Carly woke up slowly. The last thing she remembered was a massive hole opening up in the floor of their home, her, Johnny, Jason, the girls and little 2 year old Michael falling into blackness… it seemed to only be her here now.
"Johnny?!" Carly calls out. No response. Not the slightest sound apart from the rain hitting the old, cracked windows… only then did Carly see her surroundings. It looked like the building had been abandoned for decades, the floorboards broken and the walls faded and damp. She got up, trying to open the window and finding it stuck fast.
"Fuck it!" Carly mutters, seeing a nearby crowbar and picks it up, smashing the window and climbing out of it.
"Hey!" A young voice shouts, Carly looking back to see a small girl looking no older than 10 stood there. "Quick, it's not safe out there! They'll get you and before you know it, you'll be dead with no tongue!" The girl says, waving Carly back inside.
"Are... how did you end up here?" Carly says, approaching the hazel haired girl and checking her for injuries, finding none.
"I came here… a very long time ago… 50 years, to be exact." The girl says before a blue glow appears around her, her left eye disappearing, replaced by an empty socket with blood filling it, all slightly transparent. "I'm Yuki. No… I'm not going to hurt you. I'm about the only good one here." She says, the window glass flying back into place.
Carly fought her urge to scream, Yuki grabbing her hand and leading her down the hallway to another room, Carly's eyes widening when she heard Michael crying.
"I'm no mother but… I've been caring for him for the three days you've been out. See, he's fine." Yuki says, Michael walking quickly to her. He'd not long been walking but already, Carly could see he was fond of Yuki.
"Mama!" Michael says, Carly picking the toddler up into her arms and cradling him close to her, Michael wrapping his arms around Carly.
"My husband and... 3 older children... where are they?" Carly says, hearing two more sets of footsteps run towards her, 10 year old Michelle and 4 year old Jocelyn hugging their mom and brother.
"Mom-" 17 year old Jason says before turning down the hallway.
"-Dad, Mom's alright!" He says, him and Johnny running over to Carly but them and the girls disappear.
"So… it's just you two. This place… there's multiple versions of it, different tiny universes. I call them closed spaces but… it's only you two in this one. Johnny, Jason and the girls are in different spaces. I can go to them but… you can't." Yuki says, her right eye with a look of pity in it.
"Are they okay?!" Carly says.
"Johnny and Jocelyn are together… Jason is on his own and… so's Michelle." Yuki says.
Carly held Michael close to her as he started crying, the door being kicked open and Trevor charging in.
"Stop!" Yuki screams, flinching and jumping back as Trevor runs at her. Instantly, he hit a spot where the air seemed to go solid, an invisible wall between him and Yuki.
"It's okay, baby. We'll find them." Trevor heard Carly saying to Michael and turned to her, his temporary fit of rage fading away.
"Carly… you have no idea how much trouble we're in… it was a long time ago but you remember… my daughter, Sam? Well… she's here somehow. I know what she said about the transfer into Jason but she's here and… not nice." Trevor says.
Two other sets of footsteps caught their attention, Johnny and Jocelyn appearing in the doorway.
"Carly, are you okay?!" Johnny says, running to her and wrapping his arms around her and Michael, instantly jolting in pain. He moves back, Carly seeing a deep wound in his right arm. "Some little kid in a red dress… stabbed me with scissors." He says, holding his hand over it.
Jocelyn hugged Carly and Michael tightly, Carly lightly stroking Jocelyn's hair as Trevor grabbed a white cloth, handing it to Johnny.
"Thanks." Johnny says, wrapping it around his arm.
"You met... what's become of Sam then." Yuki says, sitting on the window edge, the tiny 6 year old seeming to know exactly what was going on.
"Sam would never-" Carly says, Jason helping Michelle into the room.
"What happened?!" She says, running over and seeing a cut on Michelle's left leg.
"Red dress girl attacked us… I'm fine but you can see what happened to her." Jason says, Yuki jumping down from the window.
"The girl in the red dress, that's Sam… or rather, Sachiko as she's now called… I'll just say that the dress used to be white." Yuki says, Carly taking a moment to realize what Yuki said. The dress was red from decades of blood being spilt.
Carly couldn't believe that Sam would do this... this seemed more like what Ivory would've done.
"How do we get out of here?" Carly says, Michael resting his head against her shoulder as Michelle hangs onto Johnny and Jason picks Jocelyn up into his arms.
"There's your problem… only Sachiko controls who leaves and stays… if you're going to leave, you're going to have to make her let you go… which in all 70, nearly 80 years of her spiritual existence has never happened… it's very complicated but she died in 1953." Yuki says.
"Sam didn't die until 2017... I remember because Ivory charged in and kicked her out of her wheelchair-" Carly says, everyone jumping out of the way as the door was kicked open, Carly blinking in shock when Ivory walked in.
"Somebody say my name?" Ivory says, suddenly freezing, unable to move.
"What's wrong, gone numb?" Yuki says, holding her hand outwards towards Ivory.
Ivory unfroze, his eyes fixed on the 2 year old in Carly's arms. He then glanced at Jocelyn and Michelle before seeing Jason.
"You were the one Sam reincarnated herself into." Ivory says.
"Yeah… and I'm half what she was so don't fuck around." Jason says, the Sam personality showing in his tone and the way he stood.
"Believe me, l intend no harm, Jason Riley. I was trying to get your mom's attention." Ivory says, Johnny stepping protectively in front of Carly and the kids.
"For god's sake, don't you remember that Trevor killed me, hung me from the Sandy Shores radio tower?" Ivory says, a blue glow like Yuki's appearing around him. "We're the only ones who won't kill you." He says.
"I didn't believe any of your lies when you were alive and I don't believe them now. Only thing missing is the demonic chanting Jack said you used to do." Carly says, handing Michael to Johnny.
"He misunderstood, that was me talking to Sachiko… she's the one who told me to do all these things I've done, almost like she possessed me." Ivory says.
"And who is Sachiko a reincarnation of? Believe me, Sam isn't who you remember." Yuki says.
"Why would she do this?" Carly says.
"Why not ask me yourself?" They all hear, turn around and see Sam in the doorway, looking like she did the day Sammy was murdered.
"You… what the hell happened to you, Sam?!" Carly says, Sam smirking before quickly flashing with light, appearing as a short 7 year old girl, her skin grey and her hair long and black. Just as everyone described, she was in a red dress with a few tears in it, her hands covered in blood and a large pair of scissors in her right.
"I happened. After I reincarnated myself inside Jason, I found myself being born in 1046 in Japan… then in 1953, at just 7, I saw my elementary school principal push my mother down the stairs and break her neck… then he strangled me to death over her body. Since then, I find violent killing very fun." Sachiko says, giggling a little at the end.
"Even I find that sick." Ivory says, Sachiko morphing into a 13 year old Gionna with her shirt torn, bruises and cuts all over her and a long knife wound on her neck.
"Remember this, Johnny? I enjoyed making that happen." Sachiko says, giggling again before once again changing into another form, this one Carly with the large wound in her head from the crowbar. "I couldn't stop laughing, Caroline… all the blood, it was just perfect." She says before changing back to the girl in the red dress, her normal form. "It was all me, you guys. I love to make you scared and angry."
Ivory stepped back as Sachiko morphed into a 17 year old version of him, numerous cuts and bruises all over.
"And did I love that day… mainly because you didn't." Sachiko says, hearing Michelle mutter something and quickly turns to her, becoming her normal form again, her eyes filled with rage.
"Who do you think you're talking to, little girl?! I'll wring your neck just to watch you squirm!" Sam says, materializing the scissors in her right hand, blood also covering the blades of them.
Carly lunged at Sachiko, wrestling the scissors out of her hands and sending them flying into the wall, leaving Sachiko stunned... she couldn't control the next morphing and changed into 13 year old Sam just after Sam was shot by Ivory.
"You… never. Ever. TOUCH. MY. SCISSORS!" Sam yells before the whole building shakes violently, Sam and the scissors disappearing before the ground settled.
Carly stepped back, Johnny reaching out and pulling her close... no signs of injuries. Michael reached for Carly, Carly grabbing him as Ivory walked into a room, returning with another pair of scissors.
"She has more than one pair… Carly, I'm so sorry but unless we can get her to agree to it, none of you are getting out of here alive." Ivory says.
A 17 year old Sam appeared in the doorway, wearing her favorite white dress and leather jacket, Carly stepping back cautiously as she cradled Michael close to her.
"I'm just… a shard. The last bit of the Sam you remember… the way to get Sachiko to agree is to appease her, make her anger go… once you do that, she'll be the 7 year old you see… and she's still me. The story she told is what really happened." Sam says, her look telling Carly that behind all the rage and desire for killing, Sachiko really just missed being alive.
"Ah, l see you've grown up a lot since I last saw you." Sam says, looking at Jason.
"Yeah, I'm 17 now. I still hear you." Jason says, Sam smiling a little.
"Glad I'm still somewhere then." Sam says. She then walked over to Carly, pulling her and Michael aside and whispering something into Carly's ear.
"She got mad when I stopped her from stabbing Jocelyn." Carly says, Sam nodding.
"Remind you of how Trevor reacted that day? Sachiko made him try to stab you." Sam says.
"Because of what Jason would become… Sam, how sick is she?!" Carly says.
"Picture the sickest person you've ever heard of, then forget about it because she's even sicker… Yuki was one of her first killings. There were three kids, all under 10. One of them got his guts sliced open and bled to death, the second got the top two thirds of her head strategically cut off and Yuki got her eye stabbed out… all three also got their tongues severed... that's how far Sachiko goes." Sam says.
"The thing is... there's one Johnny remembers easily... the aftermath at least." Sam says, Johnny thinking back to the night he pulled Gionna out of the West River.
9/18/97, Acter, Alderney...
"No... not dying like this!" Gionna told herself, managing to get her right leg out of the chain connected to the cinder block that held her legs in place, blood from several knife wounds mixing with the freezing water. She tried to do the same thing with her left leg but was losing her energy and fast.
As she slipped into unconsciousness, Gionna felt someone's arms around her, pulling her up to the surface and out above the water.
Johnny swam over to the docks by the West River, pulling himself and Gionna out of the water, running up the stairs and putting her on the ground. Johnny grabbed his knife, picking the lock on the chain connected to Gionna's left leg and pulling it off before turning to her, checking for a pulse but not finding one.
"Damn it!" Johnny says, starting chest compressions on the 17 year old before pressing his mouth against hers, breathing into the smaller girl and checking her again. "Come on, Gionna. I can't lose you..." He says, repeating the chest compressions on her and breathing into her again.
Gionna started coughing violently as her eyes shot open, Johnny helping her sit up and patting her on her back as she coughed the water out of her body.
"Johnny..." Gionna says, Johnny's arms around her protectively, his right hand rubbing up and down her back.
"How the hell did you… never mind, no matter how much you scream at me, you're going to the hospital right now." Johnny says, getting out his phone and dialing 911.
Across the street, Gionna saw a little girl in a red dress with a pair of bloodstained scissors in her hands.
She let out a terrified scream, one that reminded Johnny of the night that she was attacked when she was 13.
"What's wrong, what did you see?" Johnny says, trying to comfort Gionna.
"Over there, she's over there!" Gionna screams, pointing across the street. Johnny looked over but the little girl was gone.
"What? Who's there?!" Johnny says, rubbing Gionna's unharmed left shoulder, her right with a deep knife wound in it.
"The... little girl... she had a blood soaked dress on. You probably think that I'm going crazy." Gionna says, Johnny holding her close to him.
"Gionna, you almost drowned, your brain's been partly starved of oxygen, you could see numerous things." Johnny says, Gionna slowly nodding before the girl appears again, closer this time and Gionna could see numerous tears in the dress and the grey paper-like skin, the eyes also grey with a look of pure rage in them.
"Tying someone to a cinder block and throwing them in the river... a bit old school but it almost worked." Gionna says as they hear the ambulance sirens nearby, followed by LCPD sirens and Francis getting out of his police car.
"Not meant to kill you… it's just hilarious watching you struggle." Gionna hears the girl say but almost like it was in her mind and no one else seemed to hear it.
"You want to go get yourselves killed in a mob war, leave the LCPD out of it!" Francis shouts as the paramedics run over with a stretcher, Gionna instinctively hanging onto Johnny.
"Fuck off, Francis!" Johnny says, picking Gionna up into his arms and standing up, putting her on the stretcher.
When Billy showed up at the E.R, his eyes widened the second he saw Gionna in one of the trauma rooms.
"What happened?!" Billy says as he runs over to Gionna and Johnny.
"Some idiot thought it was a good idea to stab her, chain her to a cinder block and throw her in the river… she kept mentioning some little girl." Johnny says.
"I think that the Forelli family would be better suspects in that." Billy says, Gionna turning away as Billy tried to touch her. "Normally, you scream at me when I've pissed you off. You being quiet... that's just not how you are." He says, Gionna looking at Billy.
"You... murdered Dominic... and now Franco tried to kill me." Gionna says, remembering the rage in Franco's eyes.
"I'm sorry, kiddo. I really am." Billy says, lightly stroking Gionna's hair. Gionna tried to move her right arm but couldn't.
None of the three noticed the little girl in the red dress watching them. However, Jim had noticed her.
"Are you okay?" Jim says, the little girl looking up at him.
"Y-yeah… I'm fine." The girl says, acting hurt to give a reason for her blood soaked hands.
"What happened?!" Jim says.
"A very angry man pushed me down. He almost killed another girl tonight." The girl says, pointing to Gionna's room. When Jim walked into the room, the little girl disappeared.
"No, it's not okay! I can't move my fucking arm!" Gionna shouted, tears falling down her face.
"Sweetheart, the nerves are damaged, it's gonna take some time for them to heal-" Johnny says, stopping Gionna when she tries to get out of the bed.
Gionna rested her head against the pillow as Johnny wrapped him arms around her, Jim walking towards Billy and pulling him aside, both walking out of the room.
"Told you it was a bad idea to murder her ex! Now his family's trying to kill her!" Jim says, keeping his voice low.
Once again, the little girl watched, her eyes drifting to Gionna and Johnny before she disappeared again.
"Have fun?" Yuki asks as Sachiko reappears in the school.
"Lots of fun." Sachiko says, giggling a little before leaving the room.