(Episode XII) (Act 3)

“Go where first…?” Tracy asked. After a pause, she looked down at her boots. “That sounded better in my head—”

Jackie stroked in her own cheek in thought, with her thumb at the base of her jaw. “We’re going to be breaking things, so that’s gonna be a clear signal for her… We need to find a way to bait the monster taking her over, a simple yet effective way…”

The girl’s eyes flickered a tad, thus started scanning across the gym.

“There—Aiko, run over and see if that’s a closet.”

Aiko nodded and raced over to the gray door within the corner of the space. She reached into the pocket of her backpack, and pulled out a flat, silver object that she slid through the crack between the door and the frame, near it’s knob so she can trigger it open. And she did, looking inside briefly, noticing that something was hanging from the ceiling and tugged it. The lights in the closet came on as a result.

“Yep, and it’s big too!” she said.

“River—see if there’s like an automated cleaning device in there,” Jackie asked her. River paused for a bit looking at her, but then walked down to where Aiko was, who was waving muchly as if River didn’t know where to go to.

“What—a Roomba?” Maddie tilted her head.

“Pretty much, I just didn’t want to call it that and there’s like a better name or something completely different—” Jackie admitted.

“…Are we gonna bait this bitch like she’s a dog with a Roomba, Jackson?” Maddie sounded deadpan.

“Something even better than that, my dear Madison…”

“There’s something that’s basically a bigger Roomba, by the way,” River announced from across the way. “Will that still help?”

“As long as it still bumps into walls when it has no where to go,” Jackie answered back.

“I have to set it on it’s ‘dummy’ mode, but it will,” River confirmed. She proceeded to bend down and started messing with the cleaning tool.

“Turn it on and we’ll do the next part.”

Without warning, Jackie raised her long leg, and proceeded to take off her new sneaker.

“Ewewuwha--?!” Tracy exclaimed.

“…Aw shit,” Maddie realized. “You’re gonna make it look like we’re in that closet hiding.”

“And if she can track us by smell—what better use for our shoes that we just bought but already sweated a ton in?” Jackie nodded, putting her leg down. “We do have to remember to not run so flatfooted—otherwise our socks are gonna give us anyway… And running away barefoot with a creature that can cut you sounds bad, frankly.”

“Hopefully my tights will h-hold up in that case…” Tracy bemoaned.

River rose up, “I put it on the slowest and silent setting in that case—chuck our shoes in now?”

Jackie looked to Maddie and Tracy. The former shrugged and the latter gulped with a nod.

Jackie hopped over on one foot, as the others followed. They all took off their shoes and footwear in a hurry, closing the door as they can hear the ‘mega Roomba’ bang softly against the other supplies in there.

“Remember, tiptoe jog girls, use your toes and bounce softly off them,” Jackie instructed.

“We fucking used our legs as pogos… Once, that one time,” Maddie had to pause to not mention Quaddale. Jackie still caught it, and softly smiled to herself. “We can handle this.”

With Jackie leading the way, the girls jogged away from the gym into it’s other exit, opening the door lightly, and making sure nothing was disturbed.

They moved up the stairs, making sure to climb up to the top where N’atural presumably was, the floor where she burrowed through. Opening the door to it, the girls ran down the halls, getting to the garden.

They see the massive hole she created, and they all collectively shivered.

“That could be flesh…” Tracy said in a whisper. “That could mean instant death, siVis or not.”

Jackie sighed. “We should hide for a bit. Before we start, to make sure that we didn’t waste our time with my plan…”

Aiko looked about, and saw a classroom across the way. She waved at Jackie, then pointed towards it.

Jackie then nodded, leading the way with the others following. When they reached the door, Aiko once again popped the door open, causing them to come in and slowly close the door behind them.

They made sure to be out of sight of the slim window that complimented the door, sitting on the dusty floor against the classroom’s walls.

Everything was shaded in a midnight blue, mixed with cyan and the girls drowned in fairy due to the windows letting the moonlight in.

Aiko was rocking a bit, back and forth, within her seat. Her face was neutral, but her eyes were focused and determined. Willing to throw everything she has, because “instant death” will not be the way she goes out.

Tracy hugged her legs as she shakes in her hold. Face buried into her knees, she had to stop herself from making a sound, crying, despite her almost falling in both. She feared that, these were signs that she could fend off N’atural if it did come down to it. She had to remain in her mindset, even if it gotten her this far.

River looked at her glasses, as she was rubbing them with the special sheet that came with them. She only just remarked that her old ones were truly gone, and it wasn’t like they were in the best shape possible. Of course, the allegory extended to her, since she nearly doomed them from the start. She debated if she should wear them or not, which option makes her more of a target or less of a liability.

Maddie hummed to herself, ironically one of N’atural’s songs—Haunted. Saying the lyrics under her hushed breath, trying to figure out what would hurt her more… Before flashing back personally, listening to the song on her bed, with her big, dumb dog Montgomery. Was he taken care of while she was gone…? She cursed herself muchly, shook her head, why remembering of all times. She refused to be emotionally compromised, not right now, not ever.

Jackie meanwhile just looked at the night’s sky. Brought to mind that night those weeks ago, when it was simmering and tearing apart. She taught about if N’atural is just as cursed, still reliving parts of the last night where she was normal, just a girl. Jackie beat herself up, that she tried searching for humanity when it was just too wounded to continue, that they just could’ve ran. That ultimately, once again, any of the girls’ blood is on her hands and she needs to realize that.

She let go. Whatever she gave herself into, siVis—her unconscious—some part of herself… She let go. She let whatever plan siVis has for her go on with her permission, if that meant saving everyone. If that meant becoming the next monster.

She could hear N’atural dashing, her claws craving the ground. It was distant, and grew more distant. Which could mean her running down the stairs, thus taking the bait.

And despite the sounds being so distant, she could still hear bits and pieces of the movement. Is this Jackie tapping into siVis? Her peak with the enlightenment? Even with a busted ear…?

This was what Jackie and the rest had in mind when they imagined siVis. Insight beyond them, granting something that’s more than them.

Jackie seamlessly went into her Mindspace, quickly building a scene with the sounds that she heard.

It was a rough, white sketch style that she pictured N’atural running, on all fours with manic energy against a black background. There was a sharp tearing up of wood, which meant she was in the dance hall—going into the gym. There was a bang, Jackie picturing her ripping the doors off their hinges. Catching the last few sniffs the beast girl did, as she prowled into the gym within her mind.

There was laugher that echoed within the gym, so loud they came up from the stairs—and that was the only way Jackie could’ve heard them.

Jackie opened her eyes, “We should get started. Aiko, you’re gonna possess the pillars in the halls—enough to wabble them, wear them down, and I use a bit of my strength to damage them.”

A loud, broken broadcast of laughter interrupted them.

“THAT WAS SMART, LEADING ME AWAY LIKE THAT,” who else but N’atural screamed. “BUT NOW I’M COMING FOR YOU, WHEREVER YOU ARE!”

Jackie’s hands began to tremble, and her voice immediately taken over by fear. “Tracy, if she comes bolting—I’m counting on you to wall her off. River, steam the place once she does—and Maddie, drag those two whatever or not they’re able to do that. O-okay?”

“Y-yeah,” Maddie said, sharply.

Jackie gritted her teeth. “I wanna go out there, do it before… But I’m so fucking scared. I don’t want any of you to…”

“Having regrets doing something stupid means that you know what’s on the line,” Aiko said. “It means we have something to fight for, and keeps us levelheaded. Be afraid, because doing anything less right now means death. And yes, we are not dying.”

It took pregnant seconds for Jackie to stand, but she did with a shaking body.

“Well said.”