G2S
(Samuel's pov)
The bottle of water sat mostly untouched as I sat in my recliner with my eyes clamped shut. I had tried to take some sleep medicine but the humming, scarred, girl was playing with a toy car in my wife's recliner. The sun was down and the moon was out when she stopped humming.
My eyes finally opened for the first time in hours...
Someone's here...
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(Kidman's pov)
I closed the door carefully behind me. A smirk broke upon my face as I walked softly on the wood floor of Sebastian's place. I came to the corner of the hall leading to the living room and spied Lily on the couch.
She was in a nightgown with Skullcandy headphones on her head and a phone in her fingers. I snorted a laugh, figures. I tread lightly towards her and was almost two-feet from her when I yelled incoherently.
Lily looked at the person sneaking on her and about jumped out of her skin. She shot up, tearing the headphones from her head and about ran off. I laughed and held my arms wide.
"Julie?!" Lily said, surprise and joy overcoming the fear of earlier.
"Lily!" I said as she embraced me.
"I missed you!"
I smiled, "I missed you to Lily. Your dad ever try and teach you to drive?"
"Pffft," she joked, "Dad would put me back in Union before he'd teach me to drive."
I sobered and gave her a pointed look, "Don't. Joke. About that."
"Orrr run around STEM naked?" She tried.
I snorted a laugh, but shook my head slowly, "Good, but don't joke about any of that."
I tried to lighten the mood, "Who ya text'n?"
She blushed and smiled sheepishly,
"A boy from school~"
"Is it that the boy you were texting at Christmas?"
She shook her head enthusiastically.
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(Sebastian's pov)
"You have a good one Kidman."
"I'm gonna go sneak up on your daughter," she smiled, "bet she's doing something millennials do."
"Alright."
After our farewells it was a few hours before my eyes began to droop. I already drank two or so sodas but it wasn't helping. Something rustled in the trees beside me. I peered about and rubbed the condensation from my window. After seeing nothing I gave up, tilted my hat over my eyes and went to sleep.
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(Samuel's pov)
My shadow hovered over a sleeping Sebastian. The dead girl watched me from a few feet away, the broken umbrella in her hand like it was raining. After writing with my finger in the condensation on his windows I got in my car and drove away.
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(Kidman's pov)
I popped open a soda and took a swig.
"And then he had the gall to chase after me."
"Wow," Lily said, she thought for a second, "I would've shot him."
"I would bail you out of jail." I said.
She beamed, "I know you would go to hell and back for me Kidman."
I soaked in that radiance of appreciation for a moment and drank another sip of soda. Then she deadpanned,
"But the fact you're telling a cop's kid you'd helped in murdering my future ex is kinda ironic."
I almost choked on my soda in a laugh, recovering I dismissed sarcastically, "Pfft, he'd help us."
Then a realization hit me, "Aren't you suppose to be sleeping for school?"
"Ha," she said looking at her empty soda, "I'm not supposed to go back until I'm not," she bitterly air quoted, "sick."
"Besides," she shrugged from the couch she was slouched on, "who needs sleep anyway?"
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(Samuel's pov)
I drove to the location on my GPS, that little girl looking at me off the rear-view. A soft hand rubbed my leg from the passenger side. I glanced at Laura and then the road.
"Once I plug in I'll be able to sleep?"
"Undisturbed."
"She'll stop following me?" I said flicking my head back at the little girl.
"Most definitely, it should be just like home."
"How do I get out?" I asked.
Laura smiled, "Don't worry, you won't be alone."
"You'll be there?"
"Outside your house," she replied, "but I and your friends will be there."
"Friends?"
"A familiar face should be waiting for you there..."
Once we went up to the lighthouse I got into one of the baths. I plugged in like Laura showed me and before I pressed enter she said,
"See you at STEM."
Then the little girl whose face was a scarred frown began to twist upward. Her mouth bled as if smiling opened new wounds but once her smile widened I saw that murderously sharp teeth were beneath. Then, for a second to late, I really wondered what I was getting myself into.
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(Kidman's pov)
"Everyone needs sleep." I said
"Whatever," Lily dismissed tossing her empty can into the trash, "I need another soda."
She got up and went to the fridge but once she got a soda she stopped.
"Pfft, I'm sooo spoiling you. Your dad is going to be like," I air quoted, "ugh, Kidman! You let her drink soda all night!"
Silence and nothing more.
"Hey did you hear me?"
I sat up and peered into the kitchen,
"Lily?"
At that moment she fell onto the ground and I yelled,
"Lily!"
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(Sebastian's pov)
The ringtone I had set for Kidman woke me with a start. Once I gained my bearings the first thing I saw the message,
"Did you sleep well?"
Scrawled sloppily onto my windshield. On top of this, an eye was on my back window, perfectly visible with my rear-view mirror. That wasn't it, as the letters "G2S" was written hundreds or thousands of times on all my windows. On the front, back, and even sunroof and sides, G2S was written everywhere.
I turned on my wipers and noticed that Mr. Camilius' car was gone. Cussing up a storm I drove to the only place that the message might indicate. I was going to where my nightmares started, the lighthouse of the Beacon Mental Hospital.
G2S: Gone. 2. STEM.
In my mind there was little room for doubt. I don't think he would have written "Gone. 2. Store." if that was the case...
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Kidman kept calling and calling but I had my eyes fixated on the road as I bee-lined it to Beacon. The place was abandoned but the elevator still worked. I jabbed my thumb on the button for the top floor and popped my neck as tortured elevator music tried to start.
The second the doors were open I strode out into the empty and dust ridden place. However there were improvements... that meant people were here. They had updated the STEM machine to one more similar to the Union machine that Mobius used my daughter's mind to power. The center was different but I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a voice...
Lily's voice.
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