WHO Luke Crain and OTA •
WHERE Waypoint in the woods •
WHEN Tuesday
Luke Crain Arrives In Vallo
WARNINGS Panic and Anxiety, Luke has a lot of personal demons that manifest around him
He'd arrived in the woods, and so he'd gone back to the woods. That had been the way in, maybe there was a way out. Besides, the darkness pulled to him, spoke to him as only darkness could. Beckoning him to the heart of it, to the darkest places, to the deepest depths of the forest where no one would find him.
He paced over the spot that sang to him, the place where he felt called. His feet moved, his fingers twitched, his lips recited the numbers. One-two-three-four-five-six-seven. Again. One-two-three-four-five-six-seven. Nothing would interrupt his mantra, his focused muttering. Seven was his magic number, seven was his focus, his goal, his sense of self.
Somewhere behind him, a branch snapped. His ears perked. His lips continued their mantra, his fingers counted off the numbers one by one. "It's better if you touch them," he'd told Nellie when he showed her the seven buttons to count after she'd seen The Bent Neck lady. He touched his fingers, one by one, to his thumb. It wasn't the same, but it was something, because it was better if he touched something for each number. One for Mom, two for dad, three for Steve, four for Shirl, five for Theo, six for Nellie who was 90seconds younger but had always been his big sister, and the seventh one was him.
"No no no no no," he muttered, breaking form fro his incessant counting. His eyes, a dark midnight shade of blue, squeezed shut against the sensation of being seen, of being not alone. Of the bowler hat man hovering close again, after two years of absence.
Luke drew a deep breath and resumed counting. "One, two, three..."