InsaneJournal

Don’t let go of me, no matter what.
Who: Laura and Rapunzel
What: Laura fights a monster/inner demon
when: 1/25
Where: somewhere in the fog near Rapunzel's place
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13 for blood



As the fog had gotten denser, Laura had grown more and more anxious. With limited communication outside of the apartment, she hadn’t tried to venture very far except for the first day.

But she worried about Rapunzel. Furiosa and Capable were capable of taking care of themselves, but Rapunzel was… less so. Stubborn and strong in her own way, she’d never had to fight the kind of things that Laura had encountered so far.

Something smelled off. She never got lost, yet here she was, lost. But something smelled wrong. Laura stopped, the claws in her hands slowly sliding out as she listened carefully around her.

Something moved out of the fog. A girl, no more than ten, bloodied with red eyes, and two little claws in each hand. Laura dodged as the girl leapt at her. The claws cut deeply into her cheek, but she didn’t strike back. “No. No no. I won’t hurt you, I won’t.”

The girl turned around, and Laura felt like she was looking into her own eyes. She sheathed her claws, blinking away tears. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for what you became.”

“What did I become?” The girl stepped forward, and she started to grow, tall and lanky, with razor sharp teeth and claws on each finger. She looked like a distorted version of herself, covered in blood and gore. “You’re looking in a mirror, Laura. This is what’s inside of you!”

Panic overwhelmed her and Laura started to run. Hands grabbed at her feet and other creatures leapt at her, but she could only focus on trying to outrun her demon.

This was probably one of the creepiest situations that Rapunzel had been in because she had never had to experience something like this at all. It had started off nonchalant and then it turned into chaos, which had landed Rapunzel in the role of playing healer because she realized her abilities worked better inside the home, but unfortunately it wasn’t safe there. The monsters that had been reported outside in the OC had also come to life inside of her apartment and she wanted nothing more than to find Laura and make sure she was okay. And alright, she wanted Laura to help protect her as well because Rapunzel was most definitely not a fighter.

Armed with only her trusty frying pan she was trying to find her way in the fog. It seemed that at every turn she heard a creepy voice trying to whisper in her ear and sensations that caused goosebumps on her arms. In the shadows she could sense something and she didn’t want to run into the mother from her dreams as she continued to run and hope that she was making her way to Laura’s place. That’s when she managed to collide with someone and she let out a scream.

Laura slammed into someone and popped her claws. She landed hard on her butt, then jumped up, turning her head to look for her twisted doppleganger. She'd disappeared.

She looked at what she had run into, then sheathed her claws. "Rapunzel. Oh no." She leaned over her. "Did I hurt you? We need to get out of here it's chasing me."

Laura sounded remarkably calm, but she didn’t look it.

After a quick once over she was able to safely reply to Laura, “No, I’m fine, promise. And something is chasing me too. It hasn’t come out of the fog yet, but I can sense it looming. I mean… I’ve got my frying pan, but that’s about it.” She tried to twirl the frying pan in her hand and immediately dropped it with a curse. She bent back down to grab it and felt something cold go up her spine and she shivered.

“What is going on? This is seriously freaky,” she couldn’t help but frown as she tried to look around and find what had caused that strange sensation. The monsters were just there in the distance breathing down their necks and Rapunzel wasn’t sure what to do.

“I don’t know.” There were only a few ways this could get worse, and Laura didn’t want to find out if the Fog was going to throw the trigger scent at her. She couldn’t recall if she’d ever told Rapunzel about that, but she grabbed her hand. “Don’t let go of me, no matter what. And if you see a really ugly looking me, that’s not me.”

That wasn’t her. She wasn’t a monster, that wasn’t her.

“I love you.” It was almost an after thought, as she started to pull Rapunzel through the fog. Something leapt out at them.

There were so many things that she wanted to asked about what Laura had just said, but there really was no time. They needed to get to shelter even if it wouldn’t be completely safe. It was most likely a better option than staying out here. So, instead of filling the air with questions she reached out to hold onto Laura’s arm and stayed close.

An ugly looking Laura? Not her? Oh god, what had they gotten themselves into?

“I love you too,” she managed to whisper back because she was afraid her voice would call the monsters to them. When the thing leapt out she let out a scream again and lashed out with her hand that held the frying pan. Her eyes were closed when she swung and she just prayed she hit something.

The heavy clanging of the pan rang out as the monster was knocked back with surprising strength. Lara looked at Rapunzel with an impressed expression, then proceeded to tug her further. “We’re almost there, just hold on!”

The monster loomed up, between them and safety. Like Laura had said, it looked like a twisted, grotesque version of her, and she nearly shrank back from it, before mustering her courage and charging straight towards the creature, Rapunzel in tow.

The expression on Laura’s face made Rapunzel grin a little despite the terror she was feeling inside. It was a lucky hit and she wasn’t sure that she would be able to keep it up if they didn’t make it back to a shelter soon. She allowed herself to be pulled along only for the sheer fact that she refused to lose Laura in the fog and end up by herself.

When she finally caught sight of the monster she couldn’t help but drop her jaw in surprise. Her eyes went wide as she felt a terror jolt through her, but Laura wasn’t wasting any time. Suddenly they were going in for an attack and Rapunzel couldn’t help but just watch in awe because she had never seen her girlfriend fight like this before.

"The apartment is right ahead," Laura said, right before she swung Rapunzel around and practically threw her past her demon self. Then she jumped, kicking the evil Laura in the face and cutting a deep slash in her with her foot claw. She sprung back, dodging to the side as the monster slashed at her.

Fear gripped her gut, the kind of fear she'd never really experienced before. But she had to fight this thing, had to fight herself. She attacked again, brutally trying to disembowel. It seemed to work, and she darted past the demon. "Get inside! Get inside!"

The creature attacked one more time before Laura could get inside, slashing deeply into her back. She stumbled on the stairs. Like the cut on her cheek, her powers weren't working on the cut on her back.

Rapunzel’s hands went out in front to catch herself and she winced as she scuffed them up in the fall. However, she was able to watch Laura fully and she was almost frozen in awe before Laura’s alarmed voice shook her out of her thoughts. Oh god, when her girlfriend started yelling like that then that meant it was time to get the hell out of here.

She ran towards the stairs and made her way inside, but not before noticing that Laura had been attacked once more. Rapunzel stepped out of the house to get one more good swipe in at the monster and pulled Laura into the house, “Why aren’t you healing? Do you need me to heal you?!”

The door swung shut, and the pain in Laura’s back gradually went away as the wound started to close up, slowly. Much too slowly, more slowly than it should have. But Laura was more concerned for Rapunzel than her self. She grabbed her hand, strands of sweaty hair falling in front of her face. “Are you okay?”

Her face was completely pale by now, but she was fairly sure that the adrenaline was the only thing keeping up on her feet at the moment. She noticed the wound was finally starting to heal and she quickly pulled on Laura’s hands to pull her further into the house. “I’m alright, but you’re not healing very fast. Let me see if I can assist you,” she closed her eyes and began to sing the healing song and prayed that it would help Laura out.

Laura closed her eyes, groaning a little bit as Rapunzel’s magic did it’s work and the wound finally closed. So that was what it felt like to have someone else heal her. She sat up, gingerly, then wrapped her arms around Rapunzel as if she was going to never let her go. She buried her face into her chest. “Are you okay?”

It was amazing to watch her hair actually manage to heal someone else. Rapunzel watched intently to make sure that things were fine before Laura enveloped her in a hug and Rapunzel couldn’t help but return it in kind, “I swear I’m okay. A little scared of going out there again, but I’m so glad I found you. Are you okay? You took the hurt and your healing wasn’t working properly.”

“Something about that fog.” Laura shook her head, and held onto Rapunzel tighter for a moment, before she let go and say back on her haunches. “It must affect my powers. Maybe it’s a mental thing. But that … creature… seemed real enough.” She looked back towards the door. It hadn’t come in. In fact it seemed to have disappeared as though it was never there. Was it all in her head?

“That fog is crazy. I felt so odd being in it and I hate that the monsters are able to use it to hide in there. You would never be able to predict what’s going to happen because of it,” Rapunzel frowned a little. That was probably the point of the fog, but why in the hell was it happening? “It did seem real, Laura. I saw it. I don’t think you should go outside anymore. Maybe hiding out in here is a better idea. What if they hurt you worse?”

“I’ll be fine.” She didn’t sound fine. She looked at Rapunzel, fear in her eyes, though the fear was less for herself. “But what if I hurt you?” She gripped Rapunzel’s arms. “That thing is inside me. All it would take is the right circumstances to come out. Or a trigger scent.”

“You won’t hurt me, I promise. I think that thing only happens out there. I haven’t seen anything like that in the buildings,” which was totally jinxing her for something awful to start happening, but for now she hadn’t noticed the monsters inside her house yet, “I just don’t want you to get lost in the fog and end up possibly dying and I’ll have no idea. The phones aren’t working out there.”

“I am not going back out,” Laura promised. She could tell Rapunzel about the trigger scent later. Another day. She doubted that was a danger right now. Loosening her grip on Rapunzel, she stood, and ran her hands through her hair. “Has anyone else come?”

“No, you’re the only person I’ve seen lately. School has had classes cancelled because of the fog, but there’s been a couple. Now, let’s get you some food or a drink,” Rapunzel still had some of their alcohol left over from New Year’s, “You need to sit down or something. That was pretty heavy. I don’t want you to exert yourself .”

“I am not used to being injured for long,” Laura admitted. She let Rapunzel fuss over her and took a seat on the couch. For all that she was acting like everything was fine, inside she was, in a word, distressed. Her hands were even shaking.

“We’ll just relax,” Rapunzel was more than happy to fuss with Laura. It took her mind off of the whispers that she was hearing in her apartment. It meant a lot more to take care of Laura instead of herself because it was a little scary to see her indestructible girlfriend get hurt. Maybe things would be okay tomorrow when they woke up.