(Untitled)

[squint_artist]

It was still raining. Damn

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[beentodamascus]

Soaked to the skin didn't even cover it. Adam had left a steady trail of drips from the front door of the compound which showed him making a bee-line to the lab. He had his mouth open to say something to Angela, ask her if she could take a lunch-break at home, but, when he saw the look on her face, he stopped.

"Angie?" He walked up to her and touched her shoulder lightly. "Angela, love?"

[squint_artist]

All she could see were his eyes. To anyone else, they were just empty eye sockets, creepy looking but harmless. She could see his whole face and his eyes staring back at her.

She turned away and towards Adam, turned her back on the skull as she buried her face in his shoulder. It would be a cold, wet, uncomfortable embrace, but she wanted one anyway.

[beentodamascus]

He was so wet that normally, he had stepped away from her, told her to give him a chance to change his shirt, but there was desperation in the way she leaned into him, so he just wrapped his arms around her, dropped a kiss into her hair and held her close.

"Sweetheart?" he murmured, smoothing his hand down her back. "Angela? What happened?"

[squint_artist]

"It's Kirk," she said, her eyes wet from rain drops only, not her own tears. "That's his skull. I.. I don't know why it's here. It just is>."

She didn't want to cry, and yet she did. She didn't really know what she wanted, other than for that skull to never have shown up and for nothing to ever change. It was selfish but true. She'd never had a generous heart, had she? She just kept going around in circles.

[legendarymadman]

Geoffrey had, in fact, popped his head in the lab on his way by just to see if Angela was there, not for any particular reason except that he happened to be in the area. But he didn't stop at a hi and a wave when he saw that look on her face, crossing the room to get a closer look at both it and her. What he ended up getting a closer look at was a skull that did not, in fact, belong to him.

"Are you okay?"

[squint_artist]

Angela took a shaky breath, not knowing what to say to Geoffrey.

"No," she said, exhaling, shaking her head sadly. "No I'm really not. What is he doing here?" Geoffrey wouldn't know. She knew there wasn't any reason. But irrationally she wanted something.

[legendarymadman]

"I don't know who he is," says Geoffrey, staring at the skull in question, "but I can make some educated guesses if that'd help."

[squint_artist]

"He is Kirk," Angela explained, lifting her arm to point and letting it fall like dead weight against the side of her body. "My old boyfriend."

[wormholed]

"Whoa," said John as the desert dissipated, leaving the skull behind. "Is it always this realistic?"

He wanted for her answer, and when it didn't immediately come, walked closer to see her face. "Ange?"

[squint_artist]

She sighed and set aside her palette and stylus. Hands free, she ran her fingers through her hair, pulling it away from her face. "It's real, John. Very real."

[wormholed]

John looked to the skull, dry and white and clearly, from this distance, one hundred percent solid.

"Oh. It...from home, I guess."

[squint_artist]

"Yeah," Angela confirmed. "It's--" She realized she wasn't sure what to say and paused to take a breath. "My old boyfriend, Kirk. He was killed." Killed, dropped from a plane, ripped apart by coyotes. "I found out when his skull was left on our doorstep."