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WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, CHEERYCHERRY. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 019.46.820.17 * CHEERYCHERRY has joined 019.46.820.17 <CHEERYCHERRY> It's Riley! <CHEERYCHERRY> Please leave a message! <CHEERYCHERRY>** Please be someone with their priorities sorted out properly!

main: CheeryCherry
anonymous: panthera, aed
retired: gflynn (anon)

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[The message comes late at night. ]

Hello, Riley.

[ She's tired and checking her laptop before bed.

This immediately wakes her up. She's been careless. ]

I'm sorry, okay? Just leave me alone.

Why would you be sorry, Riley? I killed your father.

Didn't I deserve what you did to me?

I'm not supposed to talk to you.

Says who?

I'm just not
Please leave me alone.
I won't do it again.

I don't expect that you will. I'm significantly harder to kill in this world.

Do you know what I value above all else, Riley?

[ She shouldn't humor him. She should shut it down. But she's had...thoughts, running through her head. Very uncomfortable ones. ]

No. What?

Balance.

Please
I'm sorry please stay away from me

[ She's a broken record. Frantic. ]

I won't talk to you again
I'll stay far away
Please just leave me alone

Would you have stopped if I begged?

what do you want?
what will get you to leave me alone?

I need you to know what it's like to choke to death on your own blood.

You can submit yourself to me. Or I can find you.

[ Riley stays frozen staring at her laptop for an amount of time she can't quite quantify. It could be seconds. Could be minutes. Could be hours. Before, she was not afraid of him. Now... It would be pointless to try and claim so. ]

No
Please don't

I don't want to die

You're a murderer like me, Riley. Maybe you deserve it.

[ She starts to write that she doesn't, but

She can't stop thinking of Kate's scream. Annleigh's body racked with sobs.

Oh, god. Oh, god, he's right. He's right.

Riley has to talk to Eridanus. But— ]

i thought i was fixing it

[Fixing it. It's the same phrase Rachel uses. The same phrase he uses.

His fingers hesitate.]

Was that the first time you fixed a problem?

[ Who's she talking to? She doesn't know. She just answers. Like a good girl. ]

i couldn't think of anything else
i had to
no one else was going to
i had to!!

[He feels it, that chill he'd get at the base of his neck whenever cracking open someone's head. As a boy, telepathy was the only way he could make sense of the human experience; witnessing another person's thoughts twist and turn quickly became his drug. He so rarely experiences anything like that these days.

He leans closer to the screen.]

They blamed you, didn't they? They told you that you were being irrational.

[He's guessing, painting a pathway with his words that he hopes she'll follow.]

Edited 2021-04-28 01:33 (UTC)

[ Where is she? What's... ]

they weren't doing anything
they were making it worse
i had to
we were infected

[ ...Wait— ]

no i ccant

i shouldnt talk about this

Why shouldn't you, Riley? I like to fix things as well.

We're one and the same.

no
no im not

im not im not im NOT

[ All of a sudden, her laptop is not in front of her, in her bed. It's shoved to the floor with a mighty crack and thud—they're sturdy things, it'll be fine.

Riley can't breathe. She sits straight as a board, terrified of moving yet trembling all the same. Her claws dig into, through her sheets and to her mattress. She gasps for air, as if it'll make the things in her head stop screaming, as if it'll erase the last month, months, year, years and give her even the slightest bit of guidance. She stays like that, still and tense, until something snaps and she crumples, into a little ball while the screaming moves outward, into her knees and on and on and on, until she feels completely hoarse.

And she stays there. For the longest time. Until morning. Not sleeping. Not thinking. Not answering any further messages Aunamee may send. ]

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<CheeryCherry> cw: panic attacks