[056] it lives inside

                                                                                         Suki was back in the wilderness once again, running for her very life. Her heart was pounding in her chest and the pure rush of both fear and adrenaline coursed through her veins. She could hear what sounded like animal calls, although they sounded a lot more human than anything else.

                                                                                        Suki ran and ran and ran until she'd trip on something, her legs giving out in an instant. She falls down in an instant, inhaling the dirt and coughing after. Just then, Suki looked up and suddenly saw a figure before her. It appeared to be the Antler Queen, wearing the very same dress. But when Suki glanced up, she saw her face. Suki's own face was staring back at her even through the mesh, wearing the most horrifying grin.

                                                                                       "You can't escape who you really are," It declared.

                                                                                       "You can't escape who you really are."

                                                                                       "No. No!" Suki shakes her head, covering her ears with her hands.

                                                                                       "It'll always be within you. It lives inside. You'll never escape it," It continued. "You can never forget what you've done, you can't run from it forever."

                                                                                       "No! Stop it!" Suki shouted.

                                                                                        Just then, Suki wakes up in the middle of the field, the lake just behind her. There were people beginning to circle around her, confused and worried about her. Suki instantly bursts into tears, holding her head and rocking back and forth as she sobbed like a little girl. She couldn't believe that she had managed to sleep walk again. She hadn't done that ever since she had first arrived back home from the wilderness.

                                                                                       Her night terrors had been so bad that her dad had resorted to locking her in her bedroom just so she wouldn't be able to sneak out and potentially get hurt. It was one of the many reasons why Suki had followed her dad's footsteps in drinking, just to stop the night terrors and the sleepwalking since nothing else seemed to work.

                                                                                      "Suki?"

                                                                                        Suki looks up, her eye growing wide when she saw an all too familiar face. "Natalie?"

                                                                                        Before Natalie could approach her, Lottie then emerged and the whole crowd managed to part like the Red Sea. They had seemingly forgotten about Suki and her mental breakdown, choosing to focus on their leader instead.

                                                                                      "Go back to what you were doing, everyone. I can handle this," Lottie remarked, her tone soft yet authorative, as she dismissed them all with a wave of her hand.

                                                                                        They all immediately do as they're told, dispersing and going back to their tasks. Suki sniffles, wiping at her face as Lottie bends down to tend to Suki. The moment she holds onto her, Suki jumps and moves away from Lottie just as quickly.

                                                                                     "Hey, it's okay. You're awake now and nothing's going to happen to you. You're safe now," Lottie assures her.

                                                                                      Suki didn't feel very safe at all. She felt something dark and terrible looming ahead, close to getting them all.

                                                                                      "I'll go and take Suki back to her room," Natalie suddenly offered.

                                                                                       Lottie rests a hand on Suki's shoulder, glancing back up at Natalie for a moment as she thought about it. Eventually, she relents and nods. "Yeah, maybe that'll be for the best. We can talk later, Suki."

                                                                                     Suki only nods and Lottie reluctantly lets go of her friend, allowing Natalie to help Suki up to her feet and then lead her back to her room. The journey there was silent but Natalie was careful to not speak out loud and let Lottie's purple wearing minions overhear them.

                                                                                      And yet, once Suki and Natalie were safe inside of the room, Natalie took that as her cue to talk.

                                                                                      "You know what? Purple might actually be your color," Natalie teased, folding her arms across her chest as she leaned up against the wall.

                                                                                        Suki sighs, rolling her eye. "It's heliotrope."

                                                                                      "Whatever. You got taken too, huh? Maybe that's for the better. I don't think I'd be able to do all of this alone," Natalie continued.

                                                                                      "Do what alone?" Suki frowned, confused.

                                                                                      "Figure out what's going on here and... what happened to Travis. Lottie knows something. I know she does," Natalie answered.

                                                                                        Suki nods. "Yeah. Yeah, of course."

                                                                                       "In the mean time, we just wait and see what the hell's going on here. I'm not buying this whole sunshine and rainbow crap. We got kidnapped by a fucking cult and now we need to bust our way out of here," Natalie continued.

                                                                                      "Something tells me that won't be easy. I'm pretty sure there's a gate and Lottie's over all of that. Not to mention, none of us have phones. Lottie took mine and the others... they willingly gave 'em up to follow their new leader," Suki responded.

                                                                                     "What the fuck is going on here?" Natalie asked, mostly to herself.

                                                                                     "I dunno," Suki shakes her head. "Whatever it is though... I have a bad feeling. Something's coming, something... terrible."

                                                                                      Natalie's features soften. "This has something to do with your dream, doesn't it? What happened?"

                                                                                     "I don't want to talk about it," Suki shakes her head, looking down at her hands after. "It's not anything personal, I'd just... rather forget about it."

                                                                                     "Yeah," Natalie nods, "I know exactly what that's like."

( 🌲🔪🦌 )

                                                                                   Suki and Natalie were now inside some sort of private room with Lottie, the woman making sure to lock the door behind her and even lighting a candle. Suki wrapped her arms around her body as she awkwardly stood there, waiting for either Lottie or Natalie to start talking. Lottie had ordered them both to come inside and talk with her, saying she had something important to tell them both. Suki had her suspicions as to what Lottie wanted to tell them but she was going to wait for Lottie to say something before she did.

                                                                                   But ultimately, Lottie decided to take the first initiative. "On the night Travis died, he called me. He said the wilderness had come back to haunt him. And he said he knew what he had to do."

                                                                                  Suki's heart sinks as she remembered the moment she had seen Travis. Except... it hadn't been him. It had been a warning and yet Suki hadn't realized it until it was too late. Suki wondered if she could've been able to save Travis but she didn't even have a clue as to where he was.

                                                                                 Still, after everything Suki and the others had done to him, she doubted her presence would've helped much. In fact, it might've just pushed him further over the edge.

                                                                                 "I asked him what he meant, but he just hung up. And I panicked. I drove all night, and by the time I found him, he was a mess. He was terrified, he was paranoid," Lottie continued.

                                                                                 Natalie was barely able to hold her composure, growing teary eyed and emotional. Suki wasn't sure what to do to try and comfort Natalie so she remained standing there, forcing herself to continue to listen to Lottie's story.

                                                                               "I felt like I had reached him. I just wish I'd never fallen asleep," Lottie added.

                                                                               "Oh, you - you don't think with him like that, you should have reached out to me?" Natalie snapped.

                                                                               "Nat," Suki huffed, earning a look from Natalie.

                                                                               "No! I should've been there. I should've...," Natalie trails off, blinking away her tears while shaking her head. "You don't think I could've helped him?"

                                                                               "I asked him that, Nat. And he said that you would only make things worse," Lottie admits, saying what Suki had already been thinking.

                                                                                Suki knew that both Natalie and Travis loved each other but it was far from healthy. Even if Natalie had the best of intentions, it was obvious that Natalie would've only pushed Travis back down the black hole he had desperately tried to crawl away from.

                                                                              "I woke up in the middle of the night and Travis wasn't there. He left instructions of how to get into his bank account, and he'd written you that note," Lottie remarked, now sitting down, and Suki had decided to follow her lead. "I drove as fast I could to the ranch where he worked. And then... I found him in the barn."

                                                                                Suki swallows hard, unsure if she wanted to keep listening or not.

                                                                              "He had lit candles around him in the shape of the symbol. He had rigged his neck to a crane...," Lottie trails off before she continued to tell the story and honestly, Suki was horrified.

                                                                                Lottie had basically helped Travis kill himself and while it was insane, Suki could tell that it was the unfortunate truth. In Travis' desperate plea to get rid of the wilderness, he had gotten himself killed in the process. Even after all this time, he couldn't get It out of his head. Suki's reminded of her dream all over again.

                                                                                It lives inside. You'll never escape It.

                                                                               "So that's the story? That Travis fucking died because the buttons got stuck?" Natalie questioned, struggling to come to terms with it. 

                                                                               "It was... a horrendous accident," Lottie reasoned. Or at least... tried to.

                                                                               "I know there's something you're not telling me," Natalie argued, glaring directly at Lottie.

                                                                               "I swear. I didn't kill him, Nat. I was trying to save him," Lottie calmly insisted.

                                                                               "Well, that's funny. Because every time that you try to save someone, a lot of bad shit happens," Nat retorted. "And look at you now, twenty five years later, and the same shit's happening again. Only this time, you're wearing a Rolex. And you have all the broken toys around here who think you're walking on water."

                                                                                 Although there had been a flicker of emotion on her face, Lottie ultimately remained unfazed as she stood there and listened to Nat continue to tell her off.

                                                                                "I'm gonna put a stop to your fucking bullshit. I don't know how yet, but I'm gonna stop it," Natalie replied, bending down to put her shoes back on.

                                                                                "Well, at least you'll have to stay alive to do that, so it's a - a win-win for me," Lottie shrugged.

                                                                                "Can we all just calm down for a -?" Suki began to ask, only for Nat to cut her off again.

                                                                                "Take me and Suki to the train station! Or however someone gets out of here, back to civilization!" Natalie exclaimed, pointing outside.

                                                                                "Well, I'm afraid it's - it's too late. You and Suki will have to spend the night here. So your plan for my destruction? It will have to wait until you both are rested," Lottie remarked.

                                                                                   Natalie storms out after that in frustration and Lottie walks over to the door, watching as Natalie left before she turned to look at Suki.

                                                                                   "Do you share her sentiments?" Lottie asked. "I'd like to know now before we can move forward."

                                                                                   "I don't know. Are you telling the truth, Lottie?" Suki inquired.

                                                                                    Lottie sighs, closing the door behind her. She then approached Suki, bending down and grabbing a hold of Suki's hands. Suki had no choice but to look at her, meeting Lottie's dark yet... comforting gaze. "I'm telling the truth. It was an accident."

                                                                                   "But what if it wasn't an accident? What if It... What if It took him?" Suki questioned.

                                                                                   "What?" Lottie faltered.

                                                                                   "Maybe I'm going insane but I've been having bad dreams again. I've been seeing things. Horrible things. And I have a bad feeling that something's coming. Something terrible. I can feel It... getting closer. I think It's coming for all of us," Suki shakes her head.

                                                                                   "Nothing's going to happen. Everything will be okay. Come here," Lottie assures her, pulling Suki into a hug.

                                                                                    Suki reluctantly hugs Lottie back, trying her hardest to believe Lottie. She wanted to think she was crazy, even despite her gut feeling. And Lottie couldn't believe her own words, especially after what she had seen the night Travis died. Perhaps something was coming and none of them were prepared for what was to come.

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word count: 2042
notes: things are HEATING UP now! i'm hoping to finish this before s3 comes out because i want to focus solely on that soooo wish me luck