29: [Audio] Counting Bodies Like Sheep

[dashboardlite]

All work and no play makes Dean a dull boy.

He types because he can. Not to send, just...to type. Dean isn't sure when it really started. Maybe when he woke up. Maybe it was always there. Maybe it's just cabin fever, the stress of being stuck in one place for too long. Being trapped. Trapped. Trapped.

All work and no play makes Dean a

Comments

audio;

[lingeringmedusa]

[Her voice is that of a child, but the manner in which she speaks is more like an adult.] Almost everything, hm?

audio;

[dashboardlite]

Just about. [He laughs nervously.] Here's to hopin' that it's gonna be worth something this event.

[Ohhhhhh it'll be worth something, all right.]

D'you need any help?

audio;

[lingeringmedusa]

I think I'll be fine. No one comes down here.

audio;

[dashboardlite]

Down here? You hidin' in the basement, or somethin'?

audio;

[lingeringmedusa]

Hiding isn't the word I would use.

[Which isn't a no.]

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[dashboardlite]

Are you sure you'll be okay?

[He says as he gets up out of his chair, grabs his duffel bag slowly and calmly, and starts heading down to the basement.]

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[lingeringmedusa]

I think so.

audio;

[dashboardlite]

[She sounds young. Vulnerable.]

How old are you, anyway?

[Opening the cellar door.

Taking the stairs carefully so as not to make noise.]

audio;

[lingeringmedusa]

[Her room isn't too far from the stairs.

She pauses for a moment before answering.]

Eighteen.

action;

[dashboardlite]

[A decade younger than him, then. Still a child, practically.

Dean switches off his communicator and treats her to some radio silence as he moves through the cellar. Several boilers for the central heating, machinery there but not on, rust everywhere, swinging lights, dripping water...just like a horror movie.

Heh.

Heh.

Heh.]

Little giiiirl,

[Dean croons in the quiet of the basement, pausing by a workbench to observe a pressurized nail-gun with its very own convenient air pump. He moves on, peering around corners and into some of dimly-lit rooms.]

Where aaaare you?

action;

[lingeringmedusa]

[One room is full of the noise of a medical life support system, surrounding a capsule that contains, well, part of a little girl. The area around the capsule is swathed in long chains that clink even though nothing seems to be moving them.]

What are you doing?

[The voice is sharp and comes from behind Dean. Hoping to distract him from her real body, Alice has appeared in her older spirit form.]

action;

[dashboardlite]

Shhhhhhhhhhhh, I'm busy. Go away.

[He answers bluntly, fascinated by the capsule. This machine, made up of tiny parts, is the only thing keeping the poor thing alive. She looks like she's in bad shape. Half a little girl is no little girl at all.

Funny how one malfunction in the mechanics of the capsule could ruin everything.

Dean leans over the glass, rubbing a finger against it. It squeaks.]

action;

[lingeringmedusa]

[gdi Dean. The spirit disappears and the little girl in the capsule opens her eyes. She looks at Dean for just a second before the chains around her spring to life, moving like striking snakes toward he intruder.]

action;

[dashboardlite]

[Ax out? Yes it is.

He gets in a swing at the glass and it cracks before a chain wraps around his leg. That's...inconvenient. In retaliation, Dean hacks at it and then once more at one of the tubes leading into the machine.]

action;

[lingeringmedusa]

[Alice makes no noise. Instead, more chains seem to grow right out of her flesh, writhing inside the capsule.]

action;

[dashboardlite]

[The chains aren't nearly as strong as he thought they would be. Minor irritants, at worst, and Dean yanks on another one as he swings the ax into the glass. The cracks spiderweb across its surface and he grins.]

Little pig, little pig-

[SwingCRACK.]

Let me in!

[A dragging step closer, and he begins laughing maniacally.]

Not by the - ahahah, ahah - hair on your chinny-chin-chin?

[Another loud CRACK. The capsule should be close to breaking point.

Soon.]