Who: Brianna and Archer When: sometime in April Where: Over There, Juniper Status: complete
This place was Hell, and Archer was slowly losing his mind. He was fairly certain of both of those things, even though the gradual creep of insanity might be contributing to his confidence in the first point. He had survived thus far -- and it felt like it had been years already -- but he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. Who wanted to live such a life? It wasn’t a life, it was pure animal survival, in a place that no animals from Earth had seemed to survive in. Or at least hadn’t been exposed to.
Archer had kept to himself for the most part, as much as was possible when one was relying on other people for protection. The black cop had taken it on himself to call most of the shots, and Archer was content enough to go along with that, some part of his brain clinging to authority in a place where none could actually exist. But as long as he didn’t go outside, he wouldn’t die an immediate violent death, and that was as much as he needed. He spent most of his time roaming the halls and the empty, rotting rooms of this horrible version of Juniper, just thinking. About the life he’d been ripped from -- Ezra, his job, his family, those few he counted as friends ... but there were other thoughts too. Much darker, bloodier ones. More and more, Archer couldn’t keep them at bay. When they felt like they might overwhelm him, he isolated himself in ‘his room’ and just sat with them, staring at the walls and vividly fantasizing. So far that had been all that had come of it, but with much longer in this place ... who knew. Who cared? Maybe that was an even more important question.
He had no sense of what time of day it was anymore, or even that there were days passing at all. Time had both lengthened and ceased to have any meaning. He just was, and everything else just was too, and would keep being forever and ever. Unless he took care of it. Archer felt that day was coming. Regardless, he was walking aimlessly around Juniper, not seeking anyone out but not avoiding them either, his eyes glazed in his dirty face and his pace slow and a little dreamy.
Since the moment they arrived, Brianna had not stepped foot outside of Juniper. It was safer in the building, staying close to Deputy Solomon and the others. There was no incentive to leave after all and if one of those creatures out there wanted to rip her apart, they would have to rip apart the rotted building first. Brianna didn't doubt there were probably monsters out there large enough to do so, but ignorance was bliss and she had purposely stayed away from looking outside, or trying to. Brianna had discovered quite quickly that her magic, as weak as it may have been, was useless here. She couldn't even spark a flame in her palm. The fire she had felt in her blood since her magic blossomed had gone, leaving her feeling empty and numb.
By now, she was feeling filthy. She fantasized daily about taking a hot shower. She fantasized about slipping into bed beside James and feeling him hold her. She fantasized about hugging her children. She fantasized about being fucked brainless by... well, she still didn't know his name. She probably never would at this point.
Brianna's fantasies were all that got her through the day. There was no desire to eat or drink anything, so what else did she need to survive? Her thoughts, apparently.
Walking back toward her room, she slowed a bit when she spotted one of the men who had ended up there with her. She knew his name, didn't she? Something strange, like Ash. Asher? Archer. They didn't talk much but Brianna didn't talk much to anyone but there but Miriam, and occasionally Ty. "Are you all right?" The question left her lips before she had even consciously decided to speak to him. But the man's eyes were a bit glassy and she wasn't sure if he had been hurt or not. Perhaps he was even sleepwalking.
Archer was facing the direction Brianna came from, but he didn’t even register her presence until she spoke. He knew her from around town -- he was from Overlook himself, and it was hard not to know the families there, even if there was a significant age gap between them. Brianna McCarthy. She was into real estate, he was fairly sure, and had a couple of crotch-goblins that were probably teenagers by now. Archer didn’t know if she knew him, but he supposed it didn’t matter now. Nothing mattered anymore. He looked at her, taking a couple of extra seconds to focus, blinked a few times, then smiled faintly. “What kind of question is that?” he asked, his tone light enough. “Are you?”
Brianna's brow arched sharply. "Of course I am. Don't I look fine?" Her tone was ripe with sarcasm, despite her best efforts to sound cool and collected. All it took was one look at her to know she wasn't all right and yes, she felt mildly stupid for having asked. Of course he wasn't all right. None of them were. Brianna was used to navigating social situations with ease, but this was like nothing she had ever experienced before, so yes, she had lost some footing. "You simply looked like you were in another place. Mentally," she added, because obviously they were somewhere else and she didn't need him telling her so.
Her sarcasm made his smile widen slightly, and then Archer nodded a bit. He had definitely been in another place mentally, and he honestly preferred to stay there. Even if it was filled with daydreams about slaughtering everyone trapped in this nightmare with him, including Brianna McCarthy. “I try to be anywhere but here as much as possible, mentally,” he said, studying her face. “How are you coping?” It wasn’t a question of how well she was coping -- because obviously none of them were doing that well, who would be able to in this place? -- but more a question about methods. Escape into fantasy like him? Denial? Continual false hope? Something else? Archer was curious now.
She couldn't blame him for that. She was sure everyone in this building was trying to find their own escapism. Had Brianna been anywhere else, in any other circumstance, she would have been appalled to be in front of anyone looking the way she did. Along with her family, she missed her spa treatments, her pedicures and massages. Generally she didn't care what people thought of her, but she still wanted to look and feel good around them. "How?" Brianna's lips twitched. "I suppose I'm doing my best to think about anything but this. I'm not sure how else to cope. There's nowhere to go, nothing to do. I think it's inevitable that we'll all go crazy eventually."
Archer hated everything about this, but he especially hated being so filthy and needing a haircut and how everything itched and he hadn’t been able to shave in God knew how long. He almost thought he could take the isolate and the fear if he’d just been able to bathe. But no, they were all going to die stinking and disgusting. Archer kept expecting some sort of infection to set in, but considering they didn’t need to eat or drink in this place, he didn’t know if they’d even be afforded that sort of mercy. Maybe they would live eternally in this stasis, until their brains ended up as mush. “Maybe that would be a relief,” Archer agreed in a mutter. “I’m surprised there haven’t been any suicides yet, myself.”
While she didn't have a lot of hope that they would be saved from this place, Brianna was not yet to the point where she was considering trying to end things herself. There was something deep inside that continued to hold on. "I suppose all it would really take is going outside," she said after a moment. What a pleasant conversation this was turning out to be. Brianna didn't want to think about being torn apart by those creatures though. There were obviously other ways to end it all, but who knew what would work here and what wouldn't. "I suppose there's the small possibility that we'll get out of here. The fog showed up in town once before, after all. It could happen again."
Walking outside unprotected to be a sacrificial lamb to the monsters that lurked out there ... Archer could kind of see the appeal. It was like giving into the nature of this place. But it wouldn’t be his preferred method to go, that was for sure. He wanted to experience as little suffering as possible, personally. For the people he wanted to take with him? That was a different story. Archer didn’t want to die without fulfilling his deepest darkest wishes. What was left for him here? He laughed a bit at Brianna’s overly optimistic suggestion. “And you think we’d just go right along with it?” he asked, cocking a brow at her. “There could be some hole to home open right now out there somewhere, and we’d never know.”
"I don't know what what would happen. I think it's safe to say this is an unprecedented situation for all of us, isn't it? Maybe we would go with it. Maybe we wouldn't. I guess there could be some hole to home out there, but... as long as we stay in here, we won't know." Brianna shrugged, trying to stay as nonchalant as she could, though it twisted her guts to think there could be a way home and they were all too afraid to walk out the doors of this place to find it. She didn't really like the way he smiled, like her desire to remain somewhat optimistic was a foolish one. "I'm not entirely sure what's left if I stop thinking there's some hope."
It certainly was an unprecedented situation. As far as they could tell, anyway. Besides the nightmare-versions of the buildings of Point Pleasant on this side of things, there were no signs of human life here. Though Archer didn’t know if that meant no other people had ever been trapped here, or all traces of them were just swallowed up by the place. It wasn’t like they’d launched expeditions to go explore everything, after all. Some people had taken a few quick trips out, but for the most part they were sheltering, that was all they could do. At least until they started to really lose their minds. Archer didn’t know whether he hoped that point came sooner, or later. “There’s nothing left but absolute freedom,” he told Brianna, a bit of amusement still on his face. “How long do we keep hoping? Do you even know how long it’s been so far?”
"Are you still hoping?" Brianna asked, avoiding his question about the time. No, she had no idea how long it had really been. There was no real way to distinguish day from night in this place and she had long since given up trying. "Or are you just wandering until you wander right out the door?" Brianna hadn't been to get snappy but she was exhausted and frightened and becoming increasingly terrified that she would truly die in this place. If her magic didn't work here, then she doubted anyone's would... James wouldn't be able to find her here. He wouldn't be able to get her out. The last thing she wanted was some scruffy faced semi-stranger staring at her with that look on his face.
Archer laughed unpleasantly again and shook his head. “I never started,” he told her. As soon as the situation really became clear to him, he’d bypassed all that hope and decided that they probably weren’t getting out of here. He’d expected to starve to death first, but since that apparently wasn’t happening, Archer figured this place was just toying with them until they fucked up enough to get eaten by all the big assholes that lived outside. It was only a matter of time. Archer just hoped he could make some of his own dreams come true before that happened. Sometimes he didn’t know what he was waiting for, but it just didn’t feel ‘right’ yet. “I’m just along for the ride now, and if you’re smart, you’ll join me. Why torture yourself with hope?”
Brianna didn't understand it but she supposed she couldn't judge anyone with how they were coping here. Maybe he didn't have anything, or anyone, waiting for him back home. Maybe he was a miserable person at heart and this place only intensified his misery. But she refused to feel stupid for clinging to some optimism. She needed it, otherwise she would give up and walk outside and into the fog. Her icy gaze narrowed. "Join you? You mean wandering around this place with a vacant expression? That doesn't sound like a very enjoyable ride to me. Someone sent us here... someone could bring us back. Do you know how many people are probably trying at this very moment?" Brianna had nearly said witches instead of people, but even here, with little hope, she wouldn't blurt that out to someone who would likely call her crazy.
He was getting under her skin at least a little, and Archer relished it on some level. He didn’t think he’d ever spoken to this woman in his life on the other side, but irritating her and sowing more doubt in her mind was satisfying in some way. He hadn’t had anyone to antagonize, and it was something of a comfort. “I mean join me in facing reality,” he corrected. He wandered because he couldn’t sit still, and if there was no outer escape, he could escape inward, he didn’t give a shit what it looked like on the outside. “If you’re expecting anything enjoyable about the rest of your life, you’re delusional. We’re here. No one’s bringing us back. They locked us away for a reason, and if someone could do it, it would’ve been done by now. All you’re doing is setting yourself up for more heartache later when rescue doesn’t come.”
He thought this was reality? This? This was not reality. This was a hellscape full of fog and monsters. None of them had eaten or had water in weeks and they were still alive. She wasn't even craving those things anymore. How was this real? Brianna thought about spending eternity here, wandering this building with nothing to live for but being unable to walk outside to certain death - and freedom. It was painful and triggered some sort of black moment in her mind, one that left her terrified that he might be right. Brianna had been trying so hard to cling to some hope that James would find her. He would gather the coven and save them somehow. If there had been a window nearby, one not boarded up, Brianna would have probably tried to push him out. If they were all going to die, she could just speed up the process for him. Instead she glared at him, imagining lighting his body on fire and watching him burn. "Shut up," she hissed, her fingers curling into fists. "If you're so sure of our inevitable doom here, why don't you just end it now and get it over with."
Archer was pissing her off now, that was plain enough to see. In spite of the dirt that covered everything in this place, he could see the color rising in her pale cheeks. His gaze ticked down to her clenched hands and he smiled again, still relaxed and amused by the whole thing. She was obviously still in deep denial. Maybe that was a survival instinct for a mother, Archer didn’t know, but he thought it was fucking stupid. This was their new reality, and if she couldn’t see that yet, that was her problem. “Because I don’t want to yet,” he said simply, giving her another wide smile. He still had more to do, and when he did go? He wasn’t going to go alone, Archer had already decided that. He wasn’t going to tell Brianna that, though. “The doom is already here. I’m just not lying to myself about it.” Pretty sure that if he lingered much longer she was going to take a swing at him, Archer turned to start to walk away.
Brianna would have tried to hit him. She definitely wanted to cause him some serious physical pain. So it was probably better that Archer was walking away from her. If there had been something heavy nearby for her to grab and toss at his head, she would have. The asshole. Exhaling through her nose, Brianna turned away to storm off in the other direction. He was just one more person Brianna needed to avoid. Although if she decided to become a murderer in this hellhole, he would be the first one to go.