IC Voicemail

[everysecond]

...Wait so I'm supposed to do what with this?

I guess I leave a message.

Hey, this is Rileyable Riley. Leave a message.

So does that work?




[ooc: Leave a message for her!]

Comments

[tonsofpun]

[She's freshly showered, hair still damp and pulled back from her face. There's not a scratch on her. It takes her a second to react when Riley takes her hand, but then she squeezes.]

... hey, girl.

[everysecond]

Busy out there.

[That's for fucking sure. And putting it understating it by...a lot.]

[tonsofpun]

[It was public. Very public.]

Did you hear about the crazy girl who killed that guy today?

[everysecond]

Yeah. She sounded a lot like you.

[Right on down to one of the shirts that she knows Ellie wears. Her hair, the shirt, the face...]

[tonsofpun]

[That shirt is spotted with blood, crammed into her hamper under her jeans. Her skin is still pink from the scrubbing she gave it, her nails cut short to help her get all the blood out from under them.

She reaches into her pocket, pulls out a bracelet with a colorless stone and sets it on the roof tiles at their feet, taking a minute to gather her thoughts. For some time it seems like she might not speak. When she does, her voice is distant, detached.]

... do you remember, back at the mall, with the waterguns? When we hunted each other, and I lost?

[everysecond]

[Riley looks down at the bracelet and how it's got blood on it. Well, that tells her a lot. Ellie's the girl who butchered some guy out in public. Wow. He must have really been an asshole.]

Yeah. I drenched your ass.

[tonsofpun]

... back when it was winter. In our world. There was this lodge in the mountains, in Colorado. It was in the middle of a blizzard.

He took my gun, locked all the doors, and set the place on fire.

[Ellie stares out over the city, out into nothing.]

And he played that game.

[everysecond]

Shit...

[Riley lets her head fall back against the surface behind her. She somehow knows Ellie made it out but...]

Why?

[tonsofpun]

[Sliding her hand free, Ellie rubs them together, blowing on her fingertips. The night is warm, but her hands feel like they're freezing.]

Because he thought I was special.

[everysecond]

Sounds like he was fucked in the head.

[Ellie is special. But for her girl to go off on a guy like that? Yeah, he really is messed up and Riley knows it.]

[tonsofpun]

You have no idea.

[Ellie clasps her hands together, squeezes her fingers and lets go while she works through things in her own mind.]

... Clementine thinks I'm going to be in a lot of trouble. I'm going to have to explain why I did it.

[everysecond]

Sounds to me like you killed a psycho. Whatever anyone says...

[Riley gives her shoulder a nudge.] ...just know I'm proud of my girl.

[tonsofpun]

[It's tempting to curl up against Riley and just hold onto her for a while. Instead, Ellie shuts her eyes and tries to keep all of it straight in her mind. Tries to remember what she'll have to do.

It'll take her ten times as long to put herself back together as it will to fall apart.]

... can I practice on you? Explaining it?

[everysecond]

[Riley immediately turns to her and nods. She leans forward, waiting because she knows that Ellie needs this more than anything else.]

Yeah. Go ahead. We'll go over it until you feel you can get through it.

[tonsofpun]

[Drawing up her legs, she wraps her arms around them and deliberately opens up that Winter in her mind. Tries to go with the current of memories and not drown in them. It's easier this time. Gets easier every time she does it. She wonders if that's a good thing, going numb to this shit.]

... in autumn, Joel got really hurt. He fell, and this piece of rebar went through him. Here. It was pretty fucking scary for a while. I was on my own, taking care of him, and he came down with this infection. I didn't really know what to do.

I had him holed up in the basement of this house, and I went hunting. I actually bagged a deer. ... so these two guys found me.

[Ellie goes on, explaining her first meeting with David and James, how she'd traded the deer for medicine. How David had fought at her back against the wave of Infected while James went off to get the supplies. How David recognized her from a secondhand account -- that she and Joel had killed quite a few of his men.

How David had her followed, and she woke up in time to jump on Callus and make a run for it to lead them away from Joel. How they'd shot Callus out from under her, how she'd fought her way through more and more of them until they'd managed to take her.

Her voice doesn't falter until the end.]

... when I woke up, I was. Locked up. In a cell. In some kind of slaughterhouse. David was outside, and he was- butchering something.

And then I realized it was a person.

[everysecond]

[As active as Riley is, she's also a damn good listener. She doesn't say a single word the entire time Ellie talks, just listening to her story. Sure she frowns a bit but damn it this is something Ellie has to work through. That means she can't interrupt because fuck it the gods sure won't. At least she doesn't think so.

Better to pretend like they won't.

She just nods to tell her to keep going, already pissed at everyone involved with David and, most of all, David himself.]

[tonsofpun]

[Ellie goes quiet, trying to figure out how to tell the next part of the story. It's something that's confusing even now, though she knows exactly what he wanted from her. It still makes her skin crawl, makes her stomach turn over.]

He told me he was trying to convince the others that I could come around. That I was special. And loyal. That I had heart.

[The words feel disgusting as she says them, as if she can still hear him whispering them along with her in his too-soft, too-gentle voice. His hands had been leathery, cool, and slightly damp.]

I let him get close. Poker face, you know? Touched his hand. Looked him in the eye.

Broke his fucking finger.

[She glances sideways at Riley, knowing she'll appreciate that part.]

[everysecond]

[That's her girl. She smiles in approval then nods to tell her to keep going. She knows there's more that Ellie needs to get out. Because...

Fuck, a cannibal.]

[tonsofpun]

Made a grab for the keys. Didn't get them. I'm not so good at pickpocketing, I guess.

... he grabbed my arm and slammed me against the bars, cracked a couple of my ribs.

[Ellie's voice starts to get vacant again, and she shakes her head. It's easier when she going through it like this. Tries to order it.]

The next morning he dragged me out. Was gonna cut me up, but I bit him. And then I started yelling about being infected. Showed them my arm. Buddy-boy flipped his shit and I was able to grab the knife and cut him bad, grabbed my switchblade and booked it out of there.

Into a snowstorm, but anywhere was better than there.

I almost got away, managed to lift a gun off one of the guys I snuck up on while I was getting out of there. But then David caught up and cornered me in this old restaurant.

[everysecond]

[Wow fuck. This is just...getting worse and worse.

Riley sighs then nods. Okay. She's ready for the rest. She's pissed at this guy but she's ready.]

[tonsofpun]

... he took my gun. Knocked over some candles, set the place on fire. I ran. Hid. Kept moving.

He had the fucking nerve to tell me he was sorry they killed Callus. That they'd use every part of him. He just... wouldn't shut up. He kept talking. I tried to rush him, but he was too strong, so I just... figured I'd sneak up on him. It took a few times.

He could've used the gun, but he didn't. Instead he pulled out this... machete. And we hunted each other. Finally, I got in a really good stab, and he started thrashing around, until I hit a counter. I think it knocked me out for a while.

Woke up on the floor. Couldn't find my knife.

[everysecond]

[Though she knows Ellie lived through this, she still sits forward in the hopes of learning more. How'd she live? How'd she get out?

Fuck, she's glad Ellie butchered this guy.]

[tonsofpun]

[This is where it gets difficult. Ellie lays a hand over her side, gliding her fingers over the places that still ache when it gets cold. The breaks that showed up on her x-rays with John.]

I started... crawling. I think some ribs were broken by then. I don't remember. But I spotted his machete.

And he just... came out of nowhere, started kicking me.

He told me I could try begging.

I didn't. I told him fuck you.

[everysecond]

Good.

[He deserved it. Ellie begging? Fuck that shit.]

[tonsofpun]

So he... flipped me over.

[She rubs her hand against the side of her throat, thinks of leaving this part out, but the whole point is to tell it all. She bulls on through. Riley's silence and support have made all the difference.]

Started strangling me. I reached for the machete and got it in my hand.

I don't-

[She bites her lip. She does. She does remember.]

It all kind of went crazy. He screamed, a little bit. At first. And then he stopped.

I didn't stop. Joel had to pull me off him.