sinking down, down

[facultwist]

Death is a drop into a blackness that swallows you. You feel the movement of not air but shadow across your face as you plummet, and there is no bottom. No crash.

If there is another side, you do not reach it.

It is neither the light of heaven or the fires of hell that greets you when you wake. And wake you do, to the buzz and flicker of old fluorescent lights.

You are laid out beside a full-size competitive swimming pool, half-filled with stagnant water. The doors out are blocked off by locked doors covered in caution tape. The locker rooms are long since emptied, paint peeling from the humidity. The only signs of habitation are a few pieces of scattered graffiti.

Welcome to your new home. There's no sunlight, no indication of time passing. Just you and each other and your thoughts. the stagnant water bubbles a little occasionally, but there's nothing in it.

Before long you'll realize that you no longer need to eat or drink. You might notice your hand go through something if you don't focus. You're a ghost now. What's that they say about unfinished business?

Comments

[rosewitch]

[Ah. Well. Here we go.]

[Anthy waits until Dorothy is no longer actively choking to draw attention to herself, given how closely associated she is with said choking. Seems kind of in poor taste to jumpscare her. Once she's begun to recalibrate, though . . .]

I can help you out.

[Anthy's made it over to the side of the pool now, toes drifting slowly back and forth just above the stagnant water.]

I understand if you'd prefer I didn't. You're welcome to any retribution you'd like.

[But she's not going to move until Dorothy says it's all right or moves herself.]

[banishedfromparadise]

[Ah. This is awkward.

She'd thought they were having a nice conversation, before she started to feel ill. Belatedly realizing the tea tasting slightly off might not have been something innocuous. The way she'd fought Anthy, she probably seemed pretty violent at the time. Hard not to thrash about when one's being smothered and doesn't want to die.]

Answer me first. Why me?

[rosewitch]

[Well. That's a fair question and a fair condition. She just wishes she had a better answer. Generally speaking, people seem to respond better when there's a personal motive.]

Because you were the first person I saw that night.

[. . .]

I didn't want to kill anyone. I had to kill someone. So I let the story decide, and it chose you. I like you. I think you're a good person. You never did anything to me.

[banishedfromparadise]

[Part of her thinks, if only she hadn't gone to check on Kohaku. She'd simply crossed paths with Anthy, never considering that Anthy would just take the opportunity. She would have assumed if she was going to kill, she would already have a victim chosen. She couldn't imagine a reason she'd choose her... because she hadn't.]

I see.

[With that, she moves closer to Anthy.]

So you didn't want to kill anyone, but you had someone you desperately needed to protect. At least I can rest easy knowing I had no real reason to suspect you.

[She gestures with her hand, showing that she's willing to accept if Anthy plans to offer her help. She's at least assured that Anthy never held any ill will towards her.]