Perdition-Last Chance [Open, but you MUST read the OOC before hopping in]

[Poprockz]

Her legs wobbled a bit as he helped her up, still a bit shaken from everything that had just happened. She was grateful that he was supporting her or she may have sunk back down to her knees.

Darla looked back into his eyes and nodded. “Okay, tell me.” She wondered if he was going to explain the little girl, the woman in the bar, his unrestrained rage in the face of injustice. Part of her also wondered if he would expect her to reciprocate and tell him her own story. She hadn’t told anyone here about it; she could still remember the looks she had received in court as she was sentenced. She didn’t want him to look at her that way. Murderer.

 

[Drobabes]

She surprised him. The lack of hesitance, the immediate acceptance, or maybe she just needed to know if she could trust him. That last one was fair enough, hadn't he lived his life that way for a while?

"Alright. Let's head back to my room, it's not a short story."

As they walked through the door of the bar, he began.

"I killed someone for the first time when I was sixteen..."

He went on to tell her everything. How, when he was nine years old, he went into his fathers barn to investigate a strange keening noise and what he found sitting on a pile of hay changed his life forever. A little girl with platinum blond hair and the brightest sky blue eyes he had ever seen. He wouldn't know it for a few more years still, but he fell in love with that little girl that day.

For the next eleven years he treated her wounds every time she came crying. Bad wounds. Disgusting wounds. Wounds made from belts and sticks, hot pokers from the wood stove, and on occasion actual whips. Always on her back, never on her face.

"It was her mothers boyfriend that did it, and he would whisper in her ear every time, that she was so pretty. So pretty that he never wanted to scar up those pretty lips of hers."

They were at the end of the stairs, the beginning of the hall now, and he had to stop and take a deep breath to calm himself before he could continue.

He was the sheriff of their town, but Toby thought that maybe his hands were a little deeper in the pot. Everyone on the police force-Tobys own father included, for a short while, knew he was a dirty cop. But no one knew as well as Tobius. If they had, someone might have tried to take him out sooner.

"I think the sexual abuse started when she was ten. We were good friends obviously, but I was four years older than her. I had hormones driving me a little crazy at times, and even though I was still a little young, I already knew what sex was about.

I noticed it because she started to act different when we were playing. I got out of the shower one time, and she was just standing there, staring at my junk. I yelled at her to get out, but I think she thought it was a game cause she just ran off the giggling. The next time, it was a lot more obvious.

We were sitting on the couch watching a movie, and she wanted to play fight. So I played with her a little, then went back to watching the movie, and the next thing I know, she's climbing on my lap with her back to me and sort of...you know.."

A light shade of red lights his cheeks as he remembers the incident, and he has to cough to clear his throat.

"I pushed her off of me and got real stern with her, trying to explain to her that she was way too young to be acting like that. It was kind of awkward for a few days after, but she didn't do it again. Still, it made me sick at the time to think of where she learned that."

He was quiet for a minute as they walked, then he continued once more.

He told Darla of a dog she was allowed to have, a german shepherd that didn't quite make the training to be a k-9 unit. He was a good dog, followed that little girl wherever she went and took more than a few beatings for her too. It was that dog that saved her life, he told her earnestly.

She hadn't come by the barn in more than two weeks. No one in town seemed to care-they all were convinced her father, just took her out of town for a trip because he was on vacation. Toby knew better.

He tried to go to her house first, but it was empty. Then he tried every single other place in town, and every secret hideaway that they had ever spent time at, and it wasn't until he drug his sore feet through his own house door that he noticed the dog.

It was curled up on his couch, covered in dried blood. When it saw Toby come through the door, it went nuts. It started pacing the whole room and whining and howling like it was in pain, but he couldn't find any wounds on it.

"Then he ran to the door and started scratching splinters out of the wood. I never seen that dog go at something so hard, he had always been calm and well behaved..so I knew he knew something."

Toby let him out of the house, grabbed a pony from the barn, and let him lead.

It was a good hour or more before they finally reached it. A run down old shack plopped right in the middle of the woods, just like in some cliche horror movie. He tied his horse and followed the dog inside, trying not to make any noise.

The dog went straight to a door that led to a basement, but before Toby went down, he grabbed a metal poker from the fire, probably the same one the sick bastard had used on her countless times.

He has to stop again, breathing deeply as he stares straight ahead down the hall, like he's watching the scene play out again.

"She was bleeding from...everywhere. I've never seen so much blood. He had whipped her. Choked her. Fucked her..."

His hands shook as he dropped the metal bar and bent down to her, terrified she was dead. But, somehow, maybe by an actual miracle, she was still breathing. She wasn't conscious-but she was alive. Then he heard the door slam upstairs.

He grabbed the metal bar and hid by the base of the stares.

"And when that sick bastard came down, I hit him with everything I had. I wasn't that strong yet, though, and if that dog hadn't jumped up and grabbed him by the shoulder, I don't think I could have finished the job. Together the two of us put an end to it, and Ella spent three weeks in the hospital, pumped up on morphine and antibiotics while our town came together and covered the incident up. Told the feds it was a rogue killer, and our own police department got rid of any evidence that I left behind."

They were at his door now, and he opened it for them. He sat down heavily on the couch and just stared at the window, wishing he could have stopped the story there.

"After that, me and her grew closer than we ever had. We stayed together almost every day, and it wasn't until she turned fourteen and her own hormones starting kicking in full force that we ever had much trouble. She was broken in so many ways, and all I wanted to do was fix her. In some ways, she let me. In other ways though, all I could do was try to be her big brother.

She wanted to date me, swore I was the one she was going to marry someday, heh...but she was a lot younger than me and it didn't feel right.

Then one night, when she was seventeen, she showed up on my porch crying. I hadn't seen her cry like that in...a long time, and it hurt. So I brought her in, sat her down, and she told me her dog had died.

I had...kind of been expecting it. He was getting old, but you know, it still stung. That damn dog had been with us through so much. So I poured us some shots, and we knocked them back."

The night was long as they spent their time cuddling on the couch, passing the bottle back and forth and reminiscing on fond memories. Then at one point she turned to him and kissed him, and for once he didn't push her away.

"About a month after that I found out she was pregnant. I was scared, but I wanted to do the right thing. I told her I would get us a house and a good car; I would take care of her. Just like I always had.

And I guess maybe I was a little too excited about it, a little too caught up in a dream of a life with a women I had always loved. I didn't notice her panicking.

...she came to me the next day and tried to tell me she was scared, but all I heard was that it was a mistake. She didn't want to keep the baby, and my stupid pride took it as her not wanting to start a life with me. So we got in a fight, and I all but shoved her through the front door."

He swallows hard before continuing.

"I pushed her away. I pushed her into the arms of a man that was almost worse than her father. Manipulative and cold, but she was too naive to see it. She had always gone running to him when I wouldn't give her what she wanted, and he always played the part for her, but he just wanted a piece of the pie.

When I went to his house later to find her and apologies, he wasn't there, but his methed up friends were. They had her on the couch and they were using her like some doll. She was passed out hard and had thrown up on herself, but they didn't care.

So...I lost it. I grabbed the shotgun he kept by the door, backed them both up into a corner, and shot them dead. And by the time I got her to the hospital, she had lost the baby."

He puts his head in his hands and hides his face from her, unable to look her in the eyes as he finishes his story.

"But I fucked up. I blamed her for what happened instead of owning up to my own mistake. When I came to the hospital the next day, she knew I was mad and she wouldn't look at me."

He starts to shake as he recalls the memory.

He sat by her bed, glaring at the back of her head, hard. She wouldn't even look at him.

"You fucked up, you know that? That was my baby Ella, not just yours. It was mine too! You...you just went off and fucking partied! Were you trying get rid of it?! Did you really not want to make a life with me so fucking bad that you had to kill our baby?!"

She flinched, but she didn't turn.

"Look at me Ella!"

He flipped the table next to her bed in his anger, water and food splattering across the floor.

Finally, and slowly, she turned. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy from crying, and for just a split second Toby almost gave in. Instead, he reached into his pocket and pulled something out, sitting it gently in front of her on the blanket. It was a gold band ring with a single word etched into it.

"Have a good life Ella."

He stormed out of the room, hearing only the sound of his pounding heart and her miserable wails as he went.

"I skipped town after that. Was gone for four years. And then, about six months ago, I get a call from back home. They found her in her bed, bleeding from multiple places where she had cut herself with a razor. They weren't sure if it was suicide or she had just been hurting herself and went one cut too far.

I came back home for the funeral, and an old man pulled me aside. He was one of the doctors that had treated her that night I dropped her off at the hospital. He...he told me she had been drugged."

He was shaking now and his throat was clenched, making it hard to get his words out.

"That motherfucker had slipped her a roofie, she hadn't taken any other drugs. She had gone there for comfort when I pushed her away, and she spent those four years blaming herself for everything.."

 

[Poprockz]

Darla walked with him, listening intently as they went. His story made her stomach twist and her hands clenched. At the end she found herself sitting beside him, tears streaming from her eyes as she stared in shock and dismay. It filled her with despair to hear that a girl so young had endured such cruelty, only to succumb to her own shame and self-loathing. She was glad he had killed him... it felt like what any decent human would do.

She sobbed, letting it all come out, unable to hold back as the dark story settled in her mind. Part of her wanted to vomit, while the other part of her wanted to curl up in her bed and stay there until the end of time. A deeper, darker part of her wished she could hurt that man, cut him until he screamed and begged for forgiveness. She wanted to make him long for death before she finally sent him off. She wanted the same thing for the men who drugged her.

Toby had been foolish when it came to Ella, his hot temper ruining something that had been so fragile to begin with. He had been a young boy, barely a man when she had become pregnant. Darla judged him for not having even asked Ella about that night when she was roofied, flying off the handle and leaving the one he lived the most.

She shook her head, sobbing and sniffling. It couldn’t be helped now; there was no way to make amends for it. The thought of the woman being passed back and forth like a doll made her so angry. She was speechless, not knowing what to say or how to respond other than weeping.

After a minute, she calmed down enough to say, “I’m glad you killed him. He deserved.”

 

[Drobabes]

It was like the floodgates had been opened and once he started to tell his story, he couldn't stop himself. His intentions hadn't been to tell her everything, and not in such detail, but word after word left his mouth and once it was out there was no going back. Would she judge him? As harshly as he had judged himself since the day he returned home? And did it matter? Maybe he needed a little judgement.

“I’m glad you killed him."

He couldn't pull himself up into a proper sitting position. It was embarrassing for him, but he felt like a small boy again, crying his eyes out between his knees so the world couldn't see his face.

"I should have done it sooner" he sobbed.

"If I hadn't been such a coward for so many years, I could have gotten her out of there sooner. And maybe...maybe things would have been different.."

 

[Poprockz]

Darla shook her head and sniffled, rubbing his back the way a mother might. “No, murder takes careful planning and opportunity. You were young, you probably wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. If you fucked it up, you wouldn’t get a second chance and things might have ended up the same if not worse. Being a boy, you would have had to account for the fact that you were smaller and weaker, so you would have had to surprise him and found a way to swiftly kill him. There is no margin for error.”

She knew all too well the truth of these words. Darla wasn’t a strong woman, but she was intelligent and quick, not to mention that the beauty fate had decided to give her had a way of disarming people.

“I do think you were a fool, though. A foolish boy who didn’t know how to handle himself in a relationship, especially with someone who is broken inside. You didn’t even think to ask her... you just made assumptions from a place of anger and pain. You fucked it up for both of you in that regard.” Darla knew she was being harsh, but part of her felt that he deserved it, and that he already knew what she was saying.

“Several of my friends were roofied, and the toughest part for them was not being believed. People just assumed they were seeking attention. They only found out the truth later when... when a good samaritan exposed them for what they were.” She gritted her teeth as she thought about it, about the files on their computer, the video that she forced them to watch before the end.

 

[Drobabes]

As her gentle hand rubbed his back, he let loose with another hard sob. It was if she were giving him permission to cry; the permission that he couldn't give himself.

“No, murder takes careful planning...

Was he a murderer? He had never felt that way. It had always felt more like defence. But then, what had he been doing that night when he broke in and was shot? And then again, there outside the bar with that man choking Darla?

“I do think you were a fool, though...You didn’t even think to ask her..."

For a moment he felt defensive. It wasn't the first time Ella had run off to party with the creep, and more than a few time Toby had had to go and get her and take care of her while she recovered. However, as quickly as he felt that flare of anger, it vanished. Darla was right. He had been too much like an overbearing brother when the thing she needed was a lover and friend. She had needed him, and he let her down. He let his hot temper destroy not just their relationship, but her very life.

"They only found out the truth later when... when a good samaritan exposed them for what they were.”

He wiped his eyes and tried to look at her. Even through the pain and guilt, he could feel she was alluding to something else, though he felt it wasn't his place to ask.

With another heavy breathed sobbed, he leaned against her and whispered.

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."

He was apologizing to her. Apologizing for himself and for Ella. He wanted so badly to take it all back. Wanted so badly to have the power to change things.

 

[Poprockz]

She wrapped her arms around him and held him close to her, laying her head gently upon his. “I know, Tobias.” Darla simply sat with him for a few moments in silence.

“There are things in this world you wish to god you could take back, even things that were done by other people. You look at someone and see how the light has left them because of someone’s greed and maliciousness and it tears you apart inside, maybe even making you wish you could take their place. There are things we do in the heat of the moment that make us fools. We can’t take it back, though. We can only try to be better people moving forward, learning from it and becoming better at protecting the people we love.” She said this softly, removing one of her arms from him to wipe the fresh tears that were coming to her eyes.

The fire in the stove crackled, the room warming up a bit. She was sure Toby hadn’t reset the fire, but she didn’t want to question the way Perdition ran things at that moment. Darla was deep in thought. Should she confess, or should she keep her own past from him? He had bared his soul to her, and she had found it tragic. However, she didn’t think he was necessarily a bad man because of it. Herself on the other hand, she wasn’t sure. It was as though she didn’t think what she had done was wrong, but at the same time she knew that it would change the way he looked at her.

 

[Drobabes]

As the seconds ticked by, he let her words sink in, and in a way, they did comfort him. However, that left a much deeper question. What now? They were sitting in purgatory, what future did they have? What chance did they have to make things right? There was no future after death...was there?

After a while he manages to pull himself together enough to stop crying and get up. He gives her hand a gentle squeeze, then heads to the bathroom to wipe his nose and clean his face. When he comes out he looks...well, maybe not better, but definitely better than he was.

He runs a hand through his hair as he looks around his room, still getting used to the feeling of having short hair again. It had been a while since he felt like cleaning himself up.

"Mm...haven't seen my hat have you?"

 

[Poprockz]

Darla shook her head, “your hat, no. I thought it was with you.” She looked puzzled for a second, remembering it vanishing after him when he had fled earlier. Then her eyes widened. Could it be the same hat? Maybe it didn’t reappear with him, but with the other girl. But why?

“Actually, I may have seen it. I don’t know why it would be there, but there was this girl at the bar. She looked like she had been through some rough shit here in Perdition, but this morning it seemed like Perdition was really trying to get her attention. It kept giving her a bunch of baby clothes, a hat that looked strikingly like yours, something too small for me to make out (but hard enough to crack a mirror when she threw it), and...”

Darla gulped at the memory, starting to put two and two together. “What looked like an umbilical cord. She started bleeding through her shirt in the back and screamed and ran out the bar. She had blue eyes and platinum blonde hair...” How in the hell could it be her? This was madness. There was no way that Ella could be here in Perdition too.

Her eyes met his with disbelief, “Ella?”

 

[Drobabes]

Wide, scared eyes stared at her as she spoke. He was frozen in place, unable to move a muscle.

"That's impossible.."

He spoke quietly.

"She would never end up in a place like this. She's too gentle."

 

[Poprockz]

Darla shook her head. "I don't know... suicide? Maybe that's enough to land you in purgatory. We could always search for her to see if it actually was her."

She looked at him, hesitantly walking over and putting a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "What would you do if it was her?" A selfish part of Darla wished that it wasn't. She really liked him, and didn't want him to move on and leave her. In the short time she had known him, she had decided that she wanted him as a friend, if not something more. But she knew that sometimes, the more difficult road was the right one, and it was as clear as day the path they should take.

"Do you have any extra shoes in here? All I have is high heels. I know yours won't fit me well, but it's better than what I've got."

 

[Drobabes]

"I don't know... suicide? Maybe that's enough to land you in purgatory. We could always search for her to see if it actually was her."

He could only nod, swallowing hard. He had to know.

"What would you do if it was her?"

Something in the way she looked at him hurt. She was searching for something, something he couldn't give her, and another ball of guilt settled down in his gut. Though, there was a difference here. He couldn't help who he was...but that didn't mean he had meant to hurt her.

"Darla.."

She turned away from him, and for a second he wanted to reach out and take her hand.

"Do you have any extra shoes in here? All I have is high heels. I know yours won't fit me well, but it's better than what I've got."

"...no."

He let it go. He couldn't focus on it right now anyway; he would have time later.

"I think I only have-"

Sitting in front of the door was two backpacks and a pair of women's shoes. He wondered if Perdition had put them there earlier, or only after they made up their minds to leave. Either way, it didn't matter.

Immediately he walks over to the larger pack and starts to rummage through it. There was a bulky flashlight, a pistol and box of ammo, a few bottles of water, whiskey, a first aid kit, and...

He pulled out a small brown tackle box. He already knew what was inside, but he still had to open it.

Antiseptic cream, bandage wraps, and painkillers. They were prescribed for animals, but Toby knew how to use them. He had been doing it for years.

"If this is in here, then...she must be in pain.."

He started digging through the front of the backpack and found a few more things. Some pairs of clean socks and a pack of smokes, a lighter, and some canned soup.

"You know when I tried to walk away from the bar earlier, I could have swore I walked for an hour straight out-but I was barely more than a few yards away when I heard your voice. Any idea why...it, is giving us enough supplies for a day?"

 

[Poprockz]

The way he said her name had a sad ring to it, as though her very name was an apology. She was a bit ashamed that she had let her own feelings slip out; she didn't want to make this more difficult than it would be anyway. Besides, it was silly for her to be so attached to someone after having just known them a day. It would have been unreasonable to expect that he had developed any feelings for her, especially since he already had someone he loved above all others.

She closed her eyes for a minute and took a deep breath, calming herself and trying to distance herself from her own feelings. Once done, she looked up at him rummaging through a pack at the door. Darla walked over and inspected her own pack. She heard him comment about Ella's wellbeing, clearly worried about her.

"You don't know that... Hopefully she's fine." Darla wasn't sure if it was true or not, but hoped that it was. Even though it meant Toby finding her and possibly moving on, she really didn't want him to suffer through finding Ella in pieces.

"There's no way to go but down." Darla gulped, her hands shaking a bit. She really didn't want to go into the catacombs. Not too many people came back from that place, and those who did seemed changed, and not for the better. It was a maze of dark passages and it almost seemed like Perdition was stronger there, if that made any sense.

"The catacombs. They're tunnels underneath this town that lead onward God only knows how far. Based on the packs, I would assume that's where she's gone." Her voice was small, frightened. She almost considered apologizing and telling him that she wouldn't go with him. Instead, she took off her high-heels and started putting on the socks and shoes that had been provided, her fingers fumbling with the laces. There certainly were things that were more frightening than death.

 

[Drobabes]

"You don't know that... Hopefully she's fine."

It was a nice sentiment, but he knew it wasn't true. Mentally, he was preparing himself for the worst.

"There's no way to go but down...The catacombs. They're tunnels underneath this town that lead onward God only knows how far. Based on the packs, I would assume that's where she's gone."

He stopped his rummaging and gave her a hard stare.

"You'rescared. That place isn't like the bar, is it?"

He looked at the gun, which he hadn't put away yet, and stuffed it in his pants. Then he finished zipping everything up and threw the backpack on.

Turning to her, he put a hand on her shoulder and held her gaze.

"You don't have to go down there Darla. You don't even really know us hunny; this isn't something you have to do.

"I do. This is my mistake and I have to fix it."

 

[Poprockz]

"No... it's different." she admitted, finishing with her shoes.

Her eyes met his as she felt his hand on her shoulder, his eyes kind and forgiving as he offered her a way out. She was truly tempted, but her eyes went back to the pack and she shook her head. "True, I may not know you well, but I care about you Toby. There are things that guns can't protect you from."

She let out a little chuckle, "besides. I've been here for six months. How long will it be before I reach a resolution? Months? Years? Maybe my own answers are down there too. I think... I think Perdition wants me to go for some reason. Why else would it give me normal shoes and my own pack?" Her hands slid inside and she found water, a head-flashlight, rope, bread, cheese, a compass, a tube of lipstick, and a blanket. To her embarrassment, there was also lube and a large vibrator. She shoved those back in the pack, hopefully before he had seen. There was one more thing inside that she recognized the moment she lifted the cold metal up.

Darla stared hard at the long, silver knife. Unlike in her hallucinations, this one was clean, ready to be used. Her finger slid down the side of the smooth blade and she tested the sharpness, a small cut now on her finger with a few drops of ruby red blood. It was very sharp, as sharp as she remembered.

 

[Drobabes]

The knife surprised him a little, but at the same time, he knew they all had their demons to face. If she had killed someone and ended up here instead of someplace darker, than that meant she still had a chance at redemption, didn't it?

His warm hand engulfs hers, being careful not to touch the blade, and very slowly he guides it back down into the backack.

"Whatever happens down there, don't forget your words to me Ms.Darla."

"'There are things we do in the heat of the moment that make us fools. We can’t take it back, though. We can only try to be better people moving forward, learning from it and becoming better at protecting the people we love.'”

...

"I'll watch your back and you watch mine, and maybe we can both make it out of this in one piece."

He rubs her cheek gently, caring more for her in that moment than he thought he could. It was true they barely knew each other, but he felt like, maybe in another life, he could have loved her.

"Alright. Let's not put this off."

 

[Poprockz]

As he helped guide the knife into the backpack, she silently listened to him speak. When the knife was gone, her big blue eyes found his once more and she nodded. His rough hand felt so good against her cheek, as though his warm fingers against her skin was the most natural thing in the world.

"Okay, Toby. I won't forget, and I'll walk with you as long as you'll have me. "

A more determined look settled on her face and she stood up, slinging the pack onto her back. "Yes, I think I'm ready."

They traveled through the hall, down the stairs, and out the bar, Darla leading the way to the entrance of the catacombs. She had seen people disappear into it, or come back out on occasion, but she never thought that she would be one of those people.

 

[Drobabes]

https://youtu.be/1967zSpJ4j0


They stared into a long cavernous flight of stairs. Even with the sky being overcast, Toby would have thought the entrance would have allowed in more light, but he could only see a few yards in before the stairs ended in pitch black nothingness. Switching the flashlight on, he began the decent...

For a long time they simply walked in silence. On occasion Toby would shine his light into the darkness to try to see something besides the stairs, but it did about as much good as shining a light up into the night sky. If he stared too long he got a very height induced nausea that was only made worse by the smell permeating the air. The mildew was obvious enough, but there was something else underlying it that was achingly familiar, but he just couldn't quite place it.

A while longer and the temperature began to warm up. At first he thought it was just from the exercise, but when it become so hot that he had to peel his jacket off and put it in his backpack, he thought again.

"I thought it was supposed to be cold underground.."

It was the first thing he had said since they descended, and the sound of his own voice in the dark was almost unnerving.

"Wait, do you hear that?"

There was a quiet sort of roar that grew steadily in volume the farther they went, and at last he was able to shine a light on it. The stairs ended in water, and not too far ahead there was a small waterfall washing over a very old brick building that was still somewhat intact.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Toby bends over to inspect it. He reaches his hand out and sticks a finger in, then his whole hand. As he stands up, he shakes the excess water from his hand and shines the light up, looking for the source of the water.

"It's cold. Maybe there's a crack somewhere up top and it's spilling down here."

Looking back at Darla, he shines his flashlight on her shoes for a brief moment, then ahead to the building and a little past it.

"Here-come here. It's not very deep, but if you get your shoes wet that's going to be a miserable walk. My boots are water proof for the most part."

He waits till she comes to stand beside him, then he scoops her up and walks her past the shallow river and puts her down on dry ground. Once there, he takes a moment to satisfy his curiosity.

Similar to up above, the abandoned buildings were crumbling and in disarray. Broken glass, old boards, rotting doors, and tattered remains of what looked like maybe curtains. Making sure to keep her flashlight beam in sight, Toby walks inside one of the buildings to take a closer look.

It contained items that he would expect to see; a kitchen area with old countertops, a front room with the skeleton remains of an old couch and a wood stove, and some stairs leading up. It disturbed him a bit that these things were here, though. Who would have lived down here? And why were they abandoned? They were questions he wasn't sure if he wanted answered.

His boot tapped against something hard, and it squeaked as it moved away from his foot. He shines his light down, and in its beam was a little toy car, covered in dust. Bending down to inspect it, he saw something written on the top. He used his thumb to wipe it off, and discovered it was someone's initials. T.J.

Something about that little car unnerved him worse than the dead silence. It was someone's toy, and the thought of it having belonged to a little kid was sickening for so many reasons. Similar to the way in which Darla knew this place was called Perdition, Toby knew that there were no children souls lost here. So that meant it was either a painful reminder to some poor bastard...or a trophy.

He backed out of the house, suddenly feeling on edge, and took a look around. There was a long road that seemed to be leading into a town and his gut instinct was telling him that was the way that he needed to go.

The minutes ticked by, turning into hours. They passed countless buildings, the silence only being broken by their occasional hushed conversation and some scattered noises of crumbling ruins. Once in a blue moon Toby was sure he spotted something moving inside of them, but he never heard a noise, and whenever he shined his light into a window, it was always empty save for some kicked up dust in the flashlights beam.

His feet were beginning to ache and his lips were getting chapped. He had been holding off on drinking or eating anything, but occasionally they would come across another water fall from up above and he figured he could afford to use some of his water.

Stopping in front of a relatively intact building, he shines his light around through the window. Not seeing anything dangerous, but more importantly, discovering a couch that hadn't completely rotted away, he makes his way inside.

He puts a foot up on the couch and gives it a few hard shoves with his boot before he feels safe enough to sit down on it. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it was dry and better than the hard ground.

"Let's take a break here. Do you have some water and food?"

The water in his bottle was hot and he grimaced a little as he took a sip.

 

[Poprockz]

Darla walked silently behind him, hoping to god that she didn't trip and send them both hurdling to their temporary deaths. She focused on watching his back as she went, using him in order to distract her from the looming darkness. When it started getting warmer, she rolled up the sleeves of her blouse and then rolled her slacks up as much as possible. He hadn't put on a shirt when he went out earlier, so when he took off his jacket from the heat, her eyes lingered on his chest, her hands wishing she could reach out and touch him again for some small comfort.

"Apparently not." Darla answered. To herself, she wondered if they might actually be descending into hell itself. She wouldn't necessarily be too surprised if that ended up being the case. When he paused and asked about the sound, she listened too and found that she also heard the dull roar of something. It put a bit of fear in her, her heart beating quickly as she became a bit tense and nervous.

However, her breath evened out as she saw it was just a waterfall, strange though it was. She watched with interest as he tested the waters, confused when she found out that it was cold. How could it be cold when they climbed so far down? She looked down to find his beam of light on her feet and she took a step back, thinking he might have been looking at something near her. When he suggested he carry her across, she reluctantly walked over to him and let him scoop her up into his arms. Why does he have to be so damn gentlemanly, she wondered to herself. She was trying to distance herself from him from an emotional standpoint to avoid being hurt later, but he was making things very difficult for her.

She continued to follow him, hanging out outside one of the houses he checked out and finding him a bit nervous when he came back out. Darla didn't question it, assuming he had seen something unsavory. By the time they finally stopped, Darla was exhausted. Her feet hurt badly and she definitely needed some rest. She was overjoyed when he suggested stopping, plopping down on the couch next to him and sighing with relief. Taking out her own water, she took a couple gulps of the warm liquid and shuddered from the warmth.

"Hmm... I think I have some bread and cheese. Do you want some of mine and maybe you can give me a bit of soup?" She rummaged in her backpack and pulled out the loaf of uncut bread and the block of cheese. Darla suddenly froze, her nose sniffing as she looked around wide-eyed. On a little table nearby, there was a paper plate with some plastic cutlery. On the plate was a steak, some potatoes and gravy, and some string beans. The savory smell of it seemed to waft over to them, inviting them to take part.

'What do you want to eat? It is your last meal, after all.' Immediately, she started coughing, covering her mouth as she ran to the door and made it just out of the frame before she fell to her knees, coughing and gagging. What little water she had drank came up, and when there was nothing, she simply dry-heaved for a while as she shook. Her feet could be seen within the doorway, but she was angled so that her torso was out of view.

 

[Drobabes]

"Sure, sounds good."

He rummaged through his pack and was about to hand her the soup when he noticed her wild eyed gaze and followed it with his flashlight beam. He was up off the couch in an instant, preparing for the worst, but all there was was an unnervingly picture perfect plate of food.

"What?"

Setting his pack aside, he quickly went to the door and waited until she was done, then he leaned down and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You ok?"

He knew she wasn't, but he really didn't know what else to say.

 

[Poprockz]

"Yeah... I'm- I'm good. Just... bad memories. Can you make it go away? I don't care if you eat it, throw it away, or hide it away for later, but I can't smell it or look at it. I just can't. It tastes like death..." She shook her head as though she were trying to clear it, wiping her mouth and laying down on the floor. Darla sighed and closed her eyes, not wanting to get up onto her sore feet again.

Was she really this weak? Was she so pathetic that a day of walking made her feet feel like such shit? Who in their right mind acts so weird over a plate of steak and potatoes?

 

[Drobabes]

"I don't trust this place enough to eat it, but sure."

He walks over to the plate and for a minute he's tempted to touch it, to see if it actually was real food. It certainly smelled like it. The thought of it doing something weird stops him though, like what if he touched it and it just melted down into a pool of blood? Nope. Out the window it goes, as far away as he can chuck it.

His flashlight beam takes in her form laying prone on the ground, and he shakes his head.

"Come on hunny. While I'm sure it's a lot cooler on the ground, let's get you back up on the couch. We can get some rest, then we'll figure out what to do."

 

[Poprockz]

Darla sighed again and kicked off her shoes, putting an arm over her eyes and shaking her head as though declining his suggestion. "No. I'm good. You can take the couch. Honestly, if I take one more goddamn step right now, I think I might hurl myself off a building. I haven't walked this much since... Well for years.

She had been about to say that she hadn't walked much since Perdition due to the high-heels, but she hadn't really had much room to roam in her prison cell, either.

It was definitely a bit cooler on the dusty floor, and she found herself okay with the idea of simply spending the night down there. She removed her arm from over her eyes and looked up at him. "Really, it's fine. I've slept in worse places."

 

[Drobabes]

Having had a good few nights of partying with the boys, he knew that sometimes you just wanted to be left alone where you fell.

"Alright. Keep your flashlight on you."

His body felt heavy as he plopped himself into the couch and munched on a few crackers. Despite all the walking they had done, he didn't have much of an appetite. The heat was a killer, sapping him of his energy and making him yawn, and despite his best efforts, he's finding it harder and harder to keep his eyes open. Finally, he flicks his flashlight off and sits it in his lap.

The darkness engulfed them. With absolutely no other light source, not even the moon behind dark clouds, it was complete and pitch black. The only sound besides their soft breaths was the distant rush of water and the occasional squeak of springs as Toby tried to get comfortable.

He was so close to asleep when a disturbing thought entered his mind. He hadn't remembered to check if there were extra batteries in the backpack, and it was this last thought that carried him over into first dreams, and then nightmares.

 

[Poprockz]

Darla was out pretty quickly, her dreams fully of erotic happenings. She dreamed that she and Toby were back in his room and that he had her bent over, holding her hips as he thrust himself deep inside her. He was whispering sweet nothings, but she couldn't quite make out the words. She didn't care what he was saying as long as his soft words kept coming. Her body was heating up, and she could feel herself getting wetter as he blurred the lines between sexy and loving. His hand lifted up and he spanked her ass.

At that moment she woke up, horny and wishing she could get release. It was pitch-black, but she could hear him softly breathing, his breath occasionally catching as though he was sleeping fitfully. She didn't know if she should wake him or not, and certainly knew he wasn't in the mood for getting frisky. Now that he knew that Ella was here, the chances of being intimate with him had gone down to zero. For once, she was a bit glad that Perdition had giving her a vibrator.

She turned her lamp onto the lowest setting and crawled to her pack, putting her shoes back on and putting her pack on her back. Darla didn't intend to go too far, just far enough that the waterfall drowned out the sound of her toy.

When she reached the waterfall, she noticed that there was a hint of light coming from the top of the waterfall. It made her feel a bit better about turning off her lamp as she took out the vibe and wiggled out of her pants and panties. Spreading her legs, she was wet enough that she didn't need lube to guide the toy inside her. She moaned quietly as she started to please herself, turning on the vibrating feature and moving her hips a bit as she thrusted it inside. Every now and then she would rub it on her clit and then keep going. It wasn't long before she gasped, her legs shaking as she came from the long toy.

She had only intended to rest for a minute before going back into the house, but she unwittingly found herself falling deeply asleep.