Resettle
Lob Corp fanfic that I need to finish ch. 1 “Yes, we can rewind your wasted time. Just wind it up, close your eyes, and count to ten.”
The most peaceful time of day. What did that mean to the child? She didn’t think it meant anything, in all honesty. All peace meant to the child was work. More and more work to be piled onto her, until she couldn’t take it. The child came to this realization years ago, yet here she was, begging her coworker to take them back to that very time of day she resented.
Vomit. Vomit and everything related to the sort. She could feel all of it, the taste of every meal she had never once savored pooling in her mouth as it flung itself into the basin. The fluorescent lights blaring above her did no favor in aiding her headache. The auburn child glanced from left to right. The walls were plastered with a sterile, white tile. The only sound she could hear besides herself was the buzzing of the lighting above and the hum of the air conditioning. Examining her surroundings had only made her more nauseous, her entire vision spinning seemingly thousand miles an hour. She quickly rushed to plant her face right back above the sink. It was obvious the child would be nowhere for hours. What puzzled the child however, was not when this would end, but rather, when it started. For the child could not seem to recall a single memory on how her current troubles began. Any time she tried to look further than when her vomiting had started, she drew blanks.
There was nothing at all.
Nothing more than the language of her thoughts came to her. Whenever she tried to think of her name, all that came to her was what sounded like her own voice, the speech garbled. What was worse was that she didn’t recognize the bathroom she was in either. For all she knew, she had overstayed her welcome much longer than she would have liked. What if she was in danger? What if someone drugged her? Was she just drunk? However, her thoughts cleared once more when another projectile shot out of her throat and into the sink. The child’s slender body shook violently, her grip growing tighter around the sink. Before long, she had passed out once more.
The child woke up to a few unfamiliar faces above her, one of which was shaking her quite violently. Her mouth tasted like metal. She felt a slight tickle against her chin as something slithered across it. She barely had time to consolidate her thoughts as she felt a pair of bulky hands tighten around her shoulders. She could’ve sworn she heard something crack.
“Wake up already! I’m not letting you leave us alone on this shift dammit!” The face shouted at her. He was short in stature from what she could tell, but definitely not small. He was bulky, his build being quite top heavy. He intimidated her for sure, as he could seemingly fling her across the room with ease. His eyes were dark brown and he had hair so unkempt, she was sure it hadn’t been taken care of in the past decade. His face was contorted into one of pure contempt, and it was clear she was not regarded upon well in his eyes. He seemed to have noticed her awakening, but instead of letting up, his expression twisted into a sadistic smile as he kept shaking her. His whole being seemed to have unearthed some deep rooted anger within her. Nothing was more clear to her than the hate she felt for this man. This repulsive man.
She gagged on seemingly nothing, causing her vision to blur, her ears to ring, and her body to crumple to the ground.
The air around her grew hotter in a moment. Her consciousness threatened to leave her as she was attacked by a visceral scent of rot. Instead of the sterile tile walls surrounding her moments before, she found herself in a hallway which seemed to stretch in whatever direction she looked. At her feet was the body of the man shouting at her, his eyes glazed. She could feel her chest tighten as she stared at the blood pooling in his half-open jaw. She felt… pity. A curious emotion. One she couldn’t explain, and one she couldn’t imagine a reason as to why she felt it for him. Shouting echoed against the walls, making it hard to focus on anything else. The noise was nowhere near enough to cause too much discomfort, but it was still incredibly conspicuous.
Cries of every kind could be heard, ones of despair, fear, anguish, and most of all, rage. All throughout the room she stood in she could hear the sounds of pure anger coming from every direction, the voices increasing in volume, only getting louder from every direction. All hesitation escaped the child, her previous confusion turning to fear. What’s more, she could recognize the cries. Every single wail, a familiar voice she couldn’t name. She immediately bolted in a single direction, with the ridiculous delusion that whatever was chasing her could be outran. Wherever she was, it felt natural to navigate. Each corridor, fork, stairway drew memories from her she couldn’t possibly discern. Turn left here, turn right there, avoid that entrance. It was as if someone above her was leading the way, forcing her forward.
She couldn’t stop running, her body frozen in a single-minded sprint to seemingly nowhere. Turn after turn after turn after turn. Feeling left her legs after only a couple minutes, any stimulation lost from the constant slamming of her bare feet against the concrete below her. Not soon after, she was met with a dead end. A single door at the end of the hallway stared her down. The cries behind her increased in volume as they began to close in, everything around her quaking with greater intensity than she’d ever seen. The legs under her began to understand pain once more, each small adjustment of them tearing into her every muscle. It was unbearable.
Nothing could convince her to run farther, not any longer. She fell to the floor limp, her skull slamming against the concrete. Her eyes widened as they shot to the cause of her fall. Her foot had disappeared without a trace. Then, her knee silently vanished, and then her whole leg. Compared to her surroundings, her dismemberment was silent as her other leg began to disappear, along with her arms.
Starting from the hands, she watched as every individual finger disappeared, one after the other. Any pain was replaced with the absence of it in an instant. The wailing had decided to finally make contact.. Shock filling her body as stimulation returned to her once more. She screamed in unbearable feeling, unable to even fully comprehend what was even happening to her. All she knew at that very moment was to scream. Her terror slowly withering as more and more of her body faded, until she was left with only her head.
A figure darted across her vision, heading to the door which had seemed so far away. Her focus wouldn’t stay as a gaping hole formed at her neck. Voices filled her mind, a chorus of everyone she’d ever known shouted out to her. The words were indecipherable, her consciousness already overwhelmed by the pure intensity of it all. As the voices grew louder, ramming into her skull as the volume grew to an unbearable point, a single phrase echoed out.
