Salvation for the Untainted

[Megami†]

((Continued from: "Sweet Serenity".))

Bits of water from the puddles that had accumulated all over the streets of the residential area jumped up onto the bottom of Maggie Heartgreeder's khaki pants as she roamed aimlessly through the newly cleared residential area.  She didn't know what it was that she hoped to find here.  All she knew was that the lighthouse had become cramped and chaotic, and ever since Hal had put those words of doubt and suspicion in her head, she found it hard to be around the group that had congregated within.

Spend all your time waiting for that second chance...

She continued along the abandoned street, the rhythmic tapping of her shoes against the pavement the only audible noise in the area.  The silence eminating from the residential area was eerie and surreal.  As she looked at the rows of identical brick houses, she couldn't help but think that a place like this shouldn't ever be this silent.  It should be filled with laughter.  There should be people out mowing their lawns, children playing in the street.  It shouldn't be like this.  The silence and gloom that lingered over the residential area reminded her all the more of all the death that was unfolding in this place.  It seemed like even the plantlife had wilted to reflect the misery of all the students trapped on the island.

... for the break that will make it okay...

~~~

It was just another typical day, and she found herself standing outside of apartment #216.  She'd been here a thousand times before, and she'd probably be here a thousand more.  A light smile crossed her lips as she knocked quietly on the door to the apartment and she absent-mindedly swung the plastic gladware containing bag back and forth.  Within moments, the door to the apartment swung open, revealing its tenant.

"Good morning," she chirped cheerfully, "I brought you breakfast."

The dark-headed boy standing in the doorway offered her a wide grin and ushered her into the apartment.  This was routine for Maggie.  She'd hadn't known Adrian Adams for very long, but ever since the first day he'd stumbled into their church, her father had made it a personal obligation of his to see to Adrian's needs.  He was a few years older than her, a college freshman, to be precise.  He lived on his own, worked full-time, went to college as much as he could... did whatever it took to make ends meet.  His parents had died in a horrific car accident when he was twelve.  Since then, he had bounced from foster home to foster home.  He finally found religion after he turned eighteen, and ever since he started going to Mr. Heartgreeder's Sunday morning sermons, he'd become like part of the family.

There's always some reason to feel not good enough...

"You cooked, right?" he grinned, "I love your dad dearly... but you're a much better cook."

When he smiled, his entire face lit up.  His deep brown eyes gleamed with a fierce intelligence behind them, but Maggie couldn't help but think to herself that even when he was smiling, he always looked sad.  She just gave him a smile and nodded before heading into the kitchen to remove the containers from the bag she'd been carrying them in.  Adrian, meanwhile, disappeared somewhere into the confines of his apartment.  She assumed it was the bathroom, because a few moments later, she could hear running water flowing through the pipes somewhere.  He'd told her to make herself at home many times over, but she still couldn't get used to the idea of making herself at home in someone else's house.

... and it's hard at the end of the day...

What she hadn't expected was for the raven-headed girl who had apparently been in Adrian's bedroom to walk out.  The girl seemed equally surprise to see the blonde standing in the kitchen, that much was apparent by the gaping look on her face the moment Maggie came into view.  Maggie simply shrugged.  Who Adrian had in his apartment was none of her concern.  She didn't interfere in his love life, and he never inquired about hers.  It wasn't her place.  Maggie didn't see Adrian like that anyway.  It was odd and complicated to explain, but her relationship with the dark-headed boy was more a nurturing one.  She helped take care of him because he didn't have anyone else to.  This girl, however, didn't know that.

I need some distraction or a beautiful release...

"Sorry," Maggie offered apologetically, "He didn't say he had company over."

He never did.

"I-- no, it's my fault," the brunette offered.

About that time, the water from the shower stopped running and a few seconds later, Adrian stepped out of the bathroom.  He cast a passing glance toward Maggie and the other girl as he headed toward his bedroom.  He either didn't realize how this probably looked, or he didn't care.  The brunette looked like she was almost in tears as Adrian simply looked at her.

"You're still here?" he inquired coldly.

"No..." she responded quietly, "I'm leaving."

The door slammed and the girl was gone, just like that.  He continued on toward his bedroom like nothing had ever happened, his mood seemingly still pleasant after the awkward situation.  Maggie was left to stand there and wonder what on earth just happened.  She started to ask, but she didn't.  Somehow, she thought that maybe she was better off not knowing.

~~~

... memories seep from my veins...

I wonder what you're doing now...

It was strange how often you thought of someone when you knew, deep down inside, that you'd never see them again.  Maggie smiled nostalgically at the memory.  It didn't matter how awkward or uncomfortable it was for her.  It had been the beginning of something... something that could've been special, if she'd let it be.  But, she hadn't.  Maybe it was better that way, but now, as she wandered across the island alone, she couldn't help but wonder what could've been.

Let me be empty and weightless and maybe... I'll find some peace tonight...

~~~

"Taylor..." Maggie's soft-spoken voice broke the silence that had filled the room after Taylor's unveiling of his premonition, "Are you talking about that... show?"

"Survival of the Fittest?" Shawn chimed in, his expression lightening visibly, "Dude, that's not real. It's like... Survivor or something, you know? It's all staged, nobody's really out there dying. You think we'd stand for something like that? We're not some third-world country that can't defend themselves, and given our governments general course of action, if it were real, we'd have already nuked the entire area and killed them all in one fell swoop."

In the arms of the Angel far away from here...

"Shawn..." Maggie interrupted, stopping her brother before he could continue his rant on the U.S. government and their horrendous foreign policy.

"Look man, the point is this. That whole thing is a hoax. And besides, even if it were real, why would they take Hobbsborough kids of all people? We're like... the armpit of the United States or something. This is New Jersey. New York, I can see. It's got all kinds of crime and gang violence and immigration going on and what have you. Florida, California. Stuff like that happens out there. Not in New Jersey."

Shaking her head a bit at her brother's less-than-sympathetic response to Taylor's so-called psychic vision, another sympathetic smile passed over Maggie's features as she looked at the boy seated at the bar, "It was just a dream, Taylor. That's all. Don't worry about it, 'kay? Even if that... that thing... is real--"

... from this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear...

"It's not real, Magg," Shawn interrupted in an attempt to correct his sister, "They don't make trading cards and video games of terrorist acts. They don't market and publicize things like that, and they wouldn't air it on every big-name television station across the U.S. Nobody'd take to that, it'd insight a damned revolution or something."

As much as she hated to admit it, her red-headed counterpart did have a very valid point. They'd marketted Survival of the Fittest to its fullest potential. Trading cards had been made, DVDs, apparently a video game was in the works, people had written novels, plays, the "students" had published auto-biographies and all sorts of other merchandising propoganda. If it really were happening, well, it just didn't seem right. It wasn't right.

"The point is, you just had a bad dream. Even if it was real, what are the odds that it would be us?"

You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie...

~~~

But you were wrong, Shawn... you were wrong.  It is real.  People are really dying.  I don't understand why this is happening.  How could they sell it?  How could they watch us die and sell it to make a profit.  People are dying... I'm dying.

It wasn't within her ability to grasp how anybody could possibly orchestrate something like this program or throw other human beings into something so terrible.  Did people like that... people that terrible... did they deserve to be prayed for?  Did she have the right to ask God's forgiveness to people who had ruthlessly taken the lives of hundreds of students?  Maybe people like that... maybe they didn't deserve forgiveness at all.  She frowned lightly as another puddle of water splashed up and cascaded down her pants leg.

You're in the arms of the Angel; may you find some comfort here...

~~~

She had fallen asleep.  She hadn't even realized it, but she had dozed off during the movie she and Adrian had been watching.  Adrian had, apparently, intended on leaving Maggie on the couch overnight.  It was when he had draped a blanket over her sleeping form that she had woken up.  He realized that she was awake and offered her a light smile.  She immediately rose and glanced toward the clock.  It had gotten late.

"I called your dad," he confirmed, "The roads are getting bad outside, and it's late, so I told him you were just gonna stay the night."

"Oh..."

"Is that okay?" he inquired, obviously not liking her lack of response toward his last statement, "I can drive you home if you want, but your dad doesn't want you driving in this weather."

"Yeah, no... it's fine."

So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn... there's vultures and thieves at your back...

...

The storm keeps on twisting, you keep on building the lies that you make up for all that you lack...

The power had gone out soon after that, cutting short the movie night that they had planned.  Instead, they'd taken to sitting on the couch talking to one another.  It was the most they'd talked since they'd known one another.  Adrian had divuldged information about himself that Maggie was quite surprised to hear.  That was far from the most interesting part of the night, though.  She'd thought about what happened next a million times since then, wondering what could've happened.

It had been completely spontaneous.  She'd never seen it coming.  One minute, they were talking, and the next, Adrian's lips were placed firmly against her own.  She didn't resist at all.  Instead, she actually found herself kissing him back.  He hadn't been her first kiss, but never had she felt so utterly... spellbound.  His fingertips ran up her neck, scrunched into the back of her hair.

"Adrian..."

It don't make no difference, escaping one last time... it's easier to believe...

"Shh..."

Despite herself, she was pulling away from him.

"It won't work," she protested.

"How do you know?" he whispered back.

"It just won't, Adrian.  It can't.  We're not right for one another..."

I won't be one of your toys...

"You're telling me this feels wrong?" he continued.

It didn't feel wrong.  Nothing could've possibly felt more right.  Maybe this was how it was supposed to be after all.  Still, she wouldn't let herself believe that.  She'd witnessed with her own eyes the way Adrian treated girls.  He used them and kicked them out the door.  She wouldn't be that girl, she wouldn't allow herself to be.  She stood up and grabbed her keys from the coffee table.

"I just... I'm gonna go home, okay?  I think it's best..."

In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness that brings me to my knees...

~~~

She couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if she hadn't protested, if she'd have just let the cards fall where they may.  Things went back to normal after that night, somehow, but the memory continued to torment her.  She couldn't help but think that maybe she'd done the wrong thing after all.  Maybe it was that moment that incited it all, but afterward, she often thought about being with him.  She didn't want to be one of his girls... she didn't want to be someone he'd toss to the side after he found something more amusing.  Somehow, she didn't think she would be.  She never had been.  She'd always been different.

In the arms of the Angel far away from here...

Parts of the residential area looked like a tornado had run through them.  The winds had been so heavy during portions of yesterday's storm that it had uprooted small trees, broken limbs from larger ones, and just made a mess in general out of the residential district.  To her left, she noted a large tree limb had fallen down and busted open the windshield of a car that had been sitting underneath it.  She sighed lightly.  The whole place was a mess.

From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear...

Maybe she should've been paying a little bit more attention.  Maybe she should've been a little more observant toward her surroundings.  She didn't see the live powerline that had gotten knocked down in the storm the night prior wound up in a nearby tree.  Instead, she was so lost in her own thoughts and memories that she completely dismissed it.  She walked underneath the tree, thinking nothing of it.  After all, why should she?  Most of the electricity on the island had been down to start with, and she assumed, incorrectly, that the storm had probably knocked out the remainder of the power anyway.

You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie... in the arms of the Angel; may you find some comfort here...

Maybe it was God's way of bringing one of his angels home.  Maybe it was his way of delivering one of his faithful from a cruel and painful death.  As she walked under the tree, a gust of wind knocked the powerline down and it landed nearby in the pool of water she had walked into.  The electric current pulsated through the water and entered Maggie Heartgreeder's body, killing her instantly from the high voltage.  She never even knew what happened as she fell in the middle of the street in the puddle of water, her eyes open wide and looking up toward Heaven.

I wonder if things could've been different between us... I guess now, I'll never know.

FEMALE STUDENT NO. 31 - MAGGIE HEARTGREEDER - DECEASED

You're in the arms of the Angel... may you find some comfort here...