One of the more unfortunate symptoms of PTSD was doing something thinking you were in a different place or time. Disassociating, Dr. Fletcher had called it. When medicated and under less retraumatizing circumstances, Lucy was about to keep this to a minimum, save perhaps a few bad flashbacks.
Now though, having gone however many days without her medication and in these...extenuating circumstances, Lucy was finding herself stuck in the feeling of walking into a room and forgetting why you came in. She would wake up, not remembering going to sleep, blink and be in the middle of a conversation with Hedwig that she hadn't remembered starting.
As with most cases, it took a heavy jarring to get her to come back to reality. Lucy's happened to be a scream of pure terror.
But it didn't come from her.
The usually loud door was remarkably quiet as she ran though it. She wasn't sure where she was going, or how she was getting through doors she was certain had been locked from both sides before, but the loud scream had reminded her of the danger she was in, as well as the fact that she wasn't alone in it.
Lucy let out a shout of her own when she ran headfirst into a familiar head of brown hair.
"Lucy?" Casey voice shook as she looked at the woman like she was scared she was hallucinating.
"Casey." Lucy held the younger girl by the arms, looking her over. When she detected no obvious injury, she embraced her. The moment was broken when she saw another familiar face over her friend's shoulder. "Dr. Fletcher?" Lucy released Casey, kneeling down to shake the woman who was disturbingly limp. "Dr. Fletcher!"
A sort of skittering sound made both girls jump. Following Casey's terrified gaze, Lucy saw a familiar silhouette climbing the concrete walls.
"Oh my god..." Lucy breathed. Her hand went to clench Dr. Fletcher's, hoping for the comfort the woman usually offered, but the limp reality just scared her even more.
"Kevin Wendell Crumb. You made a mess. Get out here."
The voice echoed in her mind, reminding Lucy of the last time she had been even remotely this scared. Hang on...oh.
I'm really really sorry about this.
"K-Kevin Wendell Crumb."
Casey's eyes snapped to the teacher as her voice shook. Lucy looked terrified, but swallowed and resolved herself.
"Kevin Wendell Crumb."
The figure dropped from the wall and shook itself.
"Kevin Wendell Crumb!"
It fell against the doorway as though she had struck him.
"Let me talk to Kevin Wendell Crumb!"
The stiffness of the body seemed to leak away. He grabbed at a heavy blanket sat by the table and wrapped it around his shoulders. He seemed confused as he came into the light of the room and looked at the other two occupants.
"W-who're you?" Casey and Lucy both could only stare. "What's happening?"
"...Something horrible." Casey finally found her voice.
"...What I do? Did I hurt you?" He looked between the two girls, then paused when his eyes met Lucy's. "...Lucy?"
"Hi Kevin..."
His worry turned to awe for a second, but it didn't last as he finally caught sight of Dr. Fletcher. "Dr. Fletcher? Dr. Fletcher!" He looked back to Lucy, who slowly shook her head, confirming his fear.
The good doctor was dead.
"W-Who did that?"
"You did."
Kevin shook and pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders. "Lu...Lu, I swear I was on a bus. I don't remember anything after that. T-This is still September 18th 2014, right?"
Lucy shook her head, horrified at the realization that her friend had been locked up inside his own head for over two years.
Kevin seemed just as scared, closing his eyes against oncoming tears. He slowly brought a shaking hand up to the curved half bat signal that was still around his neck despite the fact that his shirt had been removed.
He brought his eyes over to Casey, who still stood terrified a ways away from the pair. "...There's a shotgun I bought. It's, in the bottom cabinet, hidden behind things. The shells are in my uniform closet, out in the service hall." He spared a glance to Lucy, who's eyes were blurred with tears. "Kill me." He requested of Casey. "Then kill me..."
Lucy had zero time to face the turmoil that brought her, as Kevin's body was suddenly jumping forward to grab Casey by the arm, a new alter in the light.
"Wait! Wait, wait, wait! No, no, no, no don't do that! Don't do that! He can't handle reality. My name is Jade. Has Dr. Fletcher been getting our emails? This is what we have to we -"
She was cut off by the flinch of another stealing the light Lucy was so familiar with.
"- As in 1008, when Atadepala (A/N: I know I spelled that wrong.) suffered the Shahee's most crushing defeat and Makmoon overtook the famed temple of Congra; we have been wronged by this alliance, this Horde, of Patricia, Dennis, and the boy! Their actions do not represent us! They-"
Another flinch. The actual lights in the room seemed to fade in and out, as though they were mimicking the light in Kevin's mind.
"E-Every-Everybody just take a minute! Oh, baby girl..." the new alter drew his hand across Casey's cheek. "They've been stealing control of the light from me, but the group, are gonna work through this. Sweetie, my name is Barry-"
He slurred his name like a radio running out of battery mid word. The room was suddenly quiet and Lucy saw a childish grin that she knew all too well.
"Hedwig don't..." She all but sobbed.
"Oh they were right, look at you!" He looked between the pair. "You're so frightened of us!"
Casey scrambled for the aforementioned shotgun. Lucy couldn't bring herself to intervene and stop her.
"Dennis and Ms. Patricia are in charge because of me!" Hedwig said proudly. "I'm gonna give the light to them now. No one's allowed to make fun of me anymore!" He looked over to Lucy and his eyes turned soft. "And no one's allowed to hurt Lucy."