Chapter 8
It's so easy to try and drown; falling down down down into the vast, unending terror and static that is Anna's mind. It's easy to let go and forget who she is and why she is what she is; to lose herself to all the others who want to be her, want to live again and fight for a consciousness that she has taken away from them. There are stronger wills than her own here and she would happily succumb to any one of them, if only to forget who she is and to be lost forever, left numb and unfeeling to the world and the horrors that it holds for her.
Yet every time she strays too far, every time she is on the tip of the cliff's edge, every time she is about to take that final step; someone pulls her back, someone calls out and forces her to acknowledge who she is and where she is and why she cannot give up.
"Anna?"
Anna sits on the floor of her cell, tracing imaginary circles with her finger on the cold concrete beneath her. She is tired and swaying slightly from the mental exhaustion of her new power.
"Where ya wan' go when we get outta dis place chere?"
Anna wants so desperately to believe that this is real. That he is back and she is not alone and that he'll never leave her side again. She wants to believe that she can feel his fingers softly trace circles on the back of her neck as he asks impossible questions to try and make them both feel better. Make them both feel that there might be hope.
She just wants it to be real.
But it's not real. He is not there. It's all a side effect of Dani's power; the power to project a person's greatest desire or worst nightmare.
Anna is already in her own worst nightmare; that only leaves her greatest desire: Remy.
"Somewhere far away. Somewhere warm. Somewhere safe." Anna answers the illusion sitting next to her as she forces a smile and tries to be happy. Tries to pretend nothing has changed since her powers manifested that horrible night so long ago.
Reaching up, Anna touches the tender skin on her neck. The boogey man has left her collar off for the night, unable to get it back on her after Dani's powers took over. She feels naked without it. She knows he is watching her; through camera lens, hidden safely somewhere else in the underground prison.
Underground.
She knows they are underground now. Dani shows her that, Emma confirms it. They help her understand what is happening down here. In the sewers of New York City.
The boogey man's experiments are all for fun; they have no real meaning behind them. He is mad and he produces no real results. It turns out Anna isn't the boogey man's only torture device either. He had been using Dani as a way of accessing the fears and dreams of his victims so that he might exploit them for his own twisted needs.
Anna had struggled with the memories at first as Dani's life entered her body; screaming as each nightmare from each person came to fill her vision. She fought against the boogey man's grasp. The room filled with scenes of torture, abuse and death all around them. Dani went limp and the boogey man pulled Anna away from her with such force Anna fell to the ground where she curled into a ball and continued to scream. The boogey man tried to pull her up, make her shut her mouth, but she wouldn't stay still, wouldn't open her eyes against the visions surrounding them, wouldn't silence the screams that crept up her throat. When he finally gave up, the boogey man simply grabbed Anna by her hair and dragged her back to her cell by force.
Now Anna sits in her cell, afraid to break her concentration over her illusions. She doesn't want to be left alone with all the voices trying to be heard in her mind.
The cell shimmers and Anna frowns. She doesn't want the projection to fade away. She doesn't want to be alone anymore, but she's getting tired, her eyelids are so heavy, Dani's powers are draining her energy quickly.
It's ok Anna. Sleep. You need to rest darling. I can watch over you.
Anna blinks and sways as her eyelids lower and she falls asleep, Emma's soft whispers comforting her as she floats into what would hopefully be a dreamless sleep.
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