Act II: Heartbeat Desires Choking

A long time ago, Glen told him that he was a special boy, more so than any other. The man had held his six-year-old self close to him, large hands brushing softly through his hair. Leo remembered that the gesture soothed him, but that Glen's skin had been cold, like he was radiating a graveyard chill within him.

"You are what people have dubbed as a 'Crimson Faust,'" the man said. He walked to the open window with Leo cradled to him, bathing them both in the blue-white moonbeams. His voice, Leo used to think, was like black velvet that wrapped around darkness and all things that sought prey in the quiet night. It was alluring and frightening at the same time.

"What's that?" Leo asked.

Glen wasn't looking at him, his stare somewhere far off into the thin forest that surrounded the lonely mansion. "They are unfortunate people," Glen finally began, "that consumed a part of a demon – its eyes, its flesh, its blood, or even its heart. Some part of it was swallowed into the human body, and whether or not the consumption was intentional, the person develops certain magicks that the demon once had. Most important and dangerous, is the ability to wield the demon's scythe – their own weapon that comes in a variety of forms depending on its owner.

"But being a Crimson Faust is perilous, Leo. You must always be careful. Humans weren't meant to be like you. For the most part though, you can control yourself and Jabberwocky well. But because you weren't born a demon, there will be certain…urges that will always be hard to fight. They'll tell you to do bad things, but you must never listen to them, Leo, never."

The small boy nodded his head slightly in understanding. He always knew he was different, always knew he wasn't completely human. And – although he never told Glen this – that there were strange thoughts that came into his mind. He never did anything bad, but now he knew to look out for that weird feeling. Almost morbidly curious, he asked, "What part of a demon did I get inside me?"

Glen shook his head, still staring outside. "I couldn't say, because I wasn't with you when it happened. But depending on what it was a human consumed into their body, their life can become a gamble. There were countless many who died because their body rejected the demon cells in them. Then there are other, stronger humans like you, Leo, who become Crimson Fausts. Although to be honest, the probability of that happening is probably one out of every thousands of humans."

"Then, Papa," Leo peered up at the dark-haired man with wide, innocent eyes, "what are you? Are you like me, too?"

It was the first time since the conversation started that eyes the color of amethysts shifted towards him. Leo wondered if he said something wrong. What if Glen wasn't a freak like him? Who would want to be, when Glen said what was inside him was bad, and scary? A thing of no purpose.

"...There are," the man started, brushing aside the raven hair at Leo's shoulders, "other Crimson Fausts. Ever since the Tragedy of Sablier four years ago, more turned up, mostly against their will since the demon's blood seems to be the common way that they are born. Well, I'll find them.

"Together, we'll all have a purpose."

If Zwei was indeed supposed to be a Crimson Faust, then the weapons in her hands had to be her scythe. Hands gripped twin blades shaped like twisted daggers with their silvery fangs, each blade the length of her forearm. Despite her crazed countenance, Zwei wielded her scythe meaningfully, an expert hand slashing the weapons toward the Pendulum members. Without another moment's delay, she lunged.

Charlotte smirked, heels clacking against the floor as she advanced as well. "Humph, one against three. This hardly seems fair for you, hardly worth the-," she stopped short when Zwei zigged to the side, flinging one of her daggers out with a deranged smile. Charlotte moved just in time to only have to graze her side.

"Tch...!"

"Don't get cocky, Sissy," Doug reprimanded, taking a step forward and warily raising Jack of Hearts – a scythe that had square-shaped blades spread on the stem like a deck of razors.

The dagger flew to the opposite wall and buried half itself into the stone, narrowly missing a cell. Leo quickly reached for it and yanked it out of the wall. He caught the moving figure of Dr. Atmore, who was subtly trying to maneuver to the other side of the hallway. Leo raised Zwei's scythe, ready to send it flying towards that flailing white coat...

As soon as he raised the dagger, he felt it suddenly become heavy, as if he was about to pull something... Like there was some sort of force between the scythe and...

"Leo!" Charlotte cried angrily. "Abyss, let the damn thing-!"

A gleeful shriek left Zwei, her hand without a scythe reaching out to him, a gossamer thread taut from her hand, connecting straight at... Leo widened his eyes. Zwei tossed her other scythe towards Doug in an attempt to distract him, simultaneously yanking the thread attached to the hilt of the dagger Leo was still stupidly holding towards her.

"Shit!" Jabberwocky flew out of his hand as he was dragged forward. The ground he landed on was hard, making his glasses fall askew as he tasted dust and grit. Charlotte was over him in an instant as he immediately let go of the dagger, pulling him back up by the back of his collar.

"Can't take care of yourself?" she snarled, shoving him away. "Go get your scythe and stop fucking around!"

"But he gave us valuable information," Doug argued, narrowing his snakelike eyes at Zwei as he joined the two. She caught her split scythe and was now starting to cackle manically at her feat. "…She has them rigged with strings."

Leo bent down to pick up Jabberwocky, face hot in embarrassment. Dragged like a doll. I'll never hear the end of it from Charlotte. The bug-like poison-purple eye on his scythe whirled vigorously in its socket, managing to catch Leo's attention at the last second as he noticed Dr. Atmore and two of the other three doctors flee down the darker side of the hallway, back to where towards the entrance. The patients wailed in their wake, shaking and twitching like dying insects.

"Leaving already?" he breathed incredulously. He straightened up, looking towards his partners. "I'm going after the doctor! Can you handle her?"

"Fine," grunted Doug, whipping his scythe toward Zwei.

"You mock us," Charlotte added with a sneer. "Think you can match yours as well? Hurry and don't let them escape!"

The light from the lantern began to fade away past him as the raven ran down the hallway, the slightest bit of pink from the dawn sky making everything a weird, dark red and blue. Only a few footsteps in his pursuit did he begin to hear the clash of weapons and Zwei's laughter, her laughter morphing into the patients' crazed jeers, calling out to him save me save me-! He could see their faces a little better now, could see the darkness begin to unmask them…

He reminded himself that they couldn't see into his eyes – not truly. It was one of the few times Leo appreciated the glasses Glen had given him. He avoided glancing at their dark eyes, their bleeding forms, focusing his gaze down the endless hallway.

He came back to the intersection at the beginning of the floor next to the staircase. There were other hallways to choose from, but what if they had gone downstairs? I'm getting rusty at this… How bothersome.

"Which way, Jabberwocky?" Leo asked, pressing his scythe closer to him, his forehead brushing against the leathery skin of the stem. He looked up, watching the eye whirl around again, searching fervently… Finally, it stopped, the black slit of the pupil favoring the hallway to his right. Leo nodded and began to sprint down the cold path – another long hallway of insanity and semidarkness.

It didn't take long for him to be able to hear them. Their shoes were clacking loudly on the hard floor and their breaths left a trail of a scent from their open mouths. Leo almost wanted to hit himself for not detecting them before.

"Stop right there!" he exclaimed. He held Jabberwockyat a low angle, swinging his leg over its length; he held on tightly as the ancient wing of the blade propelled him forward, barreling him through the three asylum doctors. They slammed into the barred cells and brick wall from the shove and gust. Leo stuck his foot out to skid to a stop, dismounting his scythe.

"That's enough, then. You're not going to keep playing this game of cat-and-mouse with me, are you?" the raven patronized, pushing his glasses up. "I bore of that too easily."

Dr. Atmore grunted, staggering to his feet, using the iron bar behind him for leverage and ignoring the garbled gibberish from within the cell. He brushed the blond curls from his face, and Leo was disturbed to see that the man still managed to plaster a clownish grin on his countenance. "Interesting… Interesting!" the doctor exclaimed in awe, shoulders shaking as he began to laugh. "Those scythes really are useful, are they not?"

Between the other recovering doctors and the deranged remarks Dr. Atmore was making, Leo was beginning to grow tense. He gripped Jabberwocky tightly, angling it menacingly. "You're just as weird as your patients, I must say," he murmured with a frown.

"Oh, but Crimson Fausts are ever stranger!" argued Dr. Atmore in delight, straightening up. "So strange, indeed!"

A twinge of annoyance raged mildly inside Leo, but he tried to keep his emotions in check. "Get your friends here and follow me back to the girl you let loose on Charlotte and Doug."

Dr. Atmore shook his head, making his blond hair whip over his cheeks. "I mean, to be so special, so biologically enhanced as to not reject a demon's cells inside your body," he continued as if he hadn't heard Leo at all, his eyes shining obsessively, "and to even take the weapon that once belonged to the demon itself, taking it as your own! Extraordinary, so extraordinary!"

"Whatever your intent towards us," Leo began in a warning voice, "you're not getting out of here without us silencing you. If you want it to come to killing you, I'm afraid we won't hesitate."

This only made Dr. Atmore chuckle. "So cold. Such ruthless decisiveness. As if the heart of a demon was beating inside you!" he jeered.

Leo started, coming close to dropping Jabberwocky again. What? Really, just what... "You don't know anything about us," he corrected firmly. "You don't know that we used to be completely human-!"

"And who would want such a thing?" inquired the blond man. At Leo's stunned silence, he explained, "With what human strength has the world improved? Humans are too weak; their bodies are too frail, and their minds are too unstable," he gestured around at the excited patients for emphasis, "that no person can possibly stand to change the world.

"But you, a Crimson Faust, have otherworldly power – demon power. Yet," a slightly disapproving look crossed his face, momentarily twisting his smile into a grotesque grimace, "you waste it. You don't change anything and help no one."

At this, anger trembled in Leo's body, so much so he almost howled in frustration. Jabberwocky leaned heavily in his hand, sensing the raven's distress and begging to be used, maybe just cut up the man a bit, slice off his tongue, or perhaps throat... Oh, he could imagine the gurgle of the blood choking the doctor, rendering him speechless save for a certain scream of alarm...

"There will be certain urges you have, and you have to keep them in check." Glen always said that to him. He had to calm down. This feeling like liquid fire was burning in his mind, scorching his veins – this was something he had to soothe inside himself.

"Crimson Fausts have a purpose, just like the rest of you!" he argued. The other doctors stood on either side of his flank, and he took turns casting them glances, glaring under his glasses. "We fight, just like humans do. When the Tragedy of Sablier happened, do you think we were the only by-products of the demons' arrival? There are monsters, morphed humans, and they are out there because of what happened!"

"But you could do more! So much more! Why stay underground? Not many humans even know of your existence!" cried Dr. Atmore, grinning pleasantly, albeit desperately. Casually, he put his hands in his pockets, tilting his head slightly. "Why, even I did extensive research just to find out who you were, where you were all flocked. When I found Zwei, I thought I was on the brink of discovery! I would like you to consider something for a moment, Mister Baskerville."

Leo glanced at the other two doctors warily, slowly lowering Jabberwocky to show he was listening.

Pleased at this acceptance, Dr. Atmore said, "What if one didn't need direct contact with a demon to obtain its powers? What is so special about your bodies that you can adapt to their cells? Keep these questions in mind, for they are the basis of my hypothesis."

"Of what?" Leo dared himself to ask in a whisper of a voice.

"Blood transfusions," the blond doctor replied simply, gleefully – reveling in pride for his brilliant response. "I'm talking of second generation Crimson Fausts in which humans like these patients, like me, can partake in the blood of you and your kind and acquire the same powers! Can you imagine, Mister Baskerville, can you?"

No. The bile was almost too sudden to keep down, a sour taste entering his mouth and making the raven's throat thick. Disgust twisted his lips into a grimace, his world momentarily spinning. Whatever hope Leo had for this man's survival vanished with that sentence as quickly as a blown-out candle. With effort, he smiled incredulously, breath shaky as he held down repulsed laughter.

Wrong... So wrong...

"What? My blood, the blood of my family...inside the likes of you? Our curse swallowed willingly by you deranged pieces of shit? Are you sure," he gripped both hands onto Jabberwocky, nails digging into the withered hide, "that you lot aren't supposed to be the ones in these cells, bolted up and hidden from the light?"

Dr. Atmore laughed. "Zwei was just the tip of the iceberg! Ah, the data that can be collected once I have more samples! Please, can't you just," his hands suddenly came out of his pockets, and Leo caught the glint of another syringe, "imagine it?" With almost amused laughter, the man plunged the needle into his arm, sweat pouring down his forehead and neck.

Stupid and futile. Don't come near us. Your hands...

"...should never taint my family," the raven murmured with uncharacteristic conviction. The other two doctors had advanced, running for Leo, but he dodged easily. No hesitation in his step was present when he raised Jabberwocky onto the cackling man like the shadow of a reaper, sweeping the winged blade down right into a soft skull. A sickening, moist crack sounded in the hall, followed by a whoop of crazed victory from someone – someone that sounds like me-!

Dr. Atmore dropped to the ground, twitching and moaning, a thick, sticky puddle of blood spread down his face and the ground.

In one graceful pivot, Leo swiped his scythe in a horizontal arc, slicing right into the bellies of the other two men. The blood they left behind could fill the stomachs of many monsters, their organs steaming hot as they splattered on the ground and walls. Leo let out a fit of excited giggles, eyes glinting in fascination at the blood that suddenly sprayed like scarlet rain.

"Ahehehehe~!"

Low moans behind him reminded him of the human behind him, the one with angry words and painful intentions. Die die, who will die, you or me? It all seemed to come to that base thought. You or me? Who will die? Who will die?

"DIE DIE DIE!" Leo shrieked in almost glee, raising Jabberwockyand bringing it back down on the human's body again and again, a new geyser of blood painting him red every time. There was a satisfying squelch of skin tearing and liquids gushing with each new wound. The raven punctuated his words with another stab as he exclaimed, "Look! Look! Blood is what you wanted! What. You. Wanted!"

Want. Want.

I want it, I want it.

Give it to me, hand it over. It's mine. It's mine!

I want it!

Jabberwocky suddenly thudded to the ground, becoming stained crimson. Its master knelt into the blood without qualms, eyes wide and a morbidly pleased look that couldn't be hidden even under his bangs and full-moon glasses. It watched through its single eye as pale hands dug through the carnage, tearing up the corpse further with nails, searching and searching...

When Charlotte and Doug – with an out-cold Zwei in his arms – finally arrived, they found a messy-haired raven boy laughing loudly in triumph as he pressed a still-beating heart to his lips with tarnished hands.

Charlotte stared down at him with a deep frown on her face. "You're not okay," she declared flatly.

"I don't think I deserve this, though," Leo said in a raspy voice. He was looking up at the canopy over his bed, a light-blue color that was slightly comforting to him. It was a soft color, somehow safe. So different from what happened...

"It's been six days," he argued. He sat up as best as he could in his bed, but only failing horribly. Although Glen had removed the chains from his legs, he left the iron links bounded to his arms in order to prevent Leo from summoning Jabberwocky.

"I'm sorry," the dark-haired man had said in a clipped tone. "But if you get in contact with the scythe, your chance of tuning into the demon instincts becomes higher, and harder to ignore. This is temporary. Until you calm down."

Leo remembered how Glen had said it – the scythe, the instincts; not replacing the word with his scythe, his instincts. Honestly, he was having a difficult time figuring out if he should be grateful or not for that. He had been a Crimson Faust long enough, and didn't mind associating himself with demons.

Really, I think the experience at the asylum disproved that, his mind cut in. The dark images played back again in his memory like fuzzy photographs. In some ways, what happened still didn't seem real, like the memories were someone else's and not his own. They felt alien in his mind. It frightened him a little, knowing what he had done. If he thought too hard about it, he could still feel the pressure on his lips were he cradled Dr. Atmore's heart to him. His lips trembled with the need to throw up, but he bit the inside of his cheek to stop the sensation.

Charlotte had stopped him just as he had opened his mouth to greedily devour the organ. Thank Abyss...

There was a shuffle of clothes as Charlotte got up, smoothing over her skirt. "It doesn't matter how long its been, you brat," she chastised firmly. "Mr. Glen is going to keep you like this until you're back to normal."

"Can you vouch for the normalcy of a Crimson Faust?" Leo inquired lightly, raising a brow.

"Shut up! You disgraced our name back there!" she exclaimed, balling her hands into fists. "We're supposed to be able to control things like that! It was..." Her pink eyes darted away, suddenly interested in the floor. Then, with some struggle, she reached out and patted his head curtly. "Just stay in here. Please."

Leo blinked in surprise. "Charlotte..."

"And Abyss, when will you call me 'Sissy'!" she wailed, turning away in a huff. She paused at the door, looking back at the other person in the room. "Don't play with him too much, Zwei. He's been a very bad boy."

The girl on the chair nodded slowly, looking down at her bare feet as Charlotte walked down the hallway, leaving the door open.

Leo looked at her intently. Ever since she was brought back to the mansion, Glen took care of her. Fang, who had the most expertise in medicine, explained that what Dr. Atmore had put into her was a drug that made one stronger and faster, and made adrenaline to rush into the head. Leo thought it explained the cuts and bruises Charlotte and Doug had all over their bodies, even though they were the more powerful ones of the group.

"So is it the drugs fault that she was chucked into the cuckoo bin?" Charlotte has asked sardonically.

Fang didn't think so. Neither did Glen. But they had assisted in making her too pumped up to function. So all it took was waiting it out for the drug to wear out for the abused girl to gather her thoughts. In two days, she could form fragments of coherent words. But when Fang had called out her name, she merely looked up and replied,

"I'm Echo."

With a deep breath, Leo sank his head into his pillows. "You should correct her. You said you name is Echo, right?" he said lightly.

The girl looked up, locking her royal blue eyes with him. It still amazed Leo how much she had cleaned up. Lily had taken baths with her, and they cut some her hair – it now shone like moonlight and barely touched her shoulders. The dark crescents under her eyes lightened up, but everyone knew the cuts and bruises from the iron restraints wouldn't be an easy thing to get rid of.

"Echo won't argue with her benefactors," she stated quietly.

Leo shrugged. "If that's what you want. I like Echo, myself," he said.

"...Is Mister Leo okay? You do not need anything?"

That was the other thing. Echo was polite and soft-spoken, but she seemed specially attached to Leo. Despite the fact he had been chained down ever since he entered the mansion again, she stayed in his room often, making idle talk. Leo had to admit, he had been tense at first, but his apprehension proved to be unfounded. Echo's aura was a lot more subdued and languid than Zwei's had been.

He shook his head. "I'm fine."

"Okay, Echo will go if you'd like. I don't mind."

With a small smile, he shook his head again, making his hair rustle against the pillows. "No, stay here. I'm a little lonely. If it's alright, may I ask – do you know how to read?"

"More or less. Echo used to know a man that read to her, and I learned." She got up, looking pointedly towards the books shelved against the wall. "Would you like a story read to you?"

"I'd like that." He moved his hands, only to have his reach choked by the chains around his wrists. "I sort of can't manage it on my own."

"Which story would you like?"

"What do you like? There's a good chance I have the book."

Echo considered a moment. "I...I like stories...with happy endings. Echo likes happy books. With love in it."

Leo cracked an amused smile. "Really? Well, in that case, get that green one at the bottom.

"I like happy endings, too."

He was covered in sweat when Lily and Charlotte came into his room two days later. It was because of the strange dream he had. Ever since the incident at the asylum, Leo closed his eyes at night only to be given a weird dream. There were lights of every color, and a grandfather clock ticking, ticking... The pendulum would rock back and forth in front of him, and there! Just beyond it...

A boy. His back turned from Leo, walking slowly away. The pendulum would rock, make the boy appear and disappear...

"Time, it's almost time~!"

Then blood. The pendulum would stop and he'd be staring at his distorted reflection, a blindfold over his eyes as his reflection cried, "It's almost time!" Suddenly the reflection would become replaced, a face that he could never remember when he woke up – lips, a nose... But the face was bloody. Torn. The eyes...

"Hey," Charlotte said, snapping him back to reality. She was out of her nightgown, wearing one of her more modest dresses that fell just under her knees. Lily was bouncing excitedly right beside her. "I've got a surprise for you."

"If it's from you, I can only guess," Leo said. He shifted uncomfortably, wanting to wipe away the sweat from his forehead. Since he was chained down and couldn't move anyway, his glasses were just sort of left on, but more than one he had embarrassingly asked Echo to perch them back properly. Echo, coincidentally, wasn't up yet, so he asked Lily to do it as she jumped on top of him.

"Such a four-eyes! Is it cool to wear glasses?" she asked, pushing them up on his nose.

He scoffed lightly. "Not really. Sort of bothersome, but what can you do?"

Lily ran one of her small hands through his bangs. "You're all sweaty," she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Why?"

"Don't worry about it, I just got a little hot in here," he assured with a small smile. He looked pointedly at Charlotte. "So what's the surprise?"

She waved her hand, going over to sit at the chair usually occupied by Echo. "Want to let him off the hook, Lily?"

The small girl nodded, searching the pockets of her suspenders. Proudly, she produced a key, holding it up to Leo's face. "Look, look! Mr. Glen thinks you're all better now, so he told us to let you go," she cheered. She went over to one of his wrists and unlocked the shackle before moving on to the other one.

His arms dropped down beside him, and he carefully worked the kinks back into his sore shoulders. "Let me off the hook, you said. I didn't think it was literal. So am I officially cured now?"

"Don't get too happy," Charlotte said, crossing her thighs. "Mr. Glen still wants us to keep an eyes on you, especially during missions. And it so happens that you've got a new one." She held up an envelope in her hand, waving it like a flag. It was sealed with the mark of Pendulum, an Incuse. Leo's eyes widened lightly upon seeing it – usually Glen used a different seal when sending letters, not wanting to attract attention to the organization.

What's going on then?

Leo sat up, still rubbing the joints of his arms. "I'm chained up for over a week and I'm given a mission?" he asked dumbly.

"Yes, with you, Lily, and Zwei. Although to be honest, I don't trust Zwei just yet – she still freaks me out. And you," she raised a brow, "well, there's you. Can you handle it?"

"Just tell me what it is," he said impatiently, frowning.

Charlotte scowled. "Tomorrow evening, you'll go to the forest clearing at the edge of Pandora. There's going to be an event there that you must attend. Once there, you'll give this letter to a man named Isla Yura," she began to explain, handing the envelope to Lily, who gave it to Leo. "Glen made previous contact with him anonymously to make this meeting time. Apparently, at this event, there's going to be a Cannibal Marionette, possibly a few more."

"CM's? In Pandora?"

"It wouldn't be the first time, although it has been awhile," Charlotte agreed.

Lily sat next to Leo as he scrutinized the envelope in his hands. "What is this event?" he asked slowly, tracing over the dark-red wax of the seal. It looked a bit too much like blood.

The little girl next to him jumped on the bed excitedly. "Oh, it'll be so much fun! I've always wanted to go to one!"

Charlotte smiled in the malicious way she always did. "The event," she said, "is a traveling circus."

Everyone around him was bustling and busy, hands working to put up poles and tie down ropes, setting up the tent for the show. Their boxcars and horses had been put to the side near the forest, where most of the disabled people were staying out of everyone else's way. Elliot made his way over to the cars, making sure that no one saw him slip away – or else get accused of slacking on the job.

Each of the cars were the same, just painted different colors – all of them were about twice the size of a carriage and shaped as their namesake, a box. Windows were covered by iron bars on the outside, red curtains inside. All of them were covered at the moment except for one at the far end. With a small smile, Elliot peered into it.

"Hey Lacie, are you in here?" He spotted her easily in the morning's light, sitting in one corner gazing out into the distance. "What are you spacing out for?"

She looked over at him, or rather, her head turned in his general direction – her eyes were covered as usual with her blindfold that he had given her once a long time ago. It made him happy that she wore it, but it also made him a little said when he remembered why he had given it to her in the first place.

A small smile spread on her lips. "Elliot, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were fine," he explained sheepishly, leaning against the bars. "We're going to be busy most of the day setting up, so you'll be by yourself. Even Oz has to work." He added this because, next to himself, Oz was the one who was with Lacie the most.

Lacie nodded, messing with her long dark hair that spilled onto the floor. "That's fine, you know I'm used to it," she said. "Besides, I'm useless during moves. I don't really like moving and getting familiar with new surroundings. Only when I'm in here or in a tent do I know everything."

"Inside is what's safe for you? Caged is your safety?" Elliot found himself asking her.

"I try not to think of it that way. At least we're happy here, right?"

Elliot struggled for a way to answer her, but she continued on like she hadn't asked anything in the first place. There was a rustle of fabric and hair as she reached behind her head, gently untying her blindfold. Her blond-haired companion looked at her in question.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," she replied gently as the silvery cloth fell onto her lap. "I just... Sometimes I think about how I was before I became a freak." Her hands slowly curled on the blindfold. Elliot caught the action and, finding the door to the boxcar, slipped inside.

He walked up to her and sat down. "There wasn't alot any of us had before this," he reminded her lightly, reaching out and touching her hand. "You yourself Isla Yura found, just like he found the rest of us. You told us you don't remember your past - did you ever think maybe it's because it's too painful so you forced yourself to forget?"

At this point, Lacie was trembling. "Yes, but... But what if I really wasn't like this before? What if someone did this to me, like with what happened to Oz?" she asked in a small voice that could easily be crushed. She looked up at Elliot, the lids of her eyes flying open.

"Are you looking away?" she asked tentatively.

"No," he reassured her, gripping her hand tightly. He'd never look away from that face, never let Lacie feel more alone than she already did...

...even if the eyes that were supposed to stare back at him were just empty, black sockets.