Strangetown Asylum, Part Nine
I couldn't do it. I was there, I could have tried to do something to save her, to beg, to plead...but with what she did to me, with my husband? I just couldn't make myself do it.
Does that make me a bad person? I'm not sure. I've accepted my decision. I'm sorry for her passing...but not for not preventing it.
I had someone else's existence as a priority. If Death chose to claim Melissa, in exchange for leaving my family alone, who was I to argue?
Especially since Ripp finally began to show an interest in our daughter.
I needed to know that he still loved me, loved us, and wanted to be with us. I don't know why it became so important to me. It just was. I spent some of my meagre earnings on a new dress, I needed the boost to my self esteem.
It's fortunate that mothering came easily to me, because Ripp was quick to leave the room at the first hint that Harmony needed changing or feeding.
My priorities had changed so quickly. I failed at protecting my charges, but I would not fail with Harmony.
I knew I needed more money if we were to ever make it outside of the Asylum, so I continued to look for different work, a new career.
I found it. Surprisingly, the architecture firm was happy to hire me, despite my lack of credentials. I knew that if I could stick it out, I could get more money from them in a week, than a month at the restaurant.
I found it hard to concentrate, of course, when I realised that Ripp had taken to wandering outside naked to meet the people who occasionally walked by.
Was it my fault that she couldn't resist the lure of my guardians? That they drew her in, only moments after my husband's attempts at flirting?
She wasn't one of my charges, yet I'd lost another soul because of this house.
I didn't want to think it...but I wanted to get out.
Having witnessed my guardians in action, Vidcund found the only way out he could take.
And that left two...
My garden of death was growing, but it was not one I could be pleased with.
I was also desperately aware of Harmony and her needs, and the inability to do anything about them was a constant ache.
It didn't help when the others ignored her cries.
I rushed to her as soon as I made it home, I needed to hold her, to kiss her, to make sure she wasn't harmed.
Ripp's fears of parenthood were obvious, the responsibility of it was almost too much for him.
How he could block out her cries like that, I couldn't guess.
But then, he was barely able to care for himself by this point.
I tried to convince him to take a more active role in her care, to bond them, but he resisted.
I tried again once the beast took over, though I did worry about handing a hungry lycan a helpless babe.
He didn't know what to do with her, but I was there to help talk him through it.
He handed her back as quickly as he could, and I had to bite my tongue from lashing out at him. I was thankful I had some toys to occupy her, to keep her safe.
Inki didn't care about much.
She eventually found her way upstairs, and spent hours indulging in childish antics. Anything to hold off the madness for a moment more.
Ripp might have been shying away from active parenting, but he surprised me by taking an interest in the cleanliness of the house.
Though perhaps it was all a show...and not for me.
While I slept, trying to get every ounce of energy back that I could before I returned to work...Ripp made his intentions know to Inki.
I couldn't wake, though I knew what was happening.
At first, Inki rejected Ripp's advances. Surprisingly, he took that well. But Inki was still grieving from Kathryn's passing, and hadn't thought about turning to anyone else for comfort.
But now it was just the two of them home during the day...
And Ripp was quite skilled at comforting women in need.
My dreams tormented me, and I longed to wake from them...but it was hard.
Was it better knowing what was happening, or not? I couldn't decide.
I soon had to leave for work, and as I rushed out the door, I wondered if it would be better to give Harmony to someone outside of the Asylum, someone who could give her better care than what I was able to.
But I couldn't give her to anyone else. She was mine.
They waited until I was in the car, before taking their new found intimacy to the next level.
And they ignored Harmony and her needs while they indulged in their own carnal carnival.
Perhaps Inki felt guilty about her affair with Ripp. I know he didn't feel any guilt, but he also felt not need to care for our screaming child.
As much as I gnashed my teeth in anger and frustration at their antics, I was glad that she was there to step in, and care for my daughter.
That night, I again didn't know how to act. Should I let him know? Should I feign ignorance?
I found myself attacking Inki without realising it. My anger was at her, for stepping over the boundaries.
She was ashamed of herself, I knew, but I also knew that wouldn't stop her from indulging again, the moment I was out of the way.
Ripp didn't seem to realise he'd done anything wrong, despite my tears and pleading.
And I found that I couldn't stay mad at him for long. A leopard cannot change its spots, after all.
So I forgave him.
Again.
I showed him my forgiveness in the way he understood the best.
I guess that my forgiveness made him see the light, and he showed me that he really did care for our daughter.
Or maybe it was just that his lycan side was more in touch with the needs of the pack.
And it was soon evident that our pack was about to grow again.
Inki wanted him. I could sense that. I knew that she would try again...soon. If she could bring herself up out of the pit for a moment, then she would try.
Was using sex as a weapon that bad, when you were trying to keep your husband to yourself?
I don't know why I served so many plates. Perhaps it was because I knew how they hungered. Perhaps it was because it felt like the dead were not really gone.
Whatever the reason, I couldn't bring myself to sit by them. Perhaps I was testing them.
And perhaps they were testing me. Inki shooed me from the kitchen, under the pretence of needing to cleanse herself. Why, when there was a working shower and tub, would she need to take a sponge bath in front of my naked husband, if she were not trying to seduce him? She made no effort to shoo him from the room, but she was adamant that I leave.
I could fight fire with fire, of course. But I had the edge.
When I left for work the next day - I had been promoted already - the snows began.
Had we really been here long enough for it to be winter? Was it normal for it to snow here in Strangetown? I wasn't sure.
The locals didn't seem to find it out of the ordinary, but it didn't feel right to me.
That wasn't the only thing that didn't feel right.
The pang of her passing haunted me as I worked. Should I have done more to save her? To save the others?
Ripp took Inki's passing quite hard. He was the only one left now, apart from our daughter.
My poor child, with only Ripp to care for her until I returned.
I worried how he would cope by himself. I worried that he would join the others, and leave our daughter behind.
I should have had more faith.
I was surprised to discover them both whole and well...with a cake on the kitchen counter. Ripp told me that it was time for Harmony's transition, that it was time. I'm not sure he knew what he was saying.
And then my beautiful baby was now my beautiful toddler. Her blonde hair was from his mother, as I thought, but her curls were from me. Her eyes...they haunted me. They knew too much.
They also set me free.
There were no more residents in the Asylum. There was my family. My pack.
As I struggled with Harmony's rage at being kept inside this haunted building, I felt those ties that bound me here...disappear. They didn't snap, they didn't break. They simply dissolved.
I was no longer bound to care for the residents. New ties had formed, tying my family together.
I knew we could leave. And I knew where we would go.
I knew no one else in Strangetown. Ripp knew everyone. We couldn't afford to rent, let alone buy, and we couldn't turn to his family. His father ruled with an iron fist, and despite Harmony being his only grandchild, he would not welcome us.
Ripp had two friends he could count on for anything.
I knew better than to be jealous of her, but I could still sense things, and I knew there was heat between them.
Ophelia was very welcoming, and she was happy to help Ripp in any way that she could. There was little room, she said, though the house was large.
But we could stay.
She couldn't keep us out. The sounds of the dead drew me in. They wanted me.
There was one who didn't. Not Johnny, Ophelia's fiance, and Ripp's best friend. He was thrilled to have Ripp back.
I knew Olive. Knew her. The souls in her garden whispered to me, told me everything. I knew all her secrets. I knew how she gained her fortune. I knew how she was still alive.
So I gave her a gift. A gift of knowledge.
She didn't want to take it, but I pressed it on her, telling her I insisted.
She accepted my gift...but she didn't like it.
She would never see her granddaughter marry.
She would never know how I knew. But she knew what she had done, to her victims, and their families. She knew how it felt as they all died. She lived it, all at once.
She didn't know I was, or how I had such power.
Death, her old lover, came eagerly to claim her at last. She'd held him off for years, despite his many attempts.
Ophelia was astounded, devastated. She expected her grandmother to live forever.
Johnny wouldn't miss her. She had never liked him, and was the one impediment to his marrying Ophelia.
With Olive gone, Ophelia could now be his wife.
They were happier to have us, now there was plenty of room.
So happy, that the first thing they did the next morning, was to quietly wed, as they stood over Olive's grave.
Time passed quickly, and my pregnancy hurried to its end.
I was ready.
I surprised Ripp by handing him our son - Panther Jonty - immediately. A son. He was more pleased than he thought he would be.
But I wasn't done. Oh no.
Another daughter - Isidora Roxanne.
We were complete.
We were safe.
I knew. I knew.
I had escaped from the Asylum, but not very far.
I needed to keep watch.
And they all spoke to me.
Not just olive's victims...but my charges. I couldn't leave them behind. I gave them a new home to rest in.
I would find a way to bring them back.
I would watch.
I would listen.
I would wait.
Notes:
- I had thought about doing this as separate days, like I have for the rest of the challenge, but I decided it would be better to do it as one bigger post.
- I kinda enjoyed killing off Olive.
- I'm tempted to do a follow up story with these guys, if only to see how the babies turn out. Especially Ophelia's! Oh yes, they got knocked up on their first (autonomous) woohoo, which had nothing to do with me.
- In case you're wondering, the hottie alien is Musca, from my Multi PT set testing. You can get her (and others) here.
- I had fun with this challenge, though I never intended for it to go like this! It was meant to be a fun commentary style one, and my sim wasn't meant to start a family!
- I'll be doing a bloopers post for these guys too, so keep an eye out on that. Now I have to decide which story to work on next!
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