***

It just wasn’t worth it. Melissa had to get out of there.

She gathered her things, she didn’t bother changing out of her nurse scrubs. As she exited the lounge, Melissa fought the urge to keep looking back as she raced briskly down the hallways.

Things were getting weird, and the woman’s been ignoring things for far too long.

Melissa gasped out, stopped, now frozen in place within the dimly lid hallways. Quickly ripping open her bag, to the point of her various keychains and buttons pressed against it rattled so hard it replicated her shivering as she dug in. Tensing, despite forearm deep in the bag and trying to search in vain.

Only to sigh in relief, as she felt her phone deep within. Shaking her head, Melissa continued her brisk walking, still looking about side to side.

She had enough self-deprecation to know how mousey she was as a person. There wasn’t much to hide, her curly blonde hair looked like it takes hours to get right, if her hands weren’t fidgeting, they were gripped tight against the strap of her bag, like they were at the moment. Blue eyes so wide and expressive that one can see more the white of them versus the pupil at times. And no one could have trouble seeing how much she loved collectibles and trinkets, but someone like Melissa can only see the admitted madness of each one’s placement and equally sentimental value.

So, she notices things. It’s the one trait of hers that could be salvageable into a positive, it’s why she felt like the medical field was a no brainer for her. A job that required her to be cautious and seeing the small details that hinge on life or death. For someone that gets marred over the concept of choice, it was effortless for once. Find medical school, in a small town, be an intern on the side—finish clean and have enough to move into said small town. That’s the plan, it had been for 2 years in now.

The sudden ripple of the deep, but familiar screaming down the halls caused Melissa to gasp out loudly again, stopping right in her tracks. Shivering once again, then the tense as she closed her eyes to stop the nervous tears from emerging.

This is why. The young woman can ignore things for the sake of other things at play, for the sake of herself. She understood that sometimes she flies off the handle, that she’s too paranoid. Most if not all of the worst moments, mistakes, decisions of her life are linked at her cowardice and inability to cope with fright—or aversion in general. Melissa did it, because she needed to make this life choice work—she couldn’t just go back home because of what she tried to rationalize away as weird stuff in her head.

Various people coming into the ER with oozing black sludge throughout the week isn’t just weird, but insane.

Melissa clutched her head, sighing in relief as she can move again, under her own strength. Now the brisk walk turned into outright jogging, running away from the guttural screams.

But, being her, the woman looked towards the tiled ground—reviewing everything in her head, lining it up, all for the insurance that maybe if she explained everything, then maybe her punishment wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe they’ll understand her this time, don’t immediately chalk it up to her having a breakdown over “nothing” this time.

Willow Reverie was a strange town. It’s in the middle of a massive crater, for one—but what was charming quickly became the first clue that something was up, for Melissa. Folks here being too lax in their simple living. People with jobs such as construction or law enforcement too married to the job, as if there’s a role system to it all that Melissa isn’t in on. And there was one aspect that… Hit her on the nebulous and somewhat superstitious level.

The nights here were too dark. The moon was always visible, the stars a ton more visible compared to where Melissa came from, there were working streetlights—reflections on cars or surfaces… But it didn’t matter. There was a barely there, but potent, dark grey sheen over the environment. Swallowing these lights whole.

Melissa reasoned to herself that maybe that was the reason, why the hospital gets more victims at night—a completely normal and standard thing in the medical field but… The patients they got during these nights. They weren’t broken just physically, but they were straight up just broken.

She stood there, she had to watch, as her superiors tried to reason with them post-admission. How they had these long stares, or how they randomly wailed out as if their swaying heads didn’t hurt their necks. Or the ones that did respond, how… Melissa hated thinking about it. But how even as they spoke, there was no warmth. No hint of quirks or inflections or no stumbling or flubs what so ever.

Melissa shook her head, covering her ears as the screaming only multiplied. There was no other way around it.

Bolting out of the double glass doors, her heart not only hammering but swelling with grief because she knows she’s leaving people she knew alone to deal with all that. She didn’t care that it was pouring down with rain, her quicking pace managed to allow the woman to make it to her usual bus stop moments faster than usual. And she knew how much an afforded moment could decide everything.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Arcing into the booth in a fast, Melissa slammed her shoulder onto the glass side in a panicking series of huffs. Her eyes closed, her hands clutched at her soaked scrubs, her mouth open to gasp at the air.

But soon she managed to settle down, her eyes easing open as they swam in tears. The reality of once again bailing—making a brisk choice that fucked everyone over hit her at the usual spots.

All she wanted was to be safe, relief, absolution… And she always got it, when she decides to make those choices to get it. But it never lasts. It never lasts past the choice.

Melissa wished that she could harness that shame. She wished that she could capture the good parts of that feeling, versus focus on the negative. The negative only fueled the gross habits that she can’t shake, just to get rid of them.

With her trembling hand, she dug into a pouch of her bag, only to pull out one of her dear death sticks.

She went through the usual motions. Putting it between her fingers, opening her dumb mouth, angling it between her lips as she clamped down, all for her hand to once again dig into her bag to find the bag. It was almost zombie-like, how she always did it.

So whenever there was a clear disruption to this process, it immediately sent Melissa into fight or flight mode.

Gasping through her nose—something she didn’t even know was possible—Melissa looked down into her pouch, her light not there.

Her mind raced—her mind began to overheat—her mind could only offer the relevant scenes of her day that it could muster… She shivered, because she remembered that she smoked during her lunch break, which had an abrupt end as she was rushed back in.

Melissa debated about crying right then and there. As she was literally trapped, between the worst forces of her personality. Her fear, telling her that she’ll die if she goes back there. And her addiction, telling her that she’d rather be dead if she didn’t get it. It wasn’t a push or pull, but rather being crushed behind such equally devastating weight. So trapped within her own misery, it numbed and muffled her to the outside world

Which is why she instantly tensed, as her not only heard the flicker of a lighter, but saw the small flame of such gently coast towards her.

An offering.

It took her a moment, but Melissa was allowed to sigh, once again out of her nose. Embarrassingly, she nodded her head in zeal before leaning into the stranger’s lighter’s flame. Taking the sweet puff before exhaling with smoke.

“Gooooooolly…” Melissa eeked out, tiredly. “I don’t even know how to thank you, dude…”

Cassie waved her free hand in dismissal, before letting the flame die out, putting it into her black and stylish long coat’s pocket merrily. “Believe me, you were freaking out pretty bad—it would’ve been terrible to not help out there. Bad shift at the 9-5, huh~?”

“Heh…” Melissa again meekly made sounds out of her mouth. “You can say that. It’s just… Y’know…

The poor woman brushed her wet locks with her fingers, looking down with the cigarette in view. “I’m in that cycle—y’know—where I promise myself to stop and then have a massive breakdown—thus needing to do it again… It sucks and I suck more.”

Cassie shrugged, which was caught in Melissa’s peripherical vision. “Eh, we got vices up the ass: plus, we have bad habits too, sorry about oversharing the first bit—”

Melissa laughed a little, thankfully had her cigarette between her fingers.

“So, I can’t be a judge of nobody~ Besides. Why judge, in our humble opinion? Aren’t we kidding ourselves if we do?”

Melissa hummed in thought, her face relaxed in wondering. She took a puff, before answering. “Yeah… I can see that…”

“Life ain’t fair, so why pretend it is~? Plus, people’s ‘fairness’ ends up being just as bad as the thing they’re crusading about. It’s frustrating, so I don’t deal that bullshit at all,” Cassie smirked, but with her lips. Not at all showing her teeth.

“…You must be from Port Acadia,” Melissa chuckled in disbelief, looking directly at Cassie. “Or at the very least, you remind me so much of my roomie who was a Philosophy major. But less surfer girl, oddly enough, haha...”

Cassie looked at Melissa in turn. “Whacha see is whacha get. A simple gal with a straightforward goal, no grey areas or blurry lines in the slightest. That’s all~”

It was then, when Melissa’s senses for detail blared. In meeting this stranger’s eyes, it was far too familiar. Melissa had seen the same soulless stare, that drove her to run in the first place.

“T-tha… That’s fair, ye-yeah…”

“…Though, we do want one thing right now,” Cassie straightened her colorful scarf with her pale hand.

Before Melissa could even gasp, Cassie causally swiped with her other hand-turned-claw, goring off Melissa’s throat within seconds.

***

“—From what they said it was horrible! They came to the stop and the place was covered in red!”

Calypso stopped in her sulking tracks, craning her head towards the elderly couple.

“Nursing student, they said,” the old man raved to his wife, who nodded even between him not saying anything. “Left in a hurry without signing out, nobody knows other than saying she had those head troubles… The body was gone but the blood was the only thing left. All they got to go on is someone in a black coat, long scarf…”

Calypso’s blood ran cold at the description. It only meant that Cassie woman was still in town and is openly killing. She glanced at her hand, which shook a bit. She’s still no condition to stop a regular Subsumed, let alone her.

“Which goes to show ya, Paulie…” Calypso’s ear perked up at the elderly woman’s voice, which continued on. “She was an out-of-towner too, a darn fool that got into something she didn’t know and wasn’t prepared for—”

“Are you really blaming a murder victim for not being ready to be killed? Is that what I’m hearing right now?! I get it, this is a town of paradise, but come on—get out of your wrinkly ass!”

The words didn’t just spill out, they poured from Calypso’s mouth before she even realized.

Covering her mouth, Calypso immediately walked away from the couple, whose own mouths were agape. Rushing towards her school, the girl felt her face pulsate—not out of nerves or anger, but near-transformation.

“Oh no… I-I need…” Calypso muffled to herself. “I need to do something—find something quick… Or I’m going to lose the little of my mind left…”