The Boiler Room, Sunday Midday
Jen
Jennifer hadn't really thought this out too much. The thought of Zack at the mercy of a vampire was bad. Really bad, in fact.
So she'd put on tennis shoes, and hurried out her door without bothering to tell anyone else. Really smart plan.
When she got down to the boiler room, she didn't exactly go for stealth.
"Zack?" she cried out, hoping he'd respond.
Zack
"Jeeeeen," Zack called back, sitting in the middle of the floor. His voice had an eerie sort of singsong quality to it.
He was smiling. And swaying idly from side to side.
"Come play?"
Jen
That gave Jennifer cause to pause. But she still headed towards him, now even more concerned. "You okay? Did they hurt you? If they did, I swear, I'm going to pound them so hard they'll hit the Earth's core."
Zack
"Nope," he all but chirped as he pulled a red ball out of his pocket.
It didn't look like much of a ball, with all of the teeth-marks that were in it.
"Alice wouldn't hurt me. She's family. And she plays good."
He threw his ball her way. Did meat play good, too?
Alice
Alice was family. And after the day she'd had, listening to all that nattering on about Mother, it was delightful to hear him state that aloud.
For now, Zack's mobile, able-bodied and non-tube-dwelling Mother was going to take advantage of those facilities. By stepping out of the shadows from behind Jen, and placing a long vorpal blade against the girl's neck.
"Would you like to play with us?"
Jen
Jennifer was by the blade, Alice, Alice even being there, and the whole business with Alice being family. It was a lot surprise. But then her thoughts mainly settled on oh dear @%^& there's a knife at my throat. Even with her healing, she didn't exactly want to test the effects of a slit throat.
"Depends on the game," Jennifer said, staying very still. "Hide and go seek? You both go hide?"
Alice
"We had a far more exciting game planned," Alice said, pressing the point gently against Jen's throat. Not hard enough to break the skin, or even bruise: just a simple reminder. In case Jen might have forgotten about it. "It's more Twenty Questions than tiddlywinks, but there are some home rules we've added to spice up the fun. I dare not say more. It might ruin the surprise."
Jen
"I'm not sure I like surprises," Jennifer said, steeling herself. If she got the chance, she'd fight her way out. She just needed an opening. The knife away from her throat.
"How about a nice game of Candyland instead?"
Zack
"I don't like that game," Zack chimed in as he picked himself up off the floor and made his way over. "The pieces get in my teeth."
And, as he paused about a foot in front of Jen and then proceeded to stand on his tiptoes in order to grin in her face, it should have become quite apparent that he had one hell of a set of teeth, today.
Jen
Jennifer frowned profusely. As much as one can frown when you're also a bit scared for your life.
"I'm betting your bark is worse than your bite," she said, keeping her cool for now. "Bet if you even had the balls to try it, you'd end up needing a pair of dentures."
Zack
Zack's face scrunched up a bit, until he was wearing an almost sick looking parody of his old puppy-face.
"I just wanted to play, Jen. We ask questions, and you give answers, and maybe after that, I can eat."
After the game was his favorite part.
Alice
"I don't see why it has to be after," Alice said breezily. "A little snacking ought to inspire truth-telling from our dearest guest. She might even like it. Many do, you know."
There was something sinfully delicious about drinking. Alice preferred her victims sobbing in panic, but swooning in ecstasy was certainly second.
Jen
"You're welcome to try too, Wonderbra," Jennifer said, sort of failing at quipping given the circumstances.
Don't worry, true believers, she'll get better with it in time.
"What the hell kind of questions do you two even have?"
Alice
"I'm sure we'll think of something," Alice grinned. "There are many little stories locked in that pretty green head of yours. We'll strike you with a bat until candy pours out."
Breathers made such good piñatas.
Jenova
Jenova's laugh slithered through the air-carried over wires, electricity, life. Like watching children (they were all children) at play.
She shifted, liquid making the movements graceful as machinery pulsed energy throughout her prison, and let her mind drift for the moment.
Her son would handle this. Let him play.
Let the girl prove she was worth something. Let the other girl learn fear.
And give them what they wanted to know.
Zack
"I don't like candy all that much," Zack decided, right then and there, before getting up on his tiptoes and running his tongue over Jen's cheek. "Meat tastes better. Do you know Mother?"
He looked over his shoulder at the figure in the tubes.
"She wants freedom."
Jen
Well, not the way she had ever wanted that particular action to happen. "Wow, did you kidnap Norman Bates' mom and give her a tube transplant?" she said, choking down her need to vomit. God knew if she wretched, she'd probably end up with the knife through her trachea.
"I don't know anything about anything."
Alice
"Don't underestimate yourself," Alice purred. "You're a hero. You came to save Zack. Let's poke around the inside of your skull and see what else you're hiding. Secrets are better than candy. Less fattening."
And if that failed, they could scoop out her brains and turn her head into a jack-o-lantern. Humans were so delightfully animated in the face when they died. Nothing like a small candle in the mouth to set off her features.
"In the meantime, would you be a dear and kindly sit down that we might tie you up? That's the easy way, you see. The hard way involves a great deal more blood, and I happen to like this skirt."
It would be plenty dirty later. Once the fun began.
Zack
Zack's hands moved up to rest on Jen's shoulders, and in one quick motion, he was shoving downward, hard.
"It'll be easier if you do as she says," he shared, crouching along with her and burying his face in her hair.
She smelled good. And he was hungry.
"I bet you're really sweet..."
Yes, in a literal sense.
Alice
"Patience, darling," Alice murmured, running a hand up Zack's back. "One never rushes a gourmet meal. Her heart is beating faster. Can you hear it? Can you smell her fear? A cat never kills a mouse in one blow. First, we destroy her, then we drink her ruin."
There was nothing so triumphant as the sweet taste of someone whose mind was fleeing, whose sanity was nothing but a memory, whose blood tasted sharply of adrenaline and tension. As the taste when life surrendered under her lips.
Jen
Jen's stomach twisted as she watched Alice touch Zack like that. This was making her feel so helpless. All the strength in the world and she wanted to lash out but she was so afraid of drying, so afraid of... hurting the people who were her friends. And God, if she hurt them, she'd be hurting them, whenever they turned back to their real selves. She needed to run, to get away, to get the hell away and just lock all of this away in a corner of her mind and never think of it again.
"Just make it quick," she said, shutting her eyes and trying to pretend that nothing awful was happening.
Zack
"Quick?" Zack's lips were at her ear, now, and whatever words he spoke were coming out as little more than a bare whisper. "There's no fun in quick, Jen. No time to taste anything."
He moved his face down, toward her neck, grinning as he went so that teeth scraped along her skin. When he spoke again, it was cold breath and dead lips brushing her throat.
"But if you tell us what Mother wants to know, maybe I'll think about it."
Cold breath, and teeth.
[Preplayed by the absolutely amazing puppyfair, notyourpawn, and not-jaded-yet. Directly follows this. There are hints at torture as we FTB in this one. Establishy!]