(Untitled)

[mark_of_samael]

There is a girl in the bar. This isn't particularly unusual, except that this girl is, technically, not really there

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[cavemen_win]

Fred's just passing through, probably on her way to the library.

All thoughts of books are forgotten, however, as she catches sight of the girl out of the corner of her eye. It wouldn't be enough to make her pause, normally, but she's seen that girl before. Sometimes just like this - just a glimpse in her own dreams that thankfully never approach anything as horrifying as that first one. There are flashes, sometimes, of something half-remembered, the shock of the experience never having quite faded from her mind.

This is what causes her to stop and turn around, half expecting the girl to be gone when she does, an illusion played on her mind by too little sleep.

[mark_of_samael]

She turns, too, eyes widening.

And she shrinks back, retreating into the shadows.

[cavemen_win]

"Wait!" Fred calls out, taking a few more steps toward the girl.

If this was a dream she was probably doomed, again, but she couldn't help but try.

"...Alessa?" she asks, hesitantly, recalling the girl's name that she'd only heard once, not sure if she was even remembering it correctly.

[mark_of_samael]

"i'm sorry!" she squeaks out, arms raised protectively, "i couldn't stop Her!"

[cavemen_win]

Fred's confused for a moment.

She thinks it's her fault?

"Oh. Oh, no, don't... I didn't think that..." she's caught off-guard, not sure how to comfort the girl who clearly thought she was going harm her, the girl that she'd felt guilty, herself, for being unable to save.

"It's not your fault. I never thought that."

[mark_of_samael]

Slowly, the arms go down, and the eyes go up, surprise in them, with hinted-at relief peering around the edge.

[cavemen_win]

"It was just a dream, for me. A bad one, but..." she trails off, looking regretful.

"It wasn't up to you to stop it." she says, quietly. "I always thought I should have. Maybe if I'd figured out the clues faster, or opened a different door in time, maybe I could have gotten to you before..."

She doesn't want to say it, knows she doesn't have to. Doesn't want to make them both remember the way that dream ended.

[mark_of_samael]

She takes a step forward. "it happened already... before." She glances up to part of the ceiling- indistinguishable from the rest of the ceiling.

"before i was here."

[cavemen_win]

Fred nods, sadly. She'd been afraid of that, afraid that it was just an echo of a horror long past.

That didn't make it any easier.

"I'm sorry."

It didn't seem like enough, but it was all she could think to say.

[mark_of_samael]

"i couldn't make it stop."

She looks up, confusion and relief fighting on her expression. Sympathy is not something she's used to.

[cavemen_win]

Tears prick at the corners of Fred's eyes, stinging and threatening to fall, but she doesn't think that'll help matters any, so she blinks them away quickly.

"It's okay. You shouldn't be the one who's sorry. The person who did this to you should."

And, unable to suppress the overwhelming impulse to comfort this strange girl, Fred steps forward and closes the distance between them to hug Alessa. She hopes, belatedly, that this doesn't somehow terrify the girl.

[mark_of_samael]

There's a verbal exclamation point.

She blinks. Then her fingers curl into the fabric of Fred's shirt.

[cavemen_win]

It's not enough, Fred thinks, absurdly. She can't offer Alessa anything useful, and after what had happened to her, idle comfort seemed inadequate somehow.

But it was all she knew how to do, in the absence of any super powers or even the ability to undo her own problem with resurrected gods.

It's not fair. she thinks, for approximately the millionth time since entering the bar.

Nothing ever was, not in real life, and not even here.

[mark_of_samael]

"God is dead," she says. It's all that matters, as far as she's concerned. "and i'm getting better."