There is nothing left of you, I can see it in your eyes. Sing the anthem of the angels and say the last goodbye. I keep holding onto you but I can't bring you back to life. Sing the anthem of the angels and say the last goodbye. You're dead alive.
She watched silently from the side of the car, her tear stained face felt hot even in the cool chill of the night. Hoffman made it look so easy as he came up behind the unsuspecting victim standing at the door, inserting a needle into the neck of the man with a heavy tranquilizer and he dropped to the ground within a few short seconds. She was simply a shell of herself at the moment, trembling as she sat there on the ground, unable to stop the steady flow of tears that threatened to blind her.
Hoffman took the mask off to get some fresh air since it was often times a little suffocating to wear it for extended periods of time. He started to drag the man's limp body across the parking lot, getting him over to the side of the car and once again, he only acknowledged her presence as a burden on him "How about you make yourself useful and give me a hand? Or are you going to continue to snivel there on the ground cause I can leave you here."
She bit her bottom lip, her head was swimming with so many emotions she had failed to recognize for so many years, but right now they were nothing but a storm threatening to take over every aspect of her existence. Her resolve was trashed, her body in the same shambles as her emotions. Slowly she stood up, ignoring Hoffman's request for her help and wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing them slowly.
Hoffman shook his head at her, smirking as he pushed the man's legs in through the door before shutting it "I can break you down again if you want. You don't seem to understand what I was 'teaching' you." She shot him a terrified look, backing up slowly as he advanced towards her before forcefully brushing past her and heading to the driver's side. He rested his hands on the hood of the car "Get in." but she remained unmoving at his request, staring at her reflection in the window. Just the sight of herself made her feel sick and tears started to flow uncontrolled all over again, Hoffman rolling his eyes and walking back around the passenger's side. He bridged the space between them, once again pinning her to the passenger's side door and she closed her eyes, turning her head away, her whole body shaking. A rather sick satisfied smile crossed Hoffman's features before he reached down and opened the door, grabbing her wrist to pull her back from it, then using that same wrist to maneuver her to sit in the seat - she was so broken and it satisfied him beyond any words he could use to describe it. He closed the door behind her before getting into the driver's side and starting up the car, heading back to the lair.
When they arrived at the lair, Hoffman parked the car, turning it off before leaning back and looking over at her "Remember what we talked about. I have no qualms about ending your life."
She swallowed the lump in her throat, the expression on his face was one that could invoke fear in even the most hardened criminal. She simply looked down to her hands that were folded in her lap and Hoffman took that as a silent acknowledgement of their agreement.
Getting out of the car, he opened the back door and drug their newest test subject out of the car with little regard to the comfort of the man, whether he was awake or not.
Michelle slowly exited the car and grabbed the legs of the man to stop him from being drug like he was worthless, refusing to look at Hoffman as they walked into the lair, laying the man down on the floor. Amanda and John looked over at the two as they entered, Hoffman nodding to them both before looking over at his "accomplice". She refused to look at any of them as she brought a hand to the back of her neck to try and stop herself from crying again, walking into the other room to head to the bathroom.
Hoffman's lips pursed together momentarily before John walked towards him, Hoffman motioning to the man on the floor "So this is the last one for this game?" John acknowledged him with a nod before slightly nodding in the direction Michelle disappeared in "What happened to her?" Hoffman raised a brow slowly and shook his head, easily covering up his misdeed with such a cool and collected demeanor "I told her to help me, so she could learn. The guy put up a fight, she couldn't handle him."
John nodded ever so slightly before asking Hoffman to help Amanda get their last addition into his trap and when the two left the room he slowly made his way in the direction the young woman disappeared. He was curious why Hoffman would have let someone so new to their world handle such a daunting task, but all the same he felt that the sooner she was able to learn and mold herself, the easier it would all be for her. As he pushed the flaps aside he couldn't help but notice the indistinguishable sound of sobbing coming from the bathroom. Curiosity got the better of John and he slowly and silently rounded the corner to peer in through the bathroom door to see if she was standing there by the sink, but instead he noticed the shower curtain closed and heard the sobbing coming from the shower. The water was running, her clothes strewn across the floor and it wasn't in John's nature to be so invasive as to want to see what was going on, but the sound of her crying was hard to ignore and in spite of himself he was concerned for her. He pulled the shower curtain back to see her sitting on the bottom of the shower, obsessively rubbing at her skin as if trying to rub it off. For a few minutes John simply watched her, but seeing the way she was acting, listening to her sobbing, he realized she was falling apart and he became rather curious about why getting attacked by the man she and Hoffman went to get was so devastating for her. Sighing deeply he let go of the curtain and grabbed a towel, once again pulling the curtain back and shutting off the water to the shower. She gasped as she looked up at him, looking terrified but John didn't respond except to reach down towards her with the towel in hand.
She jerked back from him, shivering in the bottom of the shower and John bent down further, wrapping the towel around her "Come on, it's alright." With the towel wrapped around her, he grabbed her by the shoulders and helped her get up and step out. She gripped the towel so tightly she could feel the strands of fabric tearing under her nails, looking into the blue eyes of the man who clearly meant her no harm the way Hoffman had. "It's okay." he raised a hand to her cheek to wipe away a flood of tears, but no matter what he did they kept coming. She was shaking before losing her grip on her sanity and dropped her head, sobbing and starting to drop to her knees on the bathroom floor, but John had a grip on her and refused to let her fall. Something wasn't right here and he wasn't able to put his finger on it without her trusting him enough to talk to him about it. John guided her out of the bathroom slowly, holding her hands and trying to steady her. Once he got her to the bed he sat her down, motioning for her to wait, he walked into the bathroom to gather her clothes off the floor and set them down on the floor in front of the bed before sitting down next to her. John wasn't normally one to comfort others, but in this instance if he didn't, he was afraid he would completely lose this one. Placing his hand on her back, he gently offered her his attention should she want to speak to him after she was done crying. John hadn't seen her cry like this yet, not this intently - it was truly a relief to see her suddenly "coming to life" before his eyes, but he was concerned over the reasons behind her emotional breakdown.
Steady, take it easy - she had to talk herself down, she was falling apart very quickly and was losing control over herself. She had literally cried for over an hour and for some reason, John never left, even telling Amanda to come in when she had something to ask him. She was finally done crying though, she didn't even have the ability to produce tears it seemed - her eyes swollen and puffy. Her cheeks were stained and flushed and she was leaning back against the wall sitting in the bed with a blanket wrapped around herself, clutching it tightly as if it were the only thing holding her together at this juncture.
John had been trying, without much success, to get her to actually speak to him; she needed time to recover, he could see that much. He had left the room to go get her a cup of tea and when he returned and offered it up to her, she didn't even look at him or extend her hands to take it. John sighed deeply and set it down on the table before grabbing a chair and pulling it up to the side of the bed, placing a finger under her chin and lifting her head so she would look at him. Her eyes seemed lifeless to him and he realized that now would not be a good time to start asking questions to get the answers he wanted - she was a shell of herself sitting there before John. Reaching behind him he grabbed the cup of tea again and grabbed her hands, sticking it between them and only offered her a smile. She took the cup but only raised it to her lips once to take a quick sip. The hot liquid that slid down her throat felt good, she was so hoarse from screaming, from crying. She saw John in a much different light at this moment - so patient and understanding, so…father-like. It was a feeling and sensation that left her a little uneasy and she simply resumed sipping at her tea in silence, deep in thought.