Post by Veronica Strader on Mar 20, 2022 15:45:04 GMT -5
Badham
Preschool Realm
“I didn’t see this coming.”
Vee and Ronnie had gone through a few matches together, and their survival chemistry ran at two thousand revolutions. They hadn’t come up against The Raven yet, and each match led them no closer to any answers, but that didn’t mean they had quit trying to find them.
“Oooh, a Hex Totem.”
Vee had gotten quite good at sniffing these out and getting rid of them. The Killers, or who Ronnie referred to as The Hookers, could set hexes like one that caused their work in generators to regress if not being repaired, the Killers being able to actually kill you, or once the gates are powered, one hit will knock everyone down for a last-ditch attempt. So Victoria made it a habit.
“Is it out?!”
“Did you hear the big bang?”
Vee furrows her brow as she finishes the cleansing ritual destroying the totem in the process. The Hag was stalking the exit gates, and she laid out a symbol in the dirt with her hand using her ability to set a teleportation power. If anyone got too close while walking near, it could trigger a trap, and The Hag could teleport to the location. From what the ladies could understand, it is that Cannibals horribly tortured the Hag before witchcraft turned into this creature and was brought here by the Entity.
“About time! Alright, let’s get the hell out of here.”
Vee nodded, but she had a feeling the gates weren’t the way to escape; the hatch was their bet, but it was in a place that bothered her. It was in the basement of the Badham Preschool, and whatever happened here, it was an evil place, and the energy it gave off sent a chill down her spine. She only had been here once before but refused to go in the basement of the building, which in a roundabout way had led her to be sacrificed. On the other hand, Ronnie seemed to be the one that was the natural at this and was able to block those energies to focus on the task at hand: survival. Ronnie looks around the night-lit area around the side of the wide one-storey building. The plastic toys scattered about the unkempt grass highlight the creepy creaking of a rusted swing-set that had seen better days, where the one swing seat is only connected on one side, swaying in the dead air.
“Shhh, do you hear that, Ronnie?” she says, with the sound of wind billowing through a pipe can be heard.
“Well, we can’t have bad luck all the time,” she says, her brow rising up with a pursed smile. “I know where it is.”
“Don’t say it. Don’t say it, Ronnie,” Vee practically begs. She shakes her head and sighs. “Fuck, ok, let’s go.”
Ronnie, while crouched, quickly moves to the sidewall of Badham Preschool and peaks her head around the corner to see The Hag is patrolling the gates, seemingly ignoring the hunt for the Hatch. She could lose them to the gates if she went on that hunt and played the odds. She motions Vee to follow as they sneak around the back of the place to get inside. Once inside, Ronnie taps her nose and points to the left, signalling where they need to go to reach the basement.
“Ok, let’s get the hell out of here,” she whispers, barely even audible. Vee nods, and they move their way to the stairs, keeping an ear out for Anna, The Hag.
Vee steps in front of Ronnie and doesn’t even need to say why as she moves down the stairs trying to push past her fears. They can see the black smoke escaping from the Hatch being pushed by the wind coming out of it. Vee is just about there when—.
“ARGH FUCKING LET GO OF ME”
The sickly sound of The Hag swallowing drips into Vee’s ears as she turns around to see Ronnie caught in her grasp.
“Just go; I‘ll be there soon enough anyway,” Ronnie says, admitting defeat, but she sees something in Vee’s eyes. Victoria sees a pipe on the ground to her right.
In a split second, Vee is rushing The Hag on the stairs where she has Ronnie with a tight grip around the back of her neck. The pipe comes around from a wide right swing, smacking the side of the evil creature in the head, causing it to hiss as Ronnie somersaults down the stairs.
“Vee, let’s go!” she yells as she rolls up onto her feet. “We need to—”
Ronnie stops dead in her tracks as she watches a shadowy figure close the Hatch. Vee swings away but stops as her pipe bounces off the steps as The Hag disappears.
“What the hell?”
“Umm, Vee, we have company.”
Vee turns around and steps down to stand beside Ronnie as a figure emerges from the smoke, and they are stunned when they see who emerges.
“Ladies, ladies, ladies… you two are… ahh your spirits are tough to kill. I have only been trying for fucking twenty years.”
Vee and Ronnie feel like they are looking in a mirror, as the figure looks exactly the same except for her medium-length raven hair. Her smile is wicked, and her eyes black as night.
“Please tell me I don’t have to introduce myself.”
Victoria and Veronica share a glance at one another and look back toward it. Back toward—
“The Affliction.”
The wicked smile goes ear to ear.
“Oh, that sounds so… formal. Please, you can call me Valerie or Val.”
“Oh, Valerie. How clever. Another ‘Vee’, Vee. Isn’t that special?” she says, glancing over at Victoria.
Valerie laughs.
“See, that’s one of the reasons why I picked you, Ronnie. That not-so-subtle bitchiness… really was the perfect cover until that Outcast daddy issue showed you a good time, and you started feeling something.”
“If Ronnie isn’t you… then who is she?” she interjects, hands on her hips.
Valarie laughs as she snaps her fingers. The setting changes. The backyard of Victoria’s childhood home. Vee and Ronnie find themselves staring up at Valerie. She stands between the two massive oak tree’s in the backyard that Victoria’s adoptive grandfather, her Pepere, had planted in the late 50s, but this wasn’t really London, Ontario; it was a dark corner of Victoria’s mind.
“Ronnie is your sister. Or, was, I should say,” she says with another snap of her fingers, making a hammock appear set between the trees, and she sits down on it, crossing her legs, her wicked smile ever-present. “See, when Dad and ‘mamabear’ conceived you, they conceived twins. Butttttt… mamabear was a bit of a slut, wasn’t she? She slept with Cara’s father conceiving her, and you, Victoria, in basic science, consumed Veronica here as that can happen when two or mre in the same womb. Two souls in one body in the spiritual sense. Finally, there was a chance to not be in a battle with just one person and I could just take them over completely, unlike Supreme Machine, Queen Machine or The Raven. if Ronnie survived the womb, she would've carry me with her.”
“So wait, you are telling me I have felt this way towards Cara because I am the one you picked to camouflage yourself into?!” Ronnie yells at Valerie. Vee can see Ronnie visibly shaken and realizes the hatred that she exhumed for Cara wasn’t hers. Ronnie was more of a puppet than she was, and that realization hits her harder than she would’ve thought.
“Vee here is the OG; it was much easier to feed my feelings of hatred into you so I could destroy Victoria and weaken you to the point of no return, so it would just be me.”
Victoria scoffs.
“I guess that didn’t turn out so well for you, now did it?”
Valerie smirks as she swings herself gently in the hammock. Ronnie hasn’t said much; she’s lost in thought. All the violence and hatred she had been spreading wasn’t her own wants but rather The Affliction. Somewhere deep inside her soul, she was grateful that it really wasn’t her doing those things, even if she had been able to taste the evil Valerie pumped through her.
“The plan was working too until Miss Veronica here had to go and develop feelings for the one you all call Outcast. Sending all my hard work into chaos.”
“His name is Christian,” her words, if daggers, Valerie would be bleeding from the eyes. “You stay away from him!”
“Too late. He’s certainly a good time. I took him for a ride this past week while you two have been playing my game. I almost understand the draw to the guy. He's fucked up just like all of us,” she says, trying to entice Ronnie, but Vee grabs her hand and squeezes it to stop her.
“Ronnie, I know you can hear me; this trash isn’t worth it. We’ll get her.”
“Yeah, we will.”
“Oh, you two are just ADORABLE! Do you think you have what it takes to beat me? Victoria, I have given you so much self-doubt you aren’t sure if you took a piss or a shit after leaving a bathroom, and you Ronnie… Since the womb, I have been manipulating you, and you think that you stand a chance?”
“Manipulating since the beginning….”
Vee trails off as she is hit with an epiphany of sorts. Scott Nash Strader.
“Grandpa… it was you, wasn’t it? That killed him?!”
“Oh, cry me a river. The man was one of the most selfish pieces of shit on the face of the planet.”
“He was our selfish piece of shit! That wasn’t your call! Our mom, our aunt, our Uncz… you know how much pain you caused them?! Why?!”
Val laughs, her wicked smile seemingly growing stronger.
“Because I knew it would break you, break your family, and eventually break twinsie over there because the only thing I never faked was Ronnie’s love for you. Didn’t have to. Even if you are the reason she doesn’t get to exist in her own body, she will do anything for you; it was that I had to curb.”
“If what you are saying is all true, why are you telling us all of this?” she asks, sneering up at the swaying Valerie.
“My plan to weaken you both in the world of ‘The Entity’ was in hopes of breaking your spirits, but against all odds, you two became a unit, El Unico, if you will. I am telling you this because it will break you both down just enough for me to fully take over the vessel that is Victoria’s body. I will achieve what Supreme Machine or the others could never do; fully take over the host.”
“A symbiotic plague….”
“Well, I would say at least I am an attractive ‘plague’ haha. Now, it’s time for me to take over completely. You two have done your parts.”
Before Valerie can stand, she finds herself paralyzed and unable to move. Ronnie looks at her confused and turns around to see Victoria doing her best “Carrie” as she vibrates in her standing position. Valerie’s black eyes stare at her trying to fight it, but Victoria maintains her stranglehold.
“You forget that I have been stuck inside this prison of my own creation for months now, and it’s my playground,” she says, answering the silent question. She is visibly shaking, holding her in place. She looks to Ronnie.
“Vee, what are you doing?” she asks as she approaches Valerie, leaning in and looking deep within the blackest eyes she has ever seen; quite possibly the Devil’s eyes.
“She knew you inside and out and was the sacrifice she made to do that. Me? She thought being locked away in this mind palace would’ve broken me, but it’s only made me stronger here and you stronger out there. You need to take over so I can keep her at bay until we figure out, so we don’t end up in the same fateful situations our cousins and dad are in with their own Afflictions.”
“But, aren’t you worried I am in on it? That I will be with Christian?” she asks, placing a hand on Vee’s shoulder to add to her strength as awful evil-sounding growls escape Valerie’s abdomen.
“No, I am not. I know you will be with Outcast. I know it’s not to hurt me, and if he can give you the strength out there, I am all for it.”
“You’ll… not…be… able… to… hold… me… FOREVER!” her sultry voice has turned menacing, but Ronnie nor Vee pay her any mind.
“Go, Ronnie. I got this.”
Vee gives her a wink as Ronnie wraps her arms around her, whispering ‘thank you’ into her ear. When Veronica would wake up back in reality inside a hotel room in Ireland, the focus would turn to The Lost Stranger. Still, both Victoria and Veronica would be lying if they said he was an afterthought because even through the hell they have been through the past week, he was all they could think about and getting their TransAtlantic strap back with a successful defence. After all, it would prove they didn’t need Valerie’s energy to be who they are: The most successful Strader since SNS.
To Be Continued…
Preschool Realm
“I didn’t see this coming.”
Vee and Ronnie had gone through a few matches together, and their survival chemistry ran at two thousand revolutions. They hadn’t come up against The Raven yet, and each match led them no closer to any answers, but that didn’t mean they had quit trying to find them.
“Oooh, a Hex Totem.”
Vee had gotten quite good at sniffing these out and getting rid of them. The Killers, or who Ronnie referred to as The Hookers, could set hexes like one that caused their work in generators to regress if not being repaired, the Killers being able to actually kill you, or once the gates are powered, one hit will knock everyone down for a last-ditch attempt. So Victoria made it a habit.
“Is it out?!”
“Did you hear the big bang?”
Vee furrows her brow as she finishes the cleansing ritual destroying the totem in the process. The Hag was stalking the exit gates, and she laid out a symbol in the dirt with her hand using her ability to set a teleportation power. If anyone got too close while walking near, it could trigger a trap, and The Hag could teleport to the location. From what the ladies could understand, it is that Cannibals horribly tortured the Hag before witchcraft turned into this creature and was brought here by the Entity.
“About time! Alright, let’s get the hell out of here.”
Vee nodded, but she had a feeling the gates weren’t the way to escape; the hatch was their bet, but it was in a place that bothered her. It was in the basement of the Badham Preschool, and whatever happened here, it was an evil place, and the energy it gave off sent a chill down her spine. She only had been here once before but refused to go in the basement of the building, which in a roundabout way had led her to be sacrificed. On the other hand, Ronnie seemed to be the one that was the natural at this and was able to block those energies to focus on the task at hand: survival. Ronnie looks around the night-lit area around the side of the wide one-storey building. The plastic toys scattered about the unkempt grass highlight the creepy creaking of a rusted swing-set that had seen better days, where the one swing seat is only connected on one side, swaying in the dead air.
“Shhh, do you hear that, Ronnie?” she says, with the sound of wind billowing through a pipe can be heard.
“Well, we can’t have bad luck all the time,” she says, her brow rising up with a pursed smile. “I know where it is.”
“Don’t say it. Don’t say it, Ronnie,” Vee practically begs. She shakes her head and sighs. “Fuck, ok, let’s go.”
Ronnie, while crouched, quickly moves to the sidewall of Badham Preschool and peaks her head around the corner to see The Hag is patrolling the gates, seemingly ignoring the hunt for the Hatch. She could lose them to the gates if she went on that hunt and played the odds. She motions Vee to follow as they sneak around the back of the place to get inside. Once inside, Ronnie taps her nose and points to the left, signalling where they need to go to reach the basement.
“Ok, let’s get the hell out of here,” she whispers, barely even audible. Vee nods, and they move their way to the stairs, keeping an ear out for Anna, The Hag.
Vee steps in front of Ronnie and doesn’t even need to say why as she moves down the stairs trying to push past her fears. They can see the black smoke escaping from the Hatch being pushed by the wind coming out of it. Vee is just about there when—.
“ARGH FUCKING LET GO OF ME”
The sickly sound of The Hag swallowing drips into Vee’s ears as she turns around to see Ronnie caught in her grasp.
“Just go; I‘ll be there soon enough anyway,” Ronnie says, admitting defeat, but she sees something in Vee’s eyes. Victoria sees a pipe on the ground to her right.
In a split second, Vee is rushing The Hag on the stairs where she has Ronnie with a tight grip around the back of her neck. The pipe comes around from a wide right swing, smacking the side of the evil creature in the head, causing it to hiss as Ronnie somersaults down the stairs.
“Vee, let’s go!” she yells as she rolls up onto her feet. “We need to—”
Ronnie stops dead in her tracks as she watches a shadowy figure close the Hatch. Vee swings away but stops as her pipe bounces off the steps as The Hag disappears.
“What the hell?”
“Umm, Vee, we have company.”
Vee turns around and steps down to stand beside Ronnie as a figure emerges from the smoke, and they are stunned when they see who emerges.
“Ladies, ladies, ladies… you two are… ahh your spirits are tough to kill. I have only been trying for fucking twenty years.”
Vee and Ronnie feel like they are looking in a mirror, as the figure looks exactly the same except for her medium-length raven hair. Her smile is wicked, and her eyes black as night.
“Please tell me I don’t have to introduce myself.”
Victoria and Veronica share a glance at one another and look back toward it. Back toward—
“The Affliction.”
The wicked smile goes ear to ear.
“Oh, that sounds so… formal. Please, you can call me Valerie or Val.”
“Oh, Valerie. How clever. Another ‘Vee’, Vee. Isn’t that special?” she says, glancing over at Victoria.
Valerie laughs.
“See, that’s one of the reasons why I picked you, Ronnie. That not-so-subtle bitchiness… really was the perfect cover until that Outcast daddy issue showed you a good time, and you started feeling something.”
“If Ronnie isn’t you… then who is she?” she interjects, hands on her hips.
Valarie laughs as she snaps her fingers. The setting changes. The backyard of Victoria’s childhood home. Vee and Ronnie find themselves staring up at Valerie. She stands between the two massive oak tree’s in the backyard that Victoria’s adoptive grandfather, her Pepere, had planted in the late 50s, but this wasn’t really London, Ontario; it was a dark corner of Victoria’s mind.
“Ronnie is your sister. Or, was, I should say,” she says with another snap of her fingers, making a hammock appear set between the trees, and she sits down on it, crossing her legs, her wicked smile ever-present. “See, when Dad and ‘mamabear’ conceived you, they conceived twins. Butttttt… mamabear was a bit of a slut, wasn’t she? She slept with Cara’s father conceiving her, and you, Victoria, in basic science, consumed Veronica here as that can happen when two or mre in the same womb. Two souls in one body in the spiritual sense. Finally, there was a chance to not be in a battle with just one person and I could just take them over completely, unlike Supreme Machine, Queen Machine or The Raven. if Ronnie survived the womb, she would've carry me with her.”
“So wait, you are telling me I have felt this way towards Cara because I am the one you picked to camouflage yourself into?!” Ronnie yells at Valerie. Vee can see Ronnie visibly shaken and realizes the hatred that she exhumed for Cara wasn’t hers. Ronnie was more of a puppet than she was, and that realization hits her harder than she would’ve thought.
“Vee here is the OG; it was much easier to feed my feelings of hatred into you so I could destroy Victoria and weaken you to the point of no return, so it would just be me.”
Victoria scoffs.
“I guess that didn’t turn out so well for you, now did it?”
Valerie smirks as she swings herself gently in the hammock. Ronnie hasn’t said much; she’s lost in thought. All the violence and hatred she had been spreading wasn’t her own wants but rather The Affliction. Somewhere deep inside her soul, she was grateful that it really wasn’t her doing those things, even if she had been able to taste the evil Valerie pumped through her.
“The plan was working too until Miss Veronica here had to go and develop feelings for the one you all call Outcast. Sending all my hard work into chaos.”
“His name is Christian,” her words, if daggers, Valerie would be bleeding from the eyes. “You stay away from him!”
“Too late. He’s certainly a good time. I took him for a ride this past week while you two have been playing my game. I almost understand the draw to the guy. He's fucked up just like all of us,” she says, trying to entice Ronnie, but Vee grabs her hand and squeezes it to stop her.
“Ronnie, I know you can hear me; this trash isn’t worth it. We’ll get her.”
“Yeah, we will.”
“Oh, you two are just ADORABLE! Do you think you have what it takes to beat me? Victoria, I have given you so much self-doubt you aren’t sure if you took a piss or a shit after leaving a bathroom, and you Ronnie… Since the womb, I have been manipulating you, and you think that you stand a chance?”
“Manipulating since the beginning….”
Vee trails off as she is hit with an epiphany of sorts. Scott Nash Strader.
“Grandpa… it was you, wasn’t it? That killed him?!”
“Oh, cry me a river. The man was one of the most selfish pieces of shit on the face of the planet.”
“He was our selfish piece of shit! That wasn’t your call! Our mom, our aunt, our Uncz… you know how much pain you caused them?! Why?!”
Val laughs, her wicked smile seemingly growing stronger.
“Because I knew it would break you, break your family, and eventually break twinsie over there because the only thing I never faked was Ronnie’s love for you. Didn’t have to. Even if you are the reason she doesn’t get to exist in her own body, she will do anything for you; it was that I had to curb.”
“If what you are saying is all true, why are you telling us all of this?” she asks, sneering up at the swaying Valerie.
“My plan to weaken you both in the world of ‘The Entity’ was in hopes of breaking your spirits, but against all odds, you two became a unit, El Unico, if you will. I am telling you this because it will break you both down just enough for me to fully take over the vessel that is Victoria’s body. I will achieve what Supreme Machine or the others could never do; fully take over the host.”
“A symbiotic plague….”
“Well, I would say at least I am an attractive ‘plague’ haha. Now, it’s time for me to take over completely. You two have done your parts.”
Before Valerie can stand, she finds herself paralyzed and unable to move. Ronnie looks at her confused and turns around to see Victoria doing her best “Carrie” as she vibrates in her standing position. Valerie’s black eyes stare at her trying to fight it, but Victoria maintains her stranglehold.
“You forget that I have been stuck inside this prison of my own creation for months now, and it’s my playground,” she says, answering the silent question. She is visibly shaking, holding her in place. She looks to Ronnie.
“Vee, what are you doing?” she asks as she approaches Valerie, leaning in and looking deep within the blackest eyes she has ever seen; quite possibly the Devil’s eyes.
“She knew you inside and out and was the sacrifice she made to do that. Me? She thought being locked away in this mind palace would’ve broken me, but it’s only made me stronger here and you stronger out there. You need to take over so I can keep her at bay until we figure out, so we don’t end up in the same fateful situations our cousins and dad are in with their own Afflictions.”
“But, aren’t you worried I am in on it? That I will be with Christian?” she asks, placing a hand on Vee’s shoulder to add to her strength as awful evil-sounding growls escape Valerie’s abdomen.
“No, I am not. I know you will be with Outcast. I know it’s not to hurt me, and if he can give you the strength out there, I am all for it.”
“You’ll… not…be… able… to… hold… me… FOREVER!” her sultry voice has turned menacing, but Ronnie nor Vee pay her any mind.
“Go, Ronnie. I got this.”
Vee gives her a wink as Ronnie wraps her arms around her, whispering ‘thank you’ into her ear. When Veronica would wake up back in reality inside a hotel room in Ireland, the focus would turn to The Lost Stranger. Still, both Victoria and Veronica would be lying if they said he was an afterthought because even through the hell they have been through the past week, he was all they could think about and getting their TransAtlantic strap back with a successful defence. After all, it would prove they didn’t need Valerie’s energy to be who they are: The most successful Strader since SNS.
To Be Continued…
