Waking up is hard to do

[got_burned]

[Note: This is seriously backdated.]

It's dark. Dark and enveloping, in the same way that water is wet and drowning. It's no comfort, no help, because there's something profoundly wrong with it being dark

Comments

[got_burned]

There's not much to analyse about something being thrown out of a window, but the choice of missile can in fact tell you a lot about the person who performed the defenestration. More often than not, though, you'll learn a lot more just by looking up.

Michael lifts a hand to visor his eyes from the diffuse Michigan daylight as he glances up at the building's exterior, standing clear of the shattered chair limbs lying attendant in a pool of diamond shards of safety glass. The chair's brocade-upholstered remnants tell him that it was from a room intended for a hotel guest, and not a conference room.

Rapidly he finds the curtain billowing out of the now forcibly open window, and makes a note of the floor. He has to get up there, and now, so he begins to move swiftly inside-- that is, before he sees his mother leaving the building.

Dammit, can't she do anything he asks?

"Ma," he says as he approaches, "I told you to stay inside!"

[erin_go_boom]

As if to illustrate the need for Maddy to take cover, a small comet sails through the broken window. Correction: a Molotov cocktail, aimed for the pile of chair debris.

[got_burned]

His attention diverted, he doesn't see the flaming missile until it shatters on the pavement behind him, bringing with it a whoomph of heat at his back as he reflexively ducks, simultaneously moving towards and in front of his mother to shield her.

[erin_go_boom]

High above, he can just make out the sounds of gunfire. Possibly the work of a H&K USP Compact.

[maddyhbic]

Maddy's freshly lit cigarette is now on the ground as Michael stands over her, but that doesn't matter to her right about now. "What the hell is going on NOW?!"

Like this day could get any weirder.

[got_burned]

Jesus Christ, Fi--

If he'd only suspected the cause before, he's damned sure now. "Ma, inside, now!" he bellows as he bodily moves into her to faciliate his instruction, for once not in the mood for argument.

[maddyhbic]

Maddy rushes back into the building, choosing not to argue with Michael for now. That doesn't mean that he isn't going to get an earful of it later. Fair warning, Michael.

[got_burned]

Oh, he knows. He knows. And he'll look forward to it about as much as he looks forward to getting his fingers broken by a pissed-off Columbian cartel boss. Actually, sometimes, he thinks he'd prefer the latter over the former.

He strides after her with a grim purpose, then continues through the foyer and heads for the hotel stairs.

[erin_go_boom]

Three more shots ring out, and once the din dies down, Michael and his mother can just make out a very loud thump. Followed by what sounds like something splintering.

[got_burned]

Michael mutters something that may or may not be a curse as he reaches the floor in question.

"Fi!" he calls sharply, though he can't see her just yet. He pauses as he finds debris in the hallway. "Fiona!"

[erin_go_boom]

"A little busy right now," she calls. There is a whomp! followed by the acrid smell of synthetics burning.

[got_burned]

"Then stop being busy," he says loudly, firmly and deliberately as he takes the precaution of taking a momentary diversion, availing himself of a fire extinguisher before he arrives in the doorway, glass and ceramic crunching underfoot.

[erin_go_boom]

"I'll stop when I'm finished, Michael!"

More glass shatters.

[got_burned]

Okay. Fine.

"My mother's here," he says, raising his voice just a little more.

[erin_go_boom]

One final crash, then Fiona steps into Michael's view. "Oh. Really? How is Madeline?"

[got_burned]

He cants his head at her, his expression neutral. "Confused, much like me."