InsaneJournal

Day One - Morning
Who: Cheryl Mason, River Tam, & Kimihiro Watanuki
What: Awakening in an unexpected wood with equally unexpected company
When: Morning of Day One (somewhere around 9am)
Where: In the woods with the nearest landmark being the library
Rating: TBA (possible language?)
Status: Complete







Cheryl was almost afraid to open her eyes. Too used to the process of unexpectedly losing and then regaining consciousness, she felt that she knew what would greet her as soon as she sat up and she had to admit that she wasn't entirely looking forward to the prospect of pulsating meaty walls and grotesque creatures at every turn -- but that wasn't right. She shouldn't have to face that sort of thing again, not when all that should have been behind her. She was miles and miles away from that town and, as far as she could remember, Portland didn't have a major problem with creeps and spooks -- not the supernatural kind, anyway.

Casting her thoughts back, Cheryl could remember standing just outside the bank. She had intended to wait for it to open so that she could withdraw the majority of her funds and then she meant to buy a ticket on the first bus out of town. There was a letter she wanted to send, but --

Right. All of that was perfectly true and fine, but it didn't quite explain why she was lying on what felt like wet grass.

'Stalling isn't going to help anything,' Cheryl silently reminded herself, but it still took her a long moment to pull herself to a sitting position. After mentally steeling herself, she finally allowed her eyes to open and her first impression was of trees -- an endless maze of trees and underbrush all around her with no hint of anything beyond. Though this sight was far tamer than what she might have been expecting, it was still not something native to the middle of downtown which only begged the question of how in the hell she managed to get herself here.

"Get myself here?" Cheryl snorted quietly as she pulled herself to her feet. Absently, she brushed at the slight damp of her clothes, but the majority of her attention was still given to the fact that she was deserted in an unexpected forest -- only not entirely deserted as she soon managed to stumble across two bodies lying nearby.

It was perhaps telling that her first thought was that the prone figures absolutely must be corpses and, if she didn't want to end up just like them, then she'd better get to running. The impulse to flee was so strong that Cheryl did take a few jogging steps in the opposite direction, but she soon pulled herself short -- where exactly did she think she was going and what did she think she'd find? By all appearances, she was in the middle of a thick forest and running blindly would just get her even more lost than she currently was. Besides, she realized after a long moment of staring that both the male corpse and the female appeared to be breathing steadily -- which meant that they were probably alive and most likely in the same boat as she was.

"Way to overreact," she muttered to herself. Still, even knowing that the two weren't corpses didn't entirely kill the impulse to walk away. There was no way of knowing, after all, what sort of people they were and it could just be simpler if she tried to find her own way. It could be for the best...

"You're crazy. There's no way you're going to just leave them there." Hearing the words aloud did allow Cheryl to realize how bad it would be of her to just leave the two, kids no older than herself by appearances, to fend for themselves and she resigned herself to staying.

As if just noticing the fine mist of rain, Cheryl pulled the hood of her deep orange hoodie up against the weather and stuffed one of her hands deep into the pockets of this same as she meandered her way back to the two. Crouching down between them, she toyed with the idea of just letting the two come around on their own, but she wasn't sure that she'd have the patience for that. In the end, she did decide to try to wake them with a call of "Hey, you two going to sleep all day?"