Again, I don't own DBD. Nurse would still have three blinks if I did. Maybe I should make Sally do these instead.
Sally: I've got enough on my hands as it is!
Me: *mutters* Including Spencer's blood...
Sally: I heard that!
Sally was bored. So bored. Benedict Baker had left her in this stupid room to contemplate her existence. The only problem was that one can only sit still for a certain amount of hours before getting bored.
Twiddling her thumbs was the last thing she wanted to do. But even if she could get out of bed, which she couldn't, the door was locked and Baker had the key. Breaking it down wasn't an option, as Sally was never very strong.
She lay her head on her hard pillow and stared at the ceiling, trying to doze off. She eventually succeeded, only to be woken up by a loud creak as the door began to open.
Baker walked in with a neutral expression on his face. "Sally, we didn't know you could already Blink. That's impressive."
Sally blinked (with her eyes). "Blink? I just did, how is that impressive?"
He shook his head and sighed. She had been too out of it to process his looks before, but now that her head was clear she could see that he wasn't all that bad. He was tall, no doubt, but not towering. His light brown hair reached to his forehead in a sloppy bowl-cut, just above a pair of piercing blue eyes. His clothes were nothing special, a brown leather jacket over a black t-shirt, and ripped jeans. His boots were slightly old-fashioned, made of the same material as his jacket.
"No, I mean that teleport thing you did in the asylum. You went through a wall, sound familiar?"
Sally tilted her head and squinted her eyes at him. Now that he mentioned it, it did in fact sound familiar. "Wait, was that when I..."
"Snapped? You went on a rampage and killed every patient and nurse in the building, Sally. We're surprised you forgot."
Sally shrugged. "Must have been, oh I don't know, the insanity? Pretty sure that would do it."
Baker tilted his head in agreement. "Fair enough. Come with me, I'll take you to the trial area."
"Trial area?"
"It's easier if you just follow me."
"No, you're gonna tell me what the hell is going on. I woke up in a void, unable to move, and started to dream about my life. Then I broke free and somehow I'm in this room, you're sitting at the front of the bed, and I have a massive headache. Now you're talking about Blinks and Trials and..." Sally faltered. "What happened to me?"
He looked at her with a downcast face. "Simply put, you died Sally. How on earth one would forget their own death we have absolutely no idea."
She looked at him, her face betraying nothing. Then she cracked a smile. Then a grin, then she snickered, and soon she was clutching her sides, tears streaming down her face.
"Died? Hahaha, how... could I have... hehe... died if I'm talking to you?"
He gazed at her sternly and waited until she was in a space to listen. "You think I'm joking? What purpose would that serve?"
Sally rolled her eyes and stared at him sardonically. "Prove it then, how could I be dead? Let's hear it!"
"Do you remember your throat feeling sore? The pillowcase over your head?"
She tilted her head and just looked at him.
He sighed. "Do I have to spell it out? You. Hanged. Yourself."
Sally chuckled "Nice try, but that still doesn't explain why I'm talking to you."
Baker glared at her. "Do you believe in an afterlife, Sally? That black void was Hell. I managed to... strike a deal, let's say, and bring your soul here instead. Consider it purgatory, if you will."
She blinked (again, like a normal human) and pursed her lips. "Well if that's true, I guess I owe you one. Thanks."
Baker grinned, his smile abnormally wide. "You won't owe me for long, I have a way to get even. Follow me, please."
Sally rolled over and swung her legs out onto the hard brick floor. They walked for a while, turning left and right through the asylum and came to a black door. Not black paint, just... black. Pure darkness.
Baker stepped through it without hesitation, and after a while Sally did the same. She felt like stepping through a meat locker, her skin crawled with cold. She shivered.
She came out the other side and looked around in surprise. She couldn't believe what she saw. Instead of the woods around the asylum, they were in a sort of campsite, with logs strewn around a large bonfire and plains of grey grass stretching to the horizon in every direction.
"What the hell is this place? Doesn't look like Crotus Prenn to me."
Baker ignored her. "Wait here. You'll be collected in a moment."
"So, how can I get even with you? Is there someone you want dead? Something delivered?"
Baker shrugged. "You'll see in a minute. Just as you owe me, I am in debt to someone much higher. I'm just supposed to bring people here. People who killed someone. People with a reason for hatred. All I know is that you'll go through some sort of trial to determine if you have what it is they're looking for."
Sally tilted her head in confusion. "Wait, so I owe you but you owe someone else? Does that mean I owe them too?"
"It's easier just not to think about it."
And with that, he began to walk off through the grey grass.
"Where are you going?"
He ignored her and kept going until he was out of sight.
At a loss of what to do, Sally plopped herself down on one of the logs and waited. About five minutes later, she heard a distant shriek. Then another, slightly closer. Then another, and another, until she could see a faint light blinking out and reappearing a bit nearer to the fire. Each blink was accompanied by that horrible shrill cry.
Eventually she could make out a floating woman, wrapped in bandages and the same blinking light in her hand that Sally had when she killed Spencer.
She stood up and squinted, trying to make out a face, but all she could see was a... white pillowcase? It looked just like the one that covered her own head when she first woke up.
The woman neared the campfire at an alarming speed, too fast to follow any law of physics she knew. And she knew them all, she was top of her Physics class as a teenager.
Sally just kept standing there, staring at her and trying to figure out what the hell was happening. After a few more seconds, she was startled backwards, tripping over a log. The woman had just appeared right in her face.
Speechless, Sally stared up at her and tried to speak, but all that came out was a strangled gasp.
The woman looked at her, although it didn't seem like it because of the pillowcase over her head. Sally could feel her eyes piercing right through the linen and straight at her face. The woman spoke in a calm, strangely serene voice that didn't at all fit how she looked.
"So, you're the new girl? You're the one who's going to take the trial?"
Sally just nodded mutely. She assumed she was, based on what Baker had told her earlier.
"Right then. Come on, get up. We haven't got all day. Or night. Whatever the time is in this place."
Sally scrambled to get to her feet. Somehow she knew this woman was not to be pissed off. Finally finding her voice, she said in a hasty tone
"Who are you? What's going on?"
Sally expected to be left in the dark or ignored again, but the woman agreed to a compromise. "Walk and talk. Or blink and talk. Whatever suits you, but we need to get moving."
Sally decided that teleporting might make her throw up the nothing she had for breakfast, maybe even the sod all for lunch. She started walking, before realizing the woman wasn't following her.
"Wrong way, genius. Trial area's over that way." She began to walk, or float, in the direction she had pointed.
Sally facepalmed before hissing in pain. It turned out that smacking your hand into your forehead whilst you have a headache really hurts. Fancy that!
She hurried to catch up with the woman. "So, what's going on? What is the trial area? Who is Benedict Baker? In fact, who are you?"
The lady looked at her, making Sally realize she had maybe asked too much. Instead of complaining, she just answered her questions one by one.
"You've met the criteria to be selected for one of the Entity's workers. We keep it alive, it keeps us alive. Think of it as a symbiotic relationship, only with souls. The trial area is best seen yourself, it's kind of hard to explain. We don't know much about Baker, he just brings people here and we escort them to the trial area. As for me, my name is Lucy and I was a nurse, just like you. If you were, say, a car crusher, for example, we'd have someone else pick you up. Reason being you need someone like yourself to tutor you, teach you the things you need to know to work for the Entity."
Sally blinked (you know the deal) and tried to process all of the information. "I would ask more, Lucy, but I feel like it would get me nowhere. I'll wait until we get to the trial area first."
Lucy smiled, Sally could tell by the way the pillowcase twitched. "Good girl. Most of them would bombard me, and even I can't answer everything."
They walked (or floated) for a while before Sally could see a large, colosseum-looking building in the distance, partially shrouded in grey fog. "Is that the trial area?"
Lucy nodded. "Yep. I think it would be best for me to go ahead and clear your entry. I'll meet you inside."
With that, she held up her hand and stretched her arm out towards the building. Sally could see that same ball of light dancing around in her palm. Before she could ask about that, Lucy clenched her fist and shot forward, leaving behind a trail of mist and, strangely, flower petals, in her wake. Not long after she re-materialized about ten metres in front of Sally, she heard an ear-piercing shriek fill the air.
Sally, after taking her fingers out of her ears, looked ahead to see a faint glow she assumed was Lucy speed off towards the trial area. Setting her face in a determined glare, she held her head high and walked toward the colosseum.
Toward her first Trial.
Chapter 2 done! =)
Me: *falls to knees* Please forgive me! I'm sorry about the long update time, I just couldn't find the motivation or ideas until now...
Sally: Yeah... you were just absorbed in your Fairy Tail, weren't you?
Me: It's a good anime! I recommend watching it. Might make you a little more friendly.
Sally: *glares*
Me: My point exactly. Now, a huge thanks to:
Multipule-Characters1-Acct, TheTombedSpirit, and tuniejr for following/favouriting RotLB! That was what eventually drove me to make this chapter, and maybe if I get enough support I'll actually finish the story :P
Again, a HUGE thanks to you three for your support, and as always, review and tell me how I did! :D
-Jallybwan