"Do you accept our proposal?"
Rain poured down in torrents, though Alex was already drenched through and through. Her beloved jacket, which had once held the precious scent of her brother's cologne, had already gone through Nature's washing machine, and Alex didn't even want to think about the frazzle her hair was going to have in the morning.
Her shoes, those fashionable, yet flimsy and poorly-made, sneakers that everyone her age was wearing were caked in mud, and she had considered the night's events to have been hosted on "Edward's Swamp," given how ill-prepared she had been for the Ghost Forecast.
Though it all felt real, she knew it wasn't. In her left hand, knuckles white, she clung to that god-forsaken radio. In the second flooding for Noah's Ark, that damned radio was as dry as a history textbook.
Thunder cracked above, though Alex did not jolt like she once did. The noise didn't mask the roaring waterfall in the background or the noisy engine of the bridge trolley. It did, however, make Jonas' glowing, red eyes feel even more creepy.
"Are you fucking serious?" Alex asked, her words trembling out of her tongue like one walks on thin ice across a lake.
Shrugging, 'Jonas' could only offer, "If it makes you feel any better, dear, we don't expect anything but futile resistance from you. The fact is that nothing you say or do will change the outcome. It's happened a thousand times before, and it will continue to do so again until we get what we want."
"Fuck you!" she retorted, marching through the mud and throwing a valiant right hook at her stepbrother. She cried out in pain when 'Jonas' caught her by the wrist and brought his knee up to her stomach. He let her fall back, slipping but catching herself.
Alex tried again, leaping into the air to ram her shoe into his face, but he just caught her by the ankle and let her fall awkwardly to the ground. Left hand on her ankle, he used his right hand to twist. Slowly.
He didn't let go until there was a pop.
Crawling away, Alex shakingly dragged herself through the mud. "Fuck you," she wheezed out, keeling over and burying her forearms into the mud, leaning on them as she collected her breath.
"You shouldn't do that," he lectured, as smooth and calm as a summer's breeze.
As athletic as she was, Alex realized that she couldn't compete. Rolling onto her back, she did her best to control the pain, gritting her teeth and refusing to admit defeat.
"Stand up, dear. We like to make proper deals, so let's shake hands on it, and the rest of the flock can go home to roost," he told her.
Alex took her time, but she did wobble to her feet. She looked down at the radio, still in her hand, still dry. Looking back at her precious stepbrother, she made her last attempt at defiance. "I fucking hope so!" Alex cried out, pulling her arm back and hurling it into the waterfall.
Both watched the blood red box fly through the air, almost splashing into the water.
Alex's vision tore itself apart, just before the finale. A static ringing erupted inside her brain. The world around her melted and re-froze.
Shrieking in agony, Alex fell to her knees again. Her right hand clutched her right ear, but her left hand clutched the radio once more.
"You really shouldn't do that," they contorted, their voices slithering into her brain.
"Fu- uck you," Alex spat as she began to cry. "I hate you! I hate all of you! You can all sh- shove your stupid, fucking submarine u- up your collective asses!"
"You've said all of this before, Alexandra," he explained to her for the last time.
Alex heard, but she refused to acknowledge them. Instead, she lay in the mud, soaked and sticky, wet and shivering. Her crying heaved as she hiccuped, and mud went flying as she angrily smashed her fists into the ground again and again. Alex did so until her arms were sore, and she dug her head into the rocky mud, dying her hair back to its original brown.
The ghosts, having waited eons already, were content to give the teenager a few extra minutes. Time passed at a normal rate, with the rain pouring and the wind blowing, and Alex finally ceased her crying.
She slowly got to her feet, careful in her footing so as not to slip. She ran her right arm across her nose, snorting her snot down her throat and using the back of her hand to mash her eyes clean of tears.
"Feeling better?" they offered, devoid of any care. "You're not getting any younger, dear, and this one will lose interest in you eventually. Best to enjoy his company while you still can." Extending the right hand, they asked, "Do you accept our proposal?"
Running a her muddy hand through her hair, Alex flicked the excess out and cleaned her hand on her jeans. "When your end comes, and it will come," she promised, her tone as calm as the rain, "I hope all of you feel as horrible as I do right now."
Smiling, the ghosts ignored her theatrics and gently reminded, "We already did, again and again."
Alex composed herself, and she mustered the strength to begin, "How do I..."
'Jonas' innocently cocked his head.
Shivering, she pleaded, "How do I know you'll keep your word?"
Chuckling at the prep game the girl was playing with herself, 'Jonas' shook his hand. "We've given you no word to keep, dear. In our judgement you simply have no alternative."
The hope in Alex went out like a candle. Her defiance popped like a fuse. Slumping her shoulders, she let go of the radio, which landed in the mud with a gentle plop, though Alex didn't notice. Glazing her stare, she nearly whimpered, "Fine... take her."
Nodding, 'Jonas' closed his eyes as he smiled, his red glow snuffed out for an instant as the ghosts commended her. "You know, it's not often that we meet someone with your maturity-"
"Please," Alex whispered, bowing her head and screwing her eyes shut. "Just go. Please?"
They finally left the grieving girl alone, though the silver lining couldn't have been seen with a microscope. The rewind effect vanished, and Alex found herself back in the 'proper' timeline, with no rain and just some damp ground from yesterday's rain. Jonas was finally back with her, though Alex didn't really care about the wellbeing of anything anymore.
Jonas eagerly began to tell the tale of his latest trip to the Void, though he immediately took note of Alex's black and blue eye. He asked about it but received no reply. As she began to hobble up the hill, he asked about her muddy hair but received no reply. As she pulled her way up the rocky slope on her one good ankle he asked about it, but again he received no reply..
He followed her up, and his heart stopped when she jumped with great difficulty onto the rock in the middle of the waterfall. She barely made it, collapsing and clinging onto the slippery surface, bashing her twisted ankle on the jagged corner. She cursed her friend, and his childish romance with Nona, when their voices blasted out of a loudspeaker connected to the exterior of the lookout post.
He tried to console her when he jumped across and joined her, asking her if she needed him to put his skills of a misspent youth to the test and make a splint; but, again, he received no reply.
Not wanting to drop the radio into the water again, Alex fumbled with the radio, shrieking when she almost did, like a child terrified of receiving a beating from their drunken mother.
He begged her to tell him what was wrong. Only after her shaking hands managed to put it away in her interior pocket did Alex give Jonas her reply.
"I tried, Jonas," she told him, quivering and shivering in the chilly night. "Please don't think less of me, but I tried, and I failed. I failed all of you." Hunching over, she flinched as she moved her bad ankle out of the way.
Jonas sat down on the precariously slippery rock. He held her as best he could, heart racing for more than one reason.
Staring into the rushing waters, Alex huffed. With a sixty foot drop on her doorstep, she was confident that she had never been so close to death.
"I gave her away, Jonas. I tried to fight them, but they broke me. They offered terms, and I accepted."
Jonas regretted asking. He looked to her, and she turned to face him. Her head sagged forward, and her eyes were glossed.
She quietly asked, "Is this what being a hero feels like?"
Jonas wanted to say, "No," but he felt that wouldn't have been the right answer.
The silence was Alex's answer, and she nodded. "I'm so sorry, Jonas. If you want to stop me, this is probably the best time to do it."
Jonas looked to the rushing waterfall, then back to Alex. Grimacing, he hoped, "You're joking."
"You'd be doing me a favor. I haven't tried killing myself yet." Shrugging her shoulders, Alex confessed, "At least, I don't think I have. I don't remember every iteration."
There would have been an intense silence between the two, had it not been for Ren and Nona's constant yammering over the loudspeaker. Their teenage romance was repulsive to Alex as she contemplated the value of human life, and whether or not quantifying it caused her to lose her own in the process, which, in turn, inspired yet more nihilism in an already edgy, angsty teenager.
Jonas finally decided, "My dad told me that girls would be weird, but I still wasn't ready for tonight."
Taking in a much needed breath, Alex decided, "If you aren't going to stop me, let's get going."
"Just like that?" he wondered, somewhat shocked that she was so dead-set on such a horrible course of action.
With great care and help from Jonas, Alex got to her feet and threw herself across the rushing waters, tumbling onto the cold, hard dirt. The pain reminded Alex that she was still alive, if only to serve those who haunted her.
A/N: Greetings, all! I'm still in college. After the Spring 2017 semester, I'll be a senior! That means I'll have just two more semesters to go, assuming I don't fail any more classes and lose my scholarship. Hooray for trying to adult! I like this game too much for my own good.
I dug this up in my "To Finish" files and spruced it up in an hour. I hope you enjoyed it!