54 // video/action // introducing alex kralie: season two!
There's a handheld communicator lying in the snow at the edge of the woods. For several minutes, the feed is just a worm's eye view of white sky and grey branches criss-crossing overhead.
Way, way off, someone has a minor coughing fit.
Several more minutes pass.
Then there are crunching footsteps. As they come closer, so does a faint, high-pitched ring, like a coin rolling around on porcelain. The footsteps stop and the ringing continues.
Alex Kralie picks up the communicator.
His breath's fogging and he's shivering in his t-shirt. There's a small videocamera strapped to his chest. He frowns at the screen with wary bafflement, because what the hell it's suddenly snowy and is he even in the same woods and what the hell did the Operator do now and jesus god it's cold and--
Wait, he recognises this thing. Alex Kralie, meet quickly-returning memories of the mansion.
He swears and throws the communicator back into the snow, ready to stride back into the woods and hope against hope that the transition is reversible if he catches it quickly enough.
Way, way off, someone has a minor coughing fit.
Several more minutes pass.
Then there are crunching footsteps. As they come closer, so does a faint, high-pitched ring, like a coin rolling around on porcelain. The footsteps stop and the ringing continues.
Alex Kralie picks up the communicator.
His breath's fogging and he's shivering in his t-shirt. There's a small videocamera strapped to his chest. He frowns at the screen with wary bafflement, because what the hell it's suddenly snowy and is he even in the same woods and what the hell did the Operator do now and jesus god it's cold and--
Wait, he recognises this thing. Alex Kralie, meet quickly-returning memories of the mansion.
He swears and throws the communicator back into the snow, ready to stride back into the woods and hope against hope that the transition is reversible if he catches it quickly enough.