.the hardest part;;

[carnival]

”Shut up, Ted,” Fred growled at his fellow guard, giving him a death glare. “And as for you,” he told Stan. “Management doesn’t give a shit what we do. If you told them, they wouldn’t take any action. They don’t need to lose any guards.”

Carnival was uncomfortably aware of all the attention she was getting, aware that all the commotion and lashing of words was focused on her. But she herself could not focus on anything, and she herself couldn’t do anything to stop her tormentor. This mental restraint was stronger than anything physical that could be done to impair her, and so she remained where she was, not moving or trying to escape from the terrible man at all. From all outward appearances, she seemed to be in La-La Land.

Chaos. Chaos. Chaos. CHAOSCHAOSCHAOS!!!

The girl’s body started shaking violently, though she continued staring straight ahead. She could feel an indescribable feeling rising up in her like lava from a volcano, about to burst. The blonde felt that she knew what this feeling was, and with the strange feeling also came one of terror. No, no, no. She was Carnival. She was Carnival. Teddy unlocked the cufflinks from her hands, allowing her to reach her food.

What’s my name?

She was Alter.

An inhuman shriek filled the space of the cafeteria, a shriek that came from the supposedly autistic blonde girl. It was a tortured sound, one even more frightening than Xander’s cry of the wolf in that it was unmistakably human, but at the same time so alien. Anger was the main emotion in the sound.

Another cry quickly followed the first, a surprised shout that turned into a cry of agony. The girl had torn away from Fred and knocked him off of the cafeteria bench, causing him to hit the floor with a harsh impact. Eyes blazing with previously unimaginable anger, the girl jumped down on top of her guard, and started punching his face repeatedly. She hit his eye, his mouth, his nose—which started bleeding—his cheek. The man writhed under her, screaming and flailing and trying unsuccessfully to free himself from the mad girl.

Teddy gaped in openmouthed astonishment, then snapped out of it and raised his walkie-talkie to his ear, shouting for a doctor to come with an anesthetic. The other guards monitoring the cafeteria came to the help of Fred, prying the screeching girl off of him and holding her arms behind her back and grabbing handfuls of her hair, keeping her locked in position. A nurse rushed into the room seconds after Teddy had made the call, and they injected her arm with a vial of fluid. Carnival was struggled into a straitjacket, and already her escape attempts were weakening.

“LET ME GO!” she shrieked. “LET ME GO, YOU BASTARDS! YOU WHORING FUCKERS! LET ME GO!” Her voice, which was hardly ever used, sounded like someone grating steel.

“What’s going on here?” the nurse asked, her attention focused on Teddy. Getting no answer from him, as the skinny man was too busy staring at the wild blonde, she looked expectantly at Stan.

[.xander;;]

.what exactly it was that made him want to look up again, he didn’t know. what he saw when he did chance it, he wasn’t sure of. poe was smiling hazily at him and he couldn’t understand why. anyone in their right mind would have split the instant he screwed up. then again, he supposed she did not fit into the “right-minded” category. besides, who was he to question kindness or acceptance? after all, wasn’t that all he sought to gain? maybe it was just that he had expected he would have to work harder than that for it.

a return smile began to form on his face, but he was distracted by the sudden actions of carnival. just milliseconds after she was free of her restraints, she turned on her guard with a shriek. xander yelped in pain as the high-pitched noise pierced his sensitive ears and he, too, fell over. he was frozen in hurt and surprise for a few moments, during which his face was cuffed by fred’s flailing hand. before he could react, himself, he felt a strong hand pull him up by his arm. as he steadied himself with stan’s help, a stinging ache on his cheek and a warm sensation on the back of his head where he had hit it on the floor became apparent. his ears throbbed as most of the surrounding patients cheered carnival on with their massive voices and he felt his head would explode if they didn’t shut the fuck up. but then the blonde girl was yanked off of the guard and restrained, and the thunderous racket became disappointed silence.

stan glanced between the nurse and ted when he was in effect asked to explain what the hell was going on. he was about to give a simple explanation regarding fred’s behavior when xander tugged on his arm. the brunet was whimpering faintly and might as well have been a five-year-old whining, “daddy, i wanna go.” the guard looked again at the nurse, sighed throatily with an accusing nod at fred, snatched the pen and sticky notes from the table, and closely followed xander when he began to move away.

suddenly remembering his friend, the lycanthrope turned and threw a hopeful glance at poe, considering whether she was coming too. he had no idea where they could possibly go together away from the cafeteria since he was high risk and could not leave the premises, but anywhere was better than this chaos;;

[-poe]

at one time, poe had thought that there was no sound more terrible than the simpering voice that spoke from within the darkest depths of her own mind. but even living in this hell hole had not prepared her for the shriek of anger that pierced her eardrums so that she thought they might explode. the second the noise erupted from the blonde girl that had at first seemed as silent as her own lycanthropic pal, poe raised her hands to her ears so that they might be spared somewhat. even as she did so, her friend fell over- it was as if the sound hurt him more than her.. could it be something to do with his 'furry little problem'?

though she had no idea what she planned to do, poe leapt to her feet. carnival had leaped upon her captor, turning into a raging monster. of course she had seen attacks on guards before, but she hardly expected it from someone as meek as the woman that had really just chosen the wrong place to sit in the cafeteria. blood spilled from fred's nose, the scent of it reaching her own. the thick, coppery stench aroused memories she had been trying to repress ever since she had arrived at the Quack Shack.

he is lying there, soft green comforter over white sheets and pillows. he looks so sweet, like an angel, as he sleeps. she hopes he is having sweet dreams, or is at least in the middle of a dreamless, deep sleep. she is merely a shadow over him, the presence of Death trapped in a thin, human body. from the open window the moonlight glints against steel- sweet, cold steel. she feels as if she is holding the handle so tight that her bones might crack around it- but they stay together. the muscles that control her arm twitch toward the sleeping angel every so often. she can hear a whispering in the dark, and wonders if the sleeping man can hear it too. it's telling her to get on with it, to spill red all over the designer sheets. he would be getting what he deserved, after all. the whisper reminds her of earlier that evening, when he became more than insistent that she please him. he had made her. a cry of anger, of anguish and terror escapes her thin lips and the steel blade plunges down. the sheets change to bride red almost instantly- the green of the blanket turns dingy brown. his eyes had flown open the second before her plunge, but her mark had been true, and he was given no chance to fight. the first blow left him stunned, the second found him dead and yet, she didn't stop there.

a shout of actual words roused poe from her waking nightmare. it was carnival, still. how long had she been staring blankly at the floor where fred once was? the nurse had helped him up, leaving only a few smudges of blood behind. xander had started to move away as well, with dan. or stan? her eyes followed them for a moment, when she saw xander look back at her. though she couldn't be sure, she supposed he wanted her to come with. or was at least apologizing for leaving. going with her plan, she took it as the first and trailed after the pair.

poe crossed her arms over her chest as she walked, her breathing still ragged and shallow from her flashback. how many times had she relived that scene already? three times? four? she couldn't remember. the brunette stole a glance back at the restrained carnival, and she felt bad for leaving her, though poe couldn't figure out why. she hardly knew the woman. but she was in no mood to act the kind and thoughtful hero anymore. she had already done that with xander, and now felt attached to him somehow. in all fairness, she probably barely knew more about xander than the screaming blonde. but poe didn't feel like being fair. she felt like curling up in a ball and dying.. and going somewhere that was bright. not heaven, but somewhere good, at least.

she cleared her through slightly, to alert stan of her presence- if he had not known she had followed already, that is. poe desperately hoped he wouldn't tell her to get lost, and though she wouldn't be forced to listen as he wasn't her guard, she knew herself well enough to assume she would indeed listen. she hoped that she didn't have to say anything- stan was probably good at reading expression by now, and that her pleading eyes would be enough. there was no way she honestly wanted to be alone right now.