Her Last Words

Stay with Me

Lockie Allyngard was still quite cold, sleepy and sickened as she crawled her way out of that orange couch, her white and gray blankets slid to the wooden floor slowly, that heavy door upstairs was closed and locked so fast and after that there was nothing but silence.

"Anna! Anna, what was that?" Lockie asked in a shaky voice, still holding the wine bottle as she looked everywhere around her- "Where are you?"

It was then when a confused Hemlock felt the freezing wind that just kept flowing from outside of the house, which was so strange since the main door was closed, and so she stumbled her way around the entrance hall just to discover the shattered window, a bloodied white curtain and all of those sharp, broken glass fragments glowing on the floor...

Lockie then looked outside through the broken window and a shaken Avalon was there, right outside of the house and looking just as cold, sad and perplexed as he had just witnessed the most awful and mysterious thing that his eyes had ever seen...

"What have you done?!"

That sharp, murderous glare in Lockie's dazzling green eyes was just enough warning for Avalon to dodge the wine bottle about a quarter of a second before it would score a direct hit against his forehead, the blue and purple flowers all fell together to the frosty grass below and Hemlock vanished as she teleported upstairs in an instant.

Anna's bedroom seemed so normal with the redbrick fireplace still glowing and crackling, the violet paper wings that were almost dry by now and the bed that looked just slept in, and yet Felicia was nowhere to be seen...

"Anna! Anna, it's alright! It's just me!" Lockie cried out in angst, still a bit unstable thanks to the hangover as she quickly explored around trying to find her friend somewhere- "I am not letting him anywhere near you! Anna? Anna where are you?"

Hemlock imagined that Anna would clap or something as soon as she realized that everything was just safe and alright, and yet no sound came at all, everything was silent and it was then when Lockie discovered that the wardrobe's door was closed.

Anna so far had insisted on keeping the wardrobe open since she enjoyed to stack and organize all of her new clothing in there, now it was closed, Lockie then advanced to discover that the sliding door was locked as well and this could mean only one thing.

Anna was in there for sure, trying to escape from Avalon and whatever depth of flashbacks that the encounter would have definitely triggered in her mind...

"No! Anna, get out of there! The dark just makes everything worse!"

There was no answer just like before, so Hemlock then dashed to get the key from Anna's bedside table and soon she had already opened the wardrobe in a hurry-

Anna was there indeed, curled up with a white and silvery blanket, gasping for air just like she was hanging from that oak all over again and with a cold, constant flow of tears coming from her eyes as she stared at nowhere and everywhere at once...

"Oh no, Anna no... No!" Lockie gasped, terrified to see just how deep, crystal clear and powerful Anna's flashbacks had become already- "Come back! Come back! Anna, come back!"

Lockie grabbed and shook Anna with both hands as she cried and screamed right in her face, she was now quite alarmed to see all that blood splattered on the blanket, Anna was not reacting at all and so Hemlock, very knowledgeable in flashbacks as she was, finally accepted that she would have to take a far more drastic action to help Anna.

"I am not leaving you there!"

Hemlock drew a thin, compact and silvery flashlight from a pocket of her coat, Anna then started to thrash and kick around and soon after that Lockie was flashing a beam of cold, white and extremely dazzling light aimed straight at both of her retinas.

Anna's wildly dilated pupils were not quite reacting to the flashlight, and yet somewhere in there, somewhere so far deep into her shattered mind, the dazzling white light had indeed managed to break into her flashbacks...

The illusionary campsite would glow in surreal fashion as the white light came from everywhere at once, and the imaginary torment would soon start to retreat back to its shadows thanks to this dazzling, powerful stimulus that came straight from the real world.

Indeed, Anna soon stopped gasping and she was not kicking so hard anymore...

"Stay with me!" Lockie said in her sweetest voice possible, still sending the light in at full power even though Anna was clearly escaping from the flashback step by step- "You hear me, Anna? It's me, your Lockie! You are safe in your nice, new house! Nothing can hurt you anymore..."

"Lockie? W-where? Where are you?"

"Here! I am right here! Feel my hand... Stay with me! Stay with me, Anna..."

The high-powered flashlight worked even better than expected, Anna's eyes were starting to look normal, the flashback would be over in a matter of minutes and then a crystalline sound came from somewhere nearby all of a sudden.

Hemlock turned her head in great anger and surprise at this sound, and surely there he was, Avalon standing right at the middle of the room and staring in fear, horror and confusion at the scene that developed at the interior of that wardrobe.

A shaky Anna that still cried and kicked a little as Lockie brought her back to reality, that bloodied hand and those unnerving, gasping sounds that were all too familiar to Avalon...

At least Hemlock was fast enough to grab and teleport Avalon out of the house right before he could have said a single word, Anna was left there alone for some time and now the two Vail Agents found themselves standing outside at the main garden of the house.

"Why is she like that?!"

"Why? No, really?! Are you out of your fackyn mind?"

"Lockie, I just wanted to give her some flowers..."

"We tortured her, for two hours! You were the one that caught her! You handcuffed Anna, you shoved her around like a toy! You freaking hanged her, Avalon!"

"I am... sorry, I feel... strange... I want to make her happy again..."

"What? Did you think that she was just going to hug you, and invite you inside for a nice Alkenwood glass?!"

"Lockie! Lockie, wait!"

Avalon then teleported back to his place about a tenth of a second before Hemlock pulled her silvery handgun and sent three bullets straight at him, then there was peace, at this point Lockie was sure that her fellow Agent would not be coming back anytime soon and so she instantly teleported back to Anna.

It was Lockie's happy surprise to discover that Felicia had already managed to walk all the way back to her bed, and now she was there, peacefully looking at everything around her as she tried to somehow cuddle in a Fantasy that just would never come back...