Poor Choices.

Luke. 28. Gemini AF. Single AF. UK. The Sims 4. Current Story: The Pale Snake.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twenty Nine.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

‘He won’t let me speak,’ Jessa’s voice was shrinking. Marie leant forward in her old chair. The rain pattered against the glass. The fire swelled.

The ticking of the clock reminded her.

‘He wants to continue the legacy, but.’ She balled her hands in front of the fire. ‘I can’t. I can’t do it. I have to do things. I can’t just be the wife. The mother.’ She let it out like puss. ‘I don’t want to be a Legacy. I can’t. And you’re the only woman who can help me.’

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twenty Seven

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

Lenin tried to act but he’d left it too long already.

‘Robyn!’ He screamed. It made her jump. ‘It’s coming!’ In her search to see who called her name, she lost her footing on the wet ground. Rocks cut her elbows and arms and the thing snarled towards her from thin air.

‘Come with me!’ It growled. ‘Quick!’ Its claws were on her arm. It was talking?! She felt something swelling in her core. It got trapped beneath her ribs. It had her. It dragged her. Her ears filled with rushing and everything went black. 

‘No!’ Barked Lenin as she vanished.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twenty Six

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

The rain came fast as the sun started rising. Robyn hadn’t stopped running: but she hadn’t picked a destination. She followed a path as best she could but the trees blurred in to one. The wet soaked through to her insides.

She could feel it. Somewhere. Lunging after her. Grunting and panting its hot breath - it could smell her. Maybe if she could get to a river. Go under the surface. She’d seen that on TV when people were trying to escape animals. The rain wasn’t enough. The rain only made everything smell thicker - more awake.

Lenin watched from the dark. He’d been trailing her all night. He knew he was losing her. He had to do something. He couldn’t let her go. Not like this.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twenty Five

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

It lunged but Fabia leapt back in time. Its growl made Robyn lose her footing - she saw its white eyes blur as she stooped. ‘Go!’ Yelled Fabia. Robyn’s muscles took over. She didn’t spare a second thought - she got to her feet and she ran. She heard it screech behind her - heard sparks flying from Fabia’s fingertips again. She even smelled the heat of them.

But she didn’t look back. She knew it would come for her. She had to put as much space between it and her as Fabia could afford her. 

She’d known this night would come.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twenty Four.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

Robyn had been able to smell his blood since the night she’d found him - but being near it again made it come alive to her. She could feel his heartbeat fading in the grass like it was a scar.

‘You feel anything?’ Fabia hissed, her eyes trained on the suspended officers. She wasn’t sure how long her magic would hold them like that for. She wasn’t sure they were still alive, to be honest. She’d only done that to bugs and animals before and - now and then - they hadn’t made it through.Especially the bugs.

‘I dunno what i’m feeling for,’ whispered Robyn.

‘Just do some of your Goblin shit!’

‘I don’t know how,’ she shrugged back. She tried to clear her mind but all she could see was his white face in the night. His blood.

‘Well why we here then?’ Fabia stepped closer. Her heart was pounding. ‘Don’t you have a plan?’

‘I just needed to see it again.’

‘What? Like-’ she felt movement behind her. Her skin prickled. Her mouth went dry. She felt its breath on her back.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twenty-Three.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

Two guards. Probably new to the ranks. Fabia motioned for Robyn to get down - and was surprised when Robyn knew what that meant.

She heard the sock beneath the boot as the man moved his weight in front of the crime scene. She smelled the antibacterial gel on the woman’s hands.

She honed in to them. Used them as gateways. Robyn saw the sparks of lights forming around Fabia’s hands and felt faint. She pressed down to steady herself.

Then the officers rose. Twisted. Bobbing on the air like it was water. Fabia strained: ‘go. Now.’

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twenty-Two

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

The squeak and brush of his gloves moving across each other. The flinching of his jaw when he clenched it. The creek of the folding chair. One of its legs was missing a stopper. Marie had to tense her thigh to keep it steady.

She held the edge of the seat. The rounded sides were comforting. Cool. Anchoring.

His exhale.

‘I understand he was verbally abusive.’ Detective Iris said. ‘That he made some accusations. Pretty serious ones. How did you feel about that?’

‘If i murdered every man who was verbally abusive towards me in my life we would have met much sooner.’

‘So you only murder some of them?’

‘Are you playing with me?’

‘No,’ he smiled. He eased back in to his chair. Regarded her. She took a deep breath without letting it show. ‘I don’t think you killed him. Might be an unpopular opinion with the people on the other side of this mirror. Might be unpopular with the town.’ He sucked his bottom lip. ‘But I think you know what’s going on. There’s a bigger picture. Am I right?’

‘You are playing with me,’ she laughed. ‘I don’t understand a thing you’re talking about. He decided I somehow hurt his wife. That I killed her. She came to get her hair done and then she left. He screamed at me at my place of work. My home. He’s a grieving man. Was. I carried on my life. And now you’re saying I know why he was murdered?’ She shrugged. ‘You must be playing with me.’

He was hooked.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twenty-One.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

Mitzi became very aware of herself when she saw Detective Iris that morning. It annoyed her when she noticed it - so she tried hard to not let it come out. But it did anyway.

‘Marie around?’ He asked over the ring of the door.

‘Who’s what? What.’ She managed. ‘Ugh.’

‘What do you want?’ Fabia stepped in.

‘Just want to talk to Marie.’

‘Officially?’

‘What?’

‘Are you questioning her?’

‘About what?’

‘You tell me.’ She fixed him with her look. He chuckled.

‘What’s going on?’ Marie growled as she came out of her study. Mitzi tried to stay cool.

‘I’m not sure,’ she mumbled. Jed heard.

‘Ah.’ He smiled. ‘Marie Bon-L’eau. You’ve got impressive protection.’ Mitzi scowled at him when he wasn’t looking. He saw it anyway.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twenty.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

Robyn hadn’t told the police. She’d just run. Left Mason in the dark there - ready to be found sprawled on the grass by a jogger that thin morning. She’d recognised him, after that gut wrench. The yellow basket ball jersey. The Willow Creek Wolves.

She hadn’t slept. She thought shaping a Bonsai would centre her but each twist of branch was Mason’s finger. His disjointed arms. His slanting mouth.

She tried to fight back against the flashes. She felt her nails gouging her palms. But they were there, lurking under each new sight. Waiting for a chance to come back up to the surface. His perfect stillness.

It was so assumed: to see a chest rise after a moment. But his didn’t. That stuck in her mind. The total stillness. She hadnt seen anything like it.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Nineteen.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

The ceiling fan had a rhythm that Marie could tune in to when she needed to focus. She liked to keep it on. Especially if she was with a client. It stirred the energy.

Between the thing they’d seen during the ritual and Mason French turning up dead in the park; she needed to be able to think clearly. So she sat and she listened to the heartbeat of air. The slow burn of the fireplace. The soft cries of Jessa French.

The thing growled from her seat.

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Mitzi said. How long had she been there? Marie scowled and tried to remember when she’d stood up. Had she been sitting? ‘What if it’s a curse?’

‘A curse?’

‘Think about it. Jessa came to you, you helped her. She died. Mason came to you, we did the ritual - we saw...’ Mitzi was still trying to come to terms with what exactly she had seen. Part of her still wanted to believe it was her God. ‘The curse. And then Mason died.’

Marie had been thinking on a similar line; but curses didn’t usually manifest themselves. Not in a shape like that. Like him. It.

The fan stuttered.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Eighteen.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

Robyn found her way back to a path she recognised eventually. She’d never bothered to learn any place well enough to walk it fluently: but Willow Creek was starting to grow on her.

The yellow caught her eye. It was an unnatural yellow. A dye. A shape. Brown curls. Still. Two pale hands on grass. Out there in the open - only harder to spot because it was night time. Robyn knew it was a dead body before she remembered the yellow shirt. The man shouting at Marie. The man she’d never be able to forget.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Seventeen.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

That night, Marie tried to appeal to The Pale Snake again. With Mitzi and Fabia merging their powers with hers, she thought she’d get a clear connection. But the fire roared and billowed. A wind picked up around them. There was moaning in the air. 

It appeared to each of them. Fragile at first - flashes of white eyes; it only grew stronger as they repeated their blessings and pleas; wrestling between not wanting its face to be burned in to their memories and desperately wanting to commune with it.

‘Marie what is it?!’ Fabia cried over the furious flames. ‘Is it God?!’

‘It’s Him!’ Mitzi saw him in the fire. In the cracks of the logs. It filled Marie with dread - its white eyes knew everything. Saw it all.

She knew that it wasn’t her God. It couldn’t be.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Sixteen.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

Stella threw her to the floor; but Robyn didn’t feel a finger on her. She felt the boards against her hip. Heard the table rock and The Witch cry out.

‘Get out!’ Growled Stella as she watched Robyn struggle. Her blood smelled liked the ground. Like grass. There was a silent moment where Robyn caught Stella stare - but then she rose up and Robyn ran. She nearly fell down the staircase; spilling out in to the hall and disrupting the silent auctioneers.

She didn’t stop running until her stomach cramped and her sight pulsed. Until she didn’t have a clue where she was any more.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Fifteen.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

The Witch could hear the party downstairs. The piano. The chatter. She could feel it through the floorboards.

So she took her opportunity - though it made her head hurt to move. She shifted to the keyhole and she hummed. She whistled and muttered: noises which could’ve been words, once, maybe - if she understood the shape of those any more. The concept of a sentence spoken with purpose was distant now.

‘Hello?’ Came the voice back from the other side. A woman’s voice. It made The Witch jump.

‘Eurgh,’ was what she mustered in response. Robyn stared at the keyhole. She tried the door but it was locked. She’d already known that, somehow.

‘Hello?’ Robyn asked again. But The Witch knew what was coming. That Stella was already behind the woman trying to help. That Stella could kill her without blinking.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Fourteen.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

She felt like she was in a movie. Or at least a really good TV show. There was piano music and twinkling lights. That undercurrent of conversation. Laughter and the clinking of glasses from another room.

In the main hall they were having a silent auction. She hadn’t realised that those were a thing people actually did. The proceeds were going towards Jessa French’s funeral fund. Robyn thought that was a bit on the nose but maybe she just didn’t understand how all this worked.

She hadn’t brought her purse with her. She didn’t have shit in that purse anyway. She avoided the silent auction room for fear of silent judgement.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Thirteen.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

The gala invites had gone to every house and business in Willow Creek. The salon’s had slipped under the door. Hand delivered. Marie had banned her girls from going; she said they needed to stay out of the way at the moment - and especially out of the way of Vampires.

But Robyn was getting bored of doing what Marie told her to do. They were clearly leaving her out of something. Whispering behind closed doors and building fire pits in the garden.

So she snuck out. She went to her first gala. She’d stolen just the dress for it.

[irreverentsims]

The Pale Snake, Chapter Twelve.

Previous   /   Beginning   /    Next

‘I think if we can feed it more power, the snake’ll come through to us,’ Marie said as a trail of lemon smoke wound round them. ‘I need us all to try it.’

‘Even Robyn?’ Scoffed Fabia. ‘That mutt?’

‘No.’

‘Good.’

‘Only because she’s not ready yet,’ Marie added, aware of how sharp Fabia could be. It had taken Marie a year to gain her trust, and that was after putting a roof over her head. ‘We need to be quick. We can’t let this get worse.’

‘I feel like this is proper magic,’ Fabia couldn’t hide her excitement. ‘This is big right?’

‘This could be huge,’ nodded Marie - but the twinkle in Fabia’s eyes wasn’t in hers.