33- Conversation

"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." – Matthew 10:28

Once again, the woman's gut instincts of fear were accompanied by the angel's laugh. This time, however, was different. As Francine felt her shoulders heave up and down and her eyes widen- but still unable to accept what they saw-, it was perceived that Alice's response was of complete and utter mockery.

"Stop playing the fool!" she boomed from overhead. It was a sentence still tinged by the strange, inexplicable sorrow of her previous words, but it seemed that the mortal's reaction irked her beyond annoyance. "I may not know who you are, but I KNOW where you came from!"

Francine was so overwhelmed with the sight of mutilated cartoon corpses strapped down and dangled like an array of discarded toys that she found herself shaking. Even as the angel confused her beyond belief, she was at least welcome to distract her from the horrors ahead. And so, Francine looked up to the speakers and waited for more of heaven's fury to speak down.

She shouldn't have been so welcoming of it.

"He followed you here…!" The sweeter voice was…whimpering. How dreadful was it that Francine wasn't the only one shaken by these events. "The ink demon followed you here…! You- you led him to me! I WON'T LET HIM TAKE ME BACK!"

Such a spew of unknown information was so overpowering that there was only one way the woman could respond.

"He-…led-…what?!"

"I-I saw him!" the angel began to confess, momentarily putting aside her fear of the woman in order to rationalize to herself. "He was with you! He came with you! HE SENT YOU HERE!"

And although Francine didn't yet know this to be true, there was an assumption the angel had made thereafter.

Somewhere, Alice was besieged with the possibility that Francine, in her association- even friendship- with Sammy and the demon, could be here to strip the seraph of everything she had left.

Of course, this wasn't why Francine came at all. Neither the angel nor the woman knew the full truth, but each had a piece of it. That, however, was not enough for reconciliation. In a feeble voice projecting as loud as her exhausted body would allow, the woman called into nothingness, trying to find some understanding-

But was quickly interrupted.

"I'm not playing this game!" The seething tone, although filled with hatred, could not hide the total, utter desperation of a being scared to lose all that remained of her. "If you come any closer, I'll-...I'll kill you."

The last word, soft with resolution, echoed down into the inky ocean and through Francine's soul. How was the woman to react? All she wanted was to understand a little more- live maybe even a little more comfortably, at peace till the day "he set them free." She was sent on a wild goose chase in search of Sammy's truth to Norman and his cave of lonely darkness. When he could tell her nothing, Francine had decided the most logical choice would be to come to the angel herself, the one who had betrayed the first hint of knowledge regarding who everyone was, who this place used to be. And now, she was just finding out that maybe, just maybe, the god of this world had been over her shoulder at least at some point without her knowing.

And so, surrounded time after time by only the most ghastly of images and the most heartbreaking of realities, it shouldn't have been as much of a surprise as it was for Francine to simply look down to the floor in thought, look back up again in resolve, and turn to leave.

Regardless, this was not what Alice had expected.

"Where are you going?!" Maybe if the angel's assumptions were correct- that Francine herself was not only associated with the demon but in his control- this would be a foolish question to ask, teasing the one who wished her pain just after bidding her release. But this was also why such inquiries had to be made; if Francine came all this way, why turn back?"

It was simple:

"I'm…I'm just…" The woman closed her eyes, knowing the right words but struggling to speak them. "I'm so tired. I'm so tired of this." They opened, narrowed slits underneath a brow furrowed with a frustration that was beginning to seed into something more resentful. "I'm not playing this fucking game either."

The exhaustion of this inky world had culminated into an outright threat to end her life merely for wishing to accept it, falling out of Alice's mouth and weighing the woman down more than any other trial had done before. This denial, out of everything this bitch of a studio had thrown at her, was the one that finally filled her with rage.

"I just wanted to- you know!- get some damn answers about who you FUCKING people ARE." Almost as if Alice was standing right behind her instead of lurking someplace else, Francine turned around with a grin poisoned with sarcasm and a shrug that was the epitome of complete and utter exasperation. "Sammy doesn't know who the hell he even is; you sent me to talk to a guy who can't TALK; and so I came down here to mayyyybe ask you- who I thought might be the only person who knows fucking anything about this damn place- and you wanna kill me. Well, that's GREAT." She exhaled heavily, but it brought no release of her tension. "Oh! And I just found out that a fucking demon might be following around without me noticing! So that's all! Just! GREAT!"

It was all so utterly ridiculous that it could only be conveyed in a ridiculous tone, ended with a flourish of arms throwing themselves down. It was the only way Francine could wrap her head around all the confusion and injustice that swallowed her every move, her very existence. Even so, there was something that bothered her so much, it could only be taken seriously.

"I just…wanted to talk." She shook her head, but the weariness would not fall away. "But you obviously don't want to, so…"

The woman couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. This was already too much. She turned back around with a groan and a fling of her wrist, as if it was discarding everything she had hoped to achieve here, when-

"Wait."

Francine looked back once more into this horrid place, compelled by a voice maybe not gentle, but at least a bit more empathetic…even if it still was wary of all that the woman brought with her.

"You just wanted to talk?" Alice asked, sounding incredulous.

"Yeah," Francine replied bluntly, softly.

There wasn't another sound for several breaths. Just as the woman considered leaving once more, Alice returned to her.

"The demon…is no longer with us, I see. Fine."

…

"Fine what?" Francine asked.

It began with a groan, the angel's regular tone of condescendence returning to her. "Let us speak. Finish walking this path and see if you're ready to talk with angels."

And the speaker clicked again, signaling its finish. Although physically she was alone the entire time, it was only as the fuzz of audio drifted away that the woman felt she was truly without a single soul.

In the very least, the absolutely nightmarish bodies around her didn't seem to have one anymore.

But before she could even think about the consequences of actually meeting Alice once again- especially after all that she had just said-, Francine had to address a very real concern.

The path ahead could hardly be called so. It was planks of wood held up like a makeshift bridge over a massive pool of ink who knows how deep, drawn around different structures, some of which much too close for her liking to the dead monsters. She looked down at her feet, just past her stomach. She could easily see her uncoordinated self tumbling into the dark waters at the closer sight of one of those things. Or worse yet- she could see herself tripping into one of them.

She pursed her lips and hummed in thought, even when she already knew the probably very stupid thing she was going to do.

Shoes stuffed with their socks in one hand and the other stretched next to her side for balance, Francine felt unfathomable shivers crawl up her spine as she waded through the ink to the other side of the room.