This is an alternate branch of the storyline continuing from [16A]

The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl

[17A]
For the Primary Branch [17]

Giselle quietly stood her ground. The figure cracked his neck.

“What have I told you about myself?”

“Why?”

A rumbling growl passed through Giselle, like a wave. The black figure responded, “Because I like to keep things in order. You like things in order too, it allows you to live. You make your whatever and you send them off, like clockwork, one after the other after the other tossed into the world, to see if anyone finds them. You burn your days away. Wake up, get to work, have a little coffee, work again, have some food, and onward with your routine until the day ends. You’re much like me."

Giselle tightened her face. “No. You threatened my wife. You threatened my memories and everything I care about. We are nothing alike. Is that what you have to say? If so, then we’re done.”

The creature chuckled. “I warned you there were consequences for stepping out of line. I could’ve fixed everything for you. You’d simply wake up and nothing would be amiss. That’s what I do. I make sure everything works. You, in this lost little world all by yourself. You made a mistake kicking the little one. Now she’s run away inside you. You need me to get her out.”

It didn’t take a step toward her, instead preferring to loom. Giselle felt her stomach roil. “Olivia told me Athena wouldn’t hurt me when she’s ready to become human.”

The entity took a step to their side without getting closer. “And you just believe it? You haven’t even seen her real face. How can you possibly trust her?”

“I trust her far more than the monsters trying  to destroy her.” The notion that Olivia had a real face clung in Giselle‘s thoughts for several long moments, but it wasn’t something that deserved more consideration than that.

“Is that what you think is going on? The poor little girl versus the big scary monsters? Desperately trying to save her scared little sister? Imagine, if you will, a horrifying beast wearing the skin of a little girl. Anyone who came around to hunt it would just see her big sad eyes. And if you dare to hurt it, she would cry out and everyone would come to her defense. Like fools. And suppose her sister is the worst of all, a parasite clinging and draining until there’s nothing left.”

Despite what she felt, Giselle gave it consideration. If Olivia and Athena were actually playing her. Just using her to be unleashed as some terrible beasts. Sucking her dry of emotion and using her. It was theoretically possible. She had to acknowledge that. She didn’t understand their biology and all the intricacies of where they came from and what it was like. All she really had to go on was Olivia‘s perspective about how things were.

But Olivia, if she believed her, let herself drain overnight until she desperately needed a refill. She declined to take until she had proper permission even though it meant she might die. That moment wasn’t something that Olivia really called attention to as though here was the proof that she could be trustworthy. Giselle sometimes questioned her ability to judge people, but it had never steered her wrong. All sorts of friendships, some a little rougher than others, but she never regretted them.

Olivia was her friend. And that was the end of it. Sure, she jumped on the police officer, but the signs of her lingering regret defined her ever since. The diligence with permission and wanting to do the right thing. It didn’t matter what someone said about someone, what mattered is what they did and how they showed themselves. Olivia clearly offered her character, and she could already tell about this creature by comparison.

“It’s what I know. Just like I know you threatened me, and you threatened Rachel, and you can go straight to Hell.” She clenched her hands into fists.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, because this is really going to hurt.” The dark creature unleashed, like a swarm of insects laced together, angrily twisting and grabbing. Before Giselle could even attempt to dodge out of the way and sprint back through the door, the shadow being seized her, as though running a pike through her back leading right into her skull.

She desperately wanted to scream but it was like the intangible puncture also collapsed her lungs while tightening them in a vice. Instead, she gurgled and whimpered while fighting for the edge of the wall. Ominously, the burning heat around her head suddenly and strikingly chilled. She flailed around for something to give her purchase to escape. Just when it seemed like the monster would drag her back to its maw to be consumed, Giselle glimpsed a tenacious hand and the glimmer of a blue eye. Olivia!

Instead of relief, Giselle wanted to warn her to stay away, to run. But Olivia boldly stepped forward with her sparking hand outstretched.

“Leave them alone…”

Instead of answering, the creature launched another tendril to capture Olivia. Twisting her wrist, her eyes flared. Before reaching her, those parts of it plopped to the ground as giant, twisted blackened Twizzlers. Olivia‘s hand shook as she turned the other one into a burnt, tater tot mass which crumbled and released Giselle. The entity stood there in shock, gawking at the transformed remains of its limbs.

“That’s not possible. You can’t change me! You’re just one of them! HOW DARE YOU!!”

Olivia raised her hand again as she shoved Giselle away and braced herself for the creature’s assault. When they met, Olivia looked like she might pass out. She staggered and stumbled, coming down to one knee. A half dome shield of blue sparks extended beyond her hand and held the blackness at bay. The look on her face reminded Giselle of classical statues.

Despite all that effort, the blackness eventually broke through and wrapped her up in smoky knots. As it pulled her way, Olivia looked up with a serene aura of calm that wasn’t just one of her resting states. She actually looked at peace in that moment.

“Now to tear this mask off”, the creature proclaimed. Its tendrils, which had been transformed, reverted to their original state.

Screaming and reaching out, Giselle watched in horror as the vicious mass of blackness rolled and gripped across Olivia‘s head. For a moment, it looked like it might pull her apart like humanoid taffy. The ivory white hair was pulled aside like a broken eggshell to reveal… fair blonde hair in the same style as Giselle’s. Ripping at that flesh seemingly unveiled a more human girl tucked underneath.

She looked like she could be a genuine relative to Giselle, aside from the lingering icy blue eyes and nascent, branch-toned bumps pushing through her hair just above her forehead. Giselle had no idea what was going on, but she knew she had to get Olivia out of its grasp. The entity appeared puzzled by the results.

“What trick is this? You swapped? You’re not her! But you smell like her!” As the creature stretched out to grab at Giselle, she focused on the dimly hot space beneath her skull and begged Athena to help her do something, anything. But she was only still mending. Giselle hurt her when she kicked the seat. She forced her to go into hibernation until she found protection within her. It was wrong to beg for anything, but she still needed her help, whatever she could provide.

She sensed that the young one inside was desperate to help and gladly would give whatever, but it was like urging desert sand in the summer to give up water.  No matter how much they each desperately wanted it to be possible, there just wasn’t enough, especially after it attacked them.

“Nooo!!”

A voice, not from in front of her but behind. She struggled to turn, with her heart beating frantically in her chest. She knew that voice through the years and the decades, beginning with mere text on a screen and then low-quality codec online audio followed by shy, shared videos with spotty frame rates. No matter what happened to her, she knew Rachel. To her last flicker of memory and her dying day.

Not Rachel! She couldn’t possibly be here. No matter the danger she wasn’t to be in harm’s way. Never again! She stood as tall as her tiny body and frail legs would hold her and screamed at the darkness. And she bloomed with blinding light.

Tears of fury streamed like liquid coals down her face. Athena and she were of one mind. That beast…will not touch the one they love.

The love within each of them. Love of desperate hope. Love of quiet moments. Love that reached out despite any distance and connected souls.

She could feel the faint impression. The memories of a little child in a place she didn’t understand, trying to live as the warm presence beside her sacrificed everything to make sure she was all right. She lived for her, and she would die for her. But Athena couldn’t accept that. With everything she had, she reached out and screamed at the darkness.

No more! Never again! It wouldn’t consume her fears and drench her in sorrow. It never deserved that power. In the end, it was nothing but shadows on the wall and a nightmare she would awaken from. She had to believe that, and Giselle had to understand. A wall of flame containing everything inside her ripped through the blackness as it shrieked and screamed incoherent frustration.

Finally, the thrashing gave way to a clearing. Olivia tumbled free as Giselle‘s right hand quivered with the brutal effort of forcing everything out of her to battle this monster. She didn’t know how much longer she could do this, she didn’t even know what she was doing right then. Some sort of love energy Jedi force field? No doubts allowed whatsoever, because it was holding the beast at bay. She could obsess and lament about the science of what the hell was going on later in comfort.

Olivia joined her in a renewed push once he was free. The creature tore and ripped against the basins and mirrors, leaving glass and shattered porcelain. Flailing, it clung to the edge of the tile before lashing out with one last gasp. It was headed right for Olivia. Without thinking, Giselle moved her right hand to block it, to catch, strike, and burn that evil thing. A terrible rending sensation and a vague sound passed through her before the tendril whipped back and disappeared.

Giselle tumbled to the ground with the wind knocked out of her and the landing rough and uneven. She saw stars all around a plaintive darkness, as though the creature was still there. But she had nothing else left to defend herself with.

“Oh god…” It was Rachel‘s voice again and it sounded like she was on the verge of tears. She huddled over Giselle and held her close, like gathering up a broken doll.

Eventually, Giselle found herself able to breathe again with a ragged, hollow gasp. Dennis was also somewhere nearby, and he had his hands cupped to his mouth in shock. Giselle decided that she must look pretty worse for wear after that struggle, but she didn’t have any further energy to judge the situation. Olivia cried and stroked Giselle‘s hair. She had a large gash across her cheek, which was oozing blood. Giselle wanted to wipe it clean, but her hand felt so brutally tired and useless.

She had to rest. Between the longest blinks, she noticed that it wasn’t just them anymore. Some big men with a stretcher approached and asked her name. Why did Rachel call for an ambulance? Giselle wondered. She felt bothered by whether the insurance in this reality would cover it because an ambulance trip can be so expensive.

Not quite sure who had asked, Giselle thought about it a moment and carefully spelled out her name. She was so annoyed by it sometimes, especially the spelling. One of the EMS gave a nervous but friendly chuckle and she worried about how much she actually said out loud.

She puzzled that someone was wrapping her wrist in a whole lot of gauze and placing her right arm against some pillows. Giselle‘s first instinct, after so many years, was to ask if she should vlog this. It was bad enough that she missed out on several days with school and everything lately. She really should’ve made more videos, even if she had to start the whole thing up again.

The paramedics belted her in place and reassured her that she was going to be just fine. Olivia and Rachel were still crying though, and Dennis still appeared in shock. Before they wheeled her out, she lamented to herself that it was a shame she never got to see that movie. 

[Since this is meant to be interactive, feel free to suggest ideas and prompts for future/alternate branch storylines. Some branches are already written but this will allow me to best pick new/alternate ones. I'm currently just rolling dice.]

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