62- For Her Sake

"And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." – Genesis 2:9

She felt so…

Comfortable.

With her eyes closed and an inexplicable warmth wrapped around her body, Francine only had sensation to describe what she felt now. Do you know that sort of…flutter in your heart where for the first time in a long time…everything seems okay? The way that serenity spreads through your veins until it feels like everywhere you go is walking on a cloud?

Indeed, despite her fears…despite facing this big, inky unknown with encouragement to only accept it rather than engage it, question it-…Francine now finally…finally…

Felt like everything was somehow, someway, going to be okay, just as she had asked for from a god above before chasing omniscience itself to find it.

It was here all along, it seemed.

Even if they all were so different- even so frustrating about it…as she let rest sweep over her until her skin was numb with peace, it dawned upon her like the sun beginning to peak over the horizon that maybe, just maybe…

Everyone she met here really did care about her in one way or another.

And it was likely she didn't know exactly how much she meant to them to drive shadow's citizens to do so.

To Sammy, she was a gift. Even in his growing doubts of purpose in perdition, he no longer questioned hers. She was there by the demon's grace and even if he was no longer so sure about his lord's wishes and intentions, hers were always clear: that he was blessed with her human companionship, and in turn it was his sacrifice to walk alongside and ensure she was as happy as can be.

Even if he couldn't be, and so he let her chase that which he feared most.

To Alice, she was a reminder- a reflection in a living mirror of all she once had, all she wanted to make for herself again. She had only seen the mortal smile so, so briefly compared to all the time spent alone, and yet it was enough to burn her image into the angel's mind. And if Alice couldn't ever again truly have the pristine humanity the woman felt not awarded but burdened with…

Then she wouldn't take it for granted ever again, whether or not it belonged to her.

And to even poor, unsettled Norman, the man with so little left of him that one had to investigate to find clues he was ever a person at all- she was a pleasure. And indeed, he wasa personthen and still was now, and so deep down the old man still carried that heavy weight somewhere in a heart buried beneath ink, reels, and tangled wires- the load that came with care's obligations. But he only felt and could not comprehend, so it left him desperate in action. By far the projectionist scared her the most, and yet…

Even he that grasped little both in and around him not only could do so physically but spiritually to appreciate the woman unlike anything he'd ever seen.

These were all things Joey Drew let toss and turn in his mind as he saw his newest victim curled up in the best chair of an office he used to be proud to call his own. They cared about her. They all did. In all the years they were trapped together, it took such little time to find her important.

This child was important because even if she could deem each and every being of ink a monster, she no longer would. She didn't think herself better and never once had since she stepped foot in his studio. Everyone was her equal, and not even a thousand miles of disconnect between what those of the puddles experienced and what she of daylight did could stop her from finding a way to empathize, refuse to hate.

And so it was natural that souls so thirsty for love would love back, whether or not they consciously wanted to.

And this…oh this…was both the greatest blessing and worst curse to settle in the air of Joey Drew Studios. And he knew it.

He knew it very well.

The keeper of dreams come alive quietly took a step closer to the woman that disrupted a world defined by this word, his shadow falling over her face, lap, and gently closed fists as he allowed her any comfort he could possibly give. It was so little- merely a chair for her to sleep in- but it was the most he had, at least right now.

And it shook him to his core. It scared him beyond belief that here she was- here she was in the heart of the worst ring of hell, the most agonizing of destinies…practically falling right into his lap, he who created it all.

It was a responsibility he didn't take lightly.

Couldn't afford to.

So many people were at stake- not just her but every single other that he had ever taken from the life they deserved. And so he resolved this exact moment to not allow the studio to do to her what it had done to Henry, no matter what that entailed. He'd give everything he hadn't before for his son to ensure that not only she was safe but that their cage would remain so as well.

Joey was such a loving man, and God bless him that love was maybe the only thing that kept the studio from imploding, tearing itself and all inside a part…

Like it tried to the last time someone as human as Francine had paid this old man a visit.

This was why love was the most wonderful, dangerous thing of all, and this time around…Joey resolved to embrace it with the firm hold of wisdom of his past mistakes than let passions crash around. He couldn't let that happen again. Not ever, ever again.

Francine dreamt someone gently brushed the hair off her forehead and whispered "I'll do whatever it takes. I promise you that. For your sake, I'll do it all."

"I just can't believe it."

Alice looked over the lake of oil encompassing her morbid laboratory, folding her arms and leaning her spine onto the entryway's empty operating table.

"Must be nearly eighty, ninety years and you never once asked yourself who we used to be." She drawled her words out in a hushed, contemplative voice dripping with both fascination and disdain for the man by her side- the man she used to have the naivety to call a comrade.

As far as Alice was concerned, he was cruel even before his humanity was taken away, and so her tone reflected such.

"If you remembered, I can't be so sure you'd want it back."

Of course, she was wrong. Of course nothing could be worse than how they lived now. But of course, Sammy didn't know better, and so this terrified him.

"W-what…" Could he ask this? All these years- could he even?

He could.

"What…was it like?"

Her gaze narrowed, almost a slit of an eye staring down the man standing by her side- the man she used to think would stand by her forever so, long ago. Her arms adjusted just a touch more, a bit more into herself as no one would ever be there to hold her again.

Judging, scrutinizing that which hadn't changed since someone did last.

Sammy gripped the table behind him, downward stretched arms and palms in the same direction. He was judging her at the same time as she did him, and there was something…unlike what he'd ever seen before. So much time trapped in the same building and yet they were together so little, almost like the most antagonistic form of neighbors in an apartment complex or former childhood best friends that lived in the same city and yet refused to speak. They both thought they knew each other far too well, and so they chose not to know each other at all.

"Tell me…" Alice began, still staring him down despite all but her black iris facing the rickety gateway to heaven, "…How can you miss something you don't even know?"

And she said this so gently with hate because she knew better. She knew who she was and what she had. And she would miss it…and yet was the only one she could identify to have enough memory- unlike Sammy- or sense- unlike Norman- to recognize where she was now in contrast to who she was then…and be fully and justifiably unsatisfied.

Besides Francine, of course, and maybe that's why Alice appreciated her no matter how much the seraph tried to shake off a guardian's duties.

Sammy could only stare back, stunned by her words. That was her intent, and so she then looked up ahead, seeing her past in the reflections of an inky sea.

"Do you know what it's like to be alone with it?"

Different. This was…different. More like a scared child than the woman this prophet was so, so afraid of. In all his years, he was finally relearning that even the one he considered most evil in this world of sin had her own fears and feelings to attend to. He had no opportunity to respond, however, as Alice was not done uncovering what no one had ever asked to see until he and his disciple one after the other.

"Do you know what it's like to be alone with everything you ever were and had, twisted in right front of you so it's barely recognizable but still just familiar enough to torture you if you stare back for too long?"

As Sammy bent at his waist even further…no…it was unbelievable.

She was shaking.

Indeed, that grip on herself was more of a desperate hold to keep herself from melting away than anything else, and now even the perfect half of her mouth had lips parted to show gritting teeth.

"I wish I was like you Sammy."

He gasped.

"…I wish I didn't remember," she said about as quietly anyone ever could.

And so the questioning preacher was beside himself, disbelieving that this hellish angel was more of a person like he than he had dared to imagine, how that ached in his chest alongside the already stinging doubts he had about the nature of his god. The dynamic he believed-…knew to be true- it had always made him think that the person who opposed the studio's benevolent lord must be inherently and only malevolent. Good and evil- black and white.

But maybe even though cartoons were that easy to distinguish, it wasn't so for those made in their image.

And so it was both bizarre and unexpected for him to witness her deconstruction not only in hopes for her to speak his own as well, but…

…Because the reasons she had given him were things worth caring for.

But finally, finally, something in her was gratified- or maybe just patched up rather than fully healed, like sticking your thumb in a dam's leak just long enough for it not to flood. She would remove it, but not here, not with he, and maybe not for a very, very long time.

He saw her neck rotate until the horns, crooked halo, and shredded face were parallel with Sammy's second smile. An angel in the making and the devil's mouthpiece for once opposing each other not in battle but in assistance.

"You…were Sammy Lawrence, music director of Joey Drew Studios. The most talented musician I have ever met, and someone I used to have the gall to call my friend. I will never forgive you, not for that life and not for this one, but…for not your sake…not for mine…but for the girl who latches to you just in hope to keep her spirit alive where she sees so many at every turn rotting and dead…I'll tell you exactly the kind of man you used to be."

And then Susie Campbell, the one destined to be Joey's angel, had her final say to the man that gave her a shoulder to cry on when no one saw her struggle but he, the man that along with Mr. Drew rose her far above the earth and right to the stars to make her believe she was everything she wanted and more, and the man that took it all from under her feet just to watch her crash down from heaven's heights.

And then Sammy Lawrence began to understand what Susie meant when she said she wished to forget it all just as he did.