker this guy was in all his glory he must have been proud of his accomplishments taking down two of the group by this point with Claudette likely on her way to being the third. She had already said sent the last of their group searching for the hatch while she had been working on the last of the generators that separated the remaining two from the warmth of the campfire. She had been staring in horror from her hiding place and quickly found by him and taunted for it.  Only a thin pallet separated them for the moment while he spoke. It would only be moments before the pallet was only rubble beneath his boot.

Her retort to his question is short and almost breathless from how much she had been running.‘Ask him why he’s checking out girls half his age.’  With that short response Claudette turned on her heel and booked it the hell away from the guy knowing that the chase was going to resume until she was on the ground and in a puddle of her own blood.

 The situation is practically a spa-day for him when he slaughters two of them quite early in the Entity’s graphic game. Usually a quick and dirty kill was more Bill’s style, but even so—the Trapper wasn’t about to say no to a hand-out, no matter how much the taste of horrible planning on his prey’s part overpowered the initial pleasure of his bear trap puncturing a frantic foot between its snarl before he’d even had the chance to collect the first body he’d reprimanded for the unforgivable crime of mouth-breathing inside a locker. Maybe during another hunt, the one called Dwight would learn his lesson in lingering too long within the paint-chipped cabinets (or at the very least--some relaxation breathing exercises), but for this hunt—the opportunity had already slipped by the nervous man as it so often did. The girl, braids and all, must have thought herself a hero when she’d bolted forward out of her cover to dance a distraction around him, but after she’d danced too close to a loaded trap, he’d gladly shrugged the one fool strapped over his flank in favor of prying the other out of the trap her boldness had betrayed her for. Hanging them both within the minute had left him feeling lighter even though the weight of their blood had joined the thick layer of grime guarding his hide.  With how the Entity preferred its servants to cycle through hunts so that its prey would not grow too comfortable with facing any one of them, the Trapper would often collect a stain of stiffness between his shoulders from sitting out and waiting his turn to slaughter  Whenever his work beckoned him back into the fray of hide and seek with the Entity’s sacrifices, he’d feel like a pair of his trap’s iron jaws left to rust in the rain until the hooking his first victim slathered his shoulders in a crimson oil so that each murderous muscle rolled effortlessly under their tight covering. With the brunt of the Entity’s hunger sated early on, he’s content to spend the next enviable chunk of time spreading his traps around the remaining generators and the grass that grew skirts around their chrome bases. Keeping one eye honed on the horizon, he  watches each yellow light pop out against the Entity’s eternal night, and waits once he notes how straight the spine of gyrating gears they’re building is. How typical--that once the stakes were at their highest, they would make their most foolish mistakes by sticking to the comforts that came of linear action; not even Bill’s spine is as straight of a line as they’re going. All he has to do is follow the trail of lights straight to his next victim, and careless as she is, having led him straight to her with no effort on his part required, she’s awfully plucky behind that pallet.

   Not for long. Not if his brutal strength has anything to say about it. A simple stomp would suffice.

    ❝ He hasn’t caught anyone yet. Surely he's patrolling the machines. We're in a very vulnerable position here. Nowhere to hide. ❞

    Knowing now the speed and the strength of their aggressor, he is not eager to be seen, especially out in the open, where they are both sitting ducks. He might have the training to outrun average human beings, but how can he outrun a monster possessed? He doesn’t stand a chance. And neither does she. But it will be much easier for her to hide anywhere. She isn’t quite so bulky as he is. 

    Reaching his hands back into the mess of wires and pistons, he resumes his work. She has a good point, though. This would be MUCH simpler with the aid of tools. But he possesses nothing yet that would aid him in his survival yet. The young woman is much more experienced in this game than he is. It’s clear that he’ll need allies like her in order to secure his life.

    @empathiiquc

"Sometimes I wonder if anyone on the outside is looking for me--parents halfway across the country, roommate expecting me to up and leave any day. My co-workers were the only people that would have noticed if I just disappeared, but--" He folds his hands, a smile staining the corner of his lips. "--they're the ones who left me up there in the first place. What would it matter to them?"

‘Hey, There has to be someone looking for you, people don’t just turn a blind eye to disappearances, especially if four disappearances happened at once you know? I think we’re being looked for- YOU’RE being looked for,’ Her hand raised for a moment to touch his own in a reassuring way. it was a difficult situation being stuck thinking that you were abandoned out here by coworkers or the worst case scenario that you were completely forgotten. She wondered too if her parents who lived in Montreal still were looking for her, it wasn’t like they talked often, they were probably busy with her younger siblings and hadn’t even noticed the stretch of time. A weak smile filled with a mix emotion was directed at him, it was both of her own anxious thoughts and wanting to console his own thoughts.

‘You know those kinds of people aren’t worth thinking about, they’re a drain to be around and a drain on emotions,’ She had learned this the hard way too, after being ditched too many times by people all throughout elementary to her college years. Being abandoned by people who were supposed to be there for you was the worst feeling but sometimes it was best to forget about the people who pretended to like you only to leave.’If it were me I wouldn’t have left you if that makes any difference….’

   “Four people go missing without a trace…” Dwight can’t help but muse into his knuckles as he warms them against the dark bristles he’d begun to bear under his nose from how lengthy a stay he’d already spent in a realm that grew not only patches of trimmed hair back in due time, but also–his life, as if it were just as simple a variable for the Entity to regenerate as it was for time to tend to his chewed-down fingernails. With the comfort of the campfire close by, he knows he should soak in every ray of ease it provides them for the short duration they’d usually dwindle away with patching wounds and collecting the small comforts of company from around them. The interesting meals Jake often scrounged up could only settle his stomach so far, and so far--everyone had curled up into their own corner of the camp, unusually silent in quiet reflection and preparations for whichever challenge they’d face next, Dwight assumes. It takes the light graze of her fingers finding his to make him realize how much of their precious recuperation time he’d already wasted on worrying about the lives they had been plucked from so senselessly for reasons he’d yet to figure, and doubted he ever would. “I mean, I’m no FBI agent, but--it sounds a bit like an impromptu road-trip. Like, anyone who’s read Paper Towns is not going to think four people just fell off the Earth. Not at first, anyway. At least, not until they figure out we’re complete strangers.” The thought gives him pause, paving the way for a softer smile to settle behind his hand he drops in favor of placing his palm over the back of hers.

@empathiiquc|| [ NOT ACCEPTING ]

A heavy sigh follows shortly after Claudette’s casualremark on the current state of their campsite. The fire had somehow managed togrow in their absence during the last trial and it had burned bright enough andhigh enough to act as a beacon from the exit gates they had just been runningfrom. Apparently the clean escape of all four had angered the Entity enough to somehow allow it to reach out into their onlysafe haven and affect the campfire.

Jake eyes it warily but is the first of the group toapproach it. The flames lick higher and spit out embers that miraculously don’tstart a forest fire. It seems to calm at his approach and when the other threefall in behind him it dulls itself to crackling at them – the usual size they hadbecome accustomed to seeing.

His shoulders lift and fall in a shrug. Dwight seemsextremely unsettled by the change of events and Claudette seems uncertain aboutgetting any closer to the warmth of the fire.

Unafraid of whatever might happen, Jake takes a seat onthe log and closes his eyes. If something were to happen outside of the hellishlandscapes they would often find themselves in then it was just something elsethey would need to adapt to. They’d dealt with everything else that had been thrownat them so far.

Claudette sits beside him, wire tight and rigid.

“It’s fine.”Jake says, hoping to reassure her. The comment must take her by surprisebecause her head snaps to the side and she stares – wide eyed at the usuallysilent member of their group. Her smile gets a narrowed look in return fromJake.