Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Look at her clothes… they're completely inappropriate for church…"

 They were whispering amongst themselves. They were… they were judging her. Of course they were. Of fucking course they were.

 She grit her teeth, biting back tears as she brought her bat down on Kel. He yelped, ducking under the swing right before it impacted his skull.

"Did she just go for the head? With a weapon like that? That's far too dangerous..."

 She grit her teeth, eyeing the scrawny kid alongside him warily. He probably still had that knife.

 Almost as if on cue, the stab wound in her gut decided that now was a wonderful goddamn time to start hurting again. She winced, losing her composure just long enough for Kel's basketball to hit her right in the nose.

 She stumbled back from the hit, screaming obscenities at Kel, swinging wildly at the air to keep Sunny from getting any closer to her. It… it seemed to work. He was staying right where he was.

 She regained her balance. Not her composure. Her composure had broken as soon as this fight started.

 "Why? Why are you here!?" She shouted, tightening her grip on the bat. She sounded like she was going crazy. Her voice was choked with rage.

 Kel was about to dare a response when the churchgoers cut him off with their… their  stupid rumors .

 "...I can't believe she 'd even bring a weapon in here… How uncivilized…"

 Aubrey felt the tears welling up again. She tried blinking them away, to little avail. She couldn't close her eyes. Couldn't lose focus. Sunny had a knife.

 This was her safe place. And they were screwing it all up. She stepped forward again, aiming for Kel's midsection. 

 Crack! She struck true, knocking the wind outta the boy as the bat slammed into his stomach, tearing up his shirt and leaving a few scrapes-

 The next thing she felt was Sunny's fist slamming into her head. The hit wasn't strong, but it did hurt a whole lot. She stepped back, rubbing her forehead. She growled as she glared at the pair. These fuckers thought they could just… just barge into the one place she felt safe. They thought they could do that and get away with it. She'd show them.

"What do those delinquents think they're doing? This is a place of worship!"

She was crying, now. Stupid... dumb bitch… idiot. She bit back the tears, washing them over with rage.

"Why… why now!?" She screamed, with all the rage she could muster. Her persona was slowly crumbling. Her voice was choking up.

"Someone needs to stop them… where are their parents?"

 "Aubrey, we just want the album!" Kel lowered the basketball as he spoke, silently asking her to stop fighting. At least, that's probably what he was doing. Didn't… didn't matter, though. He left himself open.

 Aubrey took that opening.

 She struck true. The bat landed on Kel's head with a loud crack, and the guy was sent to the ground. She heard a few gasps from the onlookers as she drew her bat back, clenching her jaw. Somehow, He wasn't even bleeding. Even though he was lying unconscious on the ground. He'd always been a hard-headed piece of shit, Aubrey supposed. Him taking a bat to the face and being perfectly fine shouldn't even be surprising at this point.

"That girl is a threat to this neighborhood…"

She turned to Sunny, fury and pain oh-so evident in her tearful eyes.

Sunny stepped back, shaking a little bit. He didn't even fucking say anything. He didn't even try to explain himself. 

"There's no hope for sinners like her."

She stepped towards Sunny, closing the gap he had made between them. She would've been scared of that knife, but she was too damn pissed to care at this point-

...Oh fuck. Sunny was fumbling for something. It had to be the knife. She broke into a sprint, hefting her bat and preparing to attack. She couldn't let him take the thing out.

 His eyes went wide as she approached, abandoning his fumble for what was probably the knife, and putting his arms up to defend his face. Didn't matter. She swapped her grip to a single hand, and used the other to sock the kid in the stomach.

 The hit must've knocked the wind out of him. He curled in on himself, unable to recover before Aubrey followed up. The bat caught him in the shoulder, drawing blood.

 She followed up with a headbutt, This one knocked Sunny onto his ass. He wasn't even fighting back anymore… just squeezing his eyes shut. Trying to calm down, or something stupid like that. She didn't care. He just ruined her safe place. He just ruined EVERYTHING. Everything she'd built up to try and cope with her stupid shitty life, all crumbling around her.

 Maybe she was crumbling, too.

 Didn't matter. Didn't FUCKING MATTER. She wanted to hurt this fucker. She wanted to make sure he'd never mess with him again. One good blow to the face... And Sunny was down for the count, bloodied and battered as he lay sprawled on the carpet. Aubrey slowly backed away, her grip tight on her bat.

 The crowd was completely silent. They didn't dare get near her. For just a moment, it felt… good. Like she'd just… punched the villain, saved the day, and things were gonna go right back to normal, now.

 But that isn't how things work.

"Oh… ever since her father left."

That short sentence hit her like a freight train, completely shattering that tiny bit of satisfaction she had.

The chatter started anew. More fervent. More judgemental. More hateful.

"...She's so uncontrollable…"

She clutched her head, unable to numb how much it hurt anymore. No anger to help her here. 

Shut up. Just shut up!

She wanted to scream. She wanted to lash out. She wanted to hurt someone. She'd already hurt so many people today… but what other ways were there to deal with how she felt? Besides… they… they deserved it. They deserved it for making her like this. 

...Right?

"...Disrespectful…"

 Kel was already pulling himself back up. Stupid fucker always had a knack for bouncing back. Aubrey couldn't even look him in the eyes, for some reason.

 This place was everything to her. It was one of the few solaces she had left. Now she could never come back.

"...I feel bad for her mother..."

 She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't listen to what they were saying about her anymore. She couldn't do it. She couldn't. The message was already clear as day, anyways.

 She wasn't welcome here anymore.

 She was crying, now. She was on the verge of breaking down. She was nothing more than a stupid, hopeless delinquent. She… She ruined everything. This place meant everything to her. It Meant Everything.

 And she fucked it all up.

 She pushed past Kel, nearly knocking the boy over again. It didn't matter. She didn't care. She was too caught in her own stupid head to focus on Kel. She could only do one thing, as her safe place of four years crumbled to pieces around her.

 All she could do was run away.

Chapter Text

The front door clicked shut behind Aubrey. Almost immediately, she was greeted with the awful smell of her mother's home. She scrunched up her nose in vague disgust as she quickly walked through the house to get away from the stench. She may have been used to it, but that didn't make it bearable .

Her mom might not have noticed her come in.  If they did, they didn't say anything. They didn't even take their eyes off the TV. Good. That meant Aubrey didn't have to try and make up any excuses for why she was out. 

... God , she hated this place.

Aubrey had gotten good at getting up to the attic as fast as possible. She'd never really had a proper room like other kids did, but she liked the attic. In her opinion, it was the only decent part of this shithole.

Case-in-point, she was already there. She'd barely even registered stomping all over various boxes to reach the ladder to the attic.

...She'd barely registered anything after church, actually.

...Goddammit.

She… no, they … fucked everything up. They took it away from her. They barged into her safe place, pissed her off… and now she can never go back there again. 

She pushed down the tears, ignoring her clenched fists, still shaking with barely concealed rage. She… she needed to vent. Or scream at someone. Or break something. Or… Or… UGH!

She took a wobbly little breath, looking over her little room. The bed that'd been shoved into the corner took up a pretty big chunk of the attic. Next to it was the picture of her and Kim… that was a good day. Bun-Bun was asleep in his little enclosure, at the moment. She didn't wanna wake him up… but it was nice he was there, she guessed.

 Her laundry was starting to pile up… she needed to take care of that soon. Not today, though. Today, she just wanted to lie down and, like, cry or something. 

Aubrey didn't like crying… but there wasn't too much she could do about it, other than suppress her pain with anger. Even then, it only made the inevitable breakdown that much worse. Subconsciously, she found herself glancing at the little desk in the corner… shoved up against the hole she'd put through the wall.

Ugh. She was such a baby . Her stupid eyes got teary way too easy.

Just-

Aubrey glanced at Basil's photo album. She'd taken out all of the photos that contained Mari and stuck them on her corkboard. They were kinda nice to look at. Made her feel a little bit better.

...After today, though? She needed the album out of her goddamn life. That stupid book full of stupid people is why Sunny and Kel decided it was all fine and dandy to ruin the things she used for comfort.

She already felt the fury building in her gut. This book… this stupid bunch of memories , which she tried to PRESERVE, mind you… was why she was never gonna step foot in church again.

...They wanted the album back, yeah? So… if she were to, y'know… chuck it in the trash … the hell would they do about it?

They'd cry about it. And then she'd feel better.

She didn't really think about how much she valued the thing in the heat of the moment. All she saw was red. Less than a minute later, she was standing in front of the garbage bin, clutching the album in her hands. She was gonna regret this later… but goddamn , would it feel good right now.

… Should she really be doing this?

As much as she hated to admit it… she still cared-- No she didn't. Shut up.

Into the garbage it went. End of story.

Aubrey felt a tiny bit better. That feeling wouldn't last forever… but it was fine. She didn't feel as shitty in the moment… and that was what mattered.

She let out a triumphant huff, before stomping back inside and slamming the door shut behind her. This time, mom spared her a passing, vaguely disapproving glance… but Aubrey was used to it.

Back up to her room she went, hopping over empty crates and little bits of trash on the floor before climbing back up the ladder. 

Almost immediately, she was greeted by her phone's incessant, constant buzzing. Somebody was probably blowing up the hooligang group chat again. Just the simple sound made her head hurt.

Aubrey muted the thing, before falling onto her bed. She didn't have the energy to listen to that shit, right now.

...Gah. She'd slightly forgotten how terrible her bed felt. Sleeping in her gang's homes had given her way higher standards… even if those higher standards were "the couch".

 She wasn't in the mood to trouble them, though, so she just had to live with the rock-hard mattress and the creaky frame. At least she'd shilled out for some nice pillows… even if she still needed to buy a blanket that was thicker than a sheet of paper.

Hold up… it wasn't even, like, 5:00 PM yet. Why the hell was she thinking about sleep…?

…

Although… today was pretty exhausting so far. A little nap wouldn't be long enough to screw with her head much… right? Right?  

… As much as Aubrey dreaded going to sleep these days, she was far too exhausted, both emotionally and physically, to do anything other than pass out in her godawful bed.

Straw's eyes snapped open to the garish glow of fluorescent lights.

She was back in Ferro City.

But... where she was, uh… yeah, who knew?

...Fuck. Her stomach hurt- wait. No… no it didn't. Her stomach wasn't there anymore.

How… how the hell was she even alive?- wait. Yeah. This was a dream. This was her own stupid head… and apparently , having a massive hole punched in your gut by a cannon wasn't lethal here. 

Figures. Everyone's so damn violent in these parts that there had to be some reason for why everybody didn't just kill each other right off the bat. If that reason was "it's really hard to kill people", then she just had to live with it-

"Aubrey?"  A hauntingly familiar voice came from the corner of the room. 

...Fuck. It hadn't even been five minutes, yet… and already, she was here.

Almost immediately, Straw was back on her feet, not bothering to even give that someone so much as a passing glance as she sprinted out of her room. They might've said something, but she tuned it out. Not listening to that bullshit. Nope. Not today. Not now. Not ever. Fuck that. She slammed the door shut on her inner demon.

...God, she was so sick of this place. Maybe she shouldn't've gone for that nap.

Well... no going back, now. Straw grumbled as she felt her stomach… and the newly made hole that had been put in it. It was, like, honestly uncanny how well it'd healed… in… er… that way. Was she just, like, doomed to be like this in her dreams, now?

Ew. Ew. She could stick her hand through it. She did not like that. God, she really hoped this was temporary… the gang was gonna give her so much shit for this. 

...Lucky for her, they were all probably awake, right now. Nobody to see her like this, thank fuck. If she'd been forced into one of those awful hospital gowns alongside her new… feature ... she might've just died on the spot if she'd been seen with one of those.

Thankfully, she was still in her "usual" outfit. Good. Now she just… needed to figure out where the hell she was.

 Straw began to speed-walk through the halls, her boots clicking and clacking against the linoleum floor. She always hated hospitals. Those soulless lights, how sterile they felt, the fact that everything was white for some ungodly reason . Ugh.

This one strangely felt… more chilling than other hospitals. It might've been how damn empty it was. Ferro City wasn't exactly the most populated place, but you could still usually see at least a person or two milling about…

Here, though? Nothing. No patients, no doctors, no sound.

Plus, the only other person she'd seen so far… well, she wanted to get as far away from them as possible. They never had anything good to say.

Hell, they were probably still following her. Almost instinctively, she glanced over her shoulder, glaring at the empty hallway. Nothing there, for now. Nonetheless, she quickened her pace. She wasn't sure if it helped… but it felt good to be putting some distance between them.

It… it took about five whole minutes to finally find an elevator. Straw might've gone in circles a few times, but she really couldn't tell. Didn't matter. She slapped the funky elevator calling button, and waited.

…And… waited.

…

After about a minute, the doors finally opened…

To an empty elevator shaft. 

...Are you fucking kidding me?

...Y'know what? No. She wasn't gonna wander this creepy hospital for hours on end. She'd much prefer climbing down an… equally creepy elevator shaft.

Yeah, fuck it. Down she went.

The first bit was easy. Surprisingly so… she didn't exactly have experience with elevator shafts. This one felt kinda… made for climbing? If that made any sense? This was probably what she was supposed to be doing.

And… down she went, trying her best to steer clear of the webs that were beginning to build up around her as she descended… far longer than she probably should be. There should be, like, an exit somewhere… right?

...Wait. Fuck. FUCK. The doors closed behind her! She was a goddamn idiot who just locked herself in an elevator shaft!

Sure enough, all Straw had to do was look to the left, and right there was a closed elevator door.

...She really needed to start using her brain. And maybe her eyes, too.

Uh… Alright… maybe someone was, like… on the other side? Maybe… if she just…

Straw proceeded to pound her fist on the elevator door. "YO!!! OPEN UP!!!"

A few moments of silence... before Straw heard hurried skittering from the other side, along with a faint "Coming!"

The elevator doors slowly slid open, to reveal… what the fuck . Was that-?

"Erm... Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" Yeah. That was a spider. Like. A straight up spider. In doctor's attire. Standing on two of its eight spindly limbs, and holding a clipboard... somehow. Oh, and it just spoke .

God, she hated dreams.

"Wha...?"

"You have a massive hole in your stomach, miss. It's why you're here." The spider gestured towards the… aforementioned massive hole in her stomach. "It's also why you shouldn't be out of bed. You need rest."

"Hey, uh, how about you get off my dick? " Straw hissed, glaring down at the thing, "I'm fine ." 

"..." The spider just… stared at her for a few moments. "...Riiiiiiight. Just. Leave the elevator shaft, please? I don't want to be the one held accountable if you end up hurting yourself."

"You've gotta move outta the damn doorway first, man."

"Oh. Right. Yes, I do." The spider stepped to the side, allowing Straw to hop out of the empty elevator shaft. She silently breathed a sigh of relief as her boots touched solid ground again. The climb hadn't been hard, but… she was still relieved to be back on her feet.

 Almost immediately, the spider stuck out a… limb? "I should introduce myself. I'm Dr. Antula. I was coming to check up on you, but… it seems you came to me instead. And, since I haven't seen you here before, I'm assuming this is your first stay, yes?"

"Uh… yeah. No idea how exactly I got to… wherever this place is, but… yeah."

"Not to worry. That's completely normal. Most likely, some of our staff found you unconscious and dying on the street, or something like that, and brought you here for treatment." Dr. Antula gave a curt nod to Straw, "And, as for where 'here' is… welcome to the Pyrise Hospital. Only remaining hospital in Ferro City, staffed entirely by arachnids, etcetera." As the doctor spoke, Straw really started to take in her surroundings. How didn't she notice all the spiders?

"... Huh . Okay, so… Can I leave?" Straw was kinda pissed. Not at this doctor dude, he seemed decent enough... but more… the situation in general. 

"First, we'd like to make sure you're doing alright… and are going to remain that way, if you are."

"Gotcha…"

"Mhm. Apologies for the, er, inconvenience… but it's not every day that somebody comes to us with a hole blasted clean through their body. Now… follow me, would you? We can talk as we walk."

"Uh… yeah . Sure." Straw felt herself… calming down a little bit. This place felt… safer than the rest of her dreams, at the very least. She began to follow behind Dr. Antula as he scurried along the tiled floor.

As Straw walked alongside the doctor, she started to notice signs of life and activity that she hadn't paid any attention to before. The metric fuckload of spiderwebs, the little lines of arachnids marching along, carrying things like band-aids and pill bottles… even the occasional larger spider, toting something that was probably important. "Right this way," Antula declared, taking a sudden right.

"So. Since you woke up, have you felt any sharp pains near your wound? Actually, scratch that. How have you been feeling?"

"Confused and pissed."

"Er… my apologies. Let me rephrase. How have you been feeling, physically ?"

"...Oh. Uhhhh, I'm doin' fine. Haven't collapsed or anything, and it doesn't, like, hurt ."

"Got it." The spider scribbled something down in his clipboard. "You obviously have places to be, and you aren't showing any physical stress apart from the hole, so I'll keep this short for you. Have you had any trouble eating or breathing since the accident last night?"

"I'm good with breathing. Not sure about eating, though. Kinda, like… not hungry right now."

"Alright… just, come back if you have any troubles with eating."

"It's prolly that or starve , sooo… yeah. I'll be sure to hit ya up. Plus, there aren't really any other options around these parts, y'know?"

"That is true, yes. Take a right… and watch the webs-" Just as Antula mentioned webs, Straw found herself strolling right smack-dab into a massive fucking cobweb. Maybe she should've been looking where she was going.
"AUGH!" Straw shrieked, stumbling back. Goddammit.

"I probably should have mentioned that earlier."

"Ya think?"

"I do, yes."

"Ugh…" Straw grunted, as she began the tedious process of picking webs off her clothes.

"...Anyways." Already, Dr. Antula was moving on, pushing a set of white double doors open to reveal a staircase. "This leads to the ground floor. Please refrain from further use of the elevator shafts, as those aren't meant to be traversed by non-arachnids."

"Hol up. So they're just… always like that? "

"We don't exactly have the funding or personnel to install new elevators."

" Oof ." Straw stepped through the still open doors, somewhat processing the clunk of them closing behind her as the doctor stopped holding them open.

" Oof is a good way to describe it, yes. But that's just… how it is, here." The spider took the lead again, hopping down the stairs on two of his eight limbs. A gloomy light poured into the stairway through a few large windows, revealing the hellish cityscape that her mind had a habit of conjuring these days through the cracked glass.

Ferro City. Worst place in the… er… dream world. Practically every building was ruined. Almost everything was either closed, out of order, or just straight up destroyed. No government, no order, no nothing.  It was honestly a surprise anyone even lived here.

More specifically, this was the Pyrise District.

The stupid grey buildings that were already impossibly tall in other parts were somehow even taller, stretching beyond the clouds, so high that they practically smothered the sky. Yeah, that's right. A pretty damn big part of this city was in constant darkness due to how shittily designed it was. Were the architects on drugs, or some shit?

… Yeah, prolly.

The view couldn't hope to be interesting when she couldn't see anything better than garbage fires and faulty street lamps, so she decided to turn back to her vaguely welcoming current surroundings. Dr. Antula had stopped a bit further down the stairs, waiting for her. Oh… huh. She'd stopped walking.

"Not the prettiest view of Pyrise. We've been trying to brighten up the surrounding area, but someone keeps on breaking all the streetlights."

Straw just found herself nodding along, not really processing the Doctor's words.

God. She hated this place. Why'd she ever consider taking a nap?

"Erm… Miss?"

"Wuh?-- Oh. Yeah. Yeah, stairs."

"...Are you sure you're alright."

"You implying I'm not , huh?"

"No, just making sure. Come along, now." Suddenly, the spider was at the bottom of the staircase, speaking up to her.

"...Yeah. Aight." Straw found her movements suddenly quite sluggish as she walked down to what she assumed was probably the ground floor.

 A few moments later, as the doctor pushed open yet another set of plain white double doors, her assumptions were confirmed to be true. All the sudden, the alarming quiet of the upper floors gave way to a bustling reception area. The sudden transition away from silence… startled her, to say the very least. 

All sorts of folks were seated down on a variety of different seats, most likely scavenged from other buildings, in what she assumed to be the waiting area off to the side. The buzz of dozens of conversations all happening at once was accompanied by the skittering and scurrying of the staff, hurrying through this central room on their way to… wherever they were going. There were three receptionists desks, and somehow all three of them had pretty damn long lines. Jeez.

...Kinda checks out that the place would be so busy, actually. This was the only hospital in Ferro City… and Ferro City was kind of a shithole … so, yeah .

"Alright," Dr. Antula spoke, turning back to Straw. "The main entrance is right out there. Now. If you experience any lasting pain due to your new… erm… condition, or if it troubles you in any way, please return here as soon as possible."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll keep it in mind, I guess." Straw rolled her eyes in response, 

"No, seriously. I have absolutely no idea how you're even alive , right now. Much less… out and about, like you are." Antula vaguely gestured to the hole in Straw's stomach. "So… consider it, er… 'doctor's orders'. Alright?"

"... Fine ."

"Good. Now, I assume you have some things you need to get to, yes?"

"Uh… yup. Definitely do." Did she? Or did she just want out of this stupid goddamn nightmare world? She… supposed that technically counted as something she needed to get to.

"Alright. Part of our policy is not to ask questions about that sort of thing, so I won't pry. Have a nice day… whatever your name is."

"Name's Aub-- Straw . I'm Straw." Almost slipped up, there. Like a fucking idiot. 

"Understood. Have a nice day, Straw."
"Yeah, 'course. You too, I guess." As soon as the dumb old formalities were done with, Straw was out the front door. God. She hated hospitals. That one was on the better side of her perceptions, surprisingly.

...Ugh. Whatever.

The plain looking door swung shut behind Straw, and she was left in the oppressive darkness of the Pyrise District. Nothing but flickering streetlights and the glow emanating from the windows of buildings lucky enough to still have working power illuminated the path.

She'd been here long enough to carry a light source around, thankfully. She glanced back at the hospital as she pulled her lighter out, flicking it open and turning on the little fire that rested inside. She raised the dingy little light source up a bit to get a better look at the place. She might need to remember where it was for later.

The place looked… a whole lot worse from the outside. The only thing that could've hinted at this decrepit building with a rusted metal door actually being a massive hospital on the inside was the faintly flickering, neon red cross that hung on the wall over the doorway.

That was probably why all the windows were on higher stories, or some shit like that. Keeping a… vaguely low profile.

Kinda smart, to be honest.

No time to think about that stuff, now. That fucker was still probably coming for her. She… yeah, she needed to get moving. She was not in the mood for dealing with them.

Straw checked her immediate surroundings. She'd only ever bothered to pass through Pyrise as quickly as possible, so she… never really got a proper lay of the land. Damn it .

After cursing her own obvious lack of foresight, she snapped her mind back to the task at hand, beginning to make her way through the dark district. From what little she could see of the place with her lighter, this was some sort of… unofficial, like, basic-amenities place. Were there names for places like that? Fuck if she knew. A few shops and buildings, all signified by similar shitty neon signs. No names on any of them, either. 

Judging by the faint sounds of skittering, this was probably the spiders' territory, or something. Who knew. She sure as fuck didn't. All she cared about was that these bugs kept their place somewhat normal, unlike the rest of this hellish city.

...Maybe she could stay here until she woke up. Not the worst place to find yourself, to be honest.

She just needed to find somewhere to lay low--
Just a moment too late, she noticed where she'd just stepped.

Fuck .

She'd seen this blanket a million times, at this point. That… that stupid red and white checkerboard pattern. It was real damn faded at this point, but she could still tell what it used to be through the wear and tear. Emphasis on both wear and tear , by the way.

This dumb blanket had been just one of several things haunting her… already admittedly garbage dreams for the past few years. It just kept showing up. In the exact same places. No matter how many times she tried to get rid of it.

Straw took her foot off the blanket, kicking up a corner of the accursed thing as she did. She huffed, scanning her surroundings. Worst part about this blanket was that it usually showed up with something else she didn't wanna see… and considering who'd been trying to get in touch…
A rock flew from out of the darkness, hitting the streetlight that she'd been using to see. The sound of glass shattering, and then she was left in the dark, with nothing but her lighter to illuminate the path ahead of her.

She needed to move. And… And fast--

"Aubrey… please stop running…" Someone's stupid, whiney little voice sounded out from within the shadows. "I-It's really dark…"

...Dammit. Here they were again. Straw grit her teeth, whirling to face what she assumed to be where the voice came from. And… silence, for a moment.

Straw interrupted it. " Really not in the mood, right now!" she hissed, clenching her fists.

…

She heard the ever-so quiet sound of bare feet against asphalt. She felt her hands begin to shake, her fists clench until her palms turned white. Whether she was trembling with fear or fury she didn't really know. Prolly both. No point in running.
Only one way to get out, now. And, unless somebody miraculously decided to disturb her while she was alone in her room… that wasn't happening.

...No way out but through.

Slowly… Someone revealed herself, hesitantly stepping out of the darkness. She was small. Weak. Pathetic. She was a stupid, crying mess. Everything she'd grown past. Everything that she'd worked so damn hard to get rid of all these years.
Someone was the child Aubrey left behind. And they'd been lurking in her periphery ever since, trying to come back. They'd criticized Her every move. Her every word. Her every choice. Their voice was relentless. Incessant. She couldn't get rid of it, no matter how many times she tried.

Her childhood just had to keep on trying to claw its way back into her head, didn't it?

"We've got to talk..."