sixwordstories | (no subject)

Where to?

The University of Maine in Orono. It's closer to home. [Or what was once home]

Be careful up there. The towns in Maine are full of nasty things.

Believe it or not, you aren't the first person to tell me that. But this is something I have to do.

Sounds to me like you're trying to prove something. [He hesitates for a moment before pulling a crucifix out from under his shirt.] Take this. It'll put my mind more at ease knowing you have it.

I don't know if I'm trying to prove anything so much as I am just trying to find answers. [Well that was something she hadn't meant to say, so she takes the crucifix without question. Turning it over and over in her hand, she's silent for a long moment] You've seen things too then, haven't you?

The problem with answers is that sometimes they're more than one person can handle. [He gives a short nod. He doesn't know why, but he's got the feeling she's seen her fair share of the dark side too. Eyes wide with memories, he wonders if there's a reflection of something sharp-fanged and hungry or a large, evil house set on a hill in them as he speaks.] More than most people have. Have you ever heard of the town called Jerusalem's Lot?

And these ones might be too much for me to handle, but if I won't find out what really happened, I'll never stop wondering about it. [Or dreaming about it, but she wasn't ready to talk about that just yet. Watching him curiously, for a moment she wonders where she's seen such a haunted expression before, and then it hits her. In the mirror. She's spared the fangs and haunted houses, thankfully. Instead, Ellie gets a grinning man with his head split open, a miniature coffin and one tiny hand poking up through the dirt] I think so, yeah. It's the ghost town that kept showing up in the papers, right? One day everybody just disappeared?

[Mark's arms unconsciously wrap around himself in a gesture of protection, as if a breeze has blown through and chilled him. Even now, just talking about the town is hard.] That's the one. I lived there, once upon a long time ago. [He looks right at Ellie, voice filled with the same tone of someone who has lived through a war-torn zone.] I'm the only one left who knows the truth. Everyone didn't just disappear. Something came to town, something evil. It spread and infected until there was no one left who was.....human.

[It's a gesture Ellie knows well. It's almost the same exact one she makes when she's trying to physically hold herself together. Much as she might try, she couldn't tear her eyes away from his while he spoke. He had lived through just as much as she had, more from the sound of it] I've seen them too, I think. Or something like them, at least. I don't know...I don't know what they were, exactly.