A/N: I haven't had anyone look over this, so I apologies for any issues
"…"
Everything seemed to stop, the marry-go-round slowing almost to a halt, and the Missionaries stalling.
"What did you do?" Claudia asked. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"Leave."
The Missionaries snapped to attention, dropped their weapons, and left, leaving Cybil crying in relief and Claudia horribly confused.
"How? They were mine to command, how dare you send them away?!" Claudia advanced on Heather, who had sat up, but still with her head down.
"What's going on?" Jill whispered to Douglas, who shrugged.
"…That's not Cheryl anymore." Lisa said, grabbing Chris's arm. "That's not her."
"What do you mean?" Chris asked.
"Watch, you'll see." Lisa shook her head, and stepped away. "This is not our fight."
Everyone took note of Lisa, and backed away, weapons still out in case the monstrosities Heather, or not-Heather, had sent away returned.
Claudia reached out, to grab at Heather, but Heather grabbed Claudia instead.
"You should not have done this, Claudia. We need to stop this foolishness, all this talk of a 'God'. That will never come to fruition, I will not let it." Claudia cried out as Heather squeezed her hand, pulling herself up.
Standing, she seemed to undergo a transformation, like there was a shadow of another person standing over her. Her hair darkened as she looked up, her eyes clouded with anger.
"What are you?!" Claudia whimpered as Heather flung her hand away, cradling it close.
"Claudia…Remember when we promised to never join our parents? Remember how we said we would leave here?" Heather took a step towards Claudia, who cried out, scared.
"Alessa!" Claudia backed away, summoning more of her monsters to try and take down Heather but to no avail. She merely turned to the Closers, to the Pendulums that approached and they fled.
Outraged, Claudia continued to send her pawns in, trying to hurt Heather, to hurt Cybil, but Alessa's spirit was having none of it.
"How dare you, Claudia! Everything I have done to get away, to ignore this twisted destiny, and yet you drag me back, you and that Order. This is too much. There will be no more kindness from me." Alessa/Heather waved her hand to the side, and several of the things Claudia had summoned to help her walked out, growling.
"No! Those were mine to command!" Claudia snarled, now over her fear of her friend of old. She grasped one of the Missionaries dropped weapons and ran forward.
"Claudia, what are you doing? You would never be able to hurt me with those." Alessa/Heather and the monsters took a step forward, rage and condensation on her face.
"No… But her, that pitiful woman I can kill." As Claudia moved to strike at Cybil, Alessa/Heather moved faster, drawing her sword and rushing at her. The sword and shears clanged against each other, Claudia bouncing back with a cry of anger and Alessa/Heather placed herself in front of Cybil.
"I will not let you take this one. She is mine to protect and she has protected me. This town will not claim her as one of their dead." Alessa/Heather and Claudia crossed their blades again and again, each time Claudia was pushed further back from Cybil, and Alessa/Heather and her monstrosities advanced.
Finally, Claudia was standing at the edge of the ride, the shears dragging on the floor, enraged. She began to scream at Alessa/Heather, about her paradise, why wouldn't she understand, she would regret this one day. Finally, Alessa's spirit seemed to have enough, and sprang forwards, sword raised to impale Claudia. With a loud cry, Claudia fell as Heather struck her, he last words obstructed by the keening noises the monsters were making.
Alessa/Heather knelt over Claudia's prone body, grasping the sword that had gone through Claudia, pinning her as she died. Finally, Alessa/Heather removed her sword, putting it back into its sheath, and walked over to Cybil. The monsters that were standing behind Alessa/Heather dispersed as Valtiel dropped from the top of the ride to drag Claudia's body away.
Alessa/Heather then walked to the middle of the ride, where Cybil was still laying, blood leaking from her mutilated legs. Alessa/Heather knelt by Cybil's legs, running her hands lightly over her wounds before lifting Cybil's legs into her lap. She then pressed her hands down hard on them, Cybil cried out as Alessa/Heather began to briskly rub them, before suddenly stopping, dropping Cybil's legs, and standing.
"What did…the pain is gone…?" Cybil grasped Heathers offered hand, and stood, wobbly.
Heather then raised her hands to Cybil's face, before kissing her on the cheek. "You helped him free me. And thus my debt is paid. Thank you for watching over her." Her eyes then closed, and Heather fell to the floor of the marry-go-round.
Cybil just stared, before turning to the others and weakly saying, "Help?"
It took some time for Heather to wake up again, but the others took that time to explore around. They had gathered some ammo, and found the key Claudia had on her, and were eating granola bars when Heather woke up.
"Oh lord…" Was their only warning, before she ran for the nearest garbage can, retching. Heather gripped the trash can tightly and Lisa made her way over to her, looking back at everyone else.
"Are you okay?" she asked, and Heather shook her head.
"I feel horrible…what happened? I only really remember Claudia…and she was trying to kill Cybil? She asked, unsure.
"Well, Alessa came out, and took out Claudia. Then she somewhat healed Cybil. The pain is dulled, and the holes are closed, but there is still damage. She should be fine though, and she'll be able to get fixed up once you're done here. We've got her a cane someone left behind, and she's insisting on coming with us. She'll be fine."
Heather shook her head. She couldn't believe that Alessa had taken her over like that. Still, she sighed with relief that Cybil would be okay, and stood on shaky legs. Lisa helped her back over to the others, who were all watching her.
They all stood in uncomfortable silence, the fog rolling through the park, before Chris stepped forward.
"Can we trust you?"
Heather considered his question. Alessa had gotten out, taken over, but the only one hurt by her was Claudia, so she believed that Alessa would do what was needed.
"Yes, you can." Heather stood herself up straight, pulling away from Lisa.
"Good. Can you continue? It's getting close to evening, and we don't want to be here over night." Chris asked, and Heather looked down at her watch, startled to see that it was a quarter to six.
Yeah, let's get going then. Have you guys unlocked the gate yet?" Heather asked, but everyone shook their heads.
"You have the other keys, and we didn't want to bother you…" Rebecca said, and Heather nodded.
"Ah, well, let's go. I agree with not wanting to hang out here in the dark either." She took point, and everyone followed her. They could hear the monsters on the sidelines, her radio buzzing, but nothing attacked the group.
"They're more scared of you now. Hell, I think Lisa's even scared of you now." Jill said, as they made their way to the gate. Stepping through the gift shop, the chandler started to fall, startling all of them, but when nothing stepped out to attack them, they moved on. They reached the gate, and slammed the keys into the locks, the bars falling off the gate with a clang,
"Ready?" Chris asked, as him and Barry started to push open the gate. At everyone's nods, they pushed the gate open and moved out into the street.
"Wait…" Everyone was out, but Heather and Lisa were both confused. "Who has the maps?"
Chris and Douglas pulled them out, and they all crowded around to look at them.
"What's wrong?" Claire asked. "We did get out of that creepy park, right?"
"Yeah, we did, but…" Heather looked at the maps, a frown on her face. "The park is here though, right?" She pointed on the map where the park was outlined in pink.
"Yeah…" Chris said.
"But, that signpost over there says we're right here." Heather pulled another map over, pointing at a Sanders street on the map. "See? And Neely's Bar is over there too. How did we manage to get from there to here?"
As everyone was puzzling out the maps, Heathers radio started spewing static. They all stopped and started looking around; trying to find what was causing the static to start, when a screeching made everyone pale.
"Is that…" Everyone backed away from where the noise seemed to have come from, and Lisa nodded.
"I bet that's the Executioner. We should go. Now."
Everyone started to slowly move away, but when a door flew out into the street with a crash they sped up. When the Executioner stepped out into the street, they all bolted.
"Oh shit!" It was hard to figure out who was swearing, but everyone agreed. Running through the streets, dodging blockades, and jumping holes, they soon found their way seemingly blocked.
Heather's radio had stopped blaring though, and they calmed down enough to realize that they were standing in front of a memorial park and the Executioner was no long behind them.
"What's this place?" Jill asked while everyone else was catching their breath.
"I don't care, so long as I can sit down. My legs are killing me…" Cybil hobbled over to a bench, and sunk down. "Whatever Alessa did is wearing off and I'm not sure if I can really continue."
"Sorry…"Heather said, a feeling of sadness running through her.
"Oh no, it's not your fault." Cybil waved Heather away, like she was waving away how she was feeling. "Anyways, let's get going. I don't wanna be here if that thing comes back."
Douglas helped Cybil up, and the group moved into the memorial park. Walking through the first little part, they could here noises from up ahead.
"What do you think that it?" Claire asked Rebecca, who shrugged.
"I'm not sure…sounds human though. I guess we'll just have to get closer."
As they moved closer, they were able to pick up some of the conversation.
"…where…been here before…get…"
"But how…left ages…okay?"
"Well, if those are people, and not the ones that Claudia person were talking about, then maybe they can help us." Jill said, moving up in front of the group. "Come on, let's find them."
Weary, but happy, the group moved faster, hoping that the presence of people meant there were no monsters. As they reached the front of the park, where it over looked the lake, they could see two people sitting near a statue.
"Hey!" Heather and Jill moved out in front, approaching the two people. "Are you guys okay?"
The one person, a man, shot up and stood in front of the other, his hand on a gun. "It depends. Who are you?"
"My name is Cheryl, this is Jill, and our friends are back there." She pointed over to where Cybil and Rebecca were waving. "Come on, it's too dangerous out here. Do you want to come with us? It'd be safer."
The man took some time to think about their offer, before nodding. "My name is James, and this is Laura." A young girl moved out from behind him, and grabbed his hand. "Do you guys know how to get out of here? We've been trying for…a long time."
"We keep goin in circles." Laura said, her face grave. "We keep ending up here…I don't wanna be here anymore…" She buried her face into James's side, and he picked her up.
"Well, we aren't leaving quite yet, but come with us. We'll make sure you guys stay safe." Jill said, a small smile on her face.
"Okay…" James nodded, and walked with them back towards the rest of the group. As they grew closer, they could see that Cybil wasn't in good shape.
"Are you okay?" Heather asked first, and Cybil shook her head.
"I don't think I'll be able to help you guys anymore. Douglas mentioned a motel room earlier. Do you guys think you could help me get there? Because I think I'm just going to slow you down if I stay with you." Cybil was leaning heavily on her re-purposed cane, in obvious pain.
"A motel?" James asked, startling them all. "Well, if you do that, do you think Laura could stay with her then? I don't want anything happening to her."
"Well," Chris started, "It depends where this motel is. If it's too far off our path then I think we'll have to skip it."
Everyone stared at him, before Rebecca shook her head. "Where is the hotel? We can stop there before moving on. And I think it'd be a good idea if…Laura, was it? If Laura stays with Cybil. It would be safer, with that thing chasing us."
"But-" Chris tried to talk, but both Jill and Barry waved him away.
"My name is Claire, sweetie. This is Rebecca, Barry, Douglas, Cybil, and my big dopey brother Chris." Claire smiled at Laura, while pointing to each person in the group.
"…Hi. I'm Laura. Are we going to get out of here?" The little girl asked, looking up at Claire.
"Oh, I certainly hope so!" She replied, a big smile on her face, before turning to Chris. "Come on, Bro, let's get to that motel."
Chris just sighed, and pulled out a map. "So, where is this motel?"
"There." Douglas jabbed his finger into the map. The motel was close by, and everyone set out to move. They had exited the park, noticed that their way was no longer blocked, but started to run after hearing the scraping noise that signified the Executioner.
"God, I wish that guy would go away!" Douglas said, holding Cybil up as they ran.
"Trust me, he doesn't really ever stop. I thought they were dead, though." James said with a nervous laugh, Laura holding on for dear life.
"They were dead? There's more than one of these guys?" Barry said, dismayingly. "Great."
The group turned a corner, and slid to a stop. They could no longer hear the scraping noise, and Heather's radio was silent, so they took a quick break to catch their breath.
"Wait, so you dealt with that thing? How did you kill it?" Chris asked.
"Well," James let Laura down, but she still stayed close by him. "I didn't actually kill it, them. They actually killed themselves. Impaled themselves on their spears. I don't know why that one is back though."
Heather looked at Douglas, but didn't say anything yet. She didn't want to scare the little girl. She shook her head, to tell everyone else not to mention anything, and started walking.
"The motel should just be over here…" Heather and Jill again jogged ahead to check out the area, finding the motel in the middle of the block, surprisingly free of enemies.
"It's up here guys!" Jill called back to the group, shifting in place.
Everyone caught up, glad that there weren't any holes or monsters to separate them.
"So, where to now? You said you have a key for a room?" Chris asked, annoyed with the fact that everyone had overruled his decision to keep going.
"Yeah. Room 106. It's just over there." Douglas walked to the room, trying the key and opening the door. The room was empty, obviously no one was staying there, and Cybil hobbled in, flopping down on the bed.
"Ah, this is much better. I vote we make this our base of operations." She sighed, and swung herself further onto the bed.
Laura moved to the chair in the corner and sat. "I'm staying here, right James? And you'll come back?" She drew her legs up to her chest and looked at James.
He knelt, and smiled at her. "I promise."
The rest of the group looked over the room and bathroom, securing the place before getting ready to leave. They also left anything they didn't think they'd need, Heather leaving most of her Aglaophotis, while Rebecca left some of their medical supplies behind for Cybil.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Heather asked Cybil, who just nodded from where she was propped up, pillows under her head.
"I'll be fine. I'm sure Laura and I will find some way to occupy ourselves." Cybil smiled at Laura, who was still sitting on the chair.
"I'm staying too."
Everyone turned, looking at Claire. She was standing near the bathroom, looking nervous.
"Why." Chris asked, looking annoyed.
"Because this place is just too freaky. All the stuff we've seen, I just…can't keep going. It's too much for me." She looked embarrassed but resolute.
"Fine. With the people we have now, we should be good. Be careful though." Chris rested his hand on Claire's shoulder, talking quietly to her, before waving everyone out of the motel room.
Once they were outside again, Chris turned to James.
"Okay," Chris started, "Who are you, how did you get here, and what do you know about this place?"
Before he could answer though, Heather interrupted with a question of her own. "Did you come here yourself, or did the town drag you here?"
James looked conflicted, unable to decide what question, before finally sighing. "It was a bit of both. Guilt drove me here, but the town certainly helped me along." He shook his head, like he was trying to erase unpleasant memories. "Anyways, my name is James, I came here looking for my wife, but I couldn't find her. I found Laura though." He paused again.
"I don't really know much about this place, actually. It was my wife's 'special place'. We actually spent our honey-moon here. All I know is that the monsters here have stopped chasing me since those triangle headed things died. But then again, it sounds like there's another one running around." He shook his head again. "Anyways, now I have a question for you guys. Why are you here?"
"We're here to look into the old Umbrella plant. Our intel said it'd been deserted for a while, but we're still looking into it." Barry answered.
"Oh…Well do you guys mind if I come with you? I don't know much about that Umbrella plant, but I can help." James seemed to not have noticed that he was walking with them anyways, and Jill just laughed.
"Yeah, you can come. I mean, we're about three blocks from the motel already, and I doubt Chris is going to be turning back to drop you off. What weapons do you have?"
As James relayed what he had on him (a handgun, an old busted pipe, a flashlight, and a broken radio, just like Heather), they made their way through the streets, more cautious after seeing the Executioner for a second time.
"Oh!" Lisa exclaimed, interrupting James's questions about Umbrella.
"What is it?" Chris asked, wearily.
"I completely forgot, but Kauffman's still out there. He shouldn't be much of an issue, but he could still do some damage." Lisa bit at her lip, but Jill waved off her concern.
"If he tried anything, we can deal with him. He may be dead-(James looked confused and opened his mouth to ask, but Barry shushed him) - but that doesn't mean we can't hurt him if we need to. He did feel pretty solid when I bumped into him back at the hospital."
Satisfied that the issue of Kauffman was put to rest, the group continued moving wile now asking James about his encounters with the Executioner.
"Well, I first ran into it in an apartment building, lord knows why. I don't know much about it, but this much I do know. It chases guilty people."
This made everyone pause.
"What sort of guilt did you harbor then?" Rebecca asked, trying to gauge the intensity of the feelings the monstrosity could sense.
James was silent for some time before replying. "I…wasn't entirely faithful to my wife. After she died, I came here to get away, but the town took me in."
They continued to walk, ducking through fences and jumping over cracks, before Barry suddenly spoke up.
"James, I thought you said you came here to find your wife."
James looked over, confused. "Yes, I did."
"But," Barry continued, "You just said that your wife died. Did she die here then?"
"No…no, she didn't. She actually died three years prior to me coming here. I was moving on, but then I received a letter…from her. I thought it was ridiculous, but I wanted to believe that there was some way for her to be here, so I came. I suppose that was what this town wanted. It's almost like a person, really." James scratched at his head, looking away.
"That's just what Cheryl said too, about this place. Do you two really think it has a mind of its own?" Chris asked.
"Yes. Otherwise it wouldn't lure people here in the first place." James shrugged, stepped off the curb, and almost fell into a crater.
Luckily for him, Barry was a tad more observant, and grabbed the back of his shirt before he fell into the deep hole.
"Oh." James started wide-eyed at his almost doom, before stepping back further onto the sidewalk. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it. You have to pay more attention to the surroundings though." Then Barry turned to Chris, who was poking around trying to find another way. "Are we blocked off again?"
"Yeah…. I don't even see a way in any of these building, and look at where we came from." Chris pointed at a tall chain-link fence that blocked their path.
"Really?" Heather asked, annoyed. "I'm getting sick of this shit." She sighed and sat on the sidewalk, closing her eyes. "I just wish we could get to this Umbrella plant so you guys can look at it and we can go home. I've had enough of this place. What are we near?"
The map and street signs showed that they were now on the east side of town, coming up to a medium sized prison.
"Do you guys know anything about this prison?" James asked. "I didn't see it here when I first showed up."
"Really?" Rebecca asked, skeptical. "That there is Pale-Vale Minimal Security Psychiatric Prison. It's a minimum security psychiatric prison, three floors, usually was used to hold prisoners who'd committed lesser crimes and those with mental issues. It opened three years ago…When did you get here? How long have you been wandering around?"
"I don't know, what year is it?" The looks everyone gave him when they realized he wasn't joking made him explain further. "I came here in 2004, found Laura, and really, it honestly feels like we've been trying to find a way out for eons."
"James, it's 2018. That means you two have been here for 14 years. How is that possible? How are you alive?" Rebecca looked at James, astonished.
Douglas moved over and crouched next to Heather. "That man…I'm sure he's the one I came here to look for, the first time. He's not telling the complete truth."
"Yeah," said Heather, "but then again, neither are we. If it becomes an issue, we'll address it, but for now let's keep quiet about this."
As Rebecca continued to interrogate James about how he and Laura managed to survive for around 14 years without food and sleep, Douglas and Barry teamed up to see if they could break any doors down.
"I thought we checked those already?" Jill called to them as she tried to pull herself up over the chain-link fence.
"Yeah, but we may as while check again. This place messes with our heads, so we should double check." Barry yanked on a doorknob, but the door held. "How the fuck are we going to get out of here?"
"I have no idea." Heather said, flopping onto her back. Hopefully they weren't stuck. She hated being stuck.
What about that?" Chris asked, pointing over the gap to a crane holding several metal girders. "If we can figure out a way to knock those down, we could use them as a bridge."
"Yeah," Jill hopped down off the fence. "But how the hell are we going to get to it? I mean, we could try and shoot the chain holding the girders, but there's no way we could realistically expect to break that."
"Well…" Rebecca stood and fidgeted. "I have an idea."
"Okay, let's hear it." Chris turned to her, and Douglas and Barry stopped banging on doors.
"Well, since I'm younger, and I weigh less, I think if I ran and one of you tossed me, I could jump over the gap, and lower the crane." Rebecca could see the displeased look on Chris' face, but before she even had a chance to argue her case, Jill spoke up.
"Becca has a good point. If we tossed her over, it'd definitely be easier to get across. And we wouldn't be wasting time or ammo trying to get that down from here." Rebecca shot Jill a grateful look, before holstering her handgun.
"I don't like it; can we put that down on the record?" Chris said, scowling. He got into position anyways, and Rebecca steeled herself before running at him. He launched her into the air, and she hit the ground on the other side with an oof.
"Are you okay?" Heather called over, standing.
"I'm fine! I'm going to try and get those girders down now; you guys should get away from the edge." They watched as Rebecca climbed into the crane operators' box and began to fiddle with the controls. She then cursed.
"This is going to take a bit. I think I need to look at the engine. Or I'll have to scale the arm the release the girders manually." Rebecca made a frustrated noise and moved to the front of the machine.
She lifted the hood and started to fiddle with the engine when Heather and James' radios both went off.
"Look out Rebecca!" James yelled over the gap, as several Numb-Bodies moved towards her.
"Shit, I don't think she can hear you." Douglas drew the rifle Heather had found, and took aim.
He shot at the monstrosities, and Rebecca couldn't not hear that. She jumped away, noticed the pink and purple veiny things coming towards her, and hopped up into the cab of the crane.
"Shit, they're heading right for her." Chris pulled out his handgun and helped Douglas keep them away from Rebecca.
There was a break, and Rebecca poked her head out of the cab, shouting over to the group. "I can't get it working! I'm going to have to climb up."
"Okay! We'll cover you!" Heather yelled back, and Rebecca scuttled up on top of the cab. As she climbed, the rest of them, minus Lisa, shot at the monsters that appeared. Finally, Rebecca reached the manual release control, and began to work at opening it.
The sky began to darken a little, which stalled Rebecca, but when the sirens didn't start blaring, so she continued, ignoring the keening of monsters below her.
"I got it! Watch out!"
The girders crashed to the ground, some falling into the crater, but most of them landed over the gap. The crashing seemed to scare off the monsters, and Heather noted that, despite Rebecca creating a bridge, the sky didn't brighten, didn't clear up.
The all crossed over to Rebecca, and after checking out the area on the other side of the make-shift bridge, they continued on their way.
"So James," Heather dropped back to where he was walking. "Just so you know, we have an idea of how the Executioner came back. We ran into someone I'd met here when I was here last time, and she said that someone had resurrected her, the Executioner, the 'Mother of our Lady', and 'The Deceiver'. Do you know anything about the last one? I have an idea for the Mother, but the Deceiver, we have no idea."
"You were here before? And you came back?" James gave her a disbelieving look.
"Yeah, well, I couldn't let them go without a guide who'd been here before. They'd get themselves killed." Heather jerked her head at Jill, and Jill laughed. "Anyways, do you have a clue?"
"Well…" James seemed to mull it over. "I did encounter someone here, who looked like my wife. She, or it, could be the Deceiver. But I honestly have no idea. Sorry."
"Oh, there's no issue-" Heather was about to continue talking to James to ask him about his wife's doppelgänger, when Chris called them to a halt.
"We're being lead somewhere again. Look at these streets, we're being funneled again. Do you think we're going to run into another resurrected person?"
"Probably. But the question is which one?" Lisa asked.
"I have no idea. But I have a clue of where we're going. You know that Prison Becca mentioned?" Jill walked out a little further, before calling for everyone to keep moving. "It's up here."
It didn't take long for the group to find themselves at the end of the trail, staring up at an imposing building.
"Welcome to Pale-Vale Minimal Security Psychiatric Prison," Rebecca said humuorlessly, as she opened the door and everyone entered.
A/N: I hope that everything sounded ok, and I hope the fight with Claudia read nicely.
If you guys notice any spelling or grammar mistakes please let me know, and I hope this chapter was enjoyable : )