foolishwren | 70. [DREAM/DREAM/DREAM/DREAM]

_{[So while the rest of Johto alternately panics, cries, or rushes around trying to capture as many of the soulstealing insects as possible, there are dozens of souls floating around in that dream limbo, drifting in and out of each other's slumbering thoughts and visions. Whether it's nightmarish flashbacks or just those dreams where you're at school taking a really hard test, and then Dracula shows up, and then everybody's naked ... anything is possible when it comes to what people see in their sleep.]

[But what appears in the darkness in this particular spot in the spaceless, shifting mass of dreaming souls... is a door.]

[It's old, and covered with boards and bolts, rusted near-through in some places. The lock is broken-- mangled and half-melted and wrenched out of the keyhole. The only thing on it that doesn't look ancient is a scrap of torn notebook-paper that's taped up on it at roughly eye-level. It reads only a single phrase:]}

Fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh.

_{[More importantly, though... the door is ajar. Through the gap come the scents of rust and metal-- and something organic, fleshy-- and a low, deep hum of industrial machinery. It's not a door that anyone in their right mind would want to go through. ... But for anyone who may have stumbled this far into the dreams of their fellow lost souls, either in flight from some other nightmare or just pure, wandering curiosity... there's just no other place to go but through the door.]}

_{[Go on. Open it. After all.... it's only a dream.]}

[ooc: SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG, GUYS. Thanks for being patient! If you commented on that planning post, there's something spooky planned for your character to do here so please feel free to tag or not tag as it pleases you!]

~*~

[ooc: This is the IC post for what was announced over here! Even if you didn't comment there, feel free to participate! I'm still happy to whip up Silent Hill scenarios for folks!]

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[ her eyes widen at that for a moment, her mouth opening to retort angrily. there's still her pride admittedly but then, to be threatened by harm -- that's something that never sits well with her. ]

The only present I want from you is for you to shut up!

Do you really think you're hilarious? Hilariously crazy, if anything.

Ooh, you're mad!

_{[The voice sounds delighted.]}

You always were an angry soul.

Always? [ wha -- ]

Who wouldn't be mad anyway? Do you hear what you're saying?

Now, now... let's not point fingers...

You still have to decide what you want as your surprise.

Like I said, I don't want any surprises, especially not from you.

[ aaaand then she hangs up, pretty much slamming the handset back in the booth. well, that was -- creepy enough but sheryl's too mad to ponder on it for the next few moments, storming away from the phone booth. she's had far too much annoying experiences for the day (or at least, it felt like a day in this dream world thing) and this one didn't help. ]

_{[Awww Sheryl. Don't you like your new friend? :(]

[But the phone doesn't ring again-- silence resumes its role as the leading actor on this gloomy stage... the road ahead is filthy and littered with garbage aplenty, though there's no wind to rustle any of it...]}

[ clearly she doesn't. still pondering on that phone call, sheryl doesn't pay attention to the direction she's headed, mostly down the dimly street. only after a few moments of walking, grumbling under her breath, that she realizes that she hasn't been noticing where she was headed to. she stops in her tracks and looks around her, freezing on her spot where she stands. there are several doors around her from abandoned stores, one of which she starts to approach just to make sure that there's no one there. ]

_{[Wouldn't you know it... she's apparently wandered away from that pristine little square, and the town's classiness has taken a serious downturn. Is this downtown? It definitely looks like it. The picturesque colonial buildings have been replaced with large brick ones, with dark windows and rusty fire escapes. Alleys sit here and there between them, and ahead, a traffic light blinks on and off brokenly.]

[There's even more garbage here... everywhere.]

[... And strangely... it smells sort of like smoke.]}

[ sheryl wrinkles her nose, both from the sight and smell of the garbage. ]

Seriously. People should at least clean this place up before abandoning it.

[ unreasonable, yes. especially since she's no idea why the place is deserted anyway. she easily avoids the litter all around her, warily walking down the alley, sometimes jumping once in a while whenever she would hear something weird. of course, she's all alone; how can there be anyone or anything there? ]

What's -- that smell?

[ she tilts her head slightly to smell the air, following the scent. was something burning? ]

_{[... Yes. Something WAS burning.]

[At first it's just a smoky smell... not unlike a fireplace, or the smell one might catch if someone down the street is burning a leaf pile. But the further she walks, the more... fleshy... the smell gets. Flesh and rubber... that's what it smells like is burning.]}

[ it's been a long time since sheryl's smelled something burning. she's constantly smelled pollution, smoke, exhausts from cars and factories that littered galaxy -- but never from an open fire. and this kind of smell has never brought her good memories. she breaks into a run as the smell gets stronger, exiting out of the alley. ]

_{[The main road is little better, although by this point, the garbage is starting to look a little.... charred.]

[And as she goes further down the road, small licks of flame rise up from the road, burning in place-- ... are those footprints? .... Footprints that are on fire?]}

[ the garbage, sheryl barely pays attention to it anymore. she continues running further down the road -- only to completely stop upon seeing the footsteps on the ground and take a step back from it. surprised. uncertain. what could make those footprints anyway? and they were on fire.

but instead of simply walking away, sheryl proceeds to exit the road, easily avoiding the fiery footprints but following them all the same. somehow, she feels a cold chill down her spine, half expecting where those footprints came from. ]

_{[She may notice, as she runs, that the buildings, once tightly-packed, seem to just be ... falling away into the fog. The sides of the street grow emptier and emptier... although they're no less misty.]

[Finally? The source of the smoky smell... and the fiery footprints... comes into view.]

[A house. A big, old house. Or what was ONCE a big, old house, anyway... it's little more than foundations by this point-- scorched beyond all hope of repair. And directly in the middle of it, something stands-- still on fire even as the rest of the wood smolders.]}

70. [DREAM/DREAM/DREAM/DREAM]

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