Don't Be Alone
#2 of Serena's Encounter
She ran until she reached the intersection, which wasn't that far away, what the hell was wrong with that little girl? She didn't want to think about it, and even more, she didn't want to become like her, this place wasn't... Safe. The feeling had been growing on her for some time, but having witnessed one of the town's 'inhabitants' made it clear to her that she had to get out. The state the mouse was in frightened her right to the core, it wasn't just her clothing or how she spoke, it was how she acted, as if something horrible was about to happen at any second. Serena didn't want to think of what that could be... And what's more, what the hell was she singing to herself. The whole experience made her shudder, and she didn't want to think about it anymore.
The feline looked around, noticing now an immediate change in the environment. The absence of the sun had a dramatic effect of pitting the already dull colors into an even deeper sense of morbid mediocrity then she could have thought would be possible for a place like this. The darkened gray sky hinted towards a coming darkness which may be still an hour off, a panic grew in Serena, which added to the recent encounter with the little mouse. Being lost here, in the middle of the night, was something she above all didn't want to deal with, she needed to find her way out, now.
Silence resumed in the town, making the 'pat pat' of her small feet upon the pavement of the sidewalk too loud for her to feel remotely comfortable with it all. She had resumed walking, and was just getting past the large hotel, which loomed on the other side of the street, when she gave a look forward. There was another shrouded figure. Serena stopped dead in her tracks, eyes widening, and as if this new figure knew that it was discovered, it leapt off to the side and scurried off in a torrent of noise down the alley.
Was it the girl again? No... That figure seemed taller, but she wasn't going to waste her time in figuring it out, instead Serena diverted her course towards the road itself and began to walk as fast as she could up the middle of it. She couldn't tell if this was a good idea or not, because now she grew aware of both sides of the street. Every now and then she'd catch an intangible heap of shadow leap into view, and as soon as she shifted her sight to look to such, it'd vanish.
It was dreadful, it couldn't be the little mouse, no, there were definitely more of her 'type' lurking around, watching her pass through. It made her uneasy, more uneasy then she could have thought it could. She wanted to scream, to tell them all to leave her alone, but she didn't want to utter a peep for fear that it'd attract more attention.
All she wanted was a sign, some hope that there was a way out of here and that she was going in the right direction. But there was nothing for her to feed her hope upon, nothing that gave her any sort of clue as to where 'exactly' she was and how to get back to a normal reality.
Little did she know how normal this place really was.
The silence was broken at uneven intervals by those shadows that teased at her senses, their feet scuffling off hurriedly to get back out of sight, and at times knocking something over further back in the alleys and buildings they escape into. Never did she hear a shout or a call, which, in some odd way, put her at ease despite all that was confronting her mind.
The sense of foreboding had been welling up in her chest even since she left the little mouse's presence, that little lullaby of hers sank into Serena's mind, and she was trying to piece some meaning into it since the mouse's accent was difficult to follow as it was. What did she mean by 'they walk the streets, don't be alone?', was there some sort of 'group' that came out at night or something? Maybe that was why there's been all these figures scurrying about. Maybe this 'They' group could help her get out! Finally, a ray of golden opportunity shined down into the doubtful areas of her mind; there was a chance that she could get out.
There indeed was more to the lullaby, but Serena was confident in her decision that whomever the They were, they'll know a lot more then the psychotic little girl she had encountered before. Who knows what kind of danger she might have been in with that little thing around! Maybe the They gathered up all these weird sicko's or something. That would certainly explain why she was freaking out, constantly under fear of being caught and put back in the asylum.
These thoughts relieved Serena, and also brought new fears to her mind, were these shadows all psychotics? And who knew how many of them could have been perverts in their sad lives. Her heart began to race, her attire came to her mind and she decided that she had to hide, quickly, and wait.
She gave a quick scan of the area to make sure none of the shadows were around, and with that, hurried back to the side of the street she had left earlier. Hastily she moved along the buildings, trying to find one where the boards weren't so densely packed together, and be it through luck or chance, she soon encounters one such building.
The building itself had a stoop that protruded onto the side walk, which hinted to the idea that it was one of those apartment buildings that she's seen so much of here. The way into the building would be through the door that was rotting away and literally falling from its hinges at an angle. She didn't want to move to the door, or touch it even for fear of it falling and making some racket that would indeed dampen her situation.
Serena would begin to walk up the stoop when a sound halted her, off to the side, the direction in which she had come from. It seemed to sound like a pair of hurrying feet, bare at that, but hurried none the less. She couldn't see far into the fog, but she didn't want to encounter whatever it was. With a few quick steps Serena would be at the door itself and would be trying to get through the opening in the lower corner, crouching and looking rather ridiculous with the skirt flaring against her abdomen. She wouldn't be able to do it quickly without setting the door aside and there by making herself known through evidence of sound alone. She was going to be discovered.
The feline cringed as she saw the shrouded figure, small, emerge from the distant gray, running quickly and actually turning towards the stoop and leaping up such with a paw outstretched. It was the little mouse,
"No! Get away from me!" Serena shrieked as she tried to move her arm from the mouse's grasp, but she was too quick for her and she felt the mouse's cold and bony grip encircle her forearm,
"No mum! Not safe! Come!" She said back to Serena, eyes wide, horrified by something as her head would look up and down the side walk, she tried pulling Serena out from where she had crawled herself too, but she wasn't going to let herself be lead by some psycho,
"No, damn it! You're crazy, get away!" Violence was something Serena rarely initiated herself towards, but if this damned mouse continued in the manner she was, she might resort to it,
"Please! 'fore the bell tolls!" The mouse whispered with explicit concern, almost in hysterics as she tried still to pull Serena from the door,
"I'm not one of you!!" Serena shrieked back to her as she tried to push the mouse away with the caught paw. It'd be at that moment that a dull and ominous sound rang through the air, shattering the silence that surrounded the two combatants, a ring, deep and hallow, only followed by another. Serena would have recognized it as a church bell. With this, the mouse's attempts grew even more fever pitched, her grip tightening to the point that it was hurting Serena,
"THAIR'S COMIN', THAIR'S COMIN'!" She wailed, repeatedly, moving a second paw to Serena's sore arm. The feline would see now the shadows trickling into view from the alleys and from up the street towards the way she had come. Their numbers were enormous as it turns into a mob of voices and shrouded figures running down the street, shouting now and calling to their brethren with dire warnings. Serena gritted her teeth and wedged her body so that her lower half, though exposed, was towards the mouse,
"I said I'm not going with you and that's FINAL!" She kicked out a leg, it connected quite accurately with the little one's sternum and knocked the wind out of her, the mouse lost her grip and fell back, nearly getting trampled along the way by the crowd. She rose, her wide eyes of a pale blue looking to Serena with an expression that hinted towards longing, her brows fitted crookedly in a hurt expression. She sniffled,
"God'elp yee!" She balled before turning and running with the crowd, all the while the bell tolled, and Serena forced her way through the opening in the door and into the building.