Camping - The Second Night

by **Kay Haddock** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:13 pm

"We have to do something!" Kay says to Brigid. Surely she knows what they can do.

by **Narrator** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:17 pm

"Look closely and see," the woman urged quietly. "See the thought behind the action. See the madness see the pain, see the mercy of the inevitable. Centuries on centuries, the priestess is filled up... taking in the pain until it drives her quite insane... After this all things will change, but the pain must be released before it consumes all."

by **Brigid Plunder** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:29 pm

"But... if this is a memory, didn't this already happen?"

by **Kay Haddock** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:38 pm

"I... but... look at her..."

by **Narrator** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:43 pm

The woman nodded to Brigid. "All been done... Learn by watching as she must learn by experiencing. All have their part to play..."

In the room, the priestess's attendants, aided by Victoria, held the priestess down. The one who seemed to be the highest ranking held two sharp, ornately carved wooden stakes as she walked up to the weakly squirming priestess. "Sister," she said, sadly, "You have been our happiness for years. You have born our pain, until you can bear no more. We weep for you, and suffer with you... but suffering must end..."

by **Kay Haddock** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:51 pm

And at that Kay turns around with a whimper like she was watching a scary movie. Except it was real. For certain values of 'real'.

by **Brigid Plunder** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:55 pm

"Just... just don't look, Kay. We can't make it not happen. This is just them remembering that it happened..."

by **Victoria Valentine** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:58 pm

It was mercifully quick... and thankfully, by the time Kay would look back, the priestess's body, staked by the hands to the ground and stabbed in the heart, was hidden from view by the attendants (and, as mentioned, Victoria).

The attendants seemed to be discussing what had happened, and how they might change things, but as they did, Victoria, shuddering from the experience, seemed to grow more real-looking than the rest of their surroundings, and noticed Kay and Brigid. "You shouldn't have come here," she hissed, swallowing back the tears she was still fighting.

by **Kay Haddock** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 4:01 pm

"We didn't mean to... We just..." Kay mumbles. Part of her understands what happened here but part of her also just watched Victoria help sacrifice someone.

by **Brigid Plunder** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 4:28 pm

"...we were worried."

by **Victoria Valentine** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 4:34 pm

Victoria nodded, looking even more shaken than Kay was as she walked over from the group. Where she had stood, another woman still stood, as if having appeared to take Victoria's place... or as if Victoria had stepped out of hers.

"They... take on the pain of the village... and it drives them mad. Insane with the anguish of all the collective pain they feel... they can't take it anymore and it... infects the village." She turned her eyes on the woman in rags. "So... I think they did something to change it."

by **Kay Haddock** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 6:49 pm

"They make her feel all the pain and then they kill her?"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 7:02 pm

Victoria shook her head. "No... no one makes her do anything," she said, almost looking back, then shuddering. "One of them just... decides to do it. And once she has, the others... console her as well as they can until it's... just too much."

by **Kay Haddock** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 7:12 pm

"That's awful..." she says, though she sounds more sad than anything.

by **Brigid Plunder** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 7:20 pm

"But... all these people are dead now."

by **Kay Haddock** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 7:23 pm

"It's still sad. And they're still here in a way."

by **Victoria Valentine** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 7:40 pm

Victoria looked back at the group, then at the woman in rags. "They're not all dead," she said. "She's not... and the other one isn't either."

by **Brigid Plunder** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 7:52 pm

"Then how are they still... I mean, if they all go insane eventually how are they...?"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:21 am

"Never die, never age," the ragged woman said, rocking back and forth again. "What is pain when you know nothing else? All the losses, bleak and grey, the world seems better every day. Put the joys in inside my heart... all the brightness, never matched..."

Victoria looked at the woman in rags, then swallowed. "She... couldn't go mad. She didn't know how to feel the pain, they... took it from her."

by **Kay Haddock** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:58 am

"Th-this is her?"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:27 am

"Of course not." Victoria even gave a surprised start as the tattooed priestess, this time the one from the night before, was suddenly with them. "I am the host... she simply takes the pleasant memories that come with the pain."

by **Kay Haddock** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:52 am

"I... I don't understand any of this. Why do you do that?"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:22 am

"That does not matter," the Priestess said. "The question is... what will you give me? What do you no longer want" As she turned her gaze on Kay, she could feel it, just for a moment. Living without all the feelings of rejection, from her parents and friends, of being told that she was a freak.

Then that moment was over, as the priestess turned her gaze on Victoria. Kay could guess what was happening to her, and whatever she suddenly was relieved of made her gasp and fall to her knees, shuddering as she clutched at her heart. The Priestess smiled, even as the woman in rags began moaning "no..."

by **Kay Haddock** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:43 am

"I... I don't... Would I keep everything else?" she asks, glancing at Victoria and Brigid.

by **Brigid Plunder** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:13 am

"Don't do it, Kay. It's not worth it..."

by **Kay Haddock** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:22 am

"But it'd be better for everyone..."

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:29 am

Victoria was rather senseless, the Priestess having found a much easier target than Kay. THe woman in rags, however, could answer. "Pain... She doesn't feel it," she hissed to the girls. "She takes the loss... but... without the loss, you still know the joy, and know that it's gone... I get that..." Her eyes welled up with tears. "All the joys, all the wonders..."

Around them, they'd be able to see scenes of what she was talking about. With the Host being able to take the pain without the joy, she didn't feel the full weight of the pain, and people could give to her without worries of it harming her. The woman in rags, however, was driven insane from the joys and pleasures she was given in memory... but without the actual pain of others, her insanity couldn't create the dreary, uneasy feeling that the last priestess had before her death.

THe people, unable to moderate what they gave up to the Priestess, began giving too much... too much of themselves, too much of their joys and sorrows just gone from their being. Eventually, with nothing to drive them, the village had grown stagnant... and eventually, had just died out, not caring in the slightest, because they simply had nothing left to care about, nor the capacity.

by **Brigid Plunder** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:56 am

"She takes too much. She basically killed them..."

by **Kay Haddock** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:06 am

"But..."

Part of her is obviously still clinging to the idea of an easy solution to her problems. Enough to not really see the danger Victoria's in.

by **Brigid Plunder** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:08 am

"Victoria, you can't do this... she'll empty you out, can't you see that?"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:25 am

"...Already am empty," Victoria whimpered, probably not really registering what Brigid was saying.

by **Kay Haddock** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:47 am

What are you doing? You're back to moping! If you just stand there all you're gonna do is show her how useless you are and that'll be even worse than just giving everything up!

For a bit Kay just stands there, watching blankly but then she runs up to Victoria and wraps her arms around her waist to pull her up and away from the 'ghost'.

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:21 pm

Victoria struggled with Kay as she was pulled back, trying frantically to get back to the ghost, to that blissfully numb feeling. But as the feelings returned, her struggling weakened, and the wrestling to get back ended with Victoria, eyes red with tears and out of breath, next to Kay on the ground, looking the other girl over. She was silent a minute, before she finally managed to speak in a very quiet whisper."I won't if you won't?"

by **Brigid Plunder** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:22 pm

Brigid stepped between the priestess and the other two.

"You stay away from them..."

by **Kay Haddock** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:26 pm

Kay just nods faintly.

"Okay..."

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:10 pm

"It isn't yours to decide for them," the Priestess said. "They will-"

"Shut up," Victoria said, holding up a defiant hand and slashing it through the air. The air rippled, disrupting the sound of the priestess's voice. Victoria didn't get up... honestly she seemed afraid to move away from Kay, though, Kay was probably the only one who could tell.

by **Kay Haddock** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:14 pm

"How do we get out of here?" she asks no one in particular and sounding increasingly panicked now that she's made her choice.

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:20 pm

"Remember what I told you," Victoria whispered. "Nothing here can hurt you... not even them."

She looked up at the Priestess, who still had no voice, then at the woman in rags. She walked over to the latter. "I don't know how to end this," she said, appologetically. "But... I can put you to sleep." THe woman in rags broke down in tears, babbling about ending the pain. Victoria hugged her, gently easing her down to the ground. "Brigid, hold the Priestess, she's about to do something stupid," Victoria said without looking, just as the Priestess seemed to be starting toward Victoria to stop her.

by **Brigid Plunder** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:28 pm

"I told you to stay back," Brigid said, grappling with the priestess. "I'm not going to let you hurt my friends!"

by **Victoria Valentine** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 4:20 pm

Victoria looked up as the woman in rags seemed to be sleeping, peaceful for the first time. "You," she said, looking at the priestess. "You keep hurting her... taking more on for the two of you, just to make this existence seem less bleak."

"I am serving my purpose," she said.

"Well," Victoria said, indicating the woman in rags, "Her purpose is over. I can't break the spell on the two of you... but I can block her. Anything else you take... you feel the full weight of. Her part is over. THink on that before you prey on anyone else." As she said it, the woman in rags began fading from sight. "Girls, are you ready to go?"

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