Escape

I waited throughout the night as whatever strange battle was occurring between The Ordeal and The Liar. It seemed like whatever The Ordeal was doing this Richard person was the center of it. I kept hearing more and more about it and occasionally the announcement would be saying that it eliminated certain pieces of The Liar. Well The Announcement just called it The Dying Man. I've never heard of anything that could eliminate a Dying Man piece completely. Especially seeing as it didn't announce anyone dying during said eliminations. Which implies that this Richard person can somehow kill Dying Man Shards without killing the hosts...

Or The Ordeal just have no intention of announcing the deaths of infected members.

That's a little disturbing and I'm not entirely able to explain why.

Anyway so while it does seem like The Ordeal are winning it seems to be taking forever and I still need to get out of here fast. Unfortunately as I said this is a very quiet war and so I had to sort of just guess as to when was safe. I waited for a while at my door before carefully unlocking it and glancing out. There didn't seem to be anyone around so I exited my room closing the door behind me and made my way as quietly as possible to the front doors. I made it without being spotted. It was the announcement that eventually explained why. Apparently the entirety of the fighting now was taking place near the cells which were on the opposite side of the compound from my room.

I reached the front doors and found someone waiting there. It was Brian. I tried to back away before he could see me, but immediately he turned to me.

"Amanda? What are you doing here. You're not infected you should still be in your room where it's safer," I was about to ask him how he knew I wasn't infected when Melissa lunged out of a corridor followed by shouts and barreled towards Brian. Her eyes swung towards mine for a second and a grin spread over her lips as her hand grabbed onto Brian's shoulder. He stiffened and her grin widened then froze. "What... But you were by the cells-" she started and then began to scream. Brian grabbed her hand and removed it from his shoulder as the scream abruptly ended. He let her drop to the ground seemingly unconscious. He smiled. "Apologies, Amanda, as you can see I'm a bit busy. Oh and I should probably introduce you to my partner," he stated and his demeanor changed. It was still his voice, but now it seemed somehow older, more powerful and a little arrogant, "Name's Richard. I'd offer you my hand, but you'd probably shrink away in fear," as soon as he finished speaking his demeanor changed again and it was Brian talking again. "I'm sure you have some questions so let me explain. Richard was one of the few gifts left behind by our old founder. He's sort of an Ordeal secret. You could say he's our tamed Dying Man shard-" he was cut off here by Richard, "I am not tame. I am not some pet doing tricks for your amusement. This is a business arrangement," he announced angrily and then Brian responded in a soothing voice, "Right right, my bad. When Richard first arrived he was very weak. A shard of a shard of a shard. We made an arrangement with him. We'd give him the opportunity to get stronger and he'd protect us from other Dying Men. By absorbing other Shards he can grow stronger and it allows him to remove The Dying Man from a host without damaging them anymore than The Dying Man possessing them already has. Which seeing as this one doesn't seem to damage it's host at all is remarkably useful. Not a single casualty so far," he said proudly.

"So, they chose you to be Richard's partner in the case of a Dying Man infestation?" I asked, fascinated by this example of symbiosis between humans and The Darkness.

"Well, sort of. There are actually three of us. When Richard was still weak he could only be in one person at a time, but as he grew stronger he could stand to be split between a few of us. I'm guarding the front door, Lionel is guarding the back door and Seth is down at the cells where the action is," he paused, "I don't think you've met either of them... They're cool guys. I'll introduce you when this is all over," he stated after his brief pause. I smiled awkwardly.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to meet them... I'm leaving today. The Dying Man attack is just the first step. I have to get out of here before more attack," I explained. He blinked.

"The hell are you talking about," he said finally. He sounded angry and I took a step back.

"I need to leave to protect you, Theo, Melissa and all the others here. You're my family and I won't let you be hurt because of me," I tried to explain.

"You idiot! We keep you here to protect you. I'm not letting you go off alone to be killed!" he countered. I bit my lip and tried to steel my gaze against his.

"How do you intend to stop me?" I asked trying to seem brave. He seemed to hesitate unsure of what to do.

"I... I can have Richard possess you..." he finally said in a quiet voice.

"You wouldn't..." I responded, trying to sound certain, but inside I was terrified of the possibility of being possessed. I had been since the moment I found out what Richard was.

"If it's the only way to keep you safe I will," Brian stated, no uncertainty in his voice anymore and he moved towards me. At that moment however Melissa came to and Brian's attention was diverted. I tried to run past him and made it reaching the door which was of course locked. It would only of taken a second or two to unlock the door, but I didn't have that long. Brian's hands grabbed my shoulders and I heard him apologize. I screamed. Melissa, apparently not quite awake, came to the wrong conclusion and grabbed Brian tearing him off of me. It gave me just enough time to unlock the door and get outside. I closed the door behind me as Brian managed to free himself from Melissa's grasp and try to chase after me. He slammed into it with great force and I think he might have seriously injured himself. He staggered back holding his shoulder and watched me through the glass door. "Come back..." he mouthed and a few seconds later, "please..." he couldn't come after me. He couldn't leave his post and even if he did he'd have to chase me through the city. I felt tears in my eyes as his eyes watched me sadly. I turned and ran off into the city.