RP: The Running of the Maze (5th Festival)

[the_anon_entity]

Date: 1 May 2003
Character(s): The Entity, others
Location: The Maze outside the Mansion
Status: Very Public
Summary: The Fifth Festival
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[anon_tracey]

A silence fell over the maze, muffling even Tracey’s footsteps. Tracey looked down at the grass, and was surprised to see that it had changed. Even more surprising was that the the grass had changed to a very familiar floor. Looking up, Tracey recognized their flat. Everything was in its place, from the flowers in the vase that Luna had picked this morning, to the shoes Zach always left by the door. Even Tracey’s book was laid just so on the corner of the coffee table. It was just as though she’d come home from the maze, and for a long moment, Tracey wondered if she had done just that.

Something wasn’t right though. The house felt quiet, too quiet, and there was a stillness to the air that made Tracey uneasy. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She’d come home to an empty flat before, but it was different this time. Something just didn’t feel right.

Tracey moved through the flat, past the kitchen and the living room. She opened the door to her own room and saw nothing. She closed the door and then crossed the hall to the nursery. Still nothing. Feeling stupid, Tracey shook her head. It was nothing. It was all nothing. Turning to the third door, Tracey opened it. She would just go lay down on her bed and try to get the day she’d had out of her head. Maybe she would take a bath.

It was then that the smell of blood, faint and acrid reached her nose. Stepping into the room, Tracey took one look around and doubled over, vomiting her breakfast onto the floor.

Looking back up again, Tracey stared at the broken and battered corpse that had been Luna on the bed. It had been beaten, Tracey could see the signs of that in the bruises that littered her naked body. Raped too, by the look of it. Tracey wiped her mouth and shut her eyes. She tried to will the image away, but it stayed, and when Tracey opened her eyes again, Luna was still there. Her serene face forever marred by large slash in her pretty throat.

The baby had to be dead too. Died in her mother’s womb. Oh god.

“Zach?” Tracey heard the voice, weak, miserable and horribly familiar to her own ears. Tracey stumbled in Zach’s body over to the bathroom, and she let out a sob when she saw herself, lying in a growing pool of blood that led from her gut. Her own face, covered in bruises, looked up at her. “Didn’t take you for the sobbing type.”

Tracey hadn’t realized how insensitive her wit sounded until she heard it from her own lips, but she would probably say the same thing if she were dying. Tracey sank down to the floor next to her dying copy and gripped her hand tightly. All the while, she reminded herself that this couldn’t be real. She was here after all, watching herself die. That was impossible.

“Zach. Don’t go after him. He’s too powerful. Promise me you won’t get yourself killed.” Tracey looked over at herself, and found that she couldn’t speak. It wasn’t even her pain anymore. It was Zach’s pain that made her throat close up to the point where all she could do was nod. Even then, she knew that Zach would never keep his promise. The anger welling up inside him was even more powerful than the pain.

Her copy seemed to know it too. She just nodded back, and squeezed his hand, but Tracey knew she didn’t believe him. She wouldn’t believe him either. “I love you, Zach,” she whispered and then the hand in hers went limp, and Tracey watched the light in her blue eyes go out.

Tracey pulled her hand free of her dead self’s and buried her face in it, beginning to sob hysterically now. She didn’t know a way out of this nightmare. “It’s not real. It’s not going to be real.” Still, she couldn’t help but be afraid of it as well, and she couldn’t help but sink into the pain that Zach was feeling.

“It’s not real.”

Even after the illusion faded, Tracey still sat in the middle of the maze, still crying.

[anon_zach]

Zach moved with renewed sense of purpose, somehow knowing that the trials he'd faced were over and he now needed to somehow find Tracey and get the fuck out of here. He hated this and vowed never to participate in one of these damnable festivals again. Zach frowned as his arms churned and he ate up the ground along the path. He knew though that he couldn't make those decisions because he wasn't alone anymore and he always needed to keep in mind that there were two, make that three others who depended on him.

He ran along the twists and turns, his head swiveling left and right, searching frantically for Tracey. Zach began to feel a panic rise within him and took a deep breath, then exhaled, trying to calm himself. He slowed down, taking a moment to digest the situation before he took his sleeve and ripped it off, then left pieces of cloth along the way when he took off once more.

Zach skidded to a stop when he entered a small clearing and Tracey appeared in front of him, sitting on the leaf covered ground. He ran over to her, skidding down on the ground next to her, his intent to hold her tight and never let her go but something changed when they touched. Zach felt the air around them grow cold and he did hug her before he blinked, then opened his eyes and saw they were outside the maze. He relaxed as he stroked Tracey's hair and smiled. "Are you okay?"