The Moral Law Within Me

[Carrion Queen]

((Ximena Rodriguez continued from And So It Goes))

Ximena paced around one of the rooms of the compound. She looked out a window at the empty expanse of desert sometimes, and she fiddled with some of the cards in the deck of cards that was in the waistband of her skirt.

Emily and Dave went back down to the dark place to look for her meds and while she sympathized, she just couldn't go back down there. And Dave was a human night light anyway so he'd be way more useful than her for looking for something small in the dark. Ximena told them she would wait for them up above, and so, she waited.

She couldn't go back down to where all the bugs were, even if they weren't there anymore. Who knew. But that's what had killed Raja, and that's where that fucking meat thing was. No thanks. The people she encountered down there were lost causes. But who was to say she wasn't also a lost cause?

I guess it takes one to know one.

Ximena walked to an open door leading out of the building and leaned against the door frame. A slight warm breeze brushed her. She looked down at the collar around her neck. Dave had told her he'd found what was left of Kincaid, who had been torn to bits by metal from a busted up collar. Mourning him seemed stupid -- they didn't talk -- and she only had enough room for one mourning at a time.

She sighed heavily, wiped her eyes, and pulled out the Jack of Spades at random.

[Catche Jagger]

Alan had spent most of the night alone in the Flatlands, trying in vain to get anything more than a couple of hours of sleep, spending most of his time staring up at the sky and turning about on the ground.

The night sky showed its secrets more freely out in the desert than it had back in Bend, revealing more stars than Alan might’ve thought existed to that point. However, as he squirmed around for comfort, his eyes were instead drawn to the spaces between, cold and dark like the night that seemed ready to smother him.

((Alan Melnyk continued from What a shame those two are you and me))

Morning saw Alan start moving again. He wasn’t initially sure of his destination, but he was sure that he wanted to keep moving, to free himself of the previous day as thoroughly as possible.

With the day had come another announcement from the masked freaks, revealing those who had died over the course of the previous day. It was a greater number than Alan would have anticipated, even after witnessing what happened to Moose. It also confirmed that Austin had been telling the truth about Jenelle, and that Crispin hadn’t gotten himself killed just yet.

None of that mattered anymore, though.

Now the only person that Alan needed to take care of was himself. No more playing daycare and trying to corral the toddlers so they didn’t kill each other. So long as Alan kept himself alive, he would be doing just fine.

Eventually, Alan found himself approaching the compound once again. Without Crispin and Moose to worry about, there was no reason to keep away, after all. Drawing closer, he caught sight of somebody standing in the doorway, seemingly paying no mind to his approach.

“Yo! What’s up? Everything good over there?” He called out, putting his hands up and keeping a friendly expression on his face. He was prepared to hit the ground if this turned out to be somebody too dangerous, but it didn’t look like Mercy, at the very least.

"Any more room in there?"

[Carrion Queen]

Maybe it was the worst when she was alone. Emily's nervous ticks and Dave the amazing blasé glow stick at least gave her something else to focus on. Now Ximena had nothing to do but dwell on her loss. She continued looking down at the playing card until --

Someone called out to her and in a panic, she let the playing card fly with a gasp.

The jack of spades glowed as it left her hand and streaked across the desert at super speed, embedding firmly into a cactus about four feet away from the new arrival.

"Holy shit, holy fuck. You scared me," she said, panting and clutching her chest.

"Hey. I know you," she said, having recovered enough to get a good look at the person. It wasn't easy to forget a guy with neon green tips. "You hang out with those -- "

Don't say "chuds." Don't say "douchebags." Don't say "dingus." Is the plural "dingi" or "dinguses"?

" -- those guys? Like, that one guy who threw a bowling ball off the roof of the supermarket and hit a car? Or like, the time someone broke into the office and rigged it so the announcement system just played the 1-8-77 Kars for Kids song on repeat until they broke down the door?"

[Catche Jagger]

Alan jumped as something seemed to fly at him before connecting with a nearby cactus.

“Jesus, dude! What the-?” He cut himself off, clearing his throat. The move was an accident, water under the bridge. He’d sacred the girl in the door and she’d panicked, nothing more. Probably.

“Sorry about that. Just trying to talk.” He spoke carefully, trying to keep things from getting too edgy again, taking a few slow steps forward, keeping his hands up.

He did recognize Ximena. Not someone he was exactly close with, seemed like a bit of a stiff, Gift had something to do with time or speed if he recalled correctly. She seemed to know enough about Alan, though, as well as his associates.

“Yeah… yeah, those’d be my people. But as you can see I ain’t with anybody now.” He explained, slowly lowering his arms to his sides.

“What’s up? You a fan or something?” He offered with a light smirk.

[Carrion Queen]

Ximena took a step back as he took a step forward.

"Just trying to talk."

New tears sprang up and her face screwed up in a way she was sure was ugly. Ximena was sure he said that as a way to try keep her from throwing another time ninja star at him or maybe a bid at self-preservation. That is what logical brain told her. But emotional brain looked at him and it told her "Someone wants to talk to you. Why don't you throw up all your feelings on them? Isn't that cool and fun?"

She grabbed the neckline of her camisole and pulled it up far enough to use the fabric to wipe her face. She tugged the bottom when she was done so that her midriff wasn't exposed.

Ximena gulped and processed the newest development: him asking wryly if she was a groupie of their delinquent activities. Given what she knew about him and what she estimated he knew about her, the conclusion was fast: he wanted to play/banter/josh/quip/relieve tension/ etc etc etc etc.

And just before she instinctively went to oblige, another thought crossed her mind.

"I guess the answer depends. I mean, are you going to try and hurt me?" she said, looking at his chest now instead of at his face. She knew that there were a few kids who had Gifts that would trigger if you looked them in the eye. "Like, can you yell knives or cum lightning or make me crazy so I think that cactus is a pile of cheese fries or something?"

[Catche Jagger]

Ximena took a step back and Alan halted his forward movement, seeing the way her expression tensed and shruk, the tears, how she had to wipe her face. He tried not to let the flash of frustration show in his own expression.

Was Alan going to have to deal with this girl’s emotional baggage too? He’d spent the last day having to navigate every one of his friends’ little traumas and ego trips, only for everything to fall apart. He had no interest in taking on more strays.

Still, the question about his Gift showed some degree of practicality to her approach, and things hadn’t yet turned into some mess of fighting or yelling or crying. There was still hope for something a little normal, possibly even useful, here.

“Ah yeah, you probably don’t gotta keep track of Gifts. Makes sense.” He nodded, raising one of his hands and gesturing towards it.

“I just make people more of what they already are. If I touch somebody, I can make their Gift do double what it normally does. Twice the output, twice as effective, all that. So unless your thing is about breaking your own bones or something, there’s not a whole lot I can do to you.” He concluded his explanation with a little flourish of the hand before looking Ximena over again.

“I’m pretty sure I remember yours. Kinda gotta know due to my own shit. You, uh, do a speeding up and slowing down sorta thing, am I right?” He asked casually.

He allowed the question to hang for a moment as he drew his lips into a thin line. There was another question that remained, even if only as a formality, but he really didn’t want to ask it.

“Are you… doing alright?” The question came slow, in a softer tone of voice.

He really fucking hoped she would lie to him.

[Carrion Queen]

“I’m a stripper with daddy issues. I’m never alright,” she said matter-of-fact. She kind of thought she’d just thought it in her head but was surprised after a second to realize she’d said it out loud.

She grimaced because of the awkwardness of her reply.

“Times are tough for everyone, ya know?” she sighed, trailing off and realizing that this wasn’t helping at all. She moved her hands in circles as if to imply that their current situation was the tough times in question.

Let’s take a step back. Ximena was surprised that he knew what her Gift was. That was a little suspicious. It was equally suspicious that he indicated that he kept track of such things because he “kindda had to due to his own shit.” What kindda shit was he doing that required him to know everyone’s Gift? It seemed like the sort of talk from either a cop or a shady person, and he didn’t seem like a (metaphorical) cop.

However, she felt inclined to trust him a little bit. This was not something decided on her own as Ximena was somewhat skeptical in nature. But, she had a hazy memory that she couldn’t place that someone had told her at some point that this guy, Alan, wasn’t all so bad.

I think it was from a dream…

That was something but relying on a dream pal wasn’t good enough.

She walked forward so that they were now two feet apart.

“Show me. Do the – the double thingy.”


“Please.”

[Catche Jagger]

Well, Ximena hadn’t lied like Alan had hoped, but at least she had the decency to keep things brief. Didn’t mean he had any greater interest in learning about her daddy issues, though.

“Yeah, tough for everyone.” He replied, taking on a more withdrawn tone. If she wanted to brush her comments aside in favor of dealing with the situation at hand, Alan was more than happy to oblige.

The purpose of her next demand seemed obvious to him. She trusted him enough to know that he wasn’t going to try to kill her at the drop of a hat, but not enough to believe that he wasn’t hiding something from her.

Fine, whatever.

Alan had known that he’d have to reckon with the reputation he and his friends had built, particularly now that he was without said friends, and at the mercy of his other peers. However, it would’ve have been a lie for Alan to suggest that he wasn’t at least a little resentful at having to prove himself, when Ximena could seemingly barely hold it together enough to not spill her shit to some dude that just said “hi”.

A sigh, and then he gave her a nod.

“Alright, just brace yourself, alright? Shit can be a bit of a rush if you ain’t used to it.” Alan explained, before he gently placed a hand on her shoulder and let the magic happen.

[Carrion Queen]

He wearily agreed.

In the moment before he touched her, she had second thoughts. Was she really going to trust this guy that she knew hung out with fuck boys and wore fake bling to -–

He set his hand on her shoulder.

Ximena suddenly felt the compulsion to breathe in deep like she was coming out of water. As if by force, air rushed into her lungs, expanding them all the way. The point where Alan touched crackled like he’d shocked her, and she felt the electric flow zig-zag and shoot throughout her limbs. It felt like her whole body had eaten a cinnamon candy, warm and tingly. After a few seconds, she exhaled and gripped Alan’s free wrist with her hand, tightly.

She blinked a few times and panted. Ximena looked up at Alan with a devious grin.

“OK, maybe I am a fan,” she said, catching her breath.

Ximena let go, clapped her hands together, and rubbed them vigorously. She could feel the difference. The flow of time moved past her fingertips like silk.

“Let’s give it a try. On the count of three, jump. One. Two. Three!”

Ximena jumped up and her hands glowed -- one in front of her and one behind. Her power exploded outward, creating a now six-foot by six-foot cube of affected area. She slowed as much as she could, strangling the passage of time to a deathly crawl. She floated in the air, barely seeming to descend. Her hair levitated in mid-jump behind her. In front of her, a fly was suspended. Particles of dust and sand hung in stasis. At the barrier where her domain extended, a tumbleweed was bisected, half trapped in the slow time and the other free half blowing a little in the wind.

[Catche Jagger]

Ximena gripped his wrist and grinned, and for just a moment he was certain that the girl was going to fucking murder him. She’d lured him in close and gotten him to power her up, and now she’d just, like, eviscerate him with a super fast spoon or something.

But then she let go, said she was a fan, and Alan realized that he’d been holding his breath.

“Uh, yeah, it’s cool.” He replied, attempting to play it off like he hadn’t been terrified a moment earlier, relaxing his posture and giving a slight chuckle.

Alan thought to ask how she was doing, to make sure that she wasn’t go and do anything too stupid with that boost, but she spoke up first, saying that she wanted to give it a try. Alan barely managed to hold back a groan.

Still, he quickly abided her words, leaping up into the air as she did, only to find himself suspended there, falling so slowly as for it to be imperceptible. His body felt almost heavy, like it’d been submerged in something thick that adhered to his very being. The thought came to him to try moving, but he noticed a tumbleweed get bisected at the edge of Ximena’s area of influence, he decided that those limits were better left to someone else’s testing.

Alan’s face, then, remained frozen in an expression of concern.

He really hoped that, at the very least, this would help Ximena get whatever was messing with her out of her system.

[Carrion Queen]

Ximena gradually let go of her control, like easing a foot gently off a gas pedal. In increments, time slowly began to return to its natural flow. Ximena and Alan floated to the ground, softly touching down with everything moving normally once again.

She stood quiet for a moment, but her face was full of expression. She looked elated, then sly, then thoughtful within a few seconds, but all with an uncharacteristically wide smile.

"That was amazing," she said finally. She slapped Alan roughly on the shoulder of his jacket and then did a little hop. "You are amazing!"

[Catche Jagger]

Slowly floating downward, Alan was surprised by just how much relief he felt when his feet met the ground once again. He could feel tension he hadn’t entirely perceived before leaving his shoulders and neck. Ximena’s little experiment had left both of them just fine afterwards, though the question of her personal state remained in question.

Luckily, she seemed to maintain a good mood afterward, acting all animated and chummy.

Alan was reminded, briefly, of Crispin. He’d had a similar sort of reaction when first being exposed to Alan’s Gift, energized, the sparks of possibility dancing behind his eyes. Crispin had been the only one of that crew who’d really gotten how to use it. Moose always lacked the enginuity to see anything that wasn’t directly in front of him, and Alan knew better than to ever float the possibility of enhancing Jenelle’s Gift.

Rolling his shoulders a little to keep them loose, Alan hoped that the decision he was making here would turn out better. If it didn’t, at least this time he would see it coming from further away.

“Yeah, thanks.” Alan cracked a grin of his own. “I mean, your stuff was great too. Like, I didn’t know you could take a whole area like that, right? I ain’t ever seen anything like it in person.”

What he said was true. Lots of people at school tried to keep a lid on their abilities, whether out of necessity or a simple desire to avoid the serious danger and simple interpersonal drama that could come with unconstrained use of Gifts. The most visible stuff you’d get was from people like Lily, where everything was just an illusion.

And Ximena was very much the real deal.

“So, are you just out here all alone like me?” He asked after a moment, glancing past Ximena and into the compound.

Almost as if to answer his question, a scream echoed out from within the building.

“What the shit was that?” he asked, taking a step past Ximena in order to try to see what might be inside, but not daring to go any further.

[Kermit]

((Inside, about fifteen feet away, Astrid Millar stumbled through a doorway and into Alan's line of sight. She was lightly spattered with blood, most of which was dry. Her black eyes were squinting very tightly, but she was otherwise expressionless.))

"Hey! There's a gargoyle in the basement and I think it's eating David Penders." She called out breathlessly, flipping her hair and pointing her face sideways in the general direction of the others.

[Carrion Queen]

"Ah, haha. Shucks," she said, holding a pebble in each hand and flicking them with her fingers. In one hand the pebble spun in slow motion. In the other, it spun at manic speed. Ximena seemed to just be enjoying her newly heightened abilities.

"I'm actually here with --"

Then she heard it too. The glow abruptly zapped from her hands and both of the pebbles fell to the ground. Alan stepped past her and she turned to look after him. Just then, Astrid stumbled out.

"Dave?" she said, her blood going cold.

Emily.

Maybe it wasn't Emily. Maybe it was someone else.

"C'mon."

Ximena took off running back towards the staircase leading to the recesses.

((Ximena Rodriguez continued in Alone Infection ))

[Catche Jagger]

Astrid’s sudden appearance, spattered with blood, as well as her sudden announcement, left Alan speechless for a moment as his mind raced to answer the question of what the hell was happening.

“What are-? A gargoyle…? Who the fuck-?” He stammered out as he tried to get a grip on the situation. David Penders had been attacked? But what the fuck was this about a gargoyle? It had to be somebody’s Gift, right? Magic shit and monsters weren’t fucking real. And yet, Alan couldn’t recall anyone in their class having anything like that going on. Maybe it was one of the masked assholes?

Regardless, his mind turned towards joining Astrid in getting as far away from here as they could manage. Curiosity wasn’t worth getting killed over, which would inevitably follow if what she said about David was true.

But Alan’s considerations were cut short when Ximena ran right past him and Astrid, right into the compound.

“Hey hold on a sec! We-!” Alan called out, but she was already gone. Why the hell was everybody desperate to get themselves killed out here?

With a sigh, he turned his attention toward Astrid and thought to say something. However, he then recalled her Gift, and how obviously useless it was.

He swallowed and grit his teeth.

“Well… fuck me.” Alan hissed, giving a shrug and jogging off after Ximena, leaving Astrid behind.

((Alan Melnyk continued elsewhere...))