InsaneJournal

Who: Maddie Kate Robinson, Nell Monarch, and Simon Curran
What: Nell and Simon get MK away from the fear gas.
When: During and after this
Where: Wren and MK's suite at Caesar's Palace
Warnings/Rating: Language and violent imagery.



The world was ending, MK was sure of it. The world was ending, and it seemed like one of those old homemade movies where the film was damaged. It shuddered violently, and it twitched about her, and everything sounded muffled. Her screams seemed so far away, like she had headphones in her ears, like she lost her hearing. She knew it was unsafe to be so exposed to all the bad things, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t fight them off as panic attacks and shouts rolled into each other, one after the other after the other.The corner of the hallway was a refuge, if only for a moment, as she dug her fingers into her head and buried her face in her knees. She could still feel the things looming over her tiny body, and every breath stolen just amplified the fear wracking her body mercilessly.

Wren screamed before, and so many people had promised to come stop the bad people, but MK couldn’t remember how long it had been. It felt like hours had passed honestly, and she began to worry that no one was coming at all. That no one would be there for her again. Or, worse, that Briggs and all the creatures vying for a taste of her successfully managed a stranglehold on them, too. The thought elicited another holler, this one hoarse and pathetic, and she looked up again. Right as Briggs and his men, the men who kidnapped her, closed in on her in her little corner. They smiled, and they reached forth, and an army of spiders crawled forth from their mouths and fingers and toes. She screamed, scratching her arms raw as the little bugs scuttled up her legs, over her body, in her hair. The scream could be heard throughout the suite, but whether it was discernible from the other three women was not MK’s concern. She just wanted it to end. All of it.

Nell had spent most of her Friday evening down in the casino at the Bellagio, honing her poker skills and getting pleasantly buzzed, making full use of the opportunity to forget who she was and focus on making new friends. By the time she made it up to her suite it was fairly late in the evening, and the alcohol in her bloodstream had her feeling good and happy. Dropping her shoes besides the couch, she had flicked through the entries on the journals, curious to see what everyone was up to. She had stopped real short real quick at the sight of Wren’s post, and MK’s panicked response has her out the door and down the stairs almost instantly.

Running barefoot down the strip was probably not the best idea Nell had ever had, but she neither noticed the plastic and junk cutting her feet, nor cared. It was a ten minute walk to get from the Bellagio to Caesar’s Palace, but Nell was running as fast as the Friday night crowds would let her, stopping only to respond to MK’s messages. She knew she had to get her friend out of there, just the same way she knew what was happening had something do with the doors business. This was Seattle all over again, and Nell wasn’t going to stand by and let the people she loved get destroyed again.

She ended up arriving at the suite through the courtyard, just in time to hear MK’s screams rip through the night air. Nell tried the glass doors once, twice, before picking up a rock and using years of target practice skills to hurl it straight through one of the glass window panes. A few seconds later she was through the door and in the suite, making her way through the room and into the hallway, to where she thought MK’s voice had come from. Panic threatened to rise in her chest as visions of what could be happening to her best friend flashed across her mind. Keep it together, Nell. So far she’s only hallucinating. She might not be hurt at all. Nell spotted the figure huddled in the dark corner of the hallway and ran straight for it, not stopping until she was on her knees in front of her friend. “Maddie Kate, it’s me, Nelly.” Nell watched for a moment as the redhead clawed at her arms, legs, hair, trying to brush off invisible critters that did not exist. She grabbed the hands that were rubbing skin raw, hoping to stop the madness before MK could draw any blood.“Maddie Kay, there’s nothing there, I promise.”

MK heard the crash of something against the glass door, but her brain didn’t register it at all. All her mind focused on was trying to catch her breath and shutting out the barrage of hallucinations. Because that’s what the people in the journal said they were right? Briggs couldn’t be there, his men couldn’t be there, he couldn’t be there with his green eyes instead of blue. But they were so tangible and real that the momentary logic lapsed into panic again, and she tucked her head between his legs as her nails continued their assault on her skin. Her arms and legs had an array of long, inflamed red marks where the spiders crawled up and wouldn’t stop. Wouldn’t stop, nothing would stop.

As something or someone grabbed her hands, MK shrieked a little and fought and tugged until whatever it was let go. She didn’t look up until she was released, and her eyes landed on a slightly blurry blond figure. Wren? No, it had said it was Nell, right? Blinking a few more times, Nell shook into focus, and MK almost allowed herself a relaxed smile. Almost. Instead, tears began to flow, and before she knew it, she was breathing even more heavily than before. And all of a sudden, the creatures and bad, bad men were back, looming behind Nell and inching closer and closer. MK looked at Nell, at one of her best friends in the world, in horror because Nell wasn’t Nell at all anymore. She, too, had the green glint in her eyes, the one only described to her in passing, and a sinister smile crawled up the blond’s lips. The spiders didn’t come out of her, but they scurried from behind her, and MK hollered again, trying her best to back away from the distorted figures.

Nell let out her breath when she saw MK’s smile. If she could recognize Nell, then Nell might have a chance to convince her that what she was seeing was not real. “Come on Maddie-” Nell’s words were cut short by more screaming, as MK tried to pull away from her deeper into the corner. Shit. She didn’t know what MK was seeing, but if she was scared of Nell there was no way they were going to be able to get out easily. “I’m really sorry about this, baby,” Nell said softly, before tightening her grip on her friend’s wrist and hauling her to her feet. The redhead continued screaming and thrashing as Nell half-dragged, half-carried her down the hall, proving to be quite a challenge for even Nell’s vigilante strength. Slowly and not-so-quietly, they made it to the end of the hall to the room Nell had entered through. The blonde stopped in the doorway, breathing deeply before preparing herself for round two.

“I knew you’d come back.” The voice that called out from the dark room froze Nell where she stood, momentarily forgetting the screaming and kicking girl in her arms. No. It couldn’t be. But the voice was unmistakable, and sure enough, a figure stepped forward the shadows, the courtyard light glinting off the gold watch on its arm. The gold watch she had given him. Nell’s eyes went wide as her ex-fiancé stepped into the light, a wicked grin on his face. Before she could say anything, another figure emerged next to him, a girl from one the classes she had TA’d. The girl was wearing nothing but her ex’s shirt, and Nell could only watch on in horror as the pair wrapped their arms around one another and began going at it. “No,” Nell whispered softly, closing her eyes to force away the vision. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. She was here to get MK. She needed to stay calm. Stay focused. “NO!” She said again, but this time with enough volume and force to even shock MK into standing still for a moment.

Simon made it to Caesar’s in record time. He gave the cab driver a hundred bucks, and the guy cut the ride from his apartment to the casino from twenty minutes down to five. He jumped out of the car before it had totally stopped and paused only long enough to skid up to his friend, a sort of jack-of-all trades concierge someone had tipped him off to when he came to town, the kind of guy who would pick up anything for you if you had the cash to tip him. Simon took the shopping back of gas masks and ran for the suite. Someone would probably snap a picture of him running for the place. They could go fuck themselves. He made it to the courtyard only about a minute after Nell, but the broken doors made his heart seize with fear. If anyone had laid a hand on those girls -

He pulled one of the masks out of the bag and slid it down over his face. If this shit was in the air, somebody needed to be functional enough in there to get everybody out. He knew there was a chance it would scare MK, but he’d made sure to grab a shirt he thought she’d recognize, and every bit of him was visible except the mouth.

He spotted her immediately, and he skidded to a stop next to her and the blonde he didn’t recognize, the one with the death grip on her hand. He pulled up the mask just enough to speak quickly before dropping it again. “MK!” His eyes were clear, and he extended a hand to the both of him, waving toward the door. They needed to get the fuck out of there, and the sooner the better. He saw a few more people go by out of the corner of his eye, he assumed to get the rest of the girls.

The monsters had gotten a hold of her. They finally did it. MK thrashed about, kicking and screaming like a madwoman possessed, while she tried to break the grip around her to no avail. The only thing that made her pause for a moment was the loud NO right in her ears when she and not-Nell moved into the bedroom. Startled, she looked around for a moment at the room as the shadowy figures creeped in at the corners of her vision. Her father, with his ginger hair just like hers and a swivel in her step, appeared suddenly, and that made her jerk just a little in the blonde's arms. She saw Briggs with his wicked grin and his men with their strong arms and stronger grips and him, him, him. The green eyes, so lifeless and sinister at the same time, bore into her, and she couldn’t control the hysterical cries as she tugged at her captors arms again. She would save him, she would.

The shout of a familiar voice echoed in the back of her mind, and she turned in the direction of the noise. MK, that was her name, right? She couldn’t wrap her mind around what was going on, why the blond holding her shouted so vehemently, or why another monster just shouted her name. He was tall and had a mask, and she recognized something about him. But it wasn’t enough to quell another wave, and she began to thrash more violently than ever, pushing and scratching and kicking to try to get the monster to release her hold. “LEAVE ME ALONE, LEAVE ME ALONE, LEAVE ME ALONE.” The spiders were still crawling, and she felt more fingers brushing against her, and she hollered more when she looked at the monster in the mask again.

The image in front of Nell’s eyes had taken a turn for the worse. Her ex and his flame had morphed into Nell’s mother and a younger version of Nell herself, back in the days when she was just a pre-teen being forced into vigilantism. While watching her mother abuse her was much more horrifying than watching her ex cheat on her, it assured Nell that what she was seeing was not real. Her mother was dead, and she was certainly no longer ten years old. The stuff that had affected MK and Wren was probably starting to get to her too, which meant she needed to ignore everything she was seeing and focus on dragging MK out that door. Of course, MK wasn’t making it easy. She had taken to scratching Nell as much as herself, and it was obvious that they were both going to be covered in angry red marks when this was done. Luckily Nell was accustomed to more than a little pain, and she managed to retain her death grip on her friend’s arms despite the violent thrashing and screaming.

She didn’t see the figure until it was right next to them, and at first she wasn’t certain he wasn’t just another figment of her imagination. But the man was unfamiliar, and he had something on his face that Nell didn’t recognize enough to think could be something she had made up. Its identity became obvious when he lifted it quickly to speak. A gas mask. Whoever this guy was had thought out what he was doing before he got here. Good. Nell didn’t entirely trust the stranger, but she knew she could use the help to get MK outside. Giving him a quick nod, she shifted her weight forward once again, forcing her resisting friend forward. “Come on, baby. We have have to go outside.”

Simon was starting to seriously curse not bringing the masks in with him, but of course, there was no knowing if that would make any difference once you were exposed. As it was, his eyes were watering a little, and the dim apartment filled with screams had the air of hell. He needed to get them both out of there, and thankfully the blonde seemed like she hadn’t been affected as badly. Maybe she was the one who’d broken the door down?

He didn’t see any other option with MK kicking and screaming than to get her out by force. Simon wasn’t big, but he was strong for his size, in part by necessity - people might come after you if you were smaller and they thought they could take you, but once they’d seen you prove you could fight better than most guys twice your size, they left you alone. He plied that strength now, picking up MK like she didn’t weigh a thing, slinging her over his shoulder, and gesturing to the other girl, making a beeline for the door.

Before she knew it, MK was scooped up by the monster, and she began moving around more than ever. “Let me go, LET ME GO!” She tried yelling in his ear, tried reaching forward to bite, tried punching his back, but nothing was working. The monster was stronger than she assumed, and in the end she resigned a little, taking a deep breath and slumping in its grip for a moment as her eyes fluttered shut. It was all over. That was it. She was finished, done, dead, and all her kicking and flailing did nothing to save her. Weak. She was weak, and she couldn’t save anyone. Couldn’t save Wren or Brielle or Alice. Couldn’t save him. Couldn’t save herself.

Her throat ached from all the screaming, and her eyes burned even as they were closed. She was still crying hysterically, heaving uncontrollable breaths in and out, and the skittering sensation up and down her skin continued. She began to wriggle a little bit, trying to shake it all off, before the whisper of a voice made her eyes snap open again. “MK. MK.” Taunting her, reaching out for her. It wasn’t the figure that dragged her before or the monster that snatched her up, but the voice was familiar and not at the same time. Like a distant memory that took a moment to remember clearly. Her eyes darted around the hallway for a moment, and the figures (Briggs, his henchmen, her father) were all converging and becoming him. Her vigilante, following behind them, looked so liked the man she loved so many years ago, and her fingers reached out to touch him. But the touch burned, and the second her hand brushed over him she jerked it back. He smiled then, and his poisonous green eyes glinted with mischief and venom. “I’m taking you with me, MK.” And when she looked in horror, more spiders, bigger than before, jumped forward from his outstretched hand right onto her.

She screamed bloody murder then and began wriggling more in the monster’s arms, slapping and punching herself as best she could until her hands reached her face. Nails dug deep into her cheeks, and her screams came out like long sirens. Marks would certainly be there, blood might have been drawn, but MK clearly didn’t notice or care. She just dug her fingers and scratched herself bloody as she tried to kick into her captor’s chest.

Nell had relinquished control of her friend to the man in the gas mask and was following them out the door, using her suddenly-free concentration to block out the images that were threatening to encroach out of the corner of her eye. The night was barely this side of warm, but the shock of the fresh air combined with the outdoor lights was enough to ground her in the present once again. Her visions temporarily taken care of, she took to tending to MK once again, who was obviously feeling none of the relief that had come with going outside. Whatever MK was seeing was still terrifying her, and apparently much more than before. “No, MK.” Nell dove for her friend, forcefully prying the fingers away from her face before she could draw more blood. “Sweetheart, it’s not real. Maddie Kay, can you hear me? It’s not real.” She looked up at the stranger in the gas mask, her eyes asking silently what they should do next.

Simon set MK down as soon as they got outside the doors. He had no other choice. He got them clear of what little broken glass had been scattered outside by running feet, and then dropped her to the ground, his arm still wrapped around her, tight as a vise. His other hand grabbed for hers, to pull them from her face. He quickly ripped off the gas mask and grabbed her right wrist, struggling to capture the other before she did herself any more harm. "MK! Jesus Christ, MK, listen to her. You're safe! There's nothing here!" Her kicks and punches bruised him, but still, he refused to let go. He was too afraid of what she might do to herself if he did.

“Get them off! Oh my god, get them off!” MK’s free hand still scratched and hit every place she could reach. Her face and arms had angry red marks and tiny dents where her nails bore into her cheeks. Eyes squeezed shut, she only reacted to the voices when she got placed on the ground. Still wriggling under the grip of whatever held her, she shouted, “No, they’re here! Spiders! And him! He wants to take me with him!” It was nonsense to them, but it made perfect sense to her, of course. While the dry, Las Vegas air helped relieve the symptoms for the others, MK had been exposed from the beginning, and the barrage of hallucinations seemed to follow out of the suite. “Help, help, help!” She began to push against the monster’s chest with her eyes still closed tightly. “Wren! Alice! Brielle! Someone has to help us! GET OFF!” She pushed hard again, more violently than before, but she still wasn’t strong enough.

Nell knelt on the ground besides MK, catching hold of whatever limbs managed to escape Simon’s grip. “Maddie Kay, there are no spiders, I swear. And I won’t let anyone take you anywhere, I promise.” Nell couldn’t do much about MK’s visions, but she could sure as hell hold to her promise. “I’m sure Wren and the others are okay too,” she said, looking briefly at Simon before turning her attention back to her friend. Despite her formerly buzzed state, Nell remembered seeing quite a few people offering to come up to get the girls. Besides, Nell knew that Luke worked here, and she would bet an arm and a leg that he was doing everything he could to get Wren out of there. “I’m sure Luke got them out, baby. I’m sure they’re safe.” Nell had no idea how much effect her words were having, but apart from holding MK down to stop her from hurting herself, she didn’t know what else to do.

"She's right," Simon said, keeping as tight a hold on her as he could manage. "I talked to Luke, and I'm sure I saw him. He got the other girls out. Everyone is fine." Did he know it for a fact? No. But he couldn't afford to be a hundred percent honest when MK's very sanity might be at stake. They could worry about the other girls once she'd calmed down. If she calmed down. He gritted his teeth. No, she'd be fine, she'd get through this. And then he was going to take apart whoever had done this with a pipe wrench.

All the fighting was making her tired, but MK felt that her life depended on getting free from the hold. If she could just get away, she could tuck herself away again, could find a better hiding spot from everything harassing her. When her other hand was grabbed, she finally opened her eyes again. They were dilated, unfocused, and darted back and forth between the two figures surrounding her. The fog in her mind cleared for a moment, and some things started to click. Nell, holding her hand with a vise-like grip and a concerned look in her eyes, and Simon with his arms wrapped around her tightly. “Y-y-you came,” MK stuttered out, eyes coming back into focus as they came awash with tears. “They’re ev-v-verywhere, guys. Briggs is here somewhere. He’s angry, he’s really angry.” Because why wouldn’t he be? “And he’s here, but he can’t be here. He can’t be.” Tears streamed down her face, and she turned to Simon, to his bright blue eyes. “Help. Stop them.”

“Of course, we came, Maddie Kay.” Nell loosened her grip on MK with one hand while pushing the red strands away from the girl’s face with the other. “It’s not real, sweetheart. I know it doesn’t make sense, but it’s not real. And it can’t hurt you.” She bit her lip when MK started crying, the alcohol and hallucinations finally clearing up enough for her to understand who the ‘he’ in the situation must be. “He’s not here, MK. Whoever it is, it’s not him.”

Simon watched MK. It was really, really hard to watch her cry and not be able to do anything about it. "Nobody's hurting you and nobody's going to hurt you," he said. "Whoever you saw, they're not here. It's just the three of us. And the other girls already got out, they're safe too. Everyone is fine. What you saw was just the thing that was in the air in there, and that's it." He didn't hold her quite so tightly then. He didn't want to bruise her any more than she'd already bruised herself trying to wrench from his grip and claw at her own face.

The redhead seemed placated for the moment. They had loosened their holds on her, and she definitely felt less trapped, which had added to her panic. She felt so out of control still, and though their words met her ears, she didn’t believe them. They were so real, weren’t they? All those men. And how could all the crawling feel so real? She still felt them skittering over her skin like they were searching for something. Squeezing her eyes shut, she moaned. “You don’t understand,” she whispered. But she felt so lethargic, and her head was heavy in a way that made it hard to argue. Her eyes opened again, but they weren’t very focused and heavy-lidded. Dizziness wracked her body. “Don’t. Feel. Good.” She said the words through quiet sobs as she became more and more lightheaded. She wanted to get out of there, and looked at both with pleading eyes while she moved to lean into Simon more, her head resting on his chest.

Nell hesitated, almost reaching forward to shake MK awake, before reconsidering. She must have tired herself with all the fighting and the screaming, and being away from whatever had made her hallucinate inside must have let her body finally feel the exhaustion. It was better that she remained asleep, as carrying a sleeping MK would be infinitely easier than carrying the thrashing one had been. “We need to take her somewhere,” she said to the still unknown man holding her friend. She knew full well just how much MK hated hospitals (they had that in common), and was going to do everything she could to keep the girl away from them. “I have a suite a few minutes away, where I can watch her through the night until this wears off.” Nell couldn’t say for sure how she was certain that the effects of the gas inside could wear off, but she had a feeling it would. Las Vegas was quickly turning into another Seattle, which meant that the things that went wrong happened because they weren’t like everyone else.

She was scaring the hell out of Simon, that much was official. "She should go to the hospital," he said, looking down the strip at the Bellagio with reluctance. "Alright, we can take her to the hotel, but if she gets worse, she goes to the hospital. I'm worried this thing might be a virus or something, make her sick on top of seeing shit." The only thing that kept him from insisting she go to the hospital was the real likelihood they'd lock her up somewhere if they took her in. He couldn't stand that - but he wasn't going to watch her die, either. He'd just watch her closely, and be ready to take her in at any time.

Simon supported MK's weight before gently picking her up again, this time carrying her in front of him so she'd have a slightly smoother ride. "Point me in the right direction."

Nell nodded, rising quickly to her feet. “We’ll take her in first thing tomorrow if she doesn’t get better.” She punched a quick few strokes into her phone, before gesturing to the man to follow her across the courtyard. “There’s a cab waiting out back. I don’t want anyone to see her like this.” Ever since MK had achieved tabloid notoriety, the paparazzi had taken to following MK with the same fervor that they did Nell. She knew that nothing could be done about the pictures that would surface of her running barefoot down the strip, but she was going to spare MK as much embarrassment as possible. Luckily, the Bellagio was great as discretion, and having the Chairman Suite gave Nell even more leeway than most.

“You’ll be okay, sweetheart,” she muttered as she pushed back the hair from her unconscious friend’s forehead, before leading the man carrying her friend into the dark shadows of the night.