A turning point. Enjoy!
She regained her consciousness.
Enid was still left by the café where not one person had spotted her yet. The rain was still assaulting from below, but the cloudy dusk was in progress. The layer, however, was as bright as day to the one given a second chance.
Her chest was sore, and she felt very nauseous as she saw her own chest leaking fluids down to puddles of muddy blood. There was absolutely no feeling on her upper torso, but her instincts were still sharp as ever.
First on the checklist is to get out as quick as possible.
With that in mind, she slowly hoisted herself up using her bare palms against the ground and manages to stand with a hunch. She began walking out in a ridgid pace for her ridgid pain.
Past the parking lot, and open on the outskirts.
That's how far she made it before she dropped dead with a heavy thump.
.
.
.
...The first thing she heard was the muffled cries on the stereo.
Cry, I'm not sorry
Cry, who needs sorry when there's Hennessey?
Don't fool yourself
Your eyes don't lie, you're much too good to be true
Don't fire fight
Yeah I feel you burning, everything's burning
Don't fly too high
Your wings might melt, you're much too good to be true
I'm just, bad for you
I'm just bad, bad, bad for you
It was cold. Something was off. Enid noticed that her excessive get-up was no longer that of a touch. Was this gauze wrapped all over her chest? Her sweatpants were gone. However, it was down to knee-length that she felt some sort of articles hugging her waist. Clearly, somebody really crossed a boundary. All around her was the familiar sounds of meters stabilizing and the movement of rough rubber below.
Red's tank.
Damnit. As if a near-death experience and the minimal outfit wouldn't make things any more awkward.
It was time for her to stand herself up. Instead, she just decided to move herself with her knees due to the hazard of being thrown around by mobilized cold metal. After a few paces, she had a good look of who was the chauffeur of this ride.
Safe to say, it wasn't Red Action.
It was Drupe. She was still in full uniform.
Using her instincts, Enid jerked her body backward behind the seat, hoping she didn't spot her.
The tank pulled over to the side of the road.
Drupe's head was still directed forward.
"I know you're awake, girl. You don't gotta trip."
Guilty.
"UuuUUUh..."
Enid threw herself off just talking. All she could come out with were some moans. The medication that this potential kidnapper forced down her throat really kept her groggy.
"Woah. Don't push yourself like that. Take a seat."
And with that request, she followed. Enid made herself comfortable on the passenger seat by hanging her feet on the front, as if she were in another joyride with her former girlfriend.
"You're lucky as eff. The arrow just misses your heart, and it really didn't pierce all that deep anyway. Guess you just prematurely spaced out on me. So, E, I know this shit might be confusing, but this was all Red gave me before she bounced."
The wounded teen was in need of clarficiation. She did a great job indicating that by shooting her with a glare.
"Oh, sorry 'bout that. This is new to me too. I left the café around the back to take a walk, but there was Red's tank out in the open. I was hella worried thinking that she might make a scene with you, but she obviously wished for me to take it off her hands. I can tell because she texted the location of the keys, which was inside the exhaust pipe on the right. That's when I spotted you. Sadly, I don't know where she went."
She still couldn't spit out a response, but she tried.
"Aaand, my clothess?"
"Drenched in blood. Sorry girl. Thought the gauze stashed here was perfect. Trust me, I did my best to wrap up your lumps...
Enid was pretty surprised by that statement. She recognized the fact that Drupe may be much more selfless than the camera pictures paint.
"...no homo..."
And she was appalled again.
Now she really had to push an effort for her next question.
"W-Where are you taking me?"
"Your house. Don't worry, I'm not some creepy ass pe-"
"No no no, I can't go back. Not like this. Not with all this blood I left on my dad's old coat. Not when I have this gash in the middle of my-"
"Oh shit! This is your dad's?"
Now they really elevated the volume.
"Yeah! Now I'm really in for it. Just when I was revived."
"Damn. I was hoping I can keep it at least."
"Wait, why?"
"Because it can easily hide the baby bump."
Suddenly, the vibes in the tank faded. Despite Enid trying to get back at a casual pace with her somewhat-close-peer, she had to hurdle a fourth element of awkward circumstances, and that was dealing with that peer's sudden pregnancy announcement. Deep in her thoughts, she left Drupe silent, but forgot that there needed to be a change of route.
"Can I stay at your place?"
"Oh man, I wish I would, but I don't think my parents are ho-"
"Let me guess, you guys are executing the strawberries right now."
They both proceeded to look each other. Enid was not sorry about her conjecture, while Drupe was thrown off behind the wheel. She looked as if she really wanted to gasp.
"Wait, how did you-"
"It's cool, Drupe. Whatever unspeakabke crimes agaisnt strawberryanity your family does is none of my buisness. That's the least of my worries right now. I just need a place to crash and to wash all this."
"What about your parents?"
"I'm practically a ghost day-to-day. They're not concerned."
In the middle of the leather couches pushed against each other in an L shape, Enid and Drupe began gossiping about the break-in and the attempted murder. It was out of place to be so content about such catastrophic events, but at the end of the day, they were both alive.
"So, you thinking of pressing charges against that bimbo?"
"Naah. Trial is gonna do nothing to her pretty self. I've known her and her family as a kid. She's untouchable in these parts. Plus, you know damn well she'll just rat us out for the break-in and the glorbs. Speaking of which, how come they weren't inside? You said that she stashed it in the tank."
"No idea."
Enid was verry ecstatic about having her first down-to-Earth conversation in a long while. It has been something that she missed with Red, but now there was someone else in mind.
"Hey, what are your plans for the future? You charging a daddy?"
"Well, I don't know whose baby this is."
"Damn."
"Really funny story. It happened inside Elodie's house, and she was-"
Drupe was interrupted by the signal of a dryer inside the laundry room finishing up. Enid was just about to make her way across the living room, but Drupe felt it would be rude to not take initiation for her warm guests.
"I'll get it!"
In a couple of empty seconds, Drupe had the clothes folded on her arm. She set them just by Enid and made her way back to her couch. Speaking of which, the recovering guest took her phone out of her pocket and saw the time.
"Man, it's only 7:52 right now? This is why I love winter. Nights like these are much more calming."
"Girl, you seem more like a winter person."
"What do you mean?"
"No offense, but you were much more introverted before Red came along. Your personality is like, cold and relentless when you can really be, but also chill and welcoming. Kind of like Re-"
"I'm sorry, are you gonna say Red?"
"Uh, yeah!"
...
"I don't want to be defensive, but I feel like you should change the topic now."
A cold feeling aroused Drupe's nerves in the air. Something menacing had been oozing out of Enid's eyes, and with it's horrid ugliness, it could practically smash her into submission. The brooding gunpoint of a voice at the end of the sentence seemed to have sealed her fate.
"Um...e-excuse me?"
"Let's not go there."
"Go where? I'm just saying."
The forced smile painted on Enid's face had no time to dry. Immediately, her stink face was on. If looks could kill, Drupe's gravestone would be set in a moment."
"No. I'm stopping you right there. You don't say her name around me anymore, understand!?"
Something flashed behind Enid's sitting position. As for Drupe, despite her efforts maneuvering around the passive aggressive side of her guest, she could not hold her own against barking orders.
"You threatening me at my damn house? Bitch, who do you think you are?" Enid's eyes turned idle. The host got on her feet, and placed herself in front of her. "Red Action is my friend, you understand me? Ooh, goddamn! If I weren't so nice I would slap the-"
Enid was no longer just mad.
She was furious. Deep breaths escaped through her nostrils as a strange purple aura began forming around her, startling the berry woman four steps back. Panting as her fury grew with her aura, Enid's looks went from threatening to the stare of a man-killing bull, who understood that all that was needed was blood. The aura grew even larger in size, overtaking the couch and part of the coffee table. Drupe felt like if she were to surround herself around this energy, she would die. So to take precaution, she continued backwards. The breathing got louder, longer, and angrier. Two weeks of neglect and abuse from the threats of her enemies and her close ones began to creep just behind her brain and taking complete control of everything that used to be rational. There was no longer any crack of virtue within this dark being. She was practically a deity getting ready to consume a planet or two.
The abandonment by her own girlfriend.
The torment by her former snake of a friend.
The major rejection done by her co-worker
And this.
She screamed.
She screamed a blood-curling scream that shattered the glass frames sitting on the coffee table and hanging on the crafted walls. The darkness around her violently dispersed into thousands of spirits laughing and taunting the strawberry, whofeared for her own life. A gruesome death at the hands of a second-tier friend with anger issues. There was no looking back. The burst of emotions had enforced cracks all around the villa, so fragile that a simple touch can mean devastation.
"ENID!"
Those words were as useful as it would be when falling on deaf ears. Enid's fury scream was over, and what was left of her physical form was an enormous ghoul, barely fitting under the roof.
"ENID! PLEASE HEAR ME OUT!"
There was no way that she can act rationally. The shouting, however, prompted something different out of the witch.
Her dark phantom had swished in an instant through the roof, and dropped down in the same speed. Enid continued to rip through the ceiling like paper and scissors. With every thrust, the speed would gradually increase, resulting in the entire residential home beginning to rumble.
Drupe's reaction was to run for the window. She began making shoulder thrusts but could not make a dent. Her next option was to kick through it, but she was pushed away by the durability. Her desperate and last resort was just to bang on the glass and see what happens.
She shouldn't have placed the keys all the way to the kitchen counter when she came in.
The ceiling collapsed. Furniture had first filled with dust, then was broken apart by the remnants of the architectural closing. All kinds of thumps and bangs and cracks had been heard just behind her. Drupe, however, was left without a scratch. Nothing above her radius dropped down.
Then, before she even knew it, the phantom swished its way through the glass from outside, shattering it instantly and sending the shards directly to Drupe's direction.
The villa was in shambles.
Without knowing of the damage she has done, Enid made her way north.
Uuuugh...
Once again, Enid regained her consciousness in another familiar setting. She was very used to it on the prior day.
Her own room. The sheets wrapped around her casually as if hardly anything out of the ordinary occured. She no longer felt her wound, and there was no print of blood anywhere around her.
Perhaps it was all a dream...
Except the arrow wound was still apparent below her breast.
And Wilhamena didn't bother to knock before entering in a panic.
On the dining table was a mother and daughter session.
"Are you crazy!?"
"Mom, it wasn't anything horrib-"
"I let you out for a couple of hours and you waste a day getting ambushed by God knows what! Why didn't you call me about all this?"
"Because I knew this conversation would go down..."
Disgruntled, the adult in the room arose from her seat, and began distancing herself from the table as if a camera had panned to the reaction of one's discovery that something even worse is brewing.
"I've never seen such a thing happen to you before. Do you know how it feels to feel so secure about your own baby being able to wake up and sleep in for another day? You keep holding dangerous grudges like these without any action, and you will be gone. I can't have that rot in my mind."
"She won't stop. I need to go fi-"
"Enid, I can't trust you to go out there anymore. I need to contact the authorities on this!"
"You serious, Mom? What the hell are they gonna do?"
She began reaching for her own phone.
"N-n-no! Put the phone away, I can take care of this myself!"
"Not a chance."
Something very familiar began to seduce Enid's senses. Something dark and relentless.
"Put. Away. The. Phone."
Darkness. It wrapped itself around her for consumption once again. Wilhamena noticed this when she turned around. Instead of her intimidating expression, she was suddenly horrified by the killing machine that appeared to be her own flesh and blood.
"Enid...what are you-"
"PUT AWAY THE FUCKING PHONE!"
That echo...The sound of countless spirits commanding at once.
It was all too much for Wilhamena to take in. The nightmare that she and her loving husband had avoided for many years had finally caught up to them. The formation of a divine ghoul that had lived within Enid in and out since birth.
The real Enid, twisted and broken, had broken out of her shell.
Wilhamena strategically hung up and placed it back inside her pocket, waiting to see what fate had in store for her.
"You can't fight this. It's finally happennnNNNINNNGGGG!"
In a split second, she vanished. Clouds of voltage and pure darkness were left in front of the mother.
Enid found herself transporting through smoke and landing violently in between a family of cacti. Luckily, she didn't particularly land on one, but the ground was as solid as it looked.
"W-what the hell?"
She proceeded to take a good look around. This setting was eerily similar to the practice grounds she had set with Red Action.
It was. Except she found herself above one of the canyons.
And in front of a farmhouse.
She had so many questions. The only one who could possibly answer to her was what hid inside her.
"Wait, did you mean to teleport me all the way to here?"
Throughout the whole sentence, she looked to her left, her right, and her own belly. This new form...from the echos, it was apparent that it came with company...
It made sense if this...thing meant to keep her safe and far away from anybody she knew, but why would someone put up a farmhouse at a geographical wasteland like this?
The answer was there in front of her eyes.
Someone in overalls donning a straw hat, on the porch swinging back and forth on a rocking chair.
Red Action.
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