The Chemicals Between Us

[Cactus]

Claudeson nodded, staring back at the fire as everyone else went about their business. For the time being, no one was coming with murderous intent, and while the drivel that Manuel and Emeka likely had to contribute was going to do nothing outside of bore them to death, it was a welcome reprieve from the emotional turmoil that the evening had already allowed them.

"Marceline, hm. I don't believe," he trailed off, racking his brain for a face to match to the name. None came all that suddenly. "I do not believe that I—"

Emeka dropped the scissors, and started to stare at them as though they were a snake. Claudeson watched him for a moment, his own words stopped mid-sentence. To his left, Manuel had started to giggle uncontrollably. What on Earth was going on here? Glancing over at Lori, he saw her seated, eyes closed, not paying any attention to the other boys.

"Are you all right?"

[Ruggahissy]

"Yeah, I'm just tired," she said, laying down with her head on her bag and her owl head cuddling in her arms.

Maybe Meka and Manuel would just run away like Joanne had. Hopefully they wouldn't start making out like Ace and Ivy. Or maybe they would...

"I'm gonna take a nap for a bit," she said, seemingly unconcerned. Drugging people with LSD had become somewhat routine, in a way.

"Wake me up if something happens," she said sleepily.

[Laurels]

Meka blinked and looked up from the scissors on the ground. He could hear the others talking. Manuel seemed to be laughing, although his voice seemed to be pitched much lower than before and his lower jaw seemed to be jutting out like one of those parody superheroes with huge chins. He glanced over and saw Lori leaning on the owl head. She seemed to be merging with it, as if the owl was a drain and she was spiraling into it. Meka felt his breathing start to get more and more rapid.

"What-what-what-what-what-" Meka began to stutter.

That's when he heard a snapping sound. It was a stick breaking in the fire, but it sounded more like a mortar went off.

Meka screamed and jumped up. As he did, he stumbled and fell to his side. Now he felt like he was hyperventilating. He clutched his hand around some leaves on the ground and rolled over, his hat falling to the side.

"What is happening?" Meka shouted. "What is this?"

He could feel tears start to well in his eyes. He was lying on his back and staring at the night sky. The dark night sky was starting to get brighter and brighter. Was it God? Harriet Tubman? Mufasa? Was the sky gonna crack open and was a meteor going to come down on him?

Meka reached his arms into the sky.

"Please. No. No. No. Please. Please. No. No. Please. No. No," he rapidly muttered as tears started to fall down his face.

If Meka was of sound mind, he'd realize he was just tripping. But for the first time in his life, Meka felt completely frightened. Nothing was making sense, and the world was falling apart. And everything was getting too fucking bright for him to handle.

"I can't see! I can't see! Someone! Help me! I can't see!" he screamed.

[Cactus]

Emeka was most certainly not all right. Spontaneously, he abandoned all sense of decorum and began to spout nonsense, rolling around on the ground. Stunned for a moment, Claudeson's mouth dropped open, his first thought going once more to his recently eschewed beliefs — he was possessed!

Of course, he knew that was a complete fallacy. Emeka was no more possessed by demons than he was Santa Claus, and something had gone completely off the rails as far as his mental state was concerned. Had the sudden appearance of a simple pair of scissors shattered his mind so severely that the world seemed to begin to cave in upon him? Emeka had always appeared to be so together, such a formal and proper individual. As he'd suspected, this was just another lie. Under enough pressure, even the most disciplined minds were unable to hold on to the house of cards that supported them. The boy was having a psychotic break, and if he weren't careful, that could prove dangerous to he or to Lori.

That wouldn't do.

"Emeka, calm yourself!"

Jumping to his feet, Claudeson approached the writhing boy. He was twitching and carrying on as though he were on fire, and his loud yells would undoubtedly attract attention.

"Please! Just open your eyes! Open them!"

Kneeling down, he grasped the boy's arms and pinned them back, trying to stop him from rolling into the fire. Looking over at the others for any potential assistance, he saw Manuel, continuing to cackle with a giddy laughter that was wholly inappropriate for the situation. Lori simply sat back, her eyes closed, ignoring the commotion.

Under his grip, the boy was a snake, slithering around in the dirt.

[Ruggahissy]

"Huh?!" Lori opened her eyes when she started hearing yelling. She sat up and tried to figure what was happening. This seemed to be a way more extreme reaction than the other people she's errrrrr given water.

"What going on? Meka, calm down!"

She got up and tried to help Claudeson calm the boy down. Since he seemed to be preoccupied with the top half, she went down and tried to keep Meka's legs still. Lori held on to each leg, feeling a little strange about holding the legs of a boy she didn't know that well.

"Hey, it's okay! Just calm down!"

[Laurels]

Meka found himself completely blinded by the light. His eyes were starting to burn, and he was sure whatever tears he was shedding were starting to burn his skin. He wasn't sure, his cheeks did feel really itchy for some reason. He still found it hard to breathe, not helped that he could see whirlwinds around him. People were moving and reacting, blowing the branches in all the trees around.

He could see one figure, presumably Claudeson stand over him, pinning his arms to the ground. Another was pinning his legs to the ground. Meka's eyes were wide open and he stared up at the massive figure looming over him.

"I can't see. I can't see," he shouted. "My eyes are open but I can't see!"

Meka felt himself coughing into the air. He was starting to feel like he was sinking into the ground with how hard the two were pushing him.

"Please, make it stop," he wheezed out. "Please, turn off that light!"

[Cactus]

Lori was finally up and helping try and restrain the obviously psychotic Emeka. The boy wouldn't cease his noise, his voice only getting louder and making less sense. With the girl grabbing his legs, Claudeson shuffled over so that he was essentially mounting the writhing and thrashing boy. Still restraining his arms, he tried to take more of a squatting position. Looking into the boy's eyes, he could see nothing wrong with them, the fire light illuminating the whites against his dark skin. It was eerie, in a sense. To an unlearned or more racist mind, one might have said this was like looking into a mirror. Emeka had a vastly different facial structure, but as he looked down at the boy's similarly dark features and dreadlocked hair, Claudeson wondered just how many of their classmates had looked upon them and mixed the two of them up based solely upon that.

It had happened more often than he'd cared to admit.

"You can see, you can see!"

Claudeson wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Emeka wanted him to turn out the light. There was no light on, not here. Everything was dark, less the fire.

Turn out the light.

"Your eyes are full of light, Emeka," he realized with a whisper.

Relaxing for a moment, he looked down into the boy's crazed eyes. For all of the things that Emeka claimed he stood for, this wasn't one of them. Hallucinating, crazed, spasmodic and totally out of control; all things that he was.

Claudeson couldn't allow this to continue.

Sitting back for a moment, he lifted his hands and stopped restraining Emeka's arms. There was only one light that he could think to extinguish. The only thing that made sense.

"Let me help you," he smiled as he leaned back down and put his hands around the boy's throat.

His eyes gleamed with life in the bouncing flicker of the campfire.

[Laurels]

Suddenly, the light vanished. The moon had moved in front of the sun, and now he was in an eclipse. Something had finally covered the blinding light, and suddenly, Meka could see again.

"I can se-"

His words were stifled before he could finish. A large, shadowy figure, illuminated by the light behind, moved into his way and wrapped its hands around his neck. Meka struggled to breath as he felt nails dig into his throat. He could feel them piercing through his skin, digging deep into his neck until he was sure they were piercing bone. He bet that if the thing took his hands off, all the blood would come rushing out of Meka's throat in a great deluge that would drown the island and send it back to the ocean.

Meka continued to thrash as he struggled to get oxygen in.

"Ahgh-agh-ay" he squeaked out.

As Meka's eyes began to turn red from burst capillaries, he continued to try and throw the figure off him. The creature seemed to grow in size, pressing down on his chest further, further blocking out the light. Meka could catch a slight gleam off its eyes. A small, amber color reflected off the edge of dark black marbles floating in the air. Suddenly, it terrified him even more.

"Nagh-agh" he mustered before throwing his hands up at the monster.

Meka was starting to fade, but he threw his hands up, pushing against the face as much as he could. He could feel a nose, a chin, maybe a cheek. He hadn't trimmed his nails since he was abducted, so he was sure they were doing something. Maybe he could grow claws like this monster that was digging into his neck. He had to try, so he tried to swipe his hands over the eyes. He wasn't sure if it was working, but Meka had to keep clawing and scratching. Maybe then he'd be able to rip this monster's face off and see who it really was.

[Cactus]

The struggle intensified and Claudeson felt a sudden calamity of fiery pain rake across his face, culminating in something raking across his left eye. His focus and his grip only intensified. The light had to be extinguished; it was only fair. It was the only thing that could think to do, to help Emeka and relieve his pain, relieve his psychotic break. This was no way for someone as himself to be remembered, this was no way for anyone who loved him at all to see him.

"I will remember your name," he hissed at the boy as he felt the warm struggle of his classmate's throat beneath his trembling hands. He allowed the full weight of his body to fall down upon Emeka, allowing him more purchase. Licking his lips, Claudeson tasted the telltale copper of blood. The boy before him did not understand; his mind had shattered and he would not comprehend his final moments.

Claudeson bore him no ill will; this was simply the way that it had to be.






Leaning forward, he tightened his grip. He could smell the sweat, the body odour. Claudeson could hear the wheeze, he could feel the struggle. It was necessary; it was required.





This would be over soon.

[Laurels]

Despite the enveloping blackness, despite the pain in his neck, and despite the dimming of both that massive light and his own existence, Meka suddenly had a moment of clarity. Through all the madness and pain, through all the hallucinations and uncertainty, there was something that broke through. An arrow pierced through the sun, removing all the confusion and leaving one thing behind.

I will remember your name.

He wasn't sure who said it. Whether it was the boy killing him, or the owl girl, or the other boy who was missing in all of this.

But someone would remember him. They promised him that. Wasn't that Meka's goal? To make sure they were remembered? Sure, he wanted to break the game so they could all go home, but he wasn't likely to accomplish that. He wasn't supposed to be the hero or the leader.

He was supposed to be the archivist.

The scribe. The one who remembered. That was why he tried to memorize the names of the dead. He almost forgot about that completely. He didn't need to be a martyr, or the savior, or the one who led the march. Even if he was just one of many victims of this game, it didn't mean he wouldn't be able to change the world, even if it was part of the SOTF collective.

And if he couldn't do the task, someone else could.

Someone else would.

In his last moments of life, Meka began to wish that he passed this task on to whoever it was who said they'd remember him. He hoped they remembered his pattern, his method. As he faded away, the beat came back to his mind. He hoped the person caught on, and he hoped they could follow his chant.

Emeka Gibson.

Say his name.



Emeka Gibson.

Say his name.




Emeka Gibson.

Say his name.

[decoy73]

"What-what-what-what-what- No. (No) No. (No) No. (No)."

Then two other things merged with Meka. They were swirling together, a nice whirlpool of light and sound.

"Just calm down." That seemed like a good idea. Manuel rubbed his hands together. So smooth and warm, yet rough. Pleasantly rough. Manuel just looked at his hands as he continued rubbing his very long, colorful fingers together.

Wow.

"I will remember your name."

Yes, he would remember his name. Remembering was good. All he had to do was watch the colors and feel himself as he merged with himself.

"Aaaaaaahhh."

[Ruggahissy]

Lori felt Meka continue squirming and fidgeting. For a moment that anxious movement increased tremendously but then he relaxed. She sighed and patted his legs, feeling relieved for a moment that her actions didn't lead him to do something like run into the fire or try to hurt one of them.

She sighed and sat cross-legged near his legs.

"Wew. Some people -- I mean -- this situation is hard for anyone to handle. It's no one's fault." she said nervously.

Lori peered up to Claudeson to see how things were going.

"Claudeson? Meka?"

She moved her head to try and see the two boys more clearly. The fire crackled steadily, casting jumpy light and deep shadows. Lori leaned and for a second the flickering light illuminated the bulging, still eyes of Meka. Her heart started to pick up and her palms became slippery.

"What do we do?"

"What did you do?" she said quietly, hopefully, fearfully.

[Ruggahissy]

Lori tried to make room between herself and Manuel. How long would it be until he noticed?

They had to leave before then. Who knew how he would react given his current state.

"I, uh..."

What did they do?

Lori picked up her things quietly and grabbed Claudeson by the crook of his arm.

"We have to go now. We have to get away," she said quietly, trying to avoid the sight of the corpse near them.

They just needed to create distance.

((Lori Martin and Claudeson Bademosi continued in Into Sandy's City ))

[decoy73]

Manuel fell asleep with a smile on his face. Everything was good. Everything was warm.

----

It was still warm when he woke up. He was still a little groggy from what was the weirdest night ever. Did they put drugs in the water or something?

"Hey, Meka." He told the sleeping boy. "Time to get up." Nothing. Manuel walked over. "Meka!" He pushed on Meka, to find no resistance, other than from mass. "Hey, come on, it's morning." Manuel looked around. "The others are gone." The he looked at his eyes. They were wide open and still bloodshot, like he'd been up all night. Looking closer, Manuel noticed bruising. Like someone had grabbed him around the neck. Manuel's breathing became heavy as he started to realize what was going on.

KZZZT

"Alright, we start today with two people who decided to try and test out our danger zones to make sure they still work..."

Manuel hated that guy. Quinn was still killing people, Erika had

"...A while later, Erika Stieglitz went on another killing spree, this time taking out Yuki Hayashibara, Sal Bonaventura, and Demetri Futscher in quick succession ..."

"Oh, son of a BITCH!"

Manuel looked around. It was just him, a corpse, and three bags of stuff. He knew only one thing. He had to collect everything and get out of there ...

((Manuel Figueroa continued in You See Me, I've Got My Magic Pie))