98. [Action for Saffron City, backdated to Friday]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[It's funny, because these sorts of weekends have come to be ones that Heather dreads, clear memories or no. She doesn't remember much of them when they roll around, but she remembers enough, and usually what she remembers is bad.]

[So yeah, she's sort of been walking on eggshells, waiting for this to happen.]

[BUT... between all the craziness going down throughout November... bundling over to Kanto with the rest of her family to cheer Crow on during the Tournament, spending Thanksgiving in the packed-to-bursting household of a grumpy FBI agent and the enormously large family unit he seems to have somehow gathered (despite... being himself) ...]

[It drives weird dreamy weekends filled with amnesia and horror and the Koolaid Man bursting through the wall out of the mind, a little!]

[.... Which is why, yeah, uh, she's out taking Cooj for a nighttime walk on Friday night, and doesn't quite notice anything's up yet.]

[Or the pink bunny following her around.]</sub>





[OOC: Tags may be horrendously slow due to NaNo, but I had to hiatus-break at least a LITTLE for 4th Wall! Robbie the Rabbit will be lingering in the background of any given thread, but feel free to throw anything at Heather and not bother with the spooky pink bunny chillin over there.]

Comments

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Well, if that's not a deterrent to biting, god only knows what is.]

[At first she just makes another strangled sound, jerking her head against the scratching, more out of disgust (his hand is DISGUSTING, the fingernails longer and thicker and FILTHIER than anyone has a right to keep them-- she can feel it, she can TASTE it) than pain.]

[Until it becomes obvious what he's doing.]

[Then she starts to thrash and scream-- muffledly, but screaming all the same. In fear and in pain. Mostly pain, really-- Heather's never been the type to scream from fear alone.]</sub>

[walkwithbob]

<sub>[When he breaks the skin the first time - and he takes his sweet time with it - that's when he's won.]

[And once that happens, he runs that finger along her cheek, smiling cruelly, before he lets her go by more or less throwing her to the ground.]



[There's silence, suddenly, in that unexpected way when all background noise that you hadn't even been aware of stops.]</sub>

[foolishwren]

<sub>[The last time this happened, she caught herself and stayed upright. This time, she just hits the ground, rolling along the sidewalk and pushing herself up on her hands, coughing and gagging and spitting at the pavement-- a slimy rope of red is still hanging from her lip when she looks up at him, chest hitching.]

[There were tears in her eyes last time, too. Somehow that makes it all the worse that she wasn't able to change that this time around.]

[She's just as terrified as she was then. If not more.]</sub>

[walkwithbob]

_{[He walks up and makes a movement as if to cup her cheek, but it ends in a loose hold on her throat. It's not threatening. It's just showing that it could be.]}

I can have you whenever I want.

<sub>[And he says it with such absolute certainty.]


[Then he's gone, with no warning or fadeout or mirrors or smoke - just gone.]</sub>

[foolishwren]

<sub>[For someone who's spent their entire life running, being caught, hurt, and then let go can be far worse than any alternative. She scrambles backwards as he reaches for her throat, but it's not fast enough and she can feel his disgusting hand there anyway.]

[And with that he's gone, before she can even whimper.]


[There's no Carousel around this time to comfort her, and she's in the middle of a city. She has no choice but to haul herself upright and start to stagger shakily back in some direction she hopes is home.]</sub>