Whooo! Finally did a new chapter! That block was on for what felt like FOREVER! I hope to at least finish this fic in maybe ten chapters or less because it's sort of the prequel for the full series I'm planning on doing.
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Chapter 11: A Prison Without Bars
It has been what felt like days since her encounter in the prisoner archive room, and Ari had hardly gotten an ounce of sleep since then. Dreams dredging up old incidents haunted her every waking moment, and to make matters worse, Wulf was now her personal jailer. He always slept in front of her prison door, since he had been the only guaranteed protection that could keep her there and could hunt her down if she tried to make a break for it. Most would have thought it to be overkill, but since Wulf instilled the most fear in Ari, Walker had thought it best to keep the ghost hound around her at all times to keep her from getting any more ideas about escaping.
Not only was Wulf in charge of keeping her in, he was in charge of keeping the other ghosts out. During her adventure to the prison archives, a ghost had accidentally possessed her. It was like having a constant cold shiver always running down your spine, but you were too numb to feel or do anything about it. She hadn't even aware that anything had happened until she felt something sever the connection the ghost had on her mind. The haze had cleared instantly the moment she saw the ghost sprawled out on the floor between Wulf's long, green claws. The image haunted her, and she wanted to do nothing more than to forget and escape this purgatory. Unfortunately, she couldn't even escape into her dreams anymore.
Memories kept flooding into her mind whenever she felt the urge to sleep take over, bringing up past insecurities as well as present fears. Even the incident with the ghost possession wandered into her night terrors, and had somehow become the main subject of her dreams. While she had been possessed, Ari's body had still somehow aware of everything that was going on around her, picking up bits of information like muscle memory that streamed back into her mind. It scared her to death to question what she had done or could have been doing before Wulf freed her. When she was possessed, it was like all her free-will was instantly flipped off like a light-switch, and she had to walk around blindly in the dark order to turn on the light again.
The nightmares she received regularly seemed to go back over what had happened while Ari stood back like a bystander in her own dream, watching the events take place on the wayside with no control or ability to shape them to her will. For the most part, the entire incident was like she had completely blacked out, the images coming out as a blurred mixture of sounds and emotions. But the thing that always stuck with her when she woke up was how clearly she could remember the tremendous power and helplessness she felt when she was possessed by the Box Ghost. The way that she had forcefully pinned the guards that had once dragged her away, the way she buried them with large avalanche of cardboard boxes. She had never had telekinetic powers before. It was... invigorating, and that was the thing that had terrified her the most, the fear of letting power overwhelm her, of letting her emotions get out of control.
She was in awe and at the same time frightened of herself, of what she had become because deep down, she realized that, in a messed up sort of way, she liked it. To feel power, to have control over her life, was something that she hadn't felt in a long time. Aside from every incident up that lead up until now, her old life in Eerie was fairly controlled.
She always had to a model student, get perfect grades, be the child that always succeeded, and she did just exactly that and more. But after she had spent almost all of her eighteen years being the model student, she realized that she had somehow lost herself along the way. When she thought back to her argument with her mother over the divorce, it made her wonder if she ever had gone through her rebellious streak? Was this her reward or punishment for not living like everyone else, for being imperfect for just once?
She tried not to think too much about it, because if she fell asleep, the issue would be brought all over again. Needless to say, after having to deal with that horrifying feeling and the nightmares that followed later, added with the fact that she had new 'bodyguard,' Ari had grudgingly kept herself from falling asleep, mostly by pacing in her cell. She often thought better when she paced, though it didn't seem to work much for her now, her mind barely lucid from lack of sleep.
Her limbs ached and creaked from the strain of constantly being awake, her eyes watered easily and turned bloodshot. Sometimes she could swear she saw little black dots that looked like spiders out of the corner of her eye. Everything felt fuzzy all the time, and the smell of grime, sweat, and blood was starting to seep into her clothes and become a part of her natural scent. She couldn't even remember how long she had been here, but it was long enough that her period had stopped. Her fear of Wulf was even starting to dwindle down. Was this how people normally reacted to isolation? By slowly falling into madness? She wasn't in total isolation, but she had never felt more alone.
With the large amount of time she had been given, she ended up reflecting on what had gotten in here. She asked herself all kinds of questions. Did anyone care that she was gone? How much homework would she miss and have to make up now? She could pretty much kiss any hopes of getting perfect attendance goodbye. Part of her just wanted to give up because it seemed like she would never leave this hellhole, but the more stubborn and competitive side of her saw this as a challenge and quickly shoved all notions of resorting to laziness down the drain.
The one question that did keep coming up, no matter how much she tried not to think about it, was the one relating to why her parents were getting divorced. To the best of her knowledge, they had always seemed happy. But then again, both sides of her family were pretty good at reigning in their emotions and shoving them into a box.
"Don't make a scene, Inari. We can't have that kind of behavior in front of our guests. I didn't raise you that way. Just smile and behave. This is a very important business venture for your father."
"Suck it up, be a man! Fauxs don't show their tears, especially over something so trivial. Just walk it off and rub some dirt in it. You'll be fine."
Was it something she had done? Had she not been the perfect model student for them up until now? Just how long had her parents been faking? Had she been aware and just ignored it? More importantly, what was going to happen now? She couldn't think of her parents not being together. In fact, the strange thought terrified her. She had this picture all her life that they were this big happy family and that they were always going to be together. That there would always be summers filled with cookouts, popsicles, and fireworks. Now she was unsure if she would ever be able to enjoy summer again, or even her older memories of home; it hurt too much to think about it. Was this why they had moved to Aunt Ayame's? Because they couldn't afford the house anymore? Were they poor now?
Tons of questions like this began piling higher and higher in her head until she was left stewing in her cell. She was on a short fuse now, and through all the delirium, fear, and hunger, her anger was the only thing that kept her going. Soon even anger turned to misery and eventually despair.
It's all mom's fault. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here, rotting in a cell! I would be home, sitting under my oak tree. It's all her fault! Always her fault! All her fault! All her...! She stopped before curling up on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest.
It's all... my... fault...
She was such a fool. She should have seen the signs. Her dad kept taking more and more of his things with him on business trips. He would hardly ever visit, and even when he was home, he was tired and unresponsive. The house always held an uncomfortable atmosphere when he came home, like he didn't want to be there.
"Right now, I wish I was anywhere but here, especially with you!"
She had wished to have been anywhere else, but this wasn't what she had in mind! Was that what had gotten her sent here? Because she wanted to escape? She wanted to crawl into a ball and block everything out. But withdrawing into herself wouldn't change the situation; that's what got her into this mess.
At the sound of the lunch bell, her thoughts were put on hold as the cell automatically unlocked its clear door. Ari painfully willed herself to get up, the instinct for hunger being the only thing that drove her now. Since she was getting virtually no sleep, hunger was the only feeling left inside her that she could act on without feeling any remorse or internal discourse. The ghost food was edible, but it wasn't enough to completely sustain her. It wasn't real food, and because of Walker's rules, the teenager couldn't even have any of the confiscated food.
Still, she shakily walked out of her cell because the promise of food was stronger than her pride. Her limbs hung weakly from her shoulders like limp tree vines from sleep deprivation and energy strains before she suddenly found herself leaning up against her wolfish bodyguard. She remembered reading somewhere that animals can sense human emotions. Maybe it was the same for animal ghosts, or whatever Wulf was, because he had strangely let her calmly stroke his fur. He didn't seem to perceive her as much of a threat, so maybe that's why he let her mess with his fur. It was a small comfort, and it did make her feel less afraid of the anthropomorphic wolf.
At some point earlier during her incarceration, Ari decided that simply didn't care anymore about anything. Time was irrelevant to her other than to slowly count down how her will to live was burning out, and her common sense was shot from her lack of sleep. They say that a person often has their strangest ideas when they are tired, and Ari was the definition of tired. What she did next was either out of sheer boredom or stupidity. During one of their walks to the cafeteria, Ari reached out and cautiously pat Wulf's fur. And this was how it originally started as. A simple pat on the back. When Wulf was curled up outside of her cell, her hand would reach through the ghostly force-field and pat him on the back. She would immediately retract her hand back into her cell as soon as he snapped at the unexpected touch.
Over time, her fear was now dulled to the point where she was more bored than afraid. Since she didn't sleep, the familiar feeling of drunkenness made her actions more daring, reckless, impulsive, and unpredictable. At one point, during one of their walks to the cafeteria, she had unconsciously patted Wulf's shoulder. While it wasn't the smartest move for her to make, he didn't seem to mind. She wasn't strong enough to be perceived as a threat.
When Walker wasn't around to order him around, he acted pretty much like any other dog. She was reminded of a clumsy Great Dane mix named Dodger that always wandered into the road back home. No matter how many times cars had slowed down or honked their horns at him, he still refused to leave the road unless he wanted to or his master called him over. He was independent and stubborn, and perceived himself to be higher on the food chain. His strength brought her thoughts back to her possession dream.
Psychological implications aside, the dreams had reminded her how good it felt to have power again, and the crushing burden that weighed on her when she awoke helpless and weak only made her crave it more. That small thought made Ari realize that no matter what she would do, a human could never break out of here, at least, not on their own. If she had the help of a ghost and have them use their powers, maybe she could break out of here and get back home. The abilities she witnessed from the ghosts she encountered seemed like the right balance to counteract the forces that kept her here. Even the Box Ghost was someone she could use, however small scale his powers were.
Wulf was also another possibility. He was strong enough to take on any ghost that she had seen (even his file named him a class nine ghost), not to mention Ari had been bonding with him over the course of a couple days, so there was always a good chance that he'd let her use him to hold off the guards long enough to help track down Desiree. Ari was still slightly concerned on the risk of dealing with an entity that had been devolved and controlled by a power-hungry warden, but judging from her experiences with the canine, Wulf wasn't so much as dumb as he just understood things in a different way. Walker's whistles and commands seemed to hit some sort of frequency that only Wulf understood, so if Ari could somehow tap into that, she might be able to communicate with him.
Normally, she would've spent more time planning her escape again, but unfortunately, today was her breaking point. After barely managing to walk to the cafeteria after five days of no sleep, Ari suddenly felt a deep pressure in her chest, making it very hard to breathe. The room start,. Ari was barely able to keep her eyes open before her food tray clattered to the ground as Ari collapsed on the floor unconscious, her food splattering all over the ground like a gruesome crime scene. Silently watching her from a distance, a dark figure sunk to the floor before it appeared underneath the weary teenager while Wulf was distracted by the small cafeteria crowd gathering around her. The dark shadow's expression held a glittering, malicious smile and hungry red eyes as it finally laid claim to his prey.