16:BLOODSTAINED_FINGERS

Adelaide awoke feeling only more sick and exhausted. Rainmaker was slumped nearby, and he looked no more well than she. He looked utterly awful.

They must've fallen asleep at some point. It was only for a few hours. They didn't feel any more energized now, but the world itself seemed off around them. The sun was still high in the sky when they awoke, though they both felt as groggy as though they'd slept either much shorter or much longer. Adelaide in particular felt horrible. The blood loss was ripping through– and she seemed to have obtained some other illness in her time asleep. Something which left her stomach twisted in knots and feeling far too heavy inside her.

They awoke to a tapping. It was light at first. A soft sound which could be ascribed to a variety of causes. Perhaps it was rubble shifting, or raindrops. Potentially, it could have been the sound of some animal, which had ventured down to Ground Zero, wandering through the ages of rubble. Some sweet small thing, with such a soft sound. In fact, Rainmaker tilted his head to listen closer, assuming it to be an innocent sound.  

Their lethargy was getting to them. They wanted to believe in innocent things. They wanted to have some relief in a life of stress and tension. They wanted to escape from the details of this horrible mess of a reality. But then, when they had lowered their guard and began to simply listen to the soft tapping, things changed. Soon, there were multiple sources of tapping. Legs at every door and window in the shop, clearly calling for their attention. Adelaide looked up nervously, realizing rather quickly what was likely there. Soon, she raised her head and looked in utter confusion at the world around her.

There were about a dozen legs just tapping on the glass. And a dozen more just standing idly by. They were like wiggling blades of grass in a summer wind. Somewhere in the distance in the rubble outside the door, stood Jisako, making some sort of beckoning hand gesture. She was completely infested with insects by this point. Her ghost and her corpse held little difference from one another. Both were no more than masses of infestation and rot.

Adelaide could not help herself. She was still so tempted to reach out for it. Still so tempted to hold it. Still so tempted to kiss the remains of the woman she adored so desperately.

Rainmaker peeked up, to look at what Adelaide was looking at. His expression scrunched up. Adelaide's brows furrowed. He looked guilty– and a little nauseous. What was he so bothered about? Had he not seen Jisako haunting her along the road perhaps a dozen times before?

She was fairly certain bodies hadn't bothered him any time earlier. There had been quite a few along this road. Perhaps he'd never been brave enough to look closely at any of them. Still, it bugged her. Rainmaker lowered his gaze to the ground, and looked once again at her wound. It had stopped bleeding quite so much. But it wasn't anything pretty.

"What should we do?" Rainmaker asked, with a dumb look in his eye. He was as unfocused and useless as ever. The boy just stared at the world around him and seemed to blindly nod his head about it.

"That glass won't hold forever."

"So we go outside?"

"We're being called, I think." Adelaide stared at Jisako's waiting hand. A gentle hand, skin so soft it was hanging on and slipping off its frame. A sweetheart calling to the one she loved even when she had no voice with which to call.

"We should go from over the ground."

"You suggesting we climb over the buildings and the rubble?" Adelaide raised a brow.

"I can help you when you get stuck," he insisted. "I'm pretty strong. I can help us to... that thing... It's judgement, isn't it?"

"Of course it isn't. It's glory." Her voice sounded hollow. She couldn't help it. Adelaide looked outside once again, at the legs. Their tapping was growing more frantic than it had been before. She frowned, before nodding to him. "We should be going. They're going to break in soon."

They scurried up the steps, which creaked and groaned in protest. How had such old things survived the blast? Adelaide was sure they would break as she ran up them behind Rainmaker. Behind them, the door gave out, and the legs soon burst inside, curling into the building. The rest of the legs vanished underground, clearly intent on coming inside no matter what.

Adelaide threw open a half fallen door. She hurried outside, onto a strange, semi balcony area. It was a bit like a fire escape. There weren't many full buildings in the nearby area, but there were a good chunk of remnants. Adelaide grimaced. There would be no way to guess what was and wasn't safe.

Adelaide looked at Rainmaker, back inside at the creature, and immediately hastened. She forced herself up onto the railing, balancing precariously on the thin edge. She tried to see– for anything she could grab, anything she could climb. A drainpipe led to the roof. She glanced at it. If it was strong enough to survive a nuclear blast, it could survive her weight for a few seconds.

She grabbed onto it, before going to shimmy up the thing. The sound of the creature breaking through walls and windows, looking for them inside rang in her ears. Her wound bled violently, leaving drops to fall to the ground haphazardly. They stained metal and wall as they fell.

The pipe groaned. She moved quicker– the edge in reach. She grabbed for it, and heard the first of the three bolts still holding the pipe break. Adelaide attempted to pull herself up– but her arms froze up from the violent, searing pain. She clambered up, and grabbed for the roof. She jumped up, just as the pipe gave out beneath her feet. She rolled onto the roof, and reached a hand down.

Rainmaker grabbed it, and she helped pull him upward. The sounds only grew more violent. Adelaide slid away from the edge of the roof, and pulled Rainmaker toward the centre with her. She gestured him to stay quiet– and in some sort of fear daze again, he froze up. She wasn't a fan of this constant deer-in-the-headlights behaviour, but she couldn't exactly argue about it with him right now.

They waited, with bated breath, and seemed to be safe. The roof was a nice, empty space. Once the demon was gone they could look around more for places to go. There was a large pile of rubble nearby, and near it, a building, held together with what at first seemed to be nothing more than burnt construction materials. On closer inspection, flesh and bone. And Jisako sat in one of the windows, festering.

When the sounds of the legs seemed to descend away from them, Adelaide breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe for now. She gestured to Rainmaker. He was still frozen in place for a solid moment– before finally snapping out of it, and nodding in a still slightly absent way, that he knew what needed to be done.

Adelaide wasn't sure she believed the nod, but she opted against haranguing him for the moment. She peeled herself off the roof– where she had left a sizable and ugly red spot. She had no idea how she hadn't already bled out by now. Though she was getting a little lightheaded, for sure.

She tried to look for a place to jump to– or something they could try climbing. The building wouldn't be easy to climb– too much of it was broken off, even despite the strange flesh bindings holding it together. Hands of mist seemed to grab something– and out emerged. Tendrils of flesh grew outward, into the air, and formed a bridge. It wasn't a walkable bridge. It was far too thin and shaky to be walked on. It would require holding like ladder ropes to try and climb. And it was no short distance which would make such work easy.

"For us?"

There was no reply.

She looked at Rainmaker. "It must be a trap, mustn't it?"

"It's one trap or another," he noted. And inside, a roar rang out. The beast inside had realized where they were.

Adelaide nodded, before grabbing onto the flesh, and moving forward. Parts of it broke off and stuck to her– some of it even covered her wound, like a sticky, fleshy bandage.

She dragged herself forward, through the strings. They stuck to her like cheese. Behind her, Rainmaker was no better off. The flesh stuck to him like glue, and he even got some blood splashed on him in places where his hand ripped flesh away when he dared move it to try and go upwards.

The leg beast burst up– and finally, they could see more than just legs. It was a long, centipede-like thing. A human being mixed with one, with all the standard greyed out skin and horns which came with matured demons. The thing ran forward, clambering toward the skin bridge.

The bridge swayed violently beneath them.  

They tried to fight against it as they ran up the bridge– but it was too hard. To hold onto the bridge, and to also kick or strike– and they didn't have any divine protections left. Adelaide ripped out a chunk of flesh, and threw it at the creature's eyes, in hopes to blind it.

It only slowed it the slightest bit.

Rainmaker attempted to kick at it as it grabbed his leg– though it did little. The pair of them tried to swing the bridge and eventually the creature was thrown off just enough that Rainmaker had an opportunity to do something.

The young man sank his nails into the flesh, and ripped at it. Like a wild ape, he ripped through. The flesh fell to pieces– sinew flew across– and Adelaide grabbed him by the arm, so that he wouldn't go falling when the bridge broke behind him. Rainmaker froze up as she grabbed him, but she didn't wait for him to get it together. She yanked him upward, and through one of the remnants of the windows.

Glass pierced through their skin as they went through– bits left on the edges and corners that were just sitting in wait of a victim.

They landed in a heap, as the creature fell downward, with a loud, ringing crash. Adelaide hoped it had fallen to its death, but she wasn't brave enough to peer over and check. She glanced at some of the glass still left on the pane– and she broke off a piece, to cut away the last of the flesh bridge. The woman refused to let something climb in using the mystery bridge that her wife had seemingly manifested.

For what purpose, she had no idea, but she wanted to be hopeful for once. Surely, Jisako wanted to help? She had no idea, she just wanted to hope that. The ghost was more volatile than a sea at storm, but surely, there was some affection left? Even in demonic forms, surely, there would be something left. Jisako was not the kind who could forget her love. She had loved Adelaide even when she left.

When they had encountered each other alive for the last time, she had been in a car, with a suspicious man. She had looked at Adelaide, and reached toward her through the windows, which were hazy with steam, and her eyes were filled with tears at the mere sight. But she was being taken to her death that day. Adelaide had said nothing– assuming it was just a moment of fleeting passion.

Adelaide's bitter heart sank. Even the slightest thoughts of that day– the knowledge she could've said something, saved her wife– it sounded right. She wasn't even sure what she'd say or how she'd have phrased it if she did tell someone. Hello, police? I saw a woman in a car and she looked sadly at me, just didn't seem to strike much as far as being sensical.

She could've given chase. She should've given chase, was what Adelaide had started telling herself, upon realizing that telling the authorities would've been rather nonsensical. She wasn't fast enough to catch up to a car. But of course, in her imagination, the car perhaps wasn't so fast, and her feet could've kept chase. She could imagine that car being slow enough that she grabbed onto it– pulled Jisako out, with the ferocious rage of a wild bear. But she was not a bear, and it would've been downright impossible.

Adelaide pulled herself back to reality. She turned her gaze to Rainmaker, as the remnants of the bridge went sliding down the building with an ugly splat. He was wide eyed– still staring off somewhere into the middle distance. She grimaced at that. He backed away from Adelaide the moment he noticed her stare, and turned his eyes to the ground.

"Rainmaker," she called.

He didn't answer.

"Rainmaker!" she snapped.

He twitched and backed away from her– sliding backward using his hands and fluttering his legs– but he said nothing still. Adelaide moved to grab at him– and he curled in on himself. She moved forward, crawling toward him– her side burning once again, even as the foreign flesh seemed to merge with her own.

A painful guilt came in. It was some unfamiliar thing which was driving her mad– this thing, telling her something was wrong. Another scream in her ear– though she attempted to pay it no mind. But there were certain things even she couldn't ignore– and she gave in. Her mind flooded with reminders– not only was this worse than how she'd acted with Jisako, it wasn't too different from the home she'd run from as a child.

Rainmaker looked a lot like her. Adelaide, a child, running barefoot with only a suitcase in her hand and a desperation in her eye. Jisako, staring out of that car, with some last words muted behind the glass. And here– what had Adelaide become? Maury? Her mother? She stared, almost in disbelief at the thought of another person cowering from her, but here he was.

A boy, about half her age, who was curled in on himself, as though expecting a hit. She hadn't hit him– she'd pressed a little on his shoulders, sure, but she hadn't hit him. So what was this?

Another scream rang through Adelaide's head. She grabbed at herself– this one hurt much more than the last. She screamed, and flailed wildly, and Rainmaker did nothing but back away. She was locked into some strange fit– not unlike a seizure, grabbing, flailing, screaming, sensations that made no sense, and finally her body locked up, and all she could do was lay there, shaking intensely.

Rainmaker watched her, silent. His eyes drifted between staring at the woman on the ground and at the door. He was too tempted to run, to abandon Adelaide, to help. At the same time, he was too afraid of her to actually run.

She could not move her body– and she was simply left laying prone, with nothing to defend herself. She attempted to twitch her hands– but nothing worked. After a moment, there wasn't a single thing around that Adelaide could see. Part of her screamed out. She couldn't lose her sight now, and she couldn't flounder here, so close to the end. Some small piece of her soul was wishful– that she may be able to cover the screams in her ears with her own.

But those two screams joined together, and she was once again left convulsing. She cried out.

In the darkness, she once again saw Jisako. She was almost entirely unrecognizable. More a mass of flesh and insects, hatred carved all over her skin, bleeding. Phrases– the same ones Adelaide was always haranguing herself with. You ran. You abandoned me. You never loved me, she could see in her vision of Jisako now. She attempted to reach out, and in her mind, she could feel more of the accusations written in the skin. Why were you always so cut off from me? Why would you never look at me? Why did you let him take me into the woods that day? You saw me, didn't you? Didn't you know what he was going to do? Why didn't you stop his car? Why'd you let him get away? Why did you kill my sister? Why are you always starting fights? Why be so cruel to anyone? Why let Forrest go in such a horrible way? Why? Why? Why? Why couldn't you get on the damn ship?

Adelaide pulled her hand back– or attempted to. But in her visions, the hand was stuck firmly to Jisako's form, moving and reading the carvings like a fine braille novel. The Jisako, even in her mind's eye, was whimpering, and shaking, and not at all enjoying anything about life beyond perhaps the fact it might at some point end– which, of course, it had. But certainly not in the way she would've wanted.

And it was certainly clear that she hadn't found much peace in the end of her life. Adelaide attempted to pull her hand away once again, but the vision grabbed onto it, and forced it closer. The skin of the Jisako in front of her tore like paper, and soon she was reaching into her late wife's guts, squeezing them.

They unravelled at the slightest touch. Jisako's lungs slopped into a juice, and her intestines flopped haphazardly, unconnected to anything, simply full of writhing maggots. The worst of the worst damages: rot. The only thing which held firm inside of Jisako was her cold, unmoving heart.

Adelaide attempted to squeeze it between her hands. Either to make it beat or to destroy it as she'd destroyed the lungs only a moment ago. The heart refused to be moved. It refused to beat for her. And it refused to collapse, as well. Adelaide stared in utter disbelief. "What...? What is this?"

The ghost opened its mouth, finally, but Adelaide heard no words. Its lips moved in a soft, simple way. Floating up and down like clouds. But all Adelaide heard? A violent, piercing scream, which left her feeling as though she may collapse again if she were not already dreaming.

She dreamed of that scream destroying her. The same as so much of her own screaming had destroyed Jisako.

The dream before her only descended further into grotesqueries. A maelstrom of accusations and guilt only cemented in her mind and crushed down on her. Jisako's hands grabbed to choke her once again. They crushed Adelaide's throat, and ripped the skin off it too.

She dreamed of her flesh becoming strings which Jisako could stretch infinitely into a puppet show. She imagined those strings dancing, and turning soon to a sea of flesh, which Jisako could grab and drown her inside if she so chose, as revenge for what had been done to her.

Adelaide imagined Jisako would dream of ripping open her throat and taking away her ability to speak. That or taking her tongue and turning it sooner to a steak and devouring it. Would Jisako be silent and saintly as she had always been? Or would she have made Adelaide listen as she screamed? Would she have shown Adelaide what it was like on the receiving end of that hell?

Adelaide imagined holding Jisako's heart in her hands again. She imagined crushing it. She could not imagine herself being able to truly cherish her love until that darling which made her heart and her soul was gone.