TWs: body horror, eye contact, coughing up suspicious objects, hazardous mines, implied poisoning, dead birds,
Contaminated person #2: Anne-Maria Marmo-Montoya
Threat level: Extremely High
You probably had a horrible first impression of Anne-Maria, when she used her hairspray on you. She certainly had a bad first impression of you.
She always had the scent of chemicals around her. And it was not just faint. It was so strong, it was telltale of her presence. I never thought I’d miss such a sensation.
I never thought I’d miss how she, Brick, Scott and Jo bickered about what to do. I never thought I’d miss all the conversations about fashion.
I remember one time, on one of the first few days, when we had no choice but to settle into a cabin, Cameron accidentally inhaled a bit of the hairspray Anne-Maria was using, and she joked that now his lungs were waterproof in an attempt to lighten the mood.
That was before she began to complain about constant muscle pain, and coughing violently, revealing shards of crystal coated in phlegm and blood. Then, it became a cacophony of cursing about the “incubation period” and splitting us up.
You’ve already seen the people in uniforms. They seem to be patrolling when it is bright outside, but the mines seem to be completely off limits, even for them.
The mine is dark and damp, with the scents of dust, algae and… something else. You can’t place what it is, but it’s… irritating. Makes you sneeze and cough.
This is an old enough mine to have used sentinel canaries to measure how much of a hazard it would be to go in.
But among the murky wood, rails and carts, the old has hints of sharp crystal, purple with yellow in the middle.
Black spots swim in your vision. You can only rely on scent and touch.
Eventually, you find a lake full of murky water. Burying your head into it for a short while relieves you of the black spots, but it’s only temporary. Then it’s back to slowly going blind and trying to remember where you came from.
You see a light. A small glimmer of the possibility of survival.
But when you get to the light, it is no nearer an exit than anywhere else.
Your breath catches, cause you’ve found her. Even with your depleting vision, you
The only thing different seems to be that her skin is slightly pallid. But as you get a little closer, you notice that they aren’t just surrounding her. Her knuckles and feet have clawlike portrusions, and her head’s adorned with two goat-like “horns”. Even with the faded dust she’s covered in, she’s radiant… Wait… why can’t you breathe?
Then she shifts her gaze in your direction. Her eyes are just like the gems growing everywhere.
You can feel your body ache.
She cringes, as though she knows something you don’t. Her teeth are just as gemlike as everything else. She doesn’t do anything. Even if her fuse is short, and she technically could charge. That’s not the thing that makes her dangerous.
You take note of some things. The scent is from her. And the crystals with little, yellow birds within. All of them, stiff.
Still, what use is a sentinel to her?
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