Blame

The Woman

Elizabeth backed straight into Jesse.

She didn't immediately realize that it was her, though. Everything around her was distorted and she felt completely and utterly detached from it.

Her brain really only registered that it was Jesse when she spoke. Although it sounded slightly muffled to her, she still recognized the husky voice.

"Woah, careful. You okay?"

Elizabeth shook her head.

Despite her best efforts, she couldn't seem to get any words out.

Or control her breathing, for that matter. Every breath she took got caught halfway in her throat.

"You having a panic attack?"

She could only very vaguely feel Jesse's ice-cold hands on her arms.

"You need space, or—?"

"N-n-no," she managed to force out. "St-stay."

"Alright. I will. What else do you need from me right now?"

The one coherent thought that Elizabeth could form was telling her to find some sort of distraction.

She spent a solid minute struggling to articulate that before she eventually managed to sputter something out.

"Wh-wh-what took y-you so long?"

Picking up on what she was actually trying to ask, Jesse started telling Elizabeth about how the cashier at the gas station wouldn't stop talking to her, and stopped what he was doing every three seconds to tell her some long story that didn't make any sense because he didn't provide any context for it.

Elizabeth tried to really force herself to focus on what Jesse was saying.

"—I don't think I've ever left a building so damn fast. And that includes the time that the horror attraction I used to work at caught on fire."

"So y-y-you ran?"

"Eh. It was more of a hurried jog, really."

Her head was still rather fuzzy, but Elizabeth could actually breathe properly again.

"I'm uh, c-calmer now. Th-thanks."

"No problem."

There was a small stretch of silence between them, during which Elizabeth had to resist the incredible urge to start fidgeting.

Jesse ran a hand through her hair.

"Now, ya know I've gotta ask," she began, her calculating eyes scanning over Elizabeth's face. Though the redhead couldn't manage to hold it for very long, she did notice that the gaze wasn't as intense as it usually was, "what the actual hell happened while I was gone?"

Elizbeth's eyes darted over to the alleyway. The spray paint on the wall was still visible from where they both stood.

"Do y-you see th-that message on the w-wall over there?" Speaking was suddenly ten times more difficult than it usually was.

"Uh-huh. And...I see another one of those...fucking smiley faces. Did you...?" Jesse trailed off.

Elizabeth never ended up actually telling anybody about the second encounter she had with that demon creature. She didn't really have a reason as to why, she just simply couldn't. She couldn't do it.

"I s-s-saw it again... I d-didn't want to g-get closer, b-but for some reason, I d-did anyway. I f-finally s-saw its...its f-face...and it spoke to m-me."

"It spoke to you? What'd it say?"

"It...it..." The muscles in Elizabeth's face tensed, just like they would whenever she started to stutter. She kept trying, attempting to push past the feeling of her words being blocked off. "I c-can't get the w-words out..."

Tears of frustration began to form.

No matter how hard she tried, it seemed that Elizabeth couldn't force herself to divulge the full details of her encounters.

What was wrong with her?

"Hey, it's okay. Maybe wait until a bit and try again?"

Elizabeth really doubted that that would work.

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't.

But she really needed to, so she was going to try it anyway.

Thirty-third times the charm, maybe?

"O-okay..."

"Excuse me?" an unfamiliar voice asked. "Could I talk to you for a moment?"

A short woman had approached from... well, somewhere. And she was clearly talking to Elizabeth.

"Uh...do I know y-you?"