Atrophy

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Interactions: Ophrenia @silvermist1116

Road to the Old Black Manor.

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A spotlight courtesy of Carl shone on a dark shadow in the water. Neko’s hand snapped forward like a striking cobra, her fingertips brushing the edge of something smooth and rectangular before a hand wrapped around her arm and jerked her upward. Neko was able to sandwich the phone precariously between two fingers before Lily dredged her up from the water. Lily voiced her concern that Neko was basically offering up her hand to be a free lunch for the nasty critters hanging out in the swamp before waving a flashlight at her. Neko felt her jaw tighten as she braced for the crush from a wave of embarrassment. She had just been given a lesson in safety and responsibility by the same woman who’d given everyone in the van a pleasant second-hand high.

Neko mumbled an apology beneath her breath as Lily moved, but she did not immediately follow after the group. Instead she turned her head down to her phone and grimaced at the absolutely violent spider webbing of the cracked screen that had begun to reveal itself as the rain cleared away the mud. She wiped her hands and the phone against her shirt in a pisspoor attempt to clean it so she could fully assess the damage. The device was an unresponsive mash of kaleidoscopic fragments, a few weekends worth of tips turned into a waterlogged paperweight.

Neko felt her stomach tighten as Ophrenia stopped by her side, coaxing her along while also reproaching her messing around in a swamp full of alligators. Neko sucked in her lip and bit it. She got it. She was the group idiot. Even admitting that she’d forgotten about the danger of their environment because she’d been too distracted by the texts from the psychopath pretending to be her daughter wouldn’t change the fact that she had acted without thinking. Neko uttered another apology, slightly louder this time, and with a thank you. She might’ve thought of herself as stupid, but even she knew it was smart to be polite to the one with a gun.

She filed in behind Ophrenia and hoped the trudge to the mansion wouldn’t be much longer. Neko quickened her pace as a skin-crawling howl cut through the ambience of their footfalls splashing through the rain, suddenly finding herself a lot less uncomfortable with their group carrying guns. She let out an involuntary shriek of her own that suddenly cut silent as her voice broke and jumped back as Lily’s light shined on the writhing mass of a dying deer. She clapped a hand over her mouth, the cries of the dying animal rattling her unable to look away or close her eyes as she drank in the horror of innards moving impossibly. Her mind was incapable of understanding what she was seeing, her brain sending her body signals to run but her frozen feet betraying the orders.

A voice cut through the cries as Ophrenia attempted to justify the sickening sight, downplay it even. Neko’s pupils narrowed into pinpoints as she tried to speak to Ophrenia, as she tried to point out that no semis would have driven through this swamp and no hunter, hell, no human short of an absolute psychopath would’ve carved open a deer and bind it with its own squirming insides. She felt her fingers cinch down on her face even harder as Ophrenia called for a knife. Neko was muzzled by her own nails biting in her cheeks or she would’ve screamed at Ophrenia to just shoot it or just leave it. If she could’ve moved she would’ve pinned Jasmine’s hand in her pocket she couldn’t have offered Ophrenia the knife.

If she had done anything, maybe what came next would not have happened. Instead Neko only watched in silent horror as Ophrenia stepped forward, followed by a flash off too many teeth, blood, and tearing as the deer’s mouth split and the intestines wrapped themselves around Ophrenia’s lower body and pulled her forward like a nightmare lasso.

“Ophrenia!” screamed Neko as her fear was replaced by a different instinct. She lunged forward and wrapped her arm around Ophrenia’s waist, hoping to prevent the woman from being dragged any further. Neko pulled her pocket knife from her bag with her other hand. Neko bit down on the dull edge of the blade so she could open it with one hand and continue to try to pull Ophrenia away, painlessly slicing the inside corner of her own lip as she unfolded the blade. Immediately she began slicing at the binds wrapping themselves around Ophrenia, trying to carefully slide the blade underneath the intestines and cutting away from Ophrenia to avoid injuring her in the process. “Somebody shoot it!”

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Interactions: Zeltzin @Bartimaeus

Road to the Old Black Manor.

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Neko congratulated herself on having the foresight to pack her umbrella as the first raindrop tinged off the roof of the van. However, the small feeling of self-pride for actually being prepared for once was washed away as quickly as the shower transformed into a storm when she reached down and grabbed air. She quietly groaned to herself and slumped against the window. I’ll get you next time, Neko thought as she closed her eyes and listened to the storm, envisioning the transparent polka dotted umbrella that hid beneath the passenger seat of her rental car and radiated a smug sense of satisfaction that its multi-year-record of avoiding use remained unbroken.

The van braked and Neko was awoken from her short doze by her head banging lightly against the window. A hand shot to her temple, Neko feeling more embarrassed than hurt, before drifting down in a poor attempt to mute her loud horse laugh as Ophrenia verbally doused Jen in gasoline and then skipped on the match in favor of pulling out some old, reliable napalm. Neko’s eyes widened and she bit down on her hand as Jen finally began to show some backbone and seemed like she was about to shoot back before Lily put an end to the pointless bickering. Neko hung back for a brief moment just in case the conflict resumed and to avoid getting drenched while the others figured out how to get past the gate. Neko grimaced when the others began to climb it, but it was certainly better than the idea she had which was to just ram it with the van. She covered her head with her bag and hopped out of the van, the water immediately soaking through her shoes, as she approached the gate.

Neko swung her bag over her shoulder and slowly climbed up as Jen had done. By the time Neko was over the top she was completely soaked to the bone. She began easing her way down when Zeltzin scrambled over the top with a howl and landed hard on her feet, her leg crumpling. Neko gasped and scrambled down the side, rushing to check on the woman. “Oh my god, are you o—” She backed away with her hands held up defensively as Zeltzin bristled so furiously that Neko thought she was about to smack her.

“Sorry,” she muttered quietly and pretended to see something interesting on the ground until they began to move on.

Neko followed behind the group, letting those with lights lead the way, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest as she trudged onwards through the muck. Neko saw Lily get startled by something and point off into the swamp. Neko’s breath caught in her throat as she caught a glimpse of the bizarre effigy out of the corner of her eye before the light fell off of it as Jen beckoned everyone onward. She should’ve listened, but curiosity got the better of her. Neko stopped when she arrived at the place Lily had been standing and pulled her phone out of her pocket to use as a light.

Her chest tightened as she saw on the screen several missed texts from an Abby. The screen lit up Neko’s face through the darkness of the storm as her expression absolutely twisted into a look of pure disgust. Before she had a chance to check the messages Neko felt a tiny tug on the back of her soaked shirt. “What!? she hissed, whipping her head around to see that nobody had touched her. She felt it happen before it actually did—a chill of a wind, a snap of a branch, a twist of a wrist, and a splash of water. She felt a numbness in her hand as something splashed into the dark, rising swampwater below.

“Shit,” she said softly. Neko squatted down and began grabbing blindly into the muddied water as her phone fell in. No, not “fell in”—it had been knocked in. Impossible, but she had felt it get smacked. Her hands brushed against mud, sticks, and stones. No phone. Beyond Neko the shadow of the strange deer sentinel stared holes in the woman as her movement became panicked. Her curses grew loud enough to be heard over the storm as her desperate fishing attempts for her phone quickly became pointless splashing. “Shit. Shit! No, no, nonono!”

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Interactions:Erik@EpicRoleplay Ophrenia@silvermist1116

The Summit Motel Parking Lot.

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Jasmine was lucky that Ophrenia had so successfully distracted Neko. If Neko’s attention hadn’t been split between the two there wouldn’t have just been further questioning. Instead, Jasmine would’ve gotten the full-on ‘parent angrily sitting in the dark to scare the shit out of their child who just got home several hours after curfew’ interrogation. Although Neko detected no malice in the way Jasmine spoke, it was rare for someone to ever use the phrase “unfinished business” to refer to anything someone would want their child involved in. Neko glared after Jasmine with a befuddled look on her face, the confusion compounded by Ophrenia’s wild belief that a piece of paper would ease the itch of a triggerhappy local.

Her hand reached for another cigarette but froze with it in her mouth when she looked up and caught sight of Charlie talking to the other members of Group Doctor. Neko heard the gagging voice of her daughter go ”Ewwww, Mooooom!” as she always did whenever she caught Neko sneaking a smoke. Nora would often add something about Neko living long enough to meet her grandkids as if it were an incentive and not even more things to worry about. Technically Charlie counted, right? Neko smiled and waved at her granddaughter via absurdity and joined the group gathering around Jen’s map, the smoldering cigarette crushed on the pavement by her boot.

Erik was questioning Jen for more information. Neko looked down, feeling a knot of guilt in her stomach and fearing that she was personally responsible for destroying their organizer’s credibility. As if it were a form of a more sincere apology, Neko took it upon herself to answer the question instead.

“Sorry, but shouldn’t crocodiles be reason enough to not take the swamp path? How about leeches? Snakes? Flooding? Getting lost? Look normally I’d agree with getting more information,” said Neko, trying to soften the harshness of her interruption. She wanted to verify a few things with Erik later and didn’t want to completely piss him off before getting that chance. “But if the choice is between that or risking a bit of traffic and a couple of potholes I feel like the road is the only option.”

“I have a car,” mentioned Neko, turning to Ophrenia. “Z has her bike, obviously. I’m sure we have plenty of other vehicles so we don’t have to hoof it or make two trips.” Neko smiled lightly and with a chuckle added, “Like, I’m sure you all didn’t do something as wildly dangerous as hitchhiking to get here.”

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Interactions:Jasmine@Punished GN Ophrenia@silvermist1116

The Summit Motel Parking Lot.

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Neko sat upon the yellow bumper of an empty parking spot with her arms wrapped around her knees as she waited for the others with Jasmine. She watched the curtains draw shut as litter tumbled through the empty lot, lighting the end of a fresh cigarette with the final breath of the previous one before dumping the corpse out into the empty lot with a flick of her fingers. She used to try to limit her smoking, a little guilty reward for making it through the day, but the exhaustion and the frustration and the confusion and the disappointment and the unbearable weight of feeling useless had broken her restraint.

Her little investigation into Harmony and Gene had turned up nothing. The desk jockey working the motel was adamant in their ignorance, even going so far as to show Neko the guest registry probably in hopes that she would then be satisfied in her questioning and fuck right off. She saw no sign of Harmony or Gene checking in on the list that held little more than a block of familiar names amongst the columns of John Somethings with same-day check outs. Given how little the others seemed to worry about the lack of check-in from Harmony, Neko had begun to convince herself that she was just being stupid and unreasonable. They got spooked, they left, end of story.

Unless…Neko waved away the thought and focused her attention on Jasmine. The woman had shared her experience with seeing a ghost to Neko at the other motel and in return Neko had told Jasmine of the events at Blake's cabin, omitting one tiny detail that never needed to be thought of ever again. Neko didn’t know if she believed in ghosts or not anymore, but she believed that Jasmine wasn’t just making up some story for attention. Plus, even if Erik hadn’t seen her ghost he could verify the thing about the orb. However, there was one thing about Jasmine that Neko did not understand.

“Hey Jasmine, can I ask you a question?” said Neko, before she almost immediately began to wave the question away, the ember of her cigarette dancing frantically. “You don’t have to answer it and I’m sorry if this seems like I’m prying but it’s just, you know, I get Charlie wanting to look for her mom. I get Carl wanting to look for his wife. But if it wasn’t my daughter who’d gone missing but somebody who was responsible for an awful moment in my life I wouldn’t go looking for them when they suddenly got replaced by a different person. I definitely wouldn’t go looking for them in a dangerous swamp with a bunch of trigger happy strangers. I'd probably still be hungover from celebrating.”

“So, um, why?” said Neko, the question barely out of her mouth before the burning ember fell out of her cigarette and onto her clothes. She jumped to her feet and furiously began brushing herself off, her swears drowned out by the roar of Z’s motorcycle as the others began to gather in the parking lot. Neko’s eyes widened as they fell upon the shotgun slung over a way too excited looking Ophrenia’s shoulder. The distraction offered Jasmine room to wriggle out of the probing question as Neko pinched the bridge of her nose, shook her head, and then shouted to Ophrenia, “Oh god, please hide that before we get shot!”

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Interactions: The Group // Jasmine@Punished GN

The Webb Family Coffee House

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Charlie backing Neko up on her inquisition didn’t quite quell the hammering in her chest, but having the young lady on her side was enough to slow the bouncing of her knee. The table was spared from any further knocking and the rest of the group no longer needed to fear that their coffee would jump from their cup. Neko almost felt a tingle of pride course through her as Jen squirmed under the pressure, feeling that by putting their organizer on her backfoot it meant she must’ve brushed upon something. It was a feeling immediately squashed the second Jasmine interceded.

"Do we have anything concrete besides the word of some redneck? One that is trying to get us out of their town as fast as possible?" said Jasmine.

Neko smiled abashedly and lowered her head, her long brown hair falling in front of her face. No, no, in fact they did not have anything concrete and even though Mr. Thornton seemed hospitable but for all she could tell it was that same fake friendliness that was ingrained into the behavior of any true Southerner. She had just taken his word at face value because, weirdness aside, he’d been kind. She rested her elbow against the table and blocked her face with her hand as she shook her head ever so slowly in acknowledgment of her oversight, feeling every bit of stupid.

Her head was still down when Jen slid the text message into Neko’s view. It was from Gene, explaining neatly how he and Harmony were stepping away. A sense of unease crept over Neko as she read the text, eventually settling in her stomach and twisting. From what she gathered the other day Harmony and Gene had been total strangers. Wasn’t it strange that he mentioned her leaving but she didn’t even say anything? Or had Neko just binged too many murder podcasts on her trip to Louisiana?

“Right, um, sorry Jen,” said Neko as their organizer explained her connection to Eleanor, already feeling sheepish after Jasmine immediately brought about reasonable doubt to Neko’s argument. Her finger traced the rim of her mug as she gave Jen a weak smile and mumbled a low energy apology, “Didn’t mean to go off on you. Just, ya know, a bit overwhelmed lately. Haven’t been sleeping. It’s just…anyway, sorry.”

Hatchet buried or not, going to the swamp was still the plan. Charlie mentioned securing weapons and that the doctor had suggested there were monsters. Neko cocked her head at the young lady. She opened her mouth to question the term and then closed it. Neko remembered the times she told her crying daughter that monsters aren’t real. It was one of the first lies she’d told the girl, standing right up there with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Monsters were real, but they didn’t look like monsters. They looked like people.

So Charlie was right: they should secure weapons. The others should, anyway. Neko glanced down at her bag. Neko had been ahead of that idea by approximately one entire Charlie lifespan, having carried some kind of knife on her since she was a teenager. She had never needed to use it, she was thankful that she never used it, and she wasn’t sure that she’d remember to use it if she ever needed it, but it was there. Perhaps it would’ve been smart to seek out something with a little more umph considering the high strangeness of the situation they found themselves in, but Neko didn’t trust herself with a gun.

“I’m not against us protecting ourselves, but it’d look bad if a whole mob of out-of-towners cleared off the shelves of the local gun store. I think I’m just going to go to the motel now,” said Neko as she stood up, rubbing her elbow. “I’ll ask around about Gene and Harmony while I’m there, just in case he—I mean, just to be—it’s just, sorry, that text’s just…anyway. Maybe Jasmine is right. Maybe Mr. Thornton was just trying to scare us off. Still, I think it’d be dangero-uh-unwise to do anything alone. So, um…”

Jasmine’s words finally registered with Neko as she crossed her fingers and hoped that some of the group were also not callous enough to let her go off on her own and get disappeared. “...I saw a woman, but there was something wrong with her. It was like she was a... ghost." She snapped her head towards the soccer star, Neko’s eyes that she had been struggling to keep open suddenly widening if she herself had just seen a ghost. She hazily recalled the drowned face she saw in the swamp water outside of Mr. Thornton’s cabin, its features obscured by the muck and the mire.

“Wait, really? Yesterday at Mr. Thornton’s cabin I looked in the pond and saw a, well, I don’t know, I thought it was a drowned girl but when I looked back she was gone. I thought my mind was just playing tricks,” said Neko, the hairs on her arm rising despite the heat. “What did she look like?”

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Summit Motel, the Night Before

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A dying light spilled through a hole in the moth-eaten curtains of the dark motel room, flickering on and off in a slow, steady rhythm. The room smelled of stale cigarettes and creeping mildew while the bed groaned and creaked with the slightest shift of weight. Still, despite this Neko should've been fast asleep. The day of travel and investigation had left her exhausted, yet Neko watched the alarm clock on the bedside table roll past two in the morning. Her mind refused to let her sleep. Her body jumped at any unusual noise. She kept thinking about Blake, and about all the missing people he said were dead, and how it had all started two months ago.

The timeline checked out: it had been two months ago when her daughter Nora disappeared and was replaced by a stranger. Hesitantly, Neko reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the heart locket her daughter had given her over a decade ago. She flicked it open and stared at the picture of the child. Parts of it looked right, the chin, the eyes, but the rest? Wrong, all wrong. The girl in the photo wasn’t Nora. Neko closed the locket, wrapped the chain around her hand, and let her head fall back against the pillow. The girl wasn’t—tap tap tap.

Neko bolted upright and looked at the door as a heavier knock rapped on it again—rapt rapt rapt. She froze in place, a chill running down her spine, Blake’s words ringing in her ears, fearing for her life that the Black family had sent their goons out to get them, and then she shook her head and laughed. It was more than likely that one of the others was also unable to sleep and had seen her outside smoking a little bit ago. Normally she paced herself, but this evening she’d already gone through half of a pack since settling down for the night. Neko pulled her body out of the bed and placed her eye to the peephole: nobody.

She turned and was halfway under the sheets when another knock knock knock came from the door. With a frustrated sigh, Neko went back to the peephole. Once again there was nobody. She had hardly turned around before another trio of knock, knock, knocks rang out, followed by the sound of feint, girlish giggling. Irritation got the better of her. “Hey, seriously!?” She unchained the top lock, undid the deadbolt, and flung the door open before whoever was fucking with her had a chance to run away.

Nobody.

The hot night air did little to prevent the chill that ran through Neko’s veins. Quickly she closed the door and locked it. She wrapped herself in a blanket and sat on the edge of the bed, watching, waiting. The bed creaked. The light cutting through the curtain flickered. Her hands shook and she wrapped herself up tighter still. Her breathing slowed, her pounding heart slowed, everything slowed until time seemed to stop. Then the door: bang, bang, bang!

The frame shook, the knocks heavier than ever before. Bang, bang, bang! Neko, wide-eyed, looked on in horror as she saw the chain hang freely out of the lock, swaying with each knock, mocking her forgetfulness. Bang, bang, bang! She watched, terrified, frozen, as the deadbolt jiggled and then flipped itself from the locked to open position. Bang, bang, bang! The door burst open as Neko launched herself from the bed.

Neko tripped over something and stumbled, driving her shoulder into the door hard and closing it. She screamed as the flash of pain that shot through her arm was pummeled into submission by the adrenaline kicking in, allowing her to latch the chain before another. Bang, bang, bang! The door buckled but the chain held, supported by Neko pushing her full weight against it. “Go away, go away,” she begged, her pleas drowned out by the banging of the door. She felt the door strain and heard the frame splintering and animalistic growls as something rabidly beat itself bloody against the door. She closed her eyes and covered her ears as she continued to cry out, “Go away, go away! Please, go away!”

Then, miraculously, it did. Neko opened her eyes and she was back in bed, the alarm clock reading a quarter to three, the rest of the room black as the bottom of the abyss. The dying fluorescent must’ve finally bit it. She rubbed her shoulder, sore from the awkward way she’d slept on it, and winced. She wouldn’t have to worry about getting murdered for trying to find her daughter because the bed was already killing her. Neko grabbed a pillow and the blanket and stumbled around in the dark, searching for the big chair in the corner of the room.

She found it only after her hip found the tv stand, cursing and rubbing as she curled up, sighed, and buried her face in the pillow. Neko fidgeted in the seat for a few minutes, trying to find a way to make herself comfortable. Eventually her head drooped, her chest began to slowly rise and fall, and her vice grip around the blanket loosened. It was only then that the shadow moved away from the window, a flickering light once again spilling into Neko’s room.

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Interactions: The Group and Jen@Punished GN

The Webb Family Coffee House

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Dark, bloodshot eyes with dark circles glazed over without focus as they stared into a cup of dark coffee, closing themselves as Neko stifled a yawn by nearly punching herself in her mouth. She rubbed her eyes and blinked rapidly, trying her best to pretend that last night had not been the pinnacle of bad nights of sleep in a two-month streak of bad nights of sleep. She’d never slept so roughly that she’d bruised herself before, but the welt on her shoulder had already started turning purple.

Neko stared across the table and nursed her cup of coffee as Jen spoke, absentmindedly drumming her fingers upon the table in a series of triplets that mimicked the knocking from her nightmare the night before. Something had been bugging Neko about Jen since the first day they’d met in person, exacerbated by their abrupt call yesterday. Sometimes through the fogginess of sleep deprivation there would emerge an island of clarity, and such an epiphany hit Neko this morning: Jen acted like an awkward, twee kindergarten teacher—Oh, wowie zowie class, you all played together so nicely today! Gold fucking stars for all! The keyword there being “acted”.

“The, ummmmmm, only problem issssssssss...it's in the swamp," said Jen. So make sure you get mommy and daddy to sign your permission slips!

“Um, yeah no, I’m sorry but that’s not the only problem, Jennifer,” said Neko, carefully setting down her mug of coffee and then placing her hands in her lap to hide the shaking. The way and the weight with how Neko chose to use Jen’s full name would send echoes of the past through any at the table who had been scolded by their mother before.

“Yesterday, you told us some girls went missing. Later, we heard from Mr. Thornton that people who came to Quintin to look for Eleanor have gone missing over the past two months. No, not just missing: dead. Dead, Jennifer. Dead.” Neko’s eyes burned but she didn’t blink, forcing herself to keep her gaze locked on Jen. “It’s not right to tell everyone that things are hunky dory and that we’re doing a real bang up job when there is actual serious danger involved. Life threatening danger.”

“I’m going to look for my daughter no matter what,” said Neko, freeing Jen from her glare and turning her attention towards the group. Her voice waivered with discomfort before she found her stride, exhaustion and frustration holding down her anxiety. “I have to. I have no other option. I won’t think less of anyone who wants to leave. Honestly, I encourage it. I’m sure you all noticed that one of the groups from the other day is already missing—maybe dead. Apparently Jennifer didn’t notice. Jennifer’s too keen on getting us to go into her skull swamp. But you know what I think?”

Neko shifted her tired eyes back to Jen. Neko thought that nobody cared about what she thought and that she should just apologize and shut up. Somehow she didn't.

“I think Jennifer hoped that we didn’t notice, just like we didn’t notice that she didn’t mention what she did yesterday or how she didn't mention how she knew Eleanor. Sorry, Jennifer. I noticed.” Beneath the table Neko's knee bounced uncontrollably, hitting against the frame. Bang. “Where are Harmony and Eugene? We should inform somebody if they're missing.” Bang. “And what did you do yesterday? Seemed real out of breath on the phone.” Bang. “Oh, and who is Eleanor Black? To you, I mean.”

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Interactions: Blake Thornton @Punished GN, Nori/Jordan/Olivia (@NoriWasHere), and Wyatt @Helo

House on the Edge of the Swamp

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Wyatt’s valiant attempt to divide and conquer was countered by the surly Maggy and Neko proceeded to vomit out her life story. There was only one important piece of information she held back, and that was how her daughter Nora had been replaced with a fake that had all the memories of her actual daughter. It was something she had even withheld from the group and something she would continue to withhold. Neko knew that if she mentioned it then those who didn’t know Eleanor Black would think she was insane, while those who did know might think she’d abandoned her daughter. She hadn’t. She’d abandoned a stranger, a parasite. Something awful.

Now that Neko had shattered her self control and been charmed by the temptation of the waft of Maggy’s cigarette she fumbled through her own bag and found a sad, crumpled cigarette to smoke as Blake began speaking. Truth be told, Neko almost broke down and cried when he said he couldn’t help find her daughter, but if the information helped Jen and the others piece together something from their leads she had to power through. Neko leaned against the railing of the porch, her fingers nervously picking at the paint as she listened.

Neko had a few observations as Blake continued. One: either Mr. Thornton was much older than he looked, the Black Family was okay with child servitude, or Swamp Grandma was not referring to Mary-Louise. Two: the massacre of nearly an entire family was horrifying, almost as scary as the vagueness of it all. Three: five children was a ridiculous number; Neko had her hands full with one. Four: did he just say dead? Fifth: Maggy seemed certainly curious about those girls. She would’ve asked about the second thought
if he’d said anything else, but obviously the second to last thought was what she fixated on.

“I'm sorry, you said they turned up dead?" asked Neko, ashing her cigarette over the railing. Immediately, her mind turned to the group. Everyone had someone to watch their back with the exclusion of one individual: Jen. She had insisted on going alone, but if she had pursued a lead—Neko’s heartrate quickened. She pulled out her phone and began to call Jen. She announced to the group, “I'm checking on Jen." Then she nodded to Blake and stubbed out her cigarette. "Go on. How many dead people are we talking?”

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Interactions: Blake Thornton @Punished GN, Nori/Jordan/Olivia (@NoriWasHere), and Wyatt @Helo

House on the Edge of the Swamp

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Neko winced at the woman laughing at her own joke, her face scrunching up in a look of disbelief. Neko let out a soft, singular ha and tried to smile like she found the woman even the slightest bit entertaining instead of simply annoying. In that moment Neko suddenly found herself understanding men like Blake Thornton more than she thought she would, because if she had the dough then Neko would also pay this woman to leave. What she couldn’t understand was Blake not jumping on her out but instead inviting them all in. Maybe it was an ingrained buttling instinct, maybe it was good ol’ fashioned Southern hospitality, but either way Neko found herself missing the fuck off they would’ve been given had this been her hometown.

Nevertheless, she found herself walking back up onto the porch. They’d come here for a reason. If Mr. Thornton was going to offer them his time then she was going to take it, although she’d skip the finger sandwiches after seeing where his hands had been. As she passed by the others she gave them a wide-eyed look of uncertainty that begged them not to let her go in alone, eventually stopping just short of the threshold into Blake’s cabin. Neko clasped her hands behind her back and won a valiant battle against her natural instinct to look down when she made eye contact with a stranger.

“Thank you. I’m Neko Carbella. We appreciate your generosity but…” but Neko grimaced. “But I, um, we’re, uh…” A hand escaped from behind her back and wiped away a bead of sweat. She shot a look back at the others and mouthed, I’m sorry. The others didn’t need to know Neko to tell what she was thinking. It was plain by the look on her face: she was a desperate mother terrified that something awful had happened to her daughter. She was incapable of playing this cool. She was about to let the dam burst. “But—”

But she had hesitated, giving someone the chance of cutting her off before she let it all loose.

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Interactions: Blake Thornton @Punished GN

Love Shack

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What does a bullet getting fired from a gun, a jet breaking the sound barrier, and the speed of light all have in common? All three of these things move slower than Neko’s eyes which immediately snapped away the second she saw the loose sash of Thornton’s robe.

“Oh, god!” cried Neko as she pivoted away from the door, dipped past Jordan, and careened down the steps. She had been worried that a gun was going to be shoved in her face when she knocked, now she wished there was one as well as someone merciful enough to pull the trigger. Neko had been correct about one thing: Blake Thornton was a lonely old man because he was definitely way too excited to have some company.

She was more thankful than ever that Wyatt had tagged along who quickly covered up the awkwardness with a joke. If it wasn’t for him Neko wouldn’t have been able to pull herself together to focus on the task at hand. Rather, she’d be far more distracted with trying to figure out why the man would even bother coming to the door when his partner sounded like she was currently on the clock. Now she was able to refocus. For her daughter's sake they had to gather some information, although Neko couldn't imagine anything productive was going to come from this now. She certainly wasn't going anywhere closer to that cabin until it aired out.

“Yes, we’re all very, very sorry,” said a nervously laughing Neko, hand still shielding her red face from the cabin door as she stumbled through her apology. “It would really mean the world to us if you could answer some questions but obviously you’re busy. Is there a better time we could come by? Or even just a good contact number?

Recollections: Who Is Eleanor Black [CANCELLED]

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Interactions: Nori/Jordan/Olivia (@NoriWasHere) and Wyatt @Helo

The Webb Family Coffee House --> House on the Edge...

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“Please, I’m clearly a responsible adult,” said Neko with a half-smile to Wyatt as she produced a set of keys. She didn’t know what gave her more relief: a teenager giving her their approval or the safety in numbers that came from more people joining their group. “Why else would the rental company trust me with these babies?”

The meeting broke up into their small groups and headed out, Neko managing to shove the butler group into her rental car. As she drove, polite conversation tapered away as a feeling of dread crept over her. Something just didn’t sit right with Neko about this town. Maybe she was just too used to the city life. The lack of bumper to bumper traffic and honking horns felt strange enough as is, but the near total lack of other drivers on the road was truly odd. By the time they left the quaint little downtown area Neko swore the only other vehicles she saw were sitting in front yards up on cinder blocks.

There had been a kind of rustic charm to the old buildings in Quintin, but here on the edge of town signs of true poverty were shown in the torn up shacks and rundown trailers that only gave feelings of absolute desolation. She could only hope that the buildings were abandoned, because the thought of somebody living in them was heartbreaking. Soon, Neko grew to miss the broken windows, fallen fences, and overgrown yards as the road turned from the scraps of civilization and continued onwards toward the swamp.

Neko slowed the rental car as the gravel road faded away into a muddy path, tire tracks grooved deep into the dry mud. She pulled over to the side of the road and killed the engine. As she stepped out of the vehicle the heavenly bliss of the air conditioner immediately got vaporized by the thick heat of the swamp air. She hadn’t taken more than two steps before she took a swat at her arm as a mosquito drew blood, cursing under her breath as she retreated to the car and rummaged around in the trunk before producing a bottle of insect repellant.

She covered herself in a choking cloud then tossed the spray can to her companions. Properly protected, Neko took a few tentative steps towards the tracks and acted like she was able to discern any information from checking them out. Water filled the bottom of the tracks and the ground felt spongy underneath her feet. She gave an uncertain look back at the rental and frowned. Knowing her luck the car would get stuck in the mud further down the path.

“We’re gonna hoof it from here. Shouldn’t be too much farther,” said Neko.

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House on the Edge of the Swamp

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It wasn’t, but the muggy weather sure made it feel longer than it took. By the time Neko saw the cabin she had tugged open the collar of her blouse to fight the heat and her hair clung wet to the side of her face. She rubbed her wrist, which had begun to cramp thanks to how vigorously she had been fanning herself with a copy of the local map, and took in the scenery around. The cabin was in far better shape than the rundown buildings they’d passed on the way in and there was a kind of fairytale charm to wetlands around them.

If the weather wasn’t so disgusting she could picture herself taking a weekend retreat out here, not that she had the money to do so. Money had always been tight and the trip down to Louisiana was already being funded by skimming from Nora’s college fund. She approached the edge of the water and sighed in appreciation, looking out over the swamp. Mr. Thornton had picked a pretty decent spot to retire after all. Neko’s enjoyment was ruined by Wyatt’s joke about being fed to the gators. She told herself not to look down at the water, already knowing it was clear.

She foolishly looked down at the water anyway and her heart leaped up into her throat. Neko took a defensive step back, her eyes wide with terror, her hand clamped over her mouth, a feeling of ice and static running through her body. Tentatively she took a small step forward and was greeted only by her muddy reflection in the water. She had just imagined the drowned face, choked by a tangle of hair and algae. She had barely been getting sleep as of late and exhaustion must’ve finally gotten the better of her. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, the unease still tight in her body.

Neko joined the others, hopeful that Nori was too distracted with feeding the birds and the others were too focused on the cabin to have noticed her little jump. She must’ve missed a thread because they were coming up with some smoke and mirrors plan to use against the butler. Between the two options Neko imagined that a local would react better to Olivia’s plan than Wyatt’s idea, as she imagined private people would clamp up around journalists. However, Neko didn’t quite like the idea of lying to the man. Most old men were just lonely and looking for someone to chat with—even the old men who built a cabin out in the middle of nowhere.

“Let’s just play it by ear. For all we know Mr. Thornton is just dying to gossip,” said Neko, keeping to herself the thought that he could also be a gid-offa-mah-lawn type and pull a shotgun on them.

She followed after Jordan up to the porch. She hissed out a sharp “Oy!” at Jordan as he went to peek in the window and gave him the “stop that” look perfected by all mothers, motioning to him to join her side. She raised a hand to knock on the door and paused, a wave of apprehension seizing her. Neko took a deep breath to calm her nerves and then lightly tapped on the door.