A/N: I know full and well that I'm going to regret posting this story a week before TEW2 comes out but I'm willing to accept the consequences of it. I've been working on re-working this story for two months or so now. So if I don't post it than all the work will be for nothing. Plus it was really good practice to get back into the characters and the game itself- which I was super rusty on. (Can't go into TEW2 like that.)
Just as a heads up, this story will contain sexual content (not explicit) and things of that nature. I know some people out there don't care for it, or don't enjoy it, so I'll try and keep the chapters tagged by title or by author's note, or something of the sort. There will be a warning of some kind so you can try and avoid the chapters when possible. Now those chapters will be edited/censored to fit into the guidelines so you won't have to worry about anything explicit. This isn't usually the kind of story I post but it seemed like a waste to not share it on here for the idea at least.
[For anyone curious, I will be mirroring this story on AO3 and it will not be censored.]
Now this is a re-working of a story I had like two years ago that I never posted on FF. I was really in love with the idea but never had the time to fully invest into it like I wanted to. So please bear with me, the updates on this story might be slow. I have the first chapter finished (at 24K words no less) so hopefully that's a good starting point to go with.
And yes, to the anon who asked me earlier, you can bet that you'll be seeing me around for TEW2 c;
Kidman felt herself grimace as she bypassed the half-eaten corpse sprawled out on the floor to her right.
She tried to ignore the mess of organs that had been ripped and scooped out of the open stomach cavity, but she felt her gag reflex twitch at the smell of it regardless; she already knew it was there so there was no point in pretending that the carnage didn't exist. She already knew that the hair and skin had been pulled off of the victim's mutilated head- already knew that his skull had been broken and pulled apart by eager fingers. Already knew that the soft brain inside had been torn out in scooped chunks by those same deranged fingers.
Already knew that what blood had been spilled, and there was a lot of it, had already caramelized to the old wooden floorboards underneath.
The smell was rancid and yet it was still fresh.
Despite being disgusted by it, Kidman found herself fighting to pull her attention away from it.
She had plenty of experience with the Haunted so far but she had yet to witness them actually eating someone. Or cannibalizing one of their own. Either or. It wasn't something she had witnessed in the asylum or the church, so to see it here inside of an almost-perfectly normal mansion... It only pushed the already uncomfortable feeling that had been welling up in her chest.
The Victoriano mansion was proving to be just as difficult as the family who once owned it.
Winding corridors, small locked rooms, an array of puzzles, and a library that was built upward only placed more and more barriers in their way. And every new corner only revealed yet another wing of the dilapidated mansion, yet another wing for the three of them to explore- for them to potentially get lost in.
(The sheer size of this place was making her hate it more than the sporadic Haunted who walked the hallways.)
Kidman forced her eyes to follow the metal pipe that ran along the upper portion of the back wall instead, just before it curved up through a hole in the ceiling- disappearing and making it even more difficult to keep track of it.
It had to exit out somewhere though- somewhere in this wing of the mansion.
She still couldn't believe that they were following the damn thing.
After witnessing what the first pipe had been attached to, Kidman wasn't exactly thrilled to see where this one would end up.
(And she knew neither Sebastian nor Joseph would be thrilled either.)
The three of them had arrived at the old Victoriano mansion like someone had simply dropped them off at the iron gates and promised to be back in a couple of hours. It had been sudden and, despite having been tossed around by STEM a few times already, they still had to take a moment or two to get their footing. The church had been less than kind to them and they all knew things would only get worse the deeper into STEM they went.
As if the mansion grounds weren't creepy enough on their own, they managed to walk inside in time to see the good doctor, Marcelo Jimenez, and Leslie disappear behind a massive closing door flanked by twin staircases. It wasn't necessarily hard to figure out that they needed to get on the other side just as well, but the door required more than just a simple key.
It was like the damn thing needed a blood sacrifice.
And, unfortunately, the three of them found that blood sacrifice in the form of a severed head hooked up to some kind of... medical machinery that Kidman had never seen before. That neither of them had seen before; and between the three of them, there was a decent combination of hospital visits to confirm that that kind of machine didn't exist anywhere else.
The top portion of the victim's skull was missing, exposing a still living, fully functional human brain.
There had been screws fixated into the thin cup of the skull, locking the head in place, and clearly outlining that it was something that they needed to pay attention to.
The scattered anatomical and experimental notes nearby only furthered that point.
After all of the things she had witnessed in STEM up to this point, Kidman didn't think there was much else she couldn't stomach from it.
The damn thing didn't even smell like blood, which is how she expected it to.
It smelt more like a heavy sterilizer, a scent she was more familiar with. And there were no doubts in her mind that the scent was coming from whatever medicine Ruvik was using to keep the damn head alive on its own.
Kidman thought that the three of them were all going to puke when they first stepped around that corner and saw the thing.
As much as they all wanted to ignore it, it was too out of the ordinary to; they knew that it had to signify something.
Sebastian was the only one willing to run the machine that would end up sticking a needle into the exposed brain- which was also something none of them had expected it to do. (Which almost resulted in the three of them simultaneously throwing up again.) Kidman was certain that the older Detective only volunteered to do it because he wanted them to get out of this mansion as soon as possible- and if the only way to do so was by needling a brain than so be it, he would make the sacrifice.
Kidman played the nearby audiotape while Joseph examined the anatomical sketches hastily taped together nearby.
Together they were able to figure out where to put the needle.
And when the tube connected to the weird machine began to deplete the red liquid inside of it, Kidman knew that this was only the start of some kind of elaborate, fucked up puzzle Ruvik had set out for them.
And when they stepped back out into the front lobby and noticed that one piece of the door mechanism had been filled... She was proven right.
So for now, against their wishes, the three of them were on the look-out for more of those brain stations.
They had just finished clearing out the library when Sebastian pointed out the metal piping on the wall.
The door they were trying to open had three pipes attached to the three locking mechanisms. The first one they had followed lead them to the backroom where the first brain torture device was, so it didn't take them long to catch on to the subtle clue. The one they were currently following had taken them to the library and was now guiding them down the adjacent hallway that parted off from the main study.
Guiding them down yet another wing of the mansion.
Kidman watched as Sebastian stayed in front, gun drawn and fully alert.
Joseph had been following up from the back but had stopped to investigate a side room door to their left.
She paused just outside the doorway and waited as Joseph gave the room a broad look-over, checking for any hidden Haunted; thankfully there didn't seem to be any- they usually made their presences immediately known. Assured that the man would be fine for now, Kidman continued forward, trailing some after Sebastian, who had continued onward as well; she kept an eye out for anything that might catch her attention.
The place held a sense of elegancy but at the same time it seemed oddly... stripped.
As though someone had come through before and snatched all the goods for themselves.
About halfway down the corridor, only a few yards from the first door, another side room appeared to her left.
The door was just barely cracked but Kidman felt that if there was a Haunted in there, it would've leapt out by now; they were too impatient for ambush tactics.
She waited until Sebastian had reached the end of the corridor and watched as he paused at the connecting hallway that cut sharply to his right- obscuring the whole thing from the angle she was standing at.
"I'm going to check the end of this and come back," Sebastian called to her; his heavy voice low in the narrow, empty hallway.
"Alright," Kidman nodded, before she gestured to the cracked door on her left, "I'll be in here and Joseph will be in the room next door."
The man nodded in return before he stepped around the corner and disappeared.
Keeping her gun drawn, Kidman slowly eased the partly-cracked door open and stepped inside. It didn't seem to be much of anything other than a decent-sized bedroom; there was a bed, a few sitting chairs, a desk, a wardrobe, and a dressing-wall in the corner. The room smelt faintly of dust and mildew but other than that it looked like it was stuck in time- just like every other place in this hellhole.
But something felt different about this place.
She couldn't pinpoint it and thus couldn't decide if it was a good or bad feeling.
But considering that this was STEM and that this was Ruvik's home, it wasn't exactly a gamble.
A catch of movement to her left caused Kidman to turn sharply, gun at the ready.
Her trigger finger twitched before she found herself looking down the short barrel at Joseph instead.
"Sorry," he offered, one hand removed from his gun and partly raised as he slowly stepped into the same room as her. He loosely gestured to the open doorway behind him, which revealed the same room he had gone to investigate only minutes before. "Didn't know they were connecting rooms."
Kidman nodded and tried to ease the set tension in her shoulders as she let her gun drop back at her side. Her nerves were still a little on edge. She didn't like this place- and it sure as hell wasn't hiding the fact that it didn't like them being here either. She was too jumpy, too easily bothered right now; she just needed to get herself back under control and stop tripping over her own feet.
Briefly clearing her throat, Kidman cocked her head and peered over Joseph's shoulder to the second room. "Connecting bedrooms? That's odd."
Usually there was a small room, like a bathroom, that was placed as a blocker between conjoined bedrooms.
Or at least, in her experience there always had been.
"Depends, I guess," Joseph shrugged.
Considering what this place had showed them already, having conjoined bedrooms was not it's weirdest feature.
Kidman decided to give the room a more thorough look over just in case- not that she was expecting to find much in it. But now that Joseph was there, she was a little more comfortable in letting her attention travel over the place.
... She wasn't surprised when there was nothing to be found. At all.
Nothing more than worn-out papers with illegible writings and some old books with crumpled spines that had carelessly been tossed onto the dust-covered floor.
She ran her fingers across the wrinkled bedcovers as she walked by and was surprised by how soft they still were. While the interior of the room wasn't necessarily exposed to anything, the stiff-looking bedcover had the appearance of being as unpleasant as it looked. But looks were apparently deceiving in this place.
"Are you feeling any better?" Joseph asked, breaking the cold silence in the room.
Kidman looked up from where she had started shuffling through the loose papers on the desk, although knowing damn well that they wouldn't hold anything of importance to her. She supposed she had to fill in that play-along Detective itch of hers, which was a pointless facade to keep up with at this point. She could see where Joseph was standing in the same doorway she had entered from; there was no doubt that he had positioned himself like that on purpose so he could keep an eye on her and Sebastian at the same time.
Kidman gave a shrug in response and touched lightly at her still throbbing shoulder; her body had been in constant pain ever since the church.
From the moment the three of them had fallen through the chapel flooring, they had gone through Hell, back and forth, again and again, with little time to even catch their breath. Needless to say, asides from sheer forced will, Kidman was surprised that her body hadn't completely given up on her. It ached and reminded her again and again about how she had fucked up, but there was little else she could do about it at this point.
"Yeah... well for what it's worth I'm not puking up blood anymore," Kidman offered, as she gave up on searching the antique desk; she could risk wasting her time elsewhere in this hellhole of a mansion. "But mostly no."
Joseph frowned at her answer and glanced back down the hallway once more. "Feel free to take a break if you need it."
A nice idea.
After all, for once they weren't being chased down or hunted by some impossibly-existing monster so there was no need to rush things here. And it wasn't like any of them were exactly rushing to find another one of those brain stations after all.
She really needed a break, Kidman couldn't deny that.
It didn't help that the bed here was almost too good to pass up.
It was the best looking one they had come across so far- although most of the others were usually just blood-stained mattresses with torn apart limb restraints. So it wasn't like there was really any competition. And it sure as hell beat sleeping on the floor.
...
But it was risky.
And she wasn't sure if she was up for that kind of gamble or not.
"I don't think I want to risk it," Kidman started. "We don't know what exactly is going to happen while we're here. It hasn't been as dangerous as the church so far, but given that this was Ruvik's ground zero I don't have a great feeling about it."
"You and me both," Joseph remarked, giving no hesitation in agreeing with her on that front. Maybe he was getting the same cold, gut feeling that she was. "Still, you look like you're going to pass out on your feet," he continued.
It was hard to deny the genuine sense of concern he was showing for her- not that he had really stopped worrying about her since they had regrouped.
Which was... odd.
Because between the two of them, Kidman considered him to be in the worst condition. She didn't have a clear idea of what had happened at the church with Joseph specifically, but she had witnessed the aftermath and it wasn't good by any means. Hell, she had to admit that she was surprised he managed to make it this far- and that his head had cleared up enough for him to be fully functional again.
Physical injuries were much easier to treat in comparison to mental ones.
"You still haven't recovered from what happened back at the church either," Joseph gingerly reminded.
Right...
Kidman still didn't want to think about it.
"I'm not telling you what you should do but if you want to lie down for a few minutes, I'll keep an eye out."
A heavy sigh escaped her and unfortunately brought up the same pain in her chest that had been lingering with her for hours now. She had hit that column a lot harder than she kept thinking she did; she might've bruised a lung, fractured a rib, something, which might be where the pain was originating from.
As much of a relief as the offer sounded, it also carried on as a bit of double-edged sword here.
Kidman felt like it would make her seem weak and vulnerable- like she couldn't pull her own weight around here. But at the same time, she had pulled her weight immediately following the church incident, as well as in the catacombs and even in that strange cave system they had escaped out of. She had done more than enough to prove herself- and it wasn't like either Joseph or Sebastian would judge her for needing to get off of her feet for a little while.
Despite the ongoing inner battle, Kidman gave in.
"Alright," she sighed, "I doubt we're going to get much further than this for awhile anyways. If I'm still down in ten minutes just wake me up, okay?"
"Don't worry about it," Joseph assured.
Kidman watched as the other Detective stepped out into the corridor outside, just slightly pulling the door closed behind him; he was probably going to inform Sebastian of their change of plans. She supposed after everything they had gone through they could afford just a little roadblock here. If Joseph hadn't offered though, she really wasn't sure how much longer she would last like this.
Her back and ribs had reverted back to their persistent throbbing and her shoulder had gotten to the point of nearly being immobilized by the numb pain in the socket. Her completely skinned knee had gone through several painful stages of pins and needles as well, threatening to make her leg completely useless; she had fucked up her knee pretty bad in the catacombs too, which only made it worse than it already was.
Not to mention her head had been going through headaches for the past couple of hours now- revolving one around the other until they brought her to the point of being physically sick.
God knows how many times she had to stop their progress just to pull herself to the side and puke while they were trying to navigate their way through the dark underground cave system. It got to the point where she had felt more sorry for Sebastian and Joseph for having to hear her puke rather than for herself who was actually doing it. That dull, empty feeling in her stomach still persisted too- reminding her of the unbearable cramping from stressing her abdominal muscles for too long.
Slowly working her way back towards the neatly-made bad, Kidman grabbed the folded covers and hesitated before she pulled them back. Part of her was half-expecting to find a body hiding under the blankets, or maybe a Haunted lying in wait, but there was nothing. Nothing more than a set of matching sheets.
For another moment, she battled with second thoughts- wondering instead if she should just bail and regroup with Joseph and Sebastian.
But if she didn't take this opportunity now, she would reach the point of total exhaustion later down the road and then what? She could turn dead weight in the middle of a life or death situation- and there was no way she would let herself take the three of them down altogether.
Kidman gave a subtle groan as she finally convinced herself to lie down and felt her body start to throb all over again- except this time it was almost satisfying. The mattress was firm but it still conformed around her weight, offering some support to her wounded bones and joints. For now, at least, she could finally ease her overworked muscles and allow herself to relax as best as she could.
As much as she wanted to kick off her heels and strip off her holster though, she wasn't stupid.
Even if the other two were keeping an eye on her, she still needed to be self-prepared in case something happened before they could get to her.
Kidman didn't really think she'd be able to rest all that well, let alone even sleep in the first place.
But she fell asleep almost immediately.
Kidman could hear herself wheezing through gritted teeth and strained breaths as she struggled to carry herself as fast as she could down the crumbling corridor around her.
Her entire body ached and throbbed from the sudden assault in the chapel, from the Administrator's deciding hand.
Adrenaline and shock were keeping her afloat for the time being, keeping her from focusing too much on the pain, but there was no guarantee that the cocktail would last long enough to save her. There was no guarantee that she could keep her body running, sliding and stumbling over the breaking ground floor beneath her.
It was taking every bit of strength to force her legs to move.
She could feel them shaking and burning with every new step- just barely able to take the next one in balance.
The threat of them collapsing out from underneath her was constant as she felt the sharp, hot pain course through her. It felt like her muscles were straining not to tear themselves apart by the strands as they were filling up with acid from the inside.
There was so much pain...
She could feel herself gagging through hard breaths, feeling the clutching pain in her stomach as her body urged itself to throw up.
But if she stopped, she was as good as dead.
Kidman was stumbling as she tried to navigate the narrow twisting corridor with half-blackened vision. She could barely see more than a few feet in front of her and she could only hope that there was as much space between her and the Administrator as she thought there was. At least enough space for her to escape with, to avoid his clinging hands and booming voice.
But she caught sight of the black shadows to her right.
Caught sight of elongated fingers reaching out from a collapsed entrance way- ripping themselves off of the crumbling brick wall.
She nearly slipped as she ducked and threw herself around the next corner, cutting her fingers on the brick wall as she used it to counter her motion- barely avoiding the long fingers that scratched the surface of her back.
Kidman stumbled in the aftermath of the risky motion, hot pain bouncing from her ankles to her knees to her hips and back down again. She managed to keep herself going, more out of fear now. She had to keep moving, no matter where this corridor would drop her off at. It could be leading her right into a dead end for all she knew but she didn't really have a choice right now!
She had to keep trying.
She had to keep going.
She had to get out of here!
Another stumble, another shot of pain shooting around inside of her as Kidman struggled to regain her footing. She pushed herself up, pushed herself to keep going- only to feel a burning sense of coldness rush up along her left arm. She yanked it back, never looking back but knowing full and well what was there, and knowing that she had to get away from it at all cost.
But things were never that easy.
Black shadowed fingers dug themselves around her wrist and jerked her arm back with them.
Kidman heard the audible pop as her left shoulder was dislocated from the sheer force of the pull and felt the way her body was twisted back by counter-motion. Heels scraped against broken concrete while her legs nearly collapsed at the sudden stop; her head spun with an odd sense of vertigo as she was blinded by the hot pain that erupted from her now empty shoulder socket.
But the flooding sense of agony barely kept her attention for the two seconds it took for her eyes to focus on the suited man steadily approaching her.
Another shadowed hand broke away from the wall and grabbed her by the right arm before she had a chance to move, before she had a chance to consider fighting, to consider running away again.
She still tried, even as her legs were paralyzed by pain and muscles pulled too tight.
It didn't matter though as long fingers pushed up through the ground beneath her and wrapped themselves around her buckling legs. The sheer chill of the cold touch caused her legs to finally give out from underneath her, but the tight grip of the shadowed fingers kept her standing on them- almost making the agony worse.
There was hardly any time to panic.
Every emotion simply melted itself down into immediate desperation and fear of what the Administrator was going to do to her.
It melted down into agonizing disappointment that she come this far only to get this far; she had fought through so much and yet, he still bested her.
"You could've been something, Kid."
It was useless to struggle and doing so only caused her more pain, more agony, but Kidman did it relentlessly.
She knew she couldn't get loose, knew she wouldn't be able to escape his hold but she could still knock herself out, or maybe even kill herself from the pain before he ever got the chance to.
(As if she would ever get that lucky.)
It felt like more hands, more fingers kept appearing, crawling over her, pricking and scratching at her skin until every hold on her was drawing blood.
"We don't have time to deal with disappointments like you, Kid."
Kidman looked up at the face in front of her; it was blurred out just like everyone else's but she could hear the irritated smugness in his voice. He hated her- always had, always would no matter what she'd do.
She could feel the fingers digging in harder now, burrowing under her skin, drawing out warm droplets that splashed at her feet.
Kidman felt the muscles in her throat pull before she spat out the blood in her mouth- landing it somewhere in the blurred remains of the Administrator's face.
"Fuck you!"
If there was any reaction, she didn't see it- and she knew she wouldn't anyways.
It was bittersweet.
It pushed off the pain for just a little while.
But it didn't stop the shadowed fingers from impaling themselves through her, ripping through her skin, and sinking themselves between her bones, between her ribs. It didn't stop the shadowed touch from twisting into every limb, tangling and shredding her from the inside out- tearing away at muscles, playing themselves between her tendons. She felt her dislocated shoulder fall away almost immediately, felt fingers pushing further in through the socket.
"Consider this your termination from Mobius."
Kidman woke up with a partial scream half-dead in her throat and one hand tightly clinging to her chest.
There was numbness, lingering pain.
Black spots filtering in the corners of her vision.
She expected to find blood, curled skin, exposed bone... but shaking fingers tumbled across warm skin and a wrinkled shirt that was missing one too many buttons. Disbelief, shock, pushed her to keep searching as she ran her hand around her neck, over her still-attached shoulder, and down her arms; she felt herself trembling the entire time she was doing so.
...
There were no injuries.
No dislocated or missing shoulder.
No blood, no throbbing pain paralyzing her legs.
She had a mild headache at best.
It felt like her heart was clawing to get out of her chest as eyes darted around the room- not yet convinced that she wasn't back at the church. Not yet convinced that whatever had happened, whatever she had felt, had only been a bad dream...
Kidman found herself shaking and feeling the phantom pain running through her limbs still, echoing and throbbing in all the places those hands had torn into her at. She was cold all over and was more than willing to blame the chattering of her teeth on that rather than the tightness of her jaw and throat as the lingering fear had almost reduced her to tears.
(Christ, she hadn't felt that kind of emotion in a long time now.)
It had to have been real somehow...
All of that couldn't have just been fake, it couldn't have just been in her head.
You're going crazy!
You're better than this!
She tried to calm herself, tried to push herself to forget, or at least to clean up her image lest Joseph or Sebastian came in to check in on her. There wasn't enough to comprehend what had happened, let alone enough to try and explain it to them- to explain why she wasn't quite but almost on the brink of tears.
It was stupid, she was better than this.
But in the corner of her eye, Kidman spotted movement, spotted motion of a dark shadow, and her body reacted quicker than her mind could. Her heart was still going, still pumping adrenaline through her blood, throughout her body; she had 'died' before and her instincts weren't about to let her die again lest this was a second chance.
She didn't remember crossing the bed in one seamlessly motion, tearing herself away from the movement.
But she did feel her feet hit the aged floorboards and that was all that mattered.
Kidman was across the bedroom before she knew it, the door wrenched open in hand; she threw herself out into the hallway without looking.
(She was ready to run again- and the Administrator wasn't going to catch her this time!)
"Kidman!"
She nearly made it to the end of the hallway outside before the voice calling out after her stopped her dead in her tracks.
Kidman.
Not Kid.
It made for a big difference.
There were only two people who called her Kidman.
(And only one person who called her Kid.)