There were only so many things you needed to know about yourself but so little you could let others know.
No matter whose identity you stole, you would always be Nathan Fraxinus, founder of the Afterlife. You would still be afraid of spiders. You would still be you.
You looked at a notebook that sat in your lap, the target was Damion Kiefer. You learned about his life before, during, where he was located, anything you needed to know about Damion was in the notebook.
"Damion Thomas Jones-Kiefer. Son of Angelina Jones and Jared Kiefer. Age 21. Favorite pass time looks to be a game of poker. He hates baked beans but enjoys bread and cheese. Girlfriend is named....." You look through the lines for a name. "Katrina Coulson. Her brother is named Nick." you close the journal and put it in the red backpack before throwing on your white hoodie over your black shirt. "I think I've got this."
You put the red backpack on and leave the shack, throwing the hood of your hoodie over your head, which successfully hid your eyes. You see the familiar faces of your group members. By now, no matter whose place they took, you would always recognize them and remember their stories. You're stopped by a tall man with scruffy dirty blonde hair. "Who are you taking?"
You jump a little and let out a gasp. "Jesus Christ, Ricky! Warn a man next time.. Kiefer's my target." Your eyes shift around the area, just about everywhere but the man's eyes.
He squints his eyes and looks over you. "You'd better hope Damion doesn't make eye contact or play with spiders." He taunts, letting out a chuckle before walking away.
Ricky Tate. The biggest asshole you'd ever meet. You scrounged up some knowledge of his story on your on time and everything you learned clarified that. He's the type of guy to get his way by brute force but at least attempt to talk someone into doing what he wants before the brute force.
You remember back when you got the first five people into the Afterlife. He was one of them. There was an incident and a few lurkers got in. Ricky and some woman got stuck. He knocked the woman out and left her for the munchers. He felt no remorse either.
Ricky has so far been the only person not to take on a new identity. There were people who had already taken new roles and gotten the job done fast enough to get back to themselves but then there were others who were so sloppy when disguised that they quickly got caught and killed or held hostage. They ended up dead either way.
The Afterlife had some rules. If you get caught; that's some tough shit, get yourself out. When you meet with your target, they must be killed to properly take their identity and the body must be hidden. Anybody who acts as a threat must be taken out, no exceptions. As there are with every set of rules, there were stories behind these.
You sigh, watching Ricky stride away before stepping out of the community and onto the Cleveland streets. You knew very well where Damion would be located. The same place he had been going for the past eight days. The BP gas station.
He had been hanging around there alone for the past eight days, basically taunting you even though he had no clue you'd been there each of the days, watching, observing, and learning. Today was the day you were going to strike. You knew enough about him to pass off for a short time, but that as all you needed to fulfill your goal.
Many groups had already been taken out by the Afterlife, every group with only one survivor, that survivor was always a reminder to not mess with the Afterlife. People feared your group and that's how it should be.
You walk down the interstate that was cluttered with cars that couldn't make it out of Cleveland in time or had run out of gas and decided to brave the munchers to get some more but never made it back.
You stand outside the broken down gas station and take a deep breath before walking in. You quickly stop yourself before even reaching the gas pumps. What if he did know you were watching him? What if he was going to kill you?
No way. He couldn't know anything about you. That's the one thing that stuck out about Damion. He seemed pretty clueless about his surroundings majority of the time.
You walk past the gas pumps and check your hoodie one last time before going into the gas station. He was there, just as you thought he would be. He remains silent as he looks you over and cracks a forced smile before waving. "Can I help you?"
"Didn't know anyone still worked here. How's business running for you?" Damion laughs and holds out his hand.
You carefully take his hand and shake, avoiding eye contact. Not that your eyes could be seen either way. "The name's Damion, you got a name, stranger?"
"Andrew, pleasure to meet you." That was one of the rules of the Afterlife. Never use your real name. A woman learned that the hard way about a month back. She used her real name when talking to her victims, it was safe until her last run. She failed to kill her target and was quickly found and killed by the target's group. Tragic mistake.
He pulls away from the handshake and looks to the roof. "Welcome to my humble abode.." He goes to one of the fridges that had already been disconnected from the earlier days and pulls out a beer. "Where's my manners? You want one?" You shake your head as he shrugs and closes the fridge. "Suit yourself."
"Why are you here? Don't you have a group or something?" The can makes a hissing noise as Damion pops the top and takes a sip.
"Sometimes you just need to get away, be a little bit more independent, you feel me?" He takes another gulp and sets it on the counter. "My girlfriend's brother, for example, that man is something else. He does care about her but he shows it by being a complete ass to me." He sighs and takes a seat on the stool near the cash register that had already been looted. "He's a conceited, arrogant man who is super overprotective of his sister."
You sit on the second stool, which was across the counter. "Those are synonyms, conceited and arrogant." Damion chuckles and takes another drink.
"Thank you, Andrew the English major." He stands up and pours the remainder of his beer on the floor. "I should probably get going. Kat gets pretty worried if I'm out for too long. Feel free to stay the night here, that's if you want to."
"Wait!" You call out to Damion, who stops in front of the door. "You want to know something? Like really want to know?"
After a moment of silence he pipes up and pulls his hand away from the door, turning to face you. "Of course I do! Tell me!"
You stand up and clear your throat. "I saw what you did. That's Afterlife quality but even you're not safe."
His face turns grim after you mention the Afterlife. He lets out an awkward chuckle. "Andrew, buddy, you're a kidder. The Afterlife isn't something to joke about though. Those fuckers are dangerous."
"Oh no, Damion, I'm not kidding. You murdered a man, I saw it." You pull the notebook out of the red backpack and look through it. "Two days ago. You two seemed to be friends, you were both drinking. He said some things about your girlfriend and you bashed his head to a pulp with the counter." You close the journal and slip it back in your backpack. "I saw it all. How you managed to clean up the mess though, will always be beyond me."
Damion draws a knife and goes to confront you. "You are one of those fucks. You made a big mistake, coming here unarmed."
"Did I?" You quickly draw your gun and Damion stops. "Tell me who made a mistake now." He looks between the door and you. He drops the knife and breaks out in a run towards the door. You fire a shot that hits Damion in the shoulder. He falls to the ground and you walk towards him, putting the gun to his head. "Don't worry, I'll take care of Katrina for you."
You fire another shot as the bullet goes through Damion's head. You let out a sigh as you take the journal out of your backpack and pull a pen from your pocket, marking down notes on the paper.
Willy[Crystal and Joseph]
"Willy, go." Fox looks from the body to you, giving you a cold glare, almost the same look that AC gave you.
You huff and turn back towards the camp ground. "Kara would've let me help." Fox lets out a sigh as he goes back to pulling the man's dead body and you begin walking to the camp ground.
As you reach the camp ground, Crystal gives you a very worried look. "What's going on? Where's AC? Who was that man? What happened to Vanessa? Where is James? Where is Sylvester?" You don't respond but sit down. "Hey, are you listening?"
You wanted to answer but you had no idea what was really going on yourself. "I... don't.... know." You look to the ground as you feel a sharp pain in your head. By now it was a normal headache, happened just about every other day and it was almost impossible to get rid of.
Joseph notes the negative turn in your mood and attempts to stop the girl from bugging you too much. "Crystal, he just saw a lot of things. At least give him time to process it all before you bombard him with questions."
You get a sick feeling in your stomach as the more recent events come to light.
AC is working herself to death, she blames herself for everything that's happened with the group.
John is just attempting to keep up with the group's status and helping out Vanessa and Kylie.
Kylie is being thrown under way too much stress, trying to keep up with her mother and Crystal and Joseph.
Fox is growing more isolated with every second that passes. The only person who really kept him involved with the group was Kara.
Vanessa could very well die if nobody treats her leg properly. ATR could have done it, she knew what she was doing.
That's what you were going to do! You were going to find the group and bring them back!
Rosie"Go after her." ~Risk Rosie
Tatiana thinks before pointing to the gun. "You've got that already, you should go after her." The two of you begin walking towards the front of the school. "She's their leader, but I can't say they were in the best shape when Matt got them. They'll be worse off if she dies right?"
"Right. By the way, when I get back we're going to talk about Lucien's kidnapping tactics because they were very sloppy." Tatiana lets out a chuckle and holds open the front door for you.
"Stay safe. Try to be back before night." She goes back into the school as you think about which way or where Kara would have gone.
The front door opens and AWESOMEO comes out of the school. "You're going to look for Kara, right? Well I'm going with you."
You cross your arms, keeping a tight grip on the gun. "What makes you think I need help? And from you at the least?"
"The fact that you know nothing about her or the group. She's got motivation to find a kid that she got along with. She really cared about him." He puts his hands in his pockets as he walks towards you.
"Do you think he's alive? Honestly?" He gives a doubtful look but quickly covers it with a hopeful smile.
"For her sake, I hope so. It was honestly pretty weird, the night." He walks forward to lead the way, expecting you to follow him. "There was a fire and that dick, Matt, kept talking about how Kara played with fire, which made me think that she started it." You keep a few three or four steps behind him. "It took a while for me to convince myself that she wouldn't do it after Nina died." He shakes his head. "Anyways, we all got separated. Brian's girlfriend is out there, some girl who lost her arm because of me is out there, and it feels right to get them back but Kara's going about it all wrong. That's her motivation."
"To get them back? Not to just leave?" You speed up a little to stand at his side.
"Her sister, Nina, thought pretty reasonably but Kara just takes danger head on. Although, she somehow doesn't get killed with her stupid risk taking, she's dangerous, Rosie." AWESOMEO looks as if he regret what he said in the instant.
[Send AWESOMEO back] or [Keep AWESOMEO around]
Clarice
"I can't stand how naive you idiots are! You guys are monsters!" The blonde girl stood remaining in the doorway, continually yelling at you, Emma, Jessica, and Aidan.
The same girl who had murdered Christa for trying to break up a fight, thinking she had the right to call you a monster.
"You need to stop." Emma looks down, quietly trying to reason with Jinx.
"I need to stop?! Who are you to tell me to stop?!" Jinx quickly draws the gun that she used to shoot Christa and aims it at Emma again. The sound of two sets of feet hurrying up stairs fill the area as Jessica and Aidan had gone. "Even your friends left you! You're wrong!"
"This isn't about being wrong, Jinx, it's about being alive. I refuse to fight you but I personally cannot stand for your bitching right now." Emma looks at the barrel of the gun that was aimed at her.
Jinx looks almost shocked that Emma wouldn't engage in her childish fights. "You have no choice but to listen to me now! I'm in charge!"
Two men walk around the side of the house but stop in shock as the see Jinx standing in the doorway. It was TinyCarlos and Tyler. Of all the times they could have arrived, it had to be now.
"Listen, Jinx, let's just calm down and think about this like adults, alright?" You hold out your hands as Emma back up.
Jinx looks almost furious by now. "What is there to talk about?"
"Maybe the fact that this is your fault. None of this had to happen but because you decided to shoot our friend, you've signed yourself up for some bad shit." She turns her gun from Emma to you.
It was at that instant. Something clicked.
"But because you did this, we're going to get you back. That I can promise." Jessica and Aidan come back down the stairs, TinyCarlos and Tyler quietly approach the entry of the house, ready to shoot Jinx.
"Excuse me?" She tightens her grip on the gun. "Would you like to repeat yourself? I don't think I heard you correctly! Are you threatening me?!"
???, Location Unknown
There were only so many things you needed to know about yourself but so little you could let others know.
No mat… moreter whose identity you stole, you would always be Nathan Fraxinus, founder of the Afterlife. You would still be afraid of spiders. You would still be you.
You looked at a notebook that sat in your lap, the target was Damion Kiefer. You learned about his life before, during, where he was located, anything you needed to know about Damion was in the notebook.
"Damion Thomas Jones-Kiefer. Son of Angelina Jones and Jared Kiefer. Age 21. Favorite pass time looks to be a game of poker. He hates baked beans but enjoys bread and cheese. Girlfriend is named....." You look through the lines for a name. "Katrina Coulson. Her brother is named Nick." you close the journal and put it in the red backpack before throwing on your white hoodie over your black shirt. "I think I've got this."
You put the red backpack… [view original content]
Oh no, you goddamn creepy identity-stealing creep, you keep your hands off her >:(
Although I am still not entirely sure if I understand how the Afterlife works. Do they kill everyone in a group, save for the mentioned one survivor, and then pretend that they are this group until they change their identities again after a while?
[Keep AWESOMEO around]
Maybe he can be helpful
"It was nothing."
Threatening her now could infuriate Jinx to the point where she just kills Clarice before the rest can kill her instead.
???, Location Unknown
There were only so many things you needed to know about yourself but so little you could let others know.
No mat… moreter whose identity you stole, you would always be Nathan Fraxinus, founder of the Afterlife. You would still be afraid of spiders. You would still be you.
You looked at a notebook that sat in your lap, the target was Damion Kiefer. You learned about his life before, during, where he was located, anything you needed to know about Damion was in the notebook.
"Damion Thomas Jones-Kiefer. Son of Angelina Jones and Jared Kiefer. Age 21. Favorite pass time looks to be a game of poker. He hates baked beans but enjoys bread and cheese. Girlfriend is named....." You look through the lines for a name. "Katrina Coulson. Her brother is named Nick." you close the journal and put it in the red backpack before throwing on your white hoodie over your black shirt. "I think I've got this."
You put the red backpack… [view original content]
???, Location Unknown
There were only so many things you needed to know about yourself but so little you could let others know.
No mat… moreter whose identity you stole, you would always be Nathan Fraxinus, founder of the Afterlife. You would still be afraid of spiders. You would still be you.
You looked at a notebook that sat in your lap, the target was Damion Kiefer. You learned about his life before, during, where he was located, anything you needed to know about Damion was in the notebook.
"Damion Thomas Jones-Kiefer. Son of Angelina Jones and Jared Kiefer. Age 21. Favorite pass time looks to be a game of poker. He hates baked beans but enjoys bread and cheese. Girlfriend is named....." You look through the lines for a name. "Katrina Coulson. Her brother is named Nick." you close the journal and put it in the red backpack before throwing on your white hoodie over your black shirt. "I think I've got this."
You put the red backpack… [view original content]
Oh no, you goddamn creepy identity-stealing creep, you keep your hands off her >:(
Well there's still Nick, even though Damion could hardly take care of himself which is evident.
Although I am still not entirely sure if I understand how the Afterlife works. Do they kill everyone in a group, save for the mentioned one survivor, and then pretend that they are this group until they change their identities again after a while?
I'll probably write another part in a few minutes, telling what the Afterlife does because it wasn't really clear.
Threatening her now could infuriate Jinx to the point where she just kills Clarice before the rest can kill her instead.
Trust me, you don't want to make Jinx any madder right now.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of Katrina for you."
Oh no, you goddamn creepy identity-stealing creep, you keep your hands off her >… more;:(
Although I am still not entirely sure if I understand how the Afterlife works. Do they kill everyone in a group, save for the mentioned one survivor, and then pretend that they are this group until they change their identities again after a while?
[Keep AWESOMEO around]
Maybe he can be helpful
"It was nothing."
Threatening her now could infuriate Jinx to the point where she just kills Clarice before the rest can kill her instead.
???, Location Unknown
There were only so many things you needed to know about yourself but so little you could let others know.
No mat… moreter whose identity you stole, you would always be Nathan Fraxinus, founder of the Afterlife. You would still be afraid of spiders. You would still be you.
You looked at a notebook that sat in your lap, the target was Damion Kiefer. You learned about his life before, during, where he was located, anything you needed to know about Damion was in the notebook.
"Damion Thomas Jones-Kiefer. Son of Angelina Jones and Jared Kiefer. Age 21. Favorite pass time looks to be a game of poker. He hates baked beans but enjoys bread and cheese. Girlfriend is named....." You look through the lines for a name. "Katrina Coulson. Her brother is named Nick." you close the journal and put it in the red backpack before throwing on your white hoodie over your black shirt. "I think I've got this."
You put the red backpack… [view original content]
"Welcome to the Afterlife, Amelia." A young man in a white hoodie stood in front of you with his eyes covered. "Don't get too comfortable though."
He turns to walk away as you look on, confused. "Is somebody going to explain to me how this group works? And why shouldn't I get too comfortable?"
The scruffy man with dirty blonde hair that brought you to the group shakes his head and walks away.
You notice an older looking man walking around and run to his side. "Hey. You're not new here, right? What's going on?"
He lets out a hearty laugh "If he didn't tell you, he doesn't trust you! You gotta give him a reason to trust you, girlie."
A reason to trust.
You go to the shack that the hooded boy went to and bang on the door. After a minute or two of waiting, the door opens up and the boy looks at you, waiting for you to say something. "Could you let me in?"
He looks back in the shack and opens the door up a little bit more. "I guess so, what do you want?"
"I want to know what I'm supposed to do." You walk in and notice a journal sitting on the desk and a red backpack on the floor.
He notices where your view is fixed and takes the journal from the desk, putting it in the bag. "Shut the door." You do as he says and he sighs. "You just don't seem the material, you know? You seem more like a victim, Amelia."
"I didn't come here to get critiqued, tell me what I'm supposed to do."
"You want to know what to do? Here's the deal then. Your job is to pick a target that fits your personal description, learn about your target over the course of eight days, no more and no less, and then you meet up with them after those eight days. You make that meeting seem like a coincidence. You can either wait until they go to leave and kill them or just immediately kill them, either way they need to be dead. You steal their clothes and hide the body. Do you understand?"
"Steal their clothes? What the fuck is with that?" He points to the door as he pulls the journal back out of the backpack. "No, give me a target. I'm not leaving until you do."
He sighs and rips a page out of the journal. "We steal the clothes because we don't know if anyone in the group will remember what the target was wearing." He holds out the ripped paper. "You want to do something, then do it."
Target: Tambri Allens. Age: 31. Usually seen near the Walmart Supercenter on Steelyard Drive. That was all you needed to know.
From what you knew so far, people have feared the Afterlife since the beginning, which wasn't too far back. They were brutal, ruthless, and showed no mercy towards anyone. Not even their own group members.
Getting to be one of them was basically an honor that should not be abused. if it was, you were basically dead to them and they would make sure you were not only dead to them, but everyone else.
You've finally made it to one of the biggest groups that Ohio has to offer, if there was ever a time to be extra careful with what you said or did. It was now.
//So I figure I'll cut it here, being as there is still a lot more to learn about the Afterlife before I can really continue on with Nathan's POV but it won't take too long to cover.//
In other news I've figured out a new system that I am 110% sticking to. Everyday around this time there is going to be a new part, focusing on a different group. Instead of trying to include every group while keeping it at a certain length.
This will allow me to include more detail, character interactions, and more thought out choices, which I feel I haven't done a lot of lately.
That being said, tomorrow we can look forward to a Charlie part, and please feel free to post some speculation because I do enjoy it. Well I guess I will be back around tomorrow, until then i hope everyone has a great night/day.
Amelia Cleveland, Ohio. 3 months ago.
"Welcome to the Afterlife, Amelia." A young man in a white hoodie stood in front of you with his ey… morees covered. "Don't get too comfortable though."
He turns to walk away as you look on, confused. "Is somebody going to explain to me how this group works? And why shouldn't I get too comfortable?"
The scruffy man with dirty blonde hair that brought you to the group shakes his head and walks away.
You notice an older looking man walking around and run to his side. "Hey. You're not new here, right? What's going on?"
He lets out a hearty laugh "If he didn't tell you, he doesn't trust you! You gotta give him a reason to trust you, girlie."
A reason to trust.
You go to the shack that the hooded boy went to and bang on the door. After a minute or two of waiting, the door opens up and the boy looks at you, waiting for you to say something. "Could you let me in?"
He looks back in the shack and… [view original content]
Hey guys! So I know it's been a while and I'm sorry for that. It'll probably be a bit while longer before I even get the time to write so in the meantime, I wanted to give a shout out to a story that I've been reading for a while. It's pretty good and the writer is a very nice person so please give it a gander if you find the time! See you guys in the long run, stay fresh!
"Sonia is a smart girl. She has no problems academically, she's actually doing better than most kids, but we're more concerned about her psychological well being." A wooden block sat on the very edge of the desk, with a name carved into it: "Mr. Manson" The letters were arranged in a silly fashion.
He slid some papers across the desk to the brunette woman who wore a green dress that complimented her eyes and the blonde man who had tossed on a red shirt, along with a pair of blue jeans.
The papers included drawings and writings. The drawings often had blood and gore in them, each getting progressively worse as the man and woman skimmed each of the drawings. "Our daughter did not do this."
The principal looked over to the blonde girl sitting in the corner of the office, looking at the paintings on the wall. "I understand. I have a son myself, I wouldn't want to believe he made such drawings either but her name is on the paper."
"So what's the big fuckin' deal? Oh no, honey, she's drawing! Where did we go wrong!" The man in red said with mild sarcasm in his voice.
The brunette next to him shoved his arm and gave him a cold glare. "That's enough, Jason." She turned her attention back to the principal. "What do you want us to do? She's eight years old, she's still learning. As a matter of fact, isn't it your job to teach her this stuff?"
Mr. Manson huffed and leaned over his desk. "The only thing I can do is recommend that your daughter see a psychologist, and even that is beyond my control."
Present Time
"It was nothing." Clarice's tone changed in a heartbeat. "I just think you need to understand that with action comes consequences." Emma joined Jessica and Aidan at the base of the stairs.
Jinx's attention turned to Jessica, Emma, and Aidan now. "And can you translate whatever the fuck she's saying?" Jessica shrugged slightly as she leaned of to the man next to her and started whispering. Jinx furrowed her eyebrows and raised her voice. "Hey! Secrets don't make friends! Have you ever heard of that?"
Jessica turns back to the blonde girl in the doorway and snickers. "Good thing no one here wants to be your friend."
As TinyCarlos and Tyler stop at the first step that led to the porch, they began waiting for a signal to shoot her. Jinx loosened her grip on the gun and sighs. "I... uhm..." She raised her hand to look at the palm of her left hand and then at the gun in her right hand. "I don't understand?"
Emma noticed something in Jinx, at that instant. A new emotion, not anger, or off the walls psycho, but a tint of sadness.
Aidan leaned over to Emma and started whispering what Jessica hold told him. "TC and Tyler are ready to shoot. Do we really want to listen to this bitch anymore?"
Clarice now joined the three at the base of the stairs and joined the conversation. "She's quiet. She's gotta be planning something." Clarice kept her voice to a low whisper to avoid drawing the young girl's attention back to the group.
"She's not planning anything... Jessica, you hurt her feelings." Emma remembered back to her own younger sister. "I used to hurt my younger sister's feelings all the time on pure accident. I would always apologize to her, though."
Jessica crossed her arms in dismay. "Are you saying I should apologize to the lunatic in the doorway because I hurt her feelings?"
Emma shook her head and looked to the ground. "No... I'm saying that even though she's a lunatic, there's obviously a part of her that's still human and we can probably reach it without putting a bullet in her brain."
Jessica scoffs. "This girl deserves to die for what she's done. Christa would want her to die, wouldn't she?"
"No, she wouldn't. Christa wouldn't want her to die because she tried to keep Jinx from getting in a fight." Aidan spoke up just in time for Jessica to send a cold glare his way. "I don't really know, you guys can decide. Just keep in mind that she's still human, even after all she's done."
Aidan turned around and went up the stairs, leaving the three women to discuss the matter. Clarice looked towards Jinx and noticed that while TinyCarlos and Tyler were still there, they were drained. A decision needed to be made fast.
"Jessica, you want to kill Jinx. Emma, you don't want to kill Jinx. Aidan completely walked out on us, but made a good point." Clarice continued whispering to the two women next to her. "I don't enjoy being the tie-breaker. It's unfair."
Jessica runs her hand through her long blonde hair. "That's a tragedy, you have to be the tie-breaker, Clarice."
[Signal TinyCarlos and Tyler] or [Attempt to talk with Jinx]
1992
"Sonia, would you tell me what made you draw this picture?" The psychologist who Sonia learned to know as Dr. Jone held up a picture that she had drawn in class.
It was a picture of something Sonia had seen on the road, a cat that was nearly dead. Her mom thought it was disgusting but Sonia found it fascinating. "The teacher told me that we had to color a picture, so I colored a cat that I saw the weekend before."
Dr. Jone put the picture face down on her desk and cupped her hands. "Sonia, pictures like these are not right. They are wrong. Nobody wants to see a kitty in pain, just like nobody wants to see a puppy in pain. Do you want to see a kitty or puppy in pain?"
Sonia shook her head quickly. "I like my puppy at home. He's a good puppy."
The doctor cleared her throat and stood up to look out the window. "Do you understand what I'm saying right now? You cannot draw things like this. It is disturbing to people, Sonia. Maybe not you, but it is for me."
What had she done wrong? Why was she being yelled at? "I... I don't understand, Dr. Jone."
The doctor swiftly turned around and slammed her hand flat on the desk. "What don't you understand? We've been meeting for five weeks now, and you still don't get it!"
This wasn't what a doctor was supposed to do, and Sonia knew it. She jumped out of the chair that was on the opposite side of Dr. Jone's desk and raised her index finger to point at the woman. "Stop! You can't do that!"
Dr. Jone looked more confused than she did threatened.
Sonia grabbed a letter knife the was on the desk in front of her, placed next to a lava lamp. "Stop it now!"
"Sonia, that is not going to harm me. Put it down and sit down." Dr. Jone lowered her voice in an attempt to calm the girl.
"No! You can't help me! All you do is hurt me even more! I don't like you!" Sonia threw the letter knife back onto the desk and picked up the lava lamp, hurling it at the bookshelf on the right side of the room.
Present Time
What had she done wrong? Why didn't they like her? "I... uhm..." She looked at the palm of her left hand and at the gun in her right hand. "I don't understand?"
None of them responded to her. They only started whispering again.
She felt something that she hadn't felt long before the circus came around. Hurt.
Is this how she made others feel?
No, it couldn't be.
The woman with the septum piercing went to the other three and started whispering as well.
Why were they doing this? Jinx had only tried to do right by them and tried to make friends.
She thought she was doing the right thing.
1999
This was it. Sonia's first year of high school. She sat in the passenger's seat as her mother went on to talk about how proud she was of Sonia.
As they pulled up to the front of the school, her mother turned to her and planted a kiss on her cheek. "Have a good day, sweetie, Dad will pick you up at four." Sonia nodded as she collected her backpack and went for the door handle.
Sonia turned to her mother one last time before getting out of the car. Her mother seemed to worsen with every passing day, like Sonia was burdening her.
The blonde girl opened the door and took to the sidewalk. "Sunny, I love you so much." Her mother said before Sonia began walking to the school doors.
Sunny. It was the nickname her mother had given her when her parents were going through the divorce. Her mom said it was because Sonia lit up her whole world and gave her a reason to keep going.
As Sonia walked through the door, she noticed all the popular kids crowded towards the front of the school. Some of them pointed and whispered to their friends, who would laugh in response. Sonia knew they were talking about her, but all she could really do was put on a smile and brave it out.
"Hey, Sonia, got any lives to ruin today? Maybe you could ruin your grandparent's relationship?" A taller girl with red hair stood in front of Sonia. "Better yet, take your science knowledge, build a time machine, and do us all a favor by preventing yourself from being born."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand." Sonia's grip on her backpack tightened as the red headed girl laughed.
"Is that all you can say?" The red headed girl turned back to her friends and laughed once more. "What a loser..."
1992
"Sonia is a smart girl. She has no problems academically, she's actually doing better than most kids, but we're more concerned about… more her psychological well being." A wooden block sat on the very edge of the desk, with a name carved into it: "Mr. Manson" The letters were arranged in a silly fashion.
He slid some papers across the desk to the brunette woman who wore a green dress that complimented her eyes and the blonde man who had tossed on a red shirt, along with a pair of blue jeans.
The papers included drawings and writings. The drawings often had blood and gore in them, each getting progressively worse as the man and woman skimmed each of the drawings. "Our daughter did not do this."
The principal looked over to the blonde girl sitting in the corner of the office, looking at the paintings on the wall. "I understand. I have a son myself, I wouldn't want to believe he made such drawings either but her name is on the paper."… [view original content]
1992
"Sonia is a smart girl. She has no problems academically, she's actually doing better than most kids, but we're more concerned about… more her psychological well being." A wooden block sat on the very edge of the desk, with a name carved into it: "Mr. Manson" The letters were arranged in a silly fashion.
He slid some papers across the desk to the brunette woman who wore a green dress that complimented her eyes and the blonde man who had tossed on a red shirt, along with a pair of blue jeans.
The papers included drawings and writings. The drawings often had blood and gore in them, each getting progressively worse as the man and woman skimmed each of the drawings. "Our daughter did not do this."
The principal looked over to the blonde girl sitting in the corner of the office, looking at the paintings on the wall. "I understand. I have a son myself, I wouldn't want to believe he made such drawings either but her name is on the paper."… [view original content]
Perhaps talking to the mad woman is not the best idea, but I just like Jinx too much to try to kill her just yet. Maybe if this attempt fails, but not yet.
1992
"Sonia is a smart girl. She has no problems academically, she's actually doing better than most kids, but we're more concerned about… more her psychological well being." A wooden block sat on the very edge of the desk, with a name carved into it: "Mr. Manson" The letters were arranged in a silly fashion.
He slid some papers across the desk to the brunette woman who wore a green dress that complimented her eyes and the blonde man who had tossed on a red shirt, along with a pair of blue jeans.
The papers included drawings and writings. The drawings often had blood and gore in them, each getting progressively worse as the man and woman skimmed each of the drawings. "Our daughter did not do this."
The principal looked over to the blonde girl sitting in the corner of the office, looking at the paintings on the wall. "I understand. I have a son myself, I wouldn't want to believe he made such drawings either but her name is on the paper."… [view original content]
Guys, it's been 4 months. I know this is like a year overdue but I've decided to go ahead and give up this story. It's gotten to a point where I couldn't even force myself to write if I tried.
I also wanted to thank you all for reading because you guys have seriously been the best to me, even when I hardly deserved it with the various month long breaks. You people are literally some of the best people I know and I am just really grateful to have been working with you guys and have your active cooperation and just having you guys enjoying my story was an amazing feeling and I am going to miss it.
Thank you all so much for reading and I'm always here for a chat Have a great 2016, everybody.
As sad as these news are, I can understand your reason for ending the story. There is no point in writing when you have to force yourself to do it. First and foremost, you write for yourself, so if you don't have fun, then there's no point in doing it.
I have greatly enjoyed every single part of this amazing story. In fact, it was the first story I have checked out here in the forums, so it is likely one of the reasons for why I'm an active forum user today. For that, I can't thank you enough. And of course, for this great story you have been writing for way over a year. Despite the breaks, every new part was awesome and looking back at the beginning, I find it impressive how much your style evolved. Every part has been amazing, but the most recent parts have definitely been my favourites in the entire story. Thank you for writing this story! I will miss it, but as I said, I can definitely understand your reason.
By the way, is there any chance that you're going to start a new story, perhaps about a different topic? If not, then that is fine as well of course. Just asking since this has been an amazing story and I would love to read more of your writing.
Guys, it's been 4 months. I know this is like a year overdue but I've decided to go ahead and give up this story. It's gotten to a point whe… morere I couldn't even force myself to write if I tried.
I also wanted to thank you all for reading because you guys have seriously been the best to me, even when I hardly deserved it with the various month long breaks. You people are literally some of the best people I know and I am just really grateful to have been working with you guys and have your active cooperation and just having you guys enjoying my story was an amazing feeling and I am going to miss it.
Thank you all so much for reading and I'm always here for a chat Have a great 2016, everybody.
I couldn't have said it any better then Liquid has. At the time there were many fan fictions that I wanted to be a part of but realistically it would be best to keep it to a select few and yours was one of them. I was really interested and entertained by your story and I think you really improved over time. If you ever write anything else let us know! Thank you and you have a great 2016 too.
Guys, it's been 4 months. I know this is like a year overdue but I've decided to go ahead and give up this story. It's gotten to a point whe… morere I couldn't even force myself to write if I tried.
I also wanted to thank you all for reading because you guys have seriously been the best to me, even when I hardly deserved it with the various month long breaks. You people are literally some of the best people I know and I am just really grateful to have been working with you guys and have your active cooperation and just having you guys enjoying my story was an amazing feeling and I am going to miss it.
Thank you all so much for reading and I'm always here for a chat Have a great 2016, everybody.
Well, it's truly been a long time coming and my last post was bad news here, I can confirm that this story will not be coming back, I've considered it myself a few times.
However, when I announced the closure of this story, I was asked if I'd be doing another story and to let you guys know if I was. The answer is yes, I'm doing another story!
I'm very happy to be able to announce this and be able to openly talk about the idea after having debated about it for so long, but I'm very confident that this will work out.
I would also like to thank you guys one last time. You were all loyal readers and what made writing fun. I really don't know if I'm repeating what I said in my last address, I haven't even looked at it, but I seriously want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart.
Comments
???, Location Unknown
There were only so many things you needed to know about yourself but so little you could let others know.
No matter whose identity you stole, you would always be Nathan Fraxinus, founder of the Afterlife. You would still be afraid of spiders. You would still be you.
You looked at a notebook that sat in your lap, the target was Damion Kiefer. You learned about his life before, during, where he was located, anything you needed to know about Damion was in the notebook.
"Damion Thomas Jones-Kiefer. Son of Angelina Jones and Jared Kiefer. Age 21. Favorite pass time looks to be a game of poker. He hates baked beans but enjoys bread and cheese. Girlfriend is named....." You look through the lines for a name. "Katrina Coulson. Her brother is named Nick." you close the journal and put it in the red backpack before throwing on your white hoodie over your black shirt. "I think I've got this."
You put the red backpack on and leave the shack, throwing the hood of your hoodie over your head, which successfully hid your eyes. You see the familiar faces of your group members. By now, no matter whose place they took, you would always recognize them and remember their stories. You're stopped by a tall man with scruffy dirty blonde hair. "Who are you taking?"
You jump a little and let out a gasp. "Jesus Christ, Ricky! Warn a man next time.. Kiefer's my target." Your eyes shift around the area, just about everywhere but the man's eyes.
He squints his eyes and looks over you. "You'd better hope Damion doesn't make eye contact or play with spiders." He taunts, letting out a chuckle before walking away.
Ricky Tate. The biggest asshole you'd ever meet. You scrounged up some knowledge of his story on your on time and everything you learned clarified that. He's the type of guy to get his way by brute force but at least attempt to talk someone into doing what he wants before the brute force.
You remember back when you got the first five people into the Afterlife. He was one of them. There was an incident and a few lurkers got in. Ricky and some woman got stuck. He knocked the woman out and left her for the munchers. He felt no remorse either.
Ricky has so far been the only person not to take on a new identity. There were people who had already taken new roles and gotten the job done fast enough to get back to themselves but then there were others who were so sloppy when disguised that they quickly got caught and killed or held hostage. They ended up dead either way.
The Afterlife had some rules. If you get caught; that's some tough shit, get yourself out. When you meet with your target, they must be killed to properly take their identity and the body must be hidden. Anybody who acts as a threat must be taken out, no exceptions. As there are with every set of rules, there were stories behind these.
You sigh, watching Ricky stride away before stepping out of the community and onto the Cleveland streets. You knew very well where Damion would be located. The same place he had been going for the past eight days. The BP gas station.
He had been hanging around there alone for the past eight days, basically taunting you even though he had no clue you'd been there each of the days, watching, observing, and learning. Today was the day you were going to strike. You knew enough about him to pass off for a short time, but that as all you needed to fulfill your goal.
Many groups had already been taken out by the Afterlife, every group with only one survivor, that survivor was always a reminder to not mess with the Afterlife. People feared your group and that's how it should be.
You walk down the interstate that was cluttered with cars that couldn't make it out of Cleveland in time or had run out of gas and decided to brave the munchers to get some more but never made it back.
You stand outside the broken down gas station and take a deep breath before walking in. You quickly stop yourself before even reaching the gas pumps. What if he did know you were watching him? What if he was going to kill you?
No way. He couldn't know anything about you. That's the one thing that stuck out about Damion. He seemed pretty clueless about his surroundings majority of the time.
You walk past the gas pumps and check your hoodie one last time before going into the gas station. He was there, just as you thought he would be. He remains silent as he looks you over and cracks a forced smile before waving. "Can I help you?"
"Didn't know anyone still worked here. How's business running for you?" Damion laughs and holds out his hand.
You carefully take his hand and shake, avoiding eye contact. Not that your eyes could be seen either way. "The name's Damion, you got a name, stranger?"
"Andrew, pleasure to meet you." That was one of the rules of the Afterlife. Never use your real name. A woman learned that the hard way about a month back. She used her real name when talking to her victims, it was safe until her last run. She failed to kill her target and was quickly found and killed by the target's group. Tragic mistake.
He pulls away from the handshake and looks to the roof. "Welcome to my humble abode.." He goes to one of the fridges that had already been disconnected from the earlier days and pulls out a beer. "Where's my manners? You want one?" You shake your head as he shrugs and closes the fridge. "Suit yourself."
"Why are you here? Don't you have a group or something?" The can makes a hissing noise as Damion pops the top and takes a sip.
"Sometimes you just need to get away, be a little bit more independent, you feel me?" He takes another gulp and sets it on the counter. "My girlfriend's brother, for example, that man is something else. He does care about her but he shows it by being a complete ass to me." He sighs and takes a seat on the stool near the cash register that had already been looted. "He's a conceited, arrogant man who is super overprotective of his sister."
You sit on the second stool, which was across the counter. "Those are synonyms, conceited and arrogant." Damion chuckles and takes another drink.
"Thank you, Andrew the English major." He stands up and pours the remainder of his beer on the floor. "I should probably get going. Kat gets pretty worried if I'm out for too long. Feel free to stay the night here, that's if you want to."
"Wait!" You call out to Damion, who stops in front of the door. "You want to know something? Like really want to know?"
After a moment of silence he pipes up and pulls his hand away from the door, turning to face you. "Of course I do! Tell me!"
You stand up and clear your throat. "I saw what you did. That's Afterlife quality but even you're not safe."
His face turns grim after you mention the Afterlife. He lets out an awkward chuckle. "Andrew, buddy, you're a kidder. The Afterlife isn't something to joke about though. Those fuckers are dangerous."
"Oh no, Damion, I'm not kidding. You murdered a man, I saw it." You pull the notebook out of the red backpack and look through it. "Two days ago. You two seemed to be friends, you were both drinking. He said some things about your girlfriend and you bashed his head to a pulp with the counter." You close the journal and slip it back in your backpack. "I saw it all. How you managed to clean up the mess though, will always be beyond me."
Damion draws a knife and goes to confront you. "You are one of those fucks. You made a big mistake, coming here unarmed."
"Did I?" You quickly draw your gun and Damion stops. "Tell me who made a mistake now." He looks between the door and you. He drops the knife and breaks out in a run towards the door. You fire a shot that hits Damion in the shoulder. He falls to the ground and you walk towards him, putting the gun to his head. "Don't worry, I'll take care of Katrina for you."
You fire another shot as the bullet goes through Damion's head. You let out a sigh as you take the journal out of your backpack and pull a pen from your pocket, marking down notes on the paper.
Willy [Crystal and Joseph]
"Willy, go." Fox looks from the body to you, giving you a cold glare, almost the same look that AC gave you.
You huff and turn back towards the camp ground. "Kara would've let me help." Fox lets out a sigh as he goes back to pulling the man's dead body and you begin walking to the camp ground.
As you reach the camp ground, Crystal gives you a very worried look. "What's going on? Where's AC? Who was that man? What happened to Vanessa? Where is James? Where is Sylvester?" You don't respond but sit down. "Hey, are you listening?"
You wanted to answer but you had no idea what was really going on yourself. "I... don't.... know." You look to the ground as you feel a sharp pain in your head. By now it was a normal headache, happened just about every other day and it was almost impossible to get rid of.
Joseph notes the negative turn in your mood and attempts to stop the girl from bugging you too much. "Crystal, he just saw a lot of things. At least give him time to process it all before you bombard him with questions."
You get a sick feeling in your stomach as the more recent events come to light.
AC is working herself to death, she blames herself for everything that's happened with the group.
John is just attempting to keep up with the group's status and helping out Vanessa and Kylie.
Kylie is being thrown under way too much stress, trying to keep up with her mother and Crystal and Joseph.
Fox is growing more isolated with every second that passes. The only person who really kept him involved with the group was Kara.
Vanessa could very well die if nobody treats her leg properly. ATR could have done it, she knew what she was doing.
That's what you were going to do! You were going to find the group and bring them back!
Rosie "Go after her." ~Risk Rosie
Tatiana thinks before pointing to the gun. "You've got that already, you should go after her." The two of you begin walking towards the front of the school. "She's their leader, but I can't say they were in the best shape when Matt got them. They'll be worse off if she dies right?"
"Right. By the way, when I get back we're going to talk about Lucien's kidnapping tactics because they were very sloppy." Tatiana lets out a chuckle and holds open the front door for you.
"Stay safe. Try to be back before night." She goes back into the school as you think about which way or where Kara would have gone.
The front door opens and AWESOMEO comes out of the school. "You're going to look for Kara, right? Well I'm going with you."
You cross your arms, keeping a tight grip on the gun. "What makes you think I need help? And from you at the least?"
"The fact that you know nothing about her or the group. She's got motivation to find a kid that she got along with. She really cared about him." He puts his hands in his pockets as he walks towards you.
"Do you think he's alive? Honestly?" He gives a doubtful look but quickly covers it with a hopeful smile.
"For her sake, I hope so. It was honestly pretty weird, the night." He walks forward to lead the way, expecting you to follow him. "There was a fire and that dick, Matt, kept talking about how Kara played with fire, which made me think that she started it." You keep a few three or four steps behind him. "It took a while for me to convince myself that she wouldn't do it after Nina died." He shakes his head. "Anyways, we all got separated. Brian's girlfriend is out there, some girl who lost her arm because of me is out there, and it feels right to get them back but Kara's going about it all wrong. That's her motivation."
"To get them back? Not to just leave?" You speed up a little to stand at his side.
"Her sister, Nina, thought pretty reasonably but Kara just takes danger head on. Although, she somehow doesn't get killed with her stupid risk taking, she's dangerous, Rosie." AWESOMEO looks as if he regret what he said in the instant.
[Send AWESOMEO back] or [Keep AWESOMEO around]
Clarice
"I can't stand how naive you idiots are! You guys are monsters!" The blonde girl stood remaining in the doorway, continually yelling at you, Emma, Jessica, and Aidan.
The same girl who had murdered Christa for trying to break up a fight, thinking she had the right to call you a monster.
"You need to stop." Emma looks down, quietly trying to reason with Jinx.
"I need to stop?! Who are you to tell me to stop?!" Jinx quickly draws the gun that she used to shoot Christa and aims it at Emma again. The sound of two sets of feet hurrying up stairs fill the area as Jessica and Aidan had gone. "Even your friends left you! You're wrong!"
"This isn't about being wrong, Jinx, it's about being alive. I refuse to fight you but I personally cannot stand for your bitching right now." Emma looks at the barrel of the gun that was aimed at her.
Jinx looks almost shocked that Emma wouldn't engage in her childish fights. "You have no choice but to listen to me now! I'm in charge!"
Two men walk around the side of the house but stop in shock as the see Jinx standing in the doorway. It was TinyCarlos and Tyler. Of all the times they could have arrived, it had to be now.
"Listen, Jinx, let's just calm down and think about this like adults, alright?" You hold out your hands as Emma back up.
Jinx looks almost furious by now. "What is there to talk about?"
"Maybe the fact that this is your fault. None of this had to happen but because you decided to shoot our friend, you've signed yourself up for some bad shit." She turns her gun from Emma to you.
It was at that instant. Something clicked.
"But because you did this, we're going to get you back. That I can promise." Jessica and Aidan come back down the stairs, TinyCarlos and Tyler quietly approach the entry of the house, ready to shoot Jinx.
"Excuse me?" She tightens her grip on the gun. "Would you like to repeat yourself? I don't think I heard you correctly! Are you threatening me?!"
"We're going to kill you." or "It was nothing."
[Send AWESOMEO back]
"It was nothing." Jinx is love, Jinx is life.
Jinx is all mighty savior. Well according to herself, anyways.
Oh no, you goddamn creepy identity-stealing creep, you keep your hands off her >:(
Although I am still not entirely sure if I understand how the Afterlife works. Do they kill everyone in a group, save for the mentioned one survivor, and then pretend that they are this group until they change their identities again after a while?
[Keep AWESOMEO around]
Maybe he can be helpful
"It was nothing."
Threatening her now could infuriate Jinx to the point where she just kills Clarice before the rest can kill her instead.
[Keep AWESOMEO around]
"It was nothing."
Well there's still Nick, even though Damion could hardly take care of himself which is evident.
I'll probably write another part in a few minutes, telling what the Afterlife does because it wasn't really clear.
Trust me, you don't want to make Jinx any madder right now.
[Send AWESOMEO back]
"We're going to kill you."
I love Jinx parts...
Nathan Founder of Afterlife? JACKPOT XD that was awesome, thank you.
I love writing Jinx parts, believe me
He had the perfect personality to create such a messed up group so thank you for submitting such a character
So by the looks of it I'm going to flip a coin for Rosie's choice...
Aaaand it looks like Rosie is going to send AWESOMEO back and Clarice is going to remain passive with Jinx.
The new part will be around later tomorrow afternoon at the latest.
Amelia Cleveland, Ohio. 3 months ago.
"Welcome to the Afterlife, Amelia." A young man in a white hoodie stood in front of you with his eyes covered. "Don't get too comfortable though."
He turns to walk away as you look on, confused. "Is somebody going to explain to me how this group works? And why shouldn't I get too comfortable?"
The scruffy man with dirty blonde hair that brought you to the group shakes his head and walks away.
You notice an older looking man walking around and run to his side. "Hey. You're not new here, right? What's going on?"
He lets out a hearty laugh "If he didn't tell you, he doesn't trust you! You gotta give him a reason to trust you, girlie."
A reason to trust.
You go to the shack that the hooded boy went to and bang on the door. After a minute or two of waiting, the door opens up and the boy looks at you, waiting for you to say something. "Could you let me in?"
He looks back in the shack and opens the door up a little bit more. "I guess so, what do you want?"
"I want to know what I'm supposed to do." You walk in and notice a journal sitting on the desk and a red backpack on the floor.
He notices where your view is fixed and takes the journal from the desk, putting it in the bag. "Shut the door." You do as he says and he sighs. "You just don't seem the material, you know? You seem more like a victim, Amelia."
"I didn't come here to get critiqued, tell me what I'm supposed to do."
"You want to know what to do? Here's the deal then. Your job is to pick a target that fits your personal description, learn about your target over the course of eight days, no more and no less, and then you meet up with them after those eight days. You make that meeting seem like a coincidence. You can either wait until they go to leave and kill them or just immediately kill them, either way they need to be dead. You steal their clothes and hide the body. Do you understand?"
"Steal their clothes? What the fuck is with that?" He points to the door as he pulls the journal back out of the backpack. "No, give me a target. I'm not leaving until you do."
He sighs and rips a page out of the journal. "We steal the clothes because we don't know if anyone in the group will remember what the target was wearing." He holds out the ripped paper. "You want to do something, then do it."
Target: Tambri Allens. Age: 31. Usually seen near the Walmart Supercenter on Steelyard Drive. That was all you needed to know.
From what you knew so far, people have feared the Afterlife since the beginning, which wasn't too far back. They were brutal, ruthless, and showed no mercy towards anyone. Not even their own group members.
Getting to be one of them was basically an honor that should not be abused. if it was, you were basically dead to them and they would make sure you were not only dead to them, but everyone else.
You've finally made it to one of the biggest groups that Ohio has to offer, if there was ever a time to be extra careful with what you said or did. It was now.
//So I figure I'll cut it here, being as there is still a lot more to learn about the Afterlife before I can really continue on with Nathan's POV but it won't take too long to cover.//
In other news I've figured out a new system that I am 110% sticking to. Everyday around this time there is going to be a new part, focusing on a different group. Instead of trying to include every group while keeping it at a certain length.
This will allow me to include more detail, character interactions, and more thought out choices, which I feel I haven't done a lot of lately.
That being said, tomorrow we can look forward to a Charlie part, and please feel free to post some speculation because I do enjoy it. Well I guess I will be back around tomorrow, until then i hope everyone has a great night/day.
Awesome part!
Hey guys! So I know it's been a while and I'm sorry for that. It'll probably be a bit while longer before I even get the time to write so in the meantime, I wanted to give a shout out to a story that I've been reading for a while. It's pretty good and the writer is a very nice person so please give it a gander if you find the time! See you guys in the long run, stay fresh!
1992
"Sonia is a smart girl. She has no problems academically, she's actually doing better than most kids, but we're more concerned about her psychological well being." A wooden block sat on the very edge of the desk, with a name carved into it: "Mr. Manson" The letters were arranged in a silly fashion.
He slid some papers across the desk to the brunette woman who wore a green dress that complimented her eyes and the blonde man who had tossed on a red shirt, along with a pair of blue jeans.
The papers included drawings and writings. The drawings often had blood and gore in them, each getting progressively worse as the man and woman skimmed each of the drawings. "Our daughter did not do this."
The principal looked over to the blonde girl sitting in the corner of the office, looking at the paintings on the wall. "I understand. I have a son myself, I wouldn't want to believe he made such drawings either but her name is on the paper."
"So what's the big fuckin' deal? Oh no, honey, she's drawing! Where did we go wrong!" The man in red said with mild sarcasm in his voice.
The brunette next to him shoved his arm and gave him a cold glare. "That's enough, Jason." She turned her attention back to the principal. "What do you want us to do? She's eight years old, she's still learning. As a matter of fact, isn't it your job to teach her this stuff?"
Mr. Manson huffed and leaned over his desk. "The only thing I can do is recommend that your daughter see a psychologist, and even that is beyond my control."
Present Time
"It was nothing." Clarice's tone changed in a heartbeat. "I just think you need to understand that with action comes consequences." Emma joined Jessica and Aidan at the base of the stairs.
Jinx's attention turned to Jessica, Emma, and Aidan now. "And can you translate whatever the fuck she's saying?" Jessica shrugged slightly as she leaned of to the man next to her and started whispering. Jinx furrowed her eyebrows and raised her voice. "Hey! Secrets don't make friends! Have you ever heard of that?"
Jessica turns back to the blonde girl in the doorway and snickers. "Good thing no one here wants to be your friend."
As TinyCarlos and Tyler stop at the first step that led to the porch, they began waiting for a signal to shoot her. Jinx loosened her grip on the gun and sighs. "I... uhm..." She raised her hand to look at the palm of her left hand and then at the gun in her right hand. "I don't understand?"
Emma noticed something in Jinx, at that instant. A new emotion, not anger, or off the walls psycho, but a tint of sadness.
Aidan leaned over to Emma and started whispering what Jessica hold told him. "TC and Tyler are ready to shoot. Do we really want to listen to this bitch anymore?"
Clarice now joined the three at the base of the stairs and joined the conversation. "She's quiet. She's gotta be planning something." Clarice kept her voice to a low whisper to avoid drawing the young girl's attention back to the group.
"She's not planning anything... Jessica, you hurt her feelings." Emma remembered back to her own younger sister. "I used to hurt my younger sister's feelings all the time on pure accident. I would always apologize to her, though."
Jessica crossed her arms in dismay. "Are you saying I should apologize to the lunatic in the doorway because I hurt her feelings?"
Emma shook her head and looked to the ground. "No... I'm saying that even though she's a lunatic, there's obviously a part of her that's still human and we can probably reach it without putting a bullet in her brain."
Jessica scoffs. "This girl deserves to die for what she's done. Christa would want her to die, wouldn't she?"
"No, she wouldn't. Christa wouldn't want her to die because she tried to keep Jinx from getting in a fight." Aidan spoke up just in time for Jessica to send a cold glare his way. "I don't really know, you guys can decide. Just keep in mind that she's still human, even after all she's done."
Aidan turned around and went up the stairs, leaving the three women to discuss the matter. Clarice looked towards Jinx and noticed that while TinyCarlos and Tyler were still there, they were drained. A decision needed to be made fast.
"Jessica, you want to kill Jinx. Emma, you don't want to kill Jinx. Aidan completely walked out on us, but made a good point." Clarice continued whispering to the two women next to her. "I don't enjoy being the tie-breaker. It's unfair."
Jessica runs her hand through her long blonde hair. "That's a tragedy, you have to be the tie-breaker, Clarice."
[Signal TinyCarlos and Tyler] or [Attempt to talk with Jinx]
1992
"Sonia, would you tell me what made you draw this picture?" The psychologist who Sonia learned to know as Dr. Jone held up a picture that she had drawn in class.
It was a picture of something Sonia had seen on the road, a cat that was nearly dead. Her mom thought it was disgusting but Sonia found it fascinating. "The teacher told me that we had to color a picture, so I colored a cat that I saw the weekend before."
Dr. Jone put the picture face down on her desk and cupped her hands. "Sonia, pictures like these are not right. They are wrong. Nobody wants to see a kitty in pain, just like nobody wants to see a puppy in pain. Do you want to see a kitty or puppy in pain?"
Sonia shook her head quickly. "I like my puppy at home. He's a good puppy."
The doctor cleared her throat and stood up to look out the window. "Do you understand what I'm saying right now? You cannot draw things like this. It is disturbing to people, Sonia. Maybe not you, but it is for me."
What had she done wrong? Why was she being yelled at? "I... I don't understand, Dr. Jone."
The doctor swiftly turned around and slammed her hand flat on the desk. "What don't you understand? We've been meeting for five weeks now, and you still don't get it!"
This wasn't what a doctor was supposed to do, and Sonia knew it. She jumped out of the chair that was on the opposite side of Dr. Jone's desk and raised her index finger to point at the woman. "Stop! You can't do that!"
Dr. Jone looked more confused than she did threatened.
Sonia grabbed a letter knife the was on the desk in front of her, placed next to a lava lamp. "Stop it now!"
"Sonia, that is not going to harm me. Put it down and sit down." Dr. Jone lowered her voice in an attempt to calm the girl.
"No! You can't help me! All you do is hurt me even more! I don't like you!" Sonia threw the letter knife back onto the desk and picked up the lava lamp, hurling it at the bookshelf on the right side of the room.
Present Time
What had she done wrong? Why didn't they like her? "I... uhm..." She looked at the palm of her left hand and at the gun in her right hand. "I don't understand?"
None of them responded to her. They only started whispering again.
She felt something that she hadn't felt long before the circus came around. Hurt.
Is this how she made others feel?
No, it couldn't be.
The woman with the septum piercing went to the other three and started whispering as well.
Why were they doing this? Jinx had only tried to do right by them and tried to make friends.
She thought she was doing the right thing.
1999
This was it. Sonia's first year of high school. She sat in the passenger's seat as her mother went on to talk about how proud she was of Sonia.
As they pulled up to the front of the school, her mother turned to her and planted a kiss on her cheek. "Have a good day, sweetie, Dad will pick you up at four." Sonia nodded as she collected her backpack and went for the door handle.
Sonia turned to her mother one last time before getting out of the car. Her mother seemed to worsen with every passing day, like Sonia was burdening her.
The blonde girl opened the door and took to the sidewalk. "Sunny, I love you so much." Her mother said before Sonia began walking to the school doors.
Sunny. It was the nickname her mother had given her when her parents were going through the divorce. Her mom said it was because Sonia lit up her whole world and gave her a reason to keep going.
As Sonia walked through the door, she noticed all the popular kids crowded towards the front of the school. Some of them pointed and whispered to their friends, who would laugh in response. Sonia knew they were talking about her, but all she could really do was put on a smile and brave it out.
"Hey, Sonia, got any lives to ruin today? Maybe you could ruin your grandparent's relationship?" A taller girl with red hair stood in front of Sonia. "Better yet, take your science knowledge, build a time machine, and do us all a favor by preventing yourself from being born."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand." Sonia's grip on her backpack tightened as the red headed girl laughed.
"Is that all you can say?" The red headed girl turned back to her friends and laughed once more. "What a loser..."
[Attempt to talk with Jinx]
Man I'm enjoying these flashbacks.
[Attempt to talk with Jinx]
Perhaps talking to the mad woman is not the best idea, but I just like Jinx too much to try to kill her just yet. Maybe if this attempt fails, but not yet.
Guys, it's been 4 months. I know this is like a year overdue but I've decided to go ahead and give up this story. It's gotten to a point where I couldn't even force myself to write if I tried.
I also wanted to thank you all for reading because you guys have seriously been the best to me, even when I hardly deserved it with the various month long breaks. You people are literally some of the best people I know and I am just really grateful to have been working with you guys and have your active cooperation and just having you guys enjoying my story was an amazing feeling and I am going to miss it.
Thank you all so much for reading and I'm always here for a chat
Have a great 2016, everybody.
As sad as these news are, I can understand your reason for ending the story. There is no point in writing when you have to force yourself to do it. First and foremost, you write for yourself, so if you don't have fun, then there's no point in doing it.
I have greatly enjoyed every single part of this amazing story. In fact, it was the first story I have checked out here in the forums, so it is likely one of the reasons for why I'm an active forum user today. For that, I can't thank you enough. And of course, for this great story you have been writing for way over a year. Despite the breaks, every new part was awesome and looking back at the beginning, I find it impressive how much your style evolved. Every part has been amazing, but the most recent parts have definitely been my favourites in the entire story. Thank you for writing this story! I will miss it, but as I said, I can definitely understand your reason.
By the way, is there any chance that you're going to start a new story, perhaps about a different topic? If not, then that is fine as well of course. Just asking since this has been an amazing story and I would love to read more of your writing.
I couldn't have said it any better then Liquid has. At the time there were many fan fictions that I wanted to be a part of but realistically it would be best to keep it to a select few and yours was one of them. I was really interested and entertained by your story and I think you really improved over time. If you ever write anything else let us know! Thank you and you have a great 2016 too.
Well, it's truly been a long time coming and my last post was bad news here, I can confirm that this story will not be coming back, I've considered it myself a few times.
However, when I announced the closure of this story, I was asked if I'd be doing another story and to let you guys know if I was. The answer is yes, I'm doing another story!
I'm very happy to be able to announce this and be able to openly talk about the idea after having debated about it for so long, but I'm very confident that this will work out.
I'm here today to introduce that new story, which has been called 'Voyagers of the Storm'. It can be found https://telltale.com/community/discussion/116638/voyagers-of-the-storm-an-interactive-story there. The main post gives most of the details that I can currently give, but rest assured, I'm definitely more prepared for this story.
I would also like to thank you guys one last time. You were all loyal readers and what made writing fun. I really don't know if I'm repeating what I said in my last address, I haven't even looked at it, but I seriously want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart.