InsaneJournal

Who: Alice, Brielle and Brian
What: NBD just some weaponized hallucinogens.
Where: The Cat Scratch Club (aka Wren's pad)
When: That night of a thousand fears!
Warnings: SERIOUS LACK OF MATT BOMER (lol you guys the tags on this post sounds like the best fan art ever. someone draw sif, ivy and lois having tapas and beer. immediately)



Brian did not have a superhero living in his mind, but he had Lois. And when his panic about his sister being in some kind of danger kicked in, Lois stopped being a raging lunatic about what he’d told Stella and actually became mildly helpful for a change. More than mildly helpful. She told him, in no uncertain terms, that his sister was in danger and it was up to him to go figure it out. And she told him everything she thought it was. And there was the experience at Arkham to draw on.

He was mostly terrified, this was not his usual evening activity. But this was his sister, and he wasn’t about to let any harm come to her if he could manage to stop it. He pulled up to valet at the hotel and almost forgot to leave the parking attendant his keys, chucking them in his general direction, and hurrying up to where he hoped Alice would be.

Alice wasn’t aware of the picture she made. All she knew was the danger nipping at her heels, the frantic pounding of her blood in her ears, the absolute burn in her lungs as she struggled for air in heaving gasps. She didn’t know that that there was no actual danger, no things lurking, no pres of wall and shadow closing in on her.

When they tell her to run, she ran. Sif was the fighter and Alice didn’t think herself particularly brave. She had been trapped in her room for what felt like an eternity, pressing her back against the walls trying to escape. When she saw Wren’s go-ahead she bolted, whipping open the doors of her room and tearing through the suite. She didn’t have to see her attackers now, she knew - simply knew - they were there, barreling toward her and making her pick up the pace in her bare feet and pajamas. She was at least in enough good shape to make it through the door in quick time, only to careen headlong into someone.

She backed up with a cry, a hard push to that someone’s chest to get away. Her wide and fearful eyes lifted to look at his face and recognition flickered in on the tail end of her shove. “B-Brian?” His name was sputtered and choked, her voice too used to screaming and crying to form actual words perfectly on the fly. She looked like hell, like she’d seen a ghost or seven, and she would’ve said much the same.

Brian’s hands landed on his sister’s shoulders and he looked at her with an expression between concern and confusion. “Alice, what happened?” he asked looking around for any kind of indication about that had gone wrong here. Lois in his head was rattling off her thoughts on the matter and nothing sounded good. First thing first, he should probably get her out of here. His hands were heavy and firm on her shoulders lest she try and beat him to death, but also because he didn’t want her to pry herself loose.

“There’s... There...” It was painful for Alice to try to get words out, her need for air in her lungs overpowering her attempts to warn. She didn’t try to slip out from his embrace and her hands stopped pushing at him and started to press her palms to his chest, trying to get his attention, as if she didn’t already have it. “We--We need--” Even now the effects of the suite weren’t gone from her and though she had a moment of reprieve with the shock of seeing Brian there, the fear was starting to creep up her spine once more. And now in the hallway, she realized she had been alone.

“Oh god, the-- Wren! Brielle! MK!” The other girls were still back there, still with those things, where the shadows crept and strangled and choked. She both looked back to the suite to see where the other girls were and recoiled in horror at the thought of ever setting foot there again.

There was a scream from somewhere deeper within, sudden and blood curdling. It was a sound of unbelieving anguish, and on top of that, fear. Brielle was still inside because she picked a hell of a time to move in. The suite's layout was entirely foreign to her, so while getting out would have been the best decision, she somehow instead managed to get lost in the area of the living room.

Brian had no idea what Alice was talking about. From what he could tell there was nothing terrible happening. She seemed to be righting herself and he had to wonder if they were using some kind of illegal drugs in there. It wasn’t unheard of, and they certainly weren’t hard to get. Great. A suite full of girls on a bad trip. “Alice take a deep breath,” he said and started to say something else when he heard the scream. Yep. A suit full of girl on a bad trip. He walked his sister over to the wall in the hallway and put her back against it. “Stay.” He said firmly. And turned to walk into the suite.

He didn’t know what he was going to find when he opened the door, and stepped inside. There weren’t any immediate feelings, or anything wrong. Just a bit of tension in the air. “Hello? It’s Brian Harper, Alice’s brother.” He said announcing himself because that was only polite. He coughed a bit, but didn’t think much of it when he saw Brielle looking lost. In the living room. “Hello?” He got a feeling like he might want to get out of here as soon as possible, but he put that off to being in a shitty situation. “Come on, I’ll take you with Alice to my house,” he said looking around getting more nervous by the second. Shit. “Come on,” he said more firmly. They needed to get the hell out of here.

“Brian you—” But it was too late already. He was back in the suite where it all began and from the corners she could see the shadows grow and slide to overtake him. She tried to stop him, but soon she felt that same stranglehold creep up against her once more. At once she was against the walls, keening cries as she clawed at her neck to loosen their grip and tried to find air.

Everything seemed darker than usual to Brielle, and it was impossible to see. She scrambled uselessly around the living room, a ping pong ball in motion with no definitive target, only the need to keep moving. She didn't know why, she didn't know what was after her, but anxiety crawled up through her chest with such ferocity that it felt like if she slowed down, she'd die. Ivy's voice was strong and reasonable, as plants knew nothing of fear. What did nature need to fear? Ivy was fuming about someone named Crane and alternately insisting that Brielle still, but Brielle could not still. She fumbled into an end table a moment later, and a lamp came crashing to glass bits at her feet. From it's busted core, with electrical wires short circuiting, a pinch of smoke seemed to rise. And that was really all it took to set loose the idea of fire. Flames brewed at her feet and licked up the walls, paper peeled in thick, curling sheets of dead grey and Brielle lacked the poise of a martyr. She crumbled to her knees in a fit of desperate sobbing before setting off at a quick crawl. She had to find the balcony, she had to jump off. Ivy grew quiet, because the idea of fire was briefly paralyzing, but not quite as much as the idea of a freefall onto the strip. Snap out of it!

Brian was mucking about, his heart rate increasing, he hated this suite and he was about to have his sister and Wren move in permanently. It was by the grace of God that he managed to find Brielle at all. She was crawling for the door looking horrified and he knew that was a bad plan. “Don’t go out there,” he said in a panicked voice. He leaned down and took her arm, “We have to get out. Now.” There wasn’t time, he was pretty sure the walls were starting to crumble for no good reason, but he didn’t care what the reason was, this building was going to fall. Right now. And Alice was still in the hallway.

She could hear their voices but it was a distant and dull roar in her ears. Instead her attention was all on the pounding of her heart, her nails clawing at her neck to break the hold choking her, and the unsettling laughter the shadows gave. Sif was screaming, trying to calm her with sheer force of will, but it was to no avail. It was a scenario she had been in before, a figure in the dark, a burn in her chest and a pressure at her throat. But Alice was no fearless warrior and the few times air could rush through her lungs she could only whimper and try to get away, finding only walls at her back keeping her trapped.

Brielle didn't hear him, but she felt the clamp of steel fingers on her arm, and god, it all came back to her in a rush of fear that was so much more familiar than fire. She stilled, she froze really. Then, because it was her only defense, she began to cry. Brown eyes with huge, rolling tears that sloped angular cheeks. "Please," the word was shaking in it's boots. "I'm sorry," she pleaded for him to understand while kneeling there, raising an arm as a defensive veil.

She dropped it a moment later because she was forced to remember that defense never helped. It would only hurt her, it would only make the slaps and the choking worse. Ivy, as an outsider, did not necessarily view this figure as violent.. but he was a man, and he was human. He was still a threat in every sense of the word, and it was Ivy's voice that shot through her like a barbed sword, Run.. the hotel, run.. But Brielle couldn't run, she couldn't even move from where she was withered and sobbing, begging on the floor. I will save you. It was an incentive, and it was a spring of hope where no hope had existed in too many years. Half-choking, she turned on him like a wild thing. Sinking her teeth into the hand that clutched her arm, Brielle tore loose and scrambled like whiplash chaos out of the suite. How she found her way out now would later be a mystery, but it was something intrinsic. All DNA, all survival, all Ivy. Once out of the suite, the fear did not lessen, but she was finally able to stand. She was able to run, and she didn't look back, not once.

Brian yelled louder than he probably needed to when she bit him, he was trying hard to coax her to come with him, but the intensity of the bite coupled with the fear that was rising up with each passing second sent him running out of the room sure she’d just taken his hand off completely. He didn’t see where she’d run off to, and he only had one real thing on his mind as he left, “Alice?!” he hollered as he approached her in the hallway. “We have to get out of here, now.” He said crouching down and taking her by the arms and hauling her back to her feet. He’d drag her home if he had to.