Welcome to Limbo, Continued

"What are you doing here?"

Chloe jumped to her feet, startled, stuttering, "Mr. Mitchell! I- I was just-"

Warren Mitchell stalked into the room and threw the get well lilies he'd brought for his daughter down on the nightstand next to the hospital bed. The white flowers hit the stand and fell off in the momentum to the floor. He turned towards Chloe in anger, face red and jaw set. "You're not welcome here. I don't want you near my daughter. Get out," he demanded, taking a threatening step towards the red-haired woman.

"Mr. Mitchell- I'm sorry, but I- I just wanted to help-"

"Help?" he growled. "You wanted to help?" Chloe nodded hesitantly, causing Warren to roar out, "You can't help! You're the reason she's in here in the first place!" He pointed towards his daughter's prone form, "She wouldn't be in a coma if it wasn't for you!" By this point, the booming tone of his voice attracted the attention of a passing nurse.

"Sir?" the nurse began in a calming tone. "I'm going to need you to calm down before you disturb the other patients." The woman raised her hands in a soothing motion, but Warren was having none of it.

"It's your fault!" he roared, backing a terrified Chloe into a corner. The nurse attempted to get between the two. "If you hadn't lured her into trusting you—"

– The heart monitor skipped—

"Into befriending you—"

– It spiked—

"Into loving you—"

– The monitor soared—

"Into believing that you were the One—"

– Though it was unheard over Warren's heated tones—

"She wouldn't have gotten a broken heart!" The nurse attempted to push Warren out of the room, calling for security all the while as Warren continued his verbal onslaught.

"I'm sorry!" Chloe repeatedly cried. "I'm so sorry!"

"Sorry won't save her!" Mr. Mitchell called as he was forcefully removed from the room.

– The monitor flat lined.

As they walked down the hallway, Beca noticed that the grandeur of the initial lobby area seemed to change. The once brilliant marble flooring gradually shifted into cold concrete. The walls were covered in peeling wallpaper. The brightly lit rooms became nothing more than single, bare, dangling light bulbs sparsely spread out.

The boss man, Jesse himself, took to humming cheerfully under his breath as they passed door after door. The hallway was otherwise silent.

"Where the fuck are we going?" Beca asked, patience running thin as she peered distastefully at her surroundings. None of her questions had been answered thus far. Her hand moved to her throat for a moment, searching for the comfort her enormous headphones brought her, but they weren't there.

Jesse smiled indulgently, "We offer many different recreational activities here in Limbo. There's a gym, the pool, a golf course, a dining hall, an amphitheater—" He turned to her conspiratorially. "We have the occasional play or musical, but mostly people like to go up on stage to sing." It was at this point that the two stopped at a particularly dark set of doors. "Or we have my personal favorite, the movie theater." He reached to open the doors and stood there expectantly holding it, waiting for Beca to walk through. She made a face at the thought.

"Well?" he asked. "Aren't you going to step through? We just got a new showing—don't you want to see it?" Beca didn't catch the underlying tone to his voice as she sarcastically answered.

"Couldn't we just relive my parents' divorce? Or visit a gynecologist?"

Jesse's eyes widened, "What? Do you not like movies or something?"

The woman gave a sigh of annoyance.

"Oh my God! You don't like movies! How can you not like movies?" Jesse exclaimed, letting the door slam shut.

"It's not that they're bad," Beca explained. "I just get bored and never make it through to the end. They're so predictable."

"But the endings are the best part!" He waved to the doors behind him, "Hey, I promise if you go through here and watch the movie that it won't be boring. You'll easily make it to the end."

"Look, it's a nice idea and I'm sure you mean well, but could you show me to my room instead? It's been a long day." Indeed, Beca felt exhausted. There were dark circles forming under her eyes, and her face was becoming paler by the second. She felt drained. Everything that had happened in the last hour, the last twenty-four hours, the past week (first with Her, and with Chloe, and her dad, the bar; not to mention waking up in Limbo and seeing her sister for the first time in ten years just to find out that she'd died, finding out that she herself is dying, and then there were the talking cherubs—) everything, the trials of the day (How long had it been?) were catching up to her. She wanted to rest.

"Of course," Jesse nodded solemnly. The issue of movies was dropped for now. "If that's what you want."

The two began to walk again. Strangely, if asked to recall the paths she took, Beca wouldn't be able to give an answer. She doesn't quite remember how she got to her room, having followed Jesse. Her mind was foggy. Clouded. By the time they walked up to a rather ordinary looking door, Beca was in a daze. Things were bleached of their color, for some reason. Looking at her arms she saw that it wasn't just the room, but she herself was becoming grey.

Jesse had the door unlocked and was politely holding it open for her.

Beca felt like she was floating into her room as she walked in. "This is your room," Jesse said behind her. "You'll want to call room service at some point or another, but especially if you want to go somewhere. It's easy to get lost in these hallways if you haven't been here for long. Give me a call and I'll get you where you're going." He began to back out of the room as Beca lightly perched at the edge of the queen sized bed, smoothing out the crisp covers with her hands. "It is my job after all." Beca found it difficult to focus, her mind spinning and seeming to focus on unimportant things. She could've sworn that Jesse's eyes were glowing for a second.

"Okay," she answered distractedly. "Thanks Jesse."

"Anytime," he murmured as he clicked off the light and stepped out of the room. The door clicked shut behind him.

Beca kicked off her shoes and laid down to sleep, pulling the covers over her. She wasn't comfortable, so she rolled over and waited, eyes closed. An hour past, she rolled over again. Another hour, she sneezed. She shifted her body. Her head felt so heavy, and she knew if she opened her eyes that her vision would be swimming. What she wouldn't give in order to rest for just a few minutes! But it seemed as if sleep would escape her.

"Did you mean it?" someone asked. Beca opened her eyes in the darkness to see a shrouded figure sitting on the edge of her bed looking at her. Its voice was distorted, the curious tone of a child, the compassionate feel of a mother, the protective care of a father. "When you said that you'd give anything to sleep, did you mean it?"

Unconcerned and partially unconscious, sure that this was part of some hallucinatory dream, she mumbled, "Yes." It was as if that wasn't her that were answering. "Anything."

The figure smiled warmly at her, and reached out to gently touch her eyelids, gently sliding them shut. "Then sleep…"

And Beca's eyes closed, she fell asleep. In her sleep, the phantom beating of her heart slowed, and gradually stopped.

The monitor flat lined.

"Time moves differently in Limbo," a voice explained. It was her sister, Stacie. "One minute the sun could be rising, the next the middle of the night." She sighed as she leaned back in the arm chair. "It's like only yesterday that I died. My boyfriend at the time? Not as nice a guy as I originally thought."

The older brunette leaned forward in the chair. "You don't want to end up like me, Becs," she stated seriously, eyes locked with her sister's. "Wake up. You can't fall asleep in Limbo."

"Clear!" the doctor ordered as he pressed the paddles to the woman's chest. The body jumped at the electrical impulse, but did not respond.

Immediately, he started to rub the two pads against one another. "Again!" he said as the other doctors rushed about him. "Ready? Clear!" The woman's body jumped again.

Chloe was still backed into the corner where she had been from earlier, crying as she watched the scene. The doctors didn't care if she was there or not so long as she was out of the way.

"There's not much we can do!" someone said, frustrated. "She's already flat lined! It's not working!"

"Damnit, don't give up on me! C'mon!" the doctor was sweating but determined. One more time, he thought. "Clear!"

And the heart monitor jumped—then fell back into a steady rhythm.

"We've got a pulse!" another exclaimed. "She's breathing!"

"Thank God," someone sighed.

The doctor wiped his brow, thankful to have the girl alive. He set down the paddles and stepped away from the girl as he turned to one of the hands on duty, "You! Get me her charts! Run more tests! This shouldn't have happened today, there's something we're missing."

The other immediately left the room.

"Miss?" a nurse asked, lightly touching Chloe's arm to get her attention. The red head hadn't even noticed her. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave now. The doctors have work to do."

"Wait! No- I-" Chloe was lead from the room.

Gasping, she woke up from her slumber to the greyscale nightmare she'd swore was a dream before. What's going on? There was a simple note on her nightstand along with a bundle of wilted white flowers. "On the house this time Beca," it read. "See you again soon…"

The card wasn't signed, but Beca had an idea who it was from. Frantically, she threw on her shoes, stumbling about because she felt like death, and ran from the room. Immediately, her mind felt foggy again. It was hard to think. Remembering what Jesse said, she turned around to go back into her room, but all the doors looked the same. She couldn't recall which room was hers, which number she had, and all the doors she tried to open were locked.

And suddenly it wasn't just her mind that was foggy, but the hallway as well. There was a fine white mist that reached out to her like some ghastly form. Terrified, Beca ran from its grasping clutches. She didn't know what would happen if she let the fog touch her. She knew it wasn't a good thing; she could feel its evil intentions.

As she ran down the hallways, the doors themselves seemed to mold into each other until there was one door and only the one door that Beca continuously passed. A set of doors, dark. Again, and again. It was like Beca was running in circles. That phantom beating of her heart was racing again in fear, the knowledge that the fog was catching up to her. It was so difficult to deny the fog, combined with her muddy thoughts at the moment, she began to forget the fear she had in the first place.

Why was she afraid again? What was she running from? The fog? It didn't seem so important, so dangerous, or so bad. The fog became a good thing. Beca began to slow down to a walk, confused of her shortness of memory. Wait, what was it that was wrong again? Or was there something right?

But—

Here, before her, there was a dark set of doors.

Just as the fog reached out its ghastly claws to drag her into its folds, Beca opened the doors and walked in, leaving the rolling masses of white to clutch at nothing.

AN:

And so I've written more. Pretty sure my roommates think I'm weird, but that's okay. Yesterday, as I was writing this in a notebook, one of them walked into the room. "Homework?" she asked. "Nope," I replied. "A story?" she tried again. "That's a possibility," I stated. "A diary?" third try's the charm... but "No," I stated. "Not a diary." She gave me a look of disbelief. I just looked away.

So yeah. I'm weird.

But we already knew that. :)

In any case, I'm excited for where this is going. The path becomes clearer with each chapter I write. Hope it'll all eventually make sense because it's not supposed to make much at this point.

Snow White Misery: Lol, you're right! All that worrying was for nothing! But, I can't help it :P It's one of my quirks. I'm so relieved they're actually nerdy like me, you have no idea. Glad you're excited for me to be back! On Hotel California, it was after I finished writing the second chapter that I was likewise reminded of the song. Then I had a revelation, why don't people write fanfiction for songs? Sometimes, the songs or the lyrics are so perfect that an actual story needs to be put to the words- and then I realized there are song fics... and I'm actually not quite sure how I feel about some of those. But I think I mean maybe just fanfiction about the song? I don't know where I'm going with this. Just pretend I make sense ;) In any case, YOU WILL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH! These things come in fragments and pieces. But I will tell you that CR will be entering in the next chapter. Thanks for the response! Glad you're enjoying it.

Rubiksmaniac: I could be wrong, but I think you reviewed before too... While I'd written most of this chapter down on paper already, it was actually your review that spurred me to type it all up and post this chapter today. So thanks for that~ Is this soon enough for you?

dullLogic: What? Jesse, creepy? No, what? Nooo... pshh. You're, you my friend. Ha! So funny. Jesse creepy? Couldn't be happening. Cherub Amy though? I can promise you that she will make a reappearance! Because, you're right, we all love her.

Shortstack13: Chloe is by her bedside... Hmm... Curious... Glad you're enjoying the supernatural aspect! To be honest, I'm a little worried sometimes that I'm not doing this idea justice... Hope this chapter's good.

Special thanks to everyone else because, WOW, I am getting some good feedback on this! Which really surprises me. You cannot believe. I got a lot of questions and responses a couple of months ago, and I wish that I could respond to them all (but someone needs to use this computer and I'd like to upload this now because I won't be able to come back to the library later) O.o All I'd like to say now on the matter of Chloe is... you'll find out. 3:) The next chapter will be the second day in Limbo; CR will be introduced. Maybe, possibly, some questions will be answered? Who knows. Maybe if... nah. Nah. You'll see.

Also, in regard to all the spelling or grammar mistakes I've been seeing in my writing, really sorry for that! It's a big pet peeve of mine (though, you know, I'm not a genius as much as I'd like to be in order to pass my Anthropology class)... but I'm too lazy to go back and fix things at this point. I'll go back eventually when I'm annoyed enough. Just wait.

Last thing: Reviews are a good thing.

Just keep that in mind. :)

Love y'all! Thanks again!