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𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘌𝘕𝘋 𝘖𝘍 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘞𝘖𝘙𝘓𝘋

⸝⸝ ʚ 🧟‍♀️ ! ⌗ °• ━━━━━━━━━ "𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑺 𝑮𝑶𝑻 𝑰𝑻! 𝒀𝑬𝑨𝑯, 𝑩𝑨𝑩𝒀, 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑺 𝑮𝑶𝑻 𝑰𝑻!" 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑾𝑶𝑴𝑨𝑵 𝑼𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹𝑵𝑬𝑨𝑻𝑯 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑪𝑨𝑹 𝑺𝑼𝑵𝑮 𝑨𝑳𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑻𝑶 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑴𝑼𝑺𝑰𝑪 𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑷𝑳𝑨𝒀𝑬𝑫 𝑭𝑹𝑶𝑴 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑵𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑩𝒀 𝑹𝑨𝑫𝑰𝑶 𝑨𝑺 𝑺𝑯𝑬 𝑹𝑶𝑻𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑷𝑨𝑵𝑵𝑬𝑹 𝑩𝑬𝑻𝑾𝑬𝑬𝑵 𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑭𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑬𝑹𝑺. Robyn Cartier continued to nod her head along to the catchy beat of Bananarama's "Venus." Normally, she hated the radio. The radio hosts, their monotone voices as they read their script about the latest tragedy. And don't get her started on the music they had been playing for the past few days. Today was the one day of the week that they had actually played music that she enjoyed. "I'm your Venus, I'm your fire-"

      "-And your desire," someone in the workshop finished the lyric for her. A man, to be precise. She knew that voice better than anyone.

      The woman slid out from under the car on her red Mechanic's Creeper, which had almost started to turn black from how disgusting and used it was. Robyn sat at the edge with the spanner in her dirty hands, "sorry, old man, shops closed!"

      Joel Miller stood across from the woman with a rag that had been torn from a flannel shirt many months ago in his rough hands. He tossed it to her, and she caught it with a singular hand as she placed the spanner on the stained concrete, "hardy har."

      "Oh, Joel, you know I'm only joking," Robyn wiped away the muck from her hands with the old rag. She stood from the Creeper and leaned on the back of the car, "but seriously, what brings you here?"

      "Lunch break," Joel shrugged, moving toward the woman and taking the rag from her hands. He rotated the cloth until he reached a clean side and wiped away the dirt from her cheeks, "thought I'd come visit one of my favourite girls."

      A small smile crept onto the woman's face as she tucked a stray piece of hair that had slipped from the stubby ponytail it was in. Then, her eyes widened suddenly as she grabbed Joel's calloused hand with a surge of excitement, "you. wait right here," she raised a single finger to his face, "do not move!"

      He watched the woman in the torn, old jeans and the grey flannel that had received so many holes over the years, as she rushed toward the workshops office door. He looked around for a few moments before the woman came rushing into the open workshop, her arms hidden behind her back. "You didn't think I'd forgotten, right?" Robyn's left eyebrow raised with a skeptical look, "take a guess."

      "Hmm. Tickets to the latest movie for you and I?" Joel crossed his arms with amusement.

      "So close! It was actually 1 ticket to the nearest retirement home!" Robyn revealed the pink, glittery box from behind her back, a white sparkling bow on the lid.

      "Hah! Give it a few more years and we will be in there together," his eyes moved from the womans delicate brown eyes to the obvious pink box in her hands, "and pink? Seriously?"

      Robyn hurridly shoved the box in his hands with a sweet yet sinister smile, "pretty pink just for you, birthday boy. Now hurry up and open it before you get any more grey hairs."

      Joel's calloused hands pry open the box, getting sparkles in the cracks of his skin. When he looks inside, the first thing he sees is a little girls necklace. A silver heart-shaped locket with a pink gemstone engraved in it. He glances back up to see the woman's reaction, but she is holding up a matching one, dangling it in the air from her pointer and middle finger. While the necklaces match, hers has a blue gemstone.

      "Like how those little girls get matching necklaces for their friends. It was Wyatt's idea, so don't give me all the credit. And I made sure just to give you the pink one. It really brings out the colour in your eyes," Robyn joked, and Joel gently elbowed her arm as he took the necklace from the box. "No, but seriously, take a look in it."

      He does as he is told, and he opens the locket. A heart shaped photo of her from a photo that Tommy Miller had taken of them a few weeks ago. Her radiant smile, and her tied back brown hair, it was like he was seeing her for the first time again when they were kids. "Well, I'm just glad that retirement home ticket wasn't hiding in here."

      Robyn only smiled at the joke as she looked over Joel, before it faded as the radio crackled. Both of their heads turn in the direction of one of the work benches, the sweet sound of 80s music fading to accommodate the latest news from the news reader. Compared to what it had been recently, this news report sounded more anxious than monotone.

      "The situation in Jakarta worsens as-"

      "You think it's gonna get that bad here?" Robyn's arms cross over her chest, the necklace still dangling from her slender fingers.

      "Doubt it." Joel shrugs as he scans over the woman, noticing her worry. "Penny for your thoughts?"

      Her sad smirk is small yet noticeable as she stuffs her half of the matching necklace in her back pocket, replacing it with a lighter and a cigarette, "well, you wanna know what I think?"

      "I'm all ears," Joel encouraged as the women placed the cigarette in her lips and lit it. Her thoughts followed after one puff of smoke filled the warehouse.

      "You see, I think the government is lying. About the situation here. They're probably covering shit up, trying not to cause a panic. I bet it is just as bad over here, but it's just not getting in the news."

      "Well, you won't have anything to panic about when things go south if you keep smokin' those things," Joel points at the woman who rolls her eyes.

      "Oh yeah? Weren't you running with the dinosaurs at some point in your life? You're close to your expiry date, mister." Robyn said with the cigarette between her teeth awkwardly as she took the necklace from Joel's fingers and forced him to spin around so his back was facing her.

      She could feel Joel's body rumble with laughter as she clipped the necklace around his neck, "that's funny because I could have sworn I saw you there with me."

      "Shut up!"

⸝⸝ ʚ 🧟‍♀️ ! ⌗ °• ━━━━━━━━━ 𝑩𝒀 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑻𝑰𝑴𝑬 𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑹𝑶𝑩𝒀𝑵 𝑯𝑨𝑫 𝑳𝑬𝑭𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑾𝑶𝑹𝑲𝑺𝑯𝑶𝑷 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑹𝑬𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑵𝑬𝑫 𝑯𝑶𝑴𝑬, 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑵𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻 𝑯𝑨𝑫 𝑳𝑶𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝑬𝑻𝑻𝑳𝑬𝑫 𝑰𝑵 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑺 𝑰𝑵 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑲𝒀. Upon opening the door into the cold, and lonely house, the only light illuminating the downstairs area came from the television that broadcasted cartoons, along with the light that passed through the blinds from the street lamps.

      Her slender hands dropped the bag to the floor just to the left of the front door as she closed it behind her. "You cook a pizza, Wy?"

      The boy on the couch turned rapidly from the screen as though he had been broken from some sort of hypnosis show, his face stuffed to the brim with pizza, along with the incriminating evidence of the tomato sauce around his mouth. He was close in age with Sarah Miller, a few years older.

      "Mhm!"

      "Well, I sure hope you left some for me..." Robyn lightly joked before making her way over to the small and cramped kitchen area. She fiddled around the shelves for a big enough plate and placed three cold slices on the circular ceramic.

      There was silence before Wyatt fully faced his sister as she did her thing in the kitchen, his mouth now empty, "oh, oh! That reminds me... did Joel like the gift? Please tell me it was a good idea!"

      "He didn't like it..." Robyn winked at him, "he loved it. Great choice, sweet pea."

      Wyatt Cartier had a big grin across his face before it faded as he remembered the other news of the night, "you also hear about the stuff they've been talking about on the radio? I heard about it on the bus. You think it's gonna be that bad here?"

      "Let's... just keep our spirits up..." Robyn smiled softly before turning back to the shelves of the kitchen, grabbing one of the clear glasses and moving to the sink, the water slowly filling as there was very little pressure. That's when she noticed the lack of dishes in the sink. Odd. She looked over her shoulder at Wyatt, who was back to watching his cartoons, "hey, bud, has Nora been through since you came home?"

      "Hmm?" Wyatt turned back to face her, and then his face lit up, "oh, yeah. She came home a while ago. But, mom was acting weird. I don't know, it looked like she was bleeding or something and then she said she was going upstairs to sleep. Hasn't been down since."

      "How long is a while ago?" Robyn asked with caution.

      "Around 6 hours ago, why?"

      Her hand covered her mouth and her eyes widened. Wyatt may not have picked up on it, besides, she had been the one to raise him since she was a teenager, so she'd consider him to be less exposed to the behaviours of Nora Cartier. If it had been any other day, the food from the refrigerator would be gone, and there would be dishes stacked in a pile. There was little to no smell of cigarettes, and usually the woman would have been chain smoking on the sofa. Yet, nothing suggested that the alcoholic, deadbeat mother had been in the room. The air was fresh, and the room was clean.

      Robyn dragged her hands over her face rapidly, "uhm, don't worry. Just, uh, keep watching your show."

      She quickly retrieved the old phone from her pocket, hovering over Joel's name as she attempted to send a message.

Joel, I think Nora finally died
Not Delivered

      Not delivered? Robyn looked up as Wyatt began complaining, noticing the TV screen had gone completely static. "Did the power go out?"

      "I don't know, Wy," Robyn shook her head, "I'm gonna go check up on Nora, okay? Stay down here."

      Wyatt hummed in response to her orders, standing by the static television. Robyn's hands felt frail as she gripped the railing of the stairs. They felt rickety, and she clutched the wooden rail for dear life as she didn't trust the stairs. They were ready to break at any moment from how old they were. When she rounded the corner after the stairs, she pressed her ear against the door. Her frizzed hair fell in her face and tickled the underneath of her nose as she listened to the strange noised that were coming from the room that Nora had claimed as her own.

      Maybe the old hag was really alive after all.

      Was Robyn a horrible person for hoping that she wished the woman was dead? Yes, Nora was her mother... but at the end of the day, she wasn't much of a mother to begin with. She supposed that Nora's death day was not today.

      When she opened the door, the smell of rotting hit her in the face, along with a distinct odor of mold. Nora had times where she had smelt awful, but never had it been quite this bad. When the smell had stopped stinging her eyes, Robyn finally widened them to see the older woman hunched in the corner of the room by the wardrobe, twitching and filling the room with the strange noises she had heard from the door.

      "Nora?" Robyn pushed the door even wider until the knob hit the wall. It recoiled slightly, covering half of Nora's face.

      There were moments during Robyn Cartier's childhood where she could hardly ever recognise Nora, and yet, she still looked like her mother. This, however, was not one of those moments. It wasn't her mother, nor was it Nora, who she considered to be two separate people.

      The woman's heart fell through her body, and her blood ran cold. The twitching woman's eyes were bloodshot and dilated, the skin on the surface covered in veins that were prominently sticking out. With an open mouth with dozens of plant like tendrils coming from the throat, Nora let out a shriek.

      Robyn's heart barely had the chance to beat once before she reached for the knob just in time to slam the door shut. Her feet stumbled, causing her back to be planted against the wall that was opposite the door. There were a few hits here and there, until the silence followed.

      Only one thing was on her mind. Wyatt. She needed to get him out of here. She didn't know what the fuck was going on, and she wasn't keen to stay and find out. As Robyn began to move from the wall, the sudden silence had started to make sense. She raised her arms to cover her face as pieces of the weathered white door flew in her face.

      Nora broke through the door as though it was made of paper, falling onto the wooden floor, writhing and squirming like a bug flipped on its back until she returned to her feet, the plant like tendrils present. Robyn sprinted for the stairs, making a quick maneuver to hide around the corner by grabbing the railing. She looked down the stairs briefly to see Wyatt standing at the bottom.

      "Robyn, what's..." His eyes widened as the woman he had called mother for fourteen years flew around the corner, and past his sister. Nora tumbled down the stairs, groaning and shrieking while her body moved in unnatural ways.

      "Run! Wyatt, run! Now!" Robyn yelled from the top of the stairs. Her feet carried her fast down the many steps as the boy listened to her, running for the front door. It was far too late. Nora's interest was no longer in her. It was in him.

      Following in pursuit of the creature and Wyatt, Robyn took a knife that had been left out on the kitchen bench. The young boy pushed through the fly screen of the front door and looked over his shoulder as he ran down the first few steps at the front of the home.

      It felt as though time had stopped in that moment. It was like in those movies that Wyatt would drag her to the cinema to watch, where the heroes would move in slow motion before saving the day. This wasn't like those movies. This was the slow motion that played before death...

      There was a painful shriek from the boy that followed after the creatures tackle. Red, It sprayed across the grass as Robyn embedded the knife into the back of Nora's skull.

      Again. Again. Again.

      Until her grey tank top was soaked in her mothers blood.

      Once the body of Nora fell to the grass, it revealed the second body - Wyatt, whose hands were desperately pressing against his neck to stop the bleeding. A chuck of flesh in Nora's mouth was her own sons.

      "No... No! No, no, no, no."

      Robyn dropped the knife among the bloodied grass as she dropped to her knees and scurried beside Wyatt. She pulled him into her arms as her hands helped his to apply pressure to the wound. The boy struggled to speak, the blood filling his throat as he attempted to do so.

      "Shhh, it's okay. You're going to be okay," she rocked him back and forth between her blood covered arms. The tears helped her not see the catastrophic sight, causing it to be blurred. Slender fingers brushed stray hairs from the boys face as she propped him up to look at the stars. It was like nothing around them mattered anymore. "That's it, sweet pea. Just look at those stars. Aren't they beautiful?"

      Robyn wasn't focused on the madness that was happening around them. It was just them in this moment.

      The struggling in her arms ceased. While it felt like hours had passed, Wyatt had bled out in a matter of minutes.

      When Robyn finally got the surge of courage to look back down after her tears had slowed, they immediately rose back up again. Saliva slipped from the corners of her lips and her delicate, blood covered fingers brushed his soft, flushed cheek. Her nose scrunched and her lips downturned as she released her brother from her arms.

      Robyn screamed in rage, in pain... in sorrow. Her hands searched desperately though the blades of blood stained grass for the knife. She wasn't thinking clearly, but in this moment, she didn't care. Upon finding it, her fingers kissed the blade - causing her to bleed from the small cut on her fingers. It felt horrible, and yet it felt good. It diverted everything she felt to that spot of pain.

      The grip on the handle of the knife was deadly as she rotated the blade to face her stomach. She took one final glance around as she looked at the fires from her neighbours homes, family killing family. Joel, he was probably dead, too. Along with Sarah and Tommy.

      With her eyes closed and a final breath...

      Robyn Cartier raised the blade and brought it down again...

⸝⸝ ʚ 🎮 ! ⌗ °• ━━━ '' - «❕»‧₊˚𓍯 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙚
╰┈➤ sad fact: wyatt would have died regardless. he ate pizza, that had flour in it. my precious little baby would have never made it. but it's okay, he basically gets reincarnated in the form of zach <3

also it is 12:30am, i have work in 6 hours so i need to sleep. goodnight! if there are any spelling mistakes, i'll fix them soon.