The Garden of Heathen

Heebie Jeebies

Lost Control- Alan Walker and Sorana

When Gally's eyes landed on Aussie the thoughts of love dissipated like a mist. His brows furrowed and his head cocked to the side when he saw her hunched over the paper, rubbing the pencil over it in quick, broad strokes. She'd covered about half the page in lead already.

"What are you doing?" He questioned as he strode over to her.

She looked up at him and it took a second for her eyes to focus properly.

"I know this looks crazy but I promise it makes sense," she assured him a bit manically. "You know how... when you have a note pad or a stack of papers and you write a note on the - on the top one, the top piece of paper, the pressure kind of copies the words to the page underneath? And when you rub a pencil over it you can see the words?"

He did know exactly what she meant and his eyes widened. There could be more to this note than initially met the eye. He leaned over her to see what had come to light so far.

"It's not easy with the creases from the folding, but there's definitely something here, and Gally?" She stared up at him with a spooked look in her eyes. "I think it's ... my handwriting."

"Your handwriting?" He repeated as his brows furrowed deeply. "How is that even possible?"

"I dunno. I don't know if it is mine, or if it just looks like mine, or how it could be possible-" she rubbed her forehead then ran her hand over her mouth.

"It's ok, it's ok," he said as he placed his hand on her back in an effort to calm her down. "That's not important right now, let's first see what it says, alright?"

"Ok," she agreed with a sigh. She bent over and continued to color in the page.

Gally kept his hand on her back as she worked. Something caught his eye and he looked up to see a shaft of light coming down from up stairs.

"Did someone come down here?" He asked her absently.

"I thought I heard the door open earlier," she confirmed without stopping her work.

Gally shrugged it off as Gertie or one of the others checking on them. Maybe they hadn't closed the door all the way behind them when they came down. He soon forgot all about it, thoroughly distracted by, not only the mystery of the note, but that he was alone with Aussie, breaking the No Touching Rule.

"Ok, finished," Aussie slapped the pencil down on the table, the side of her palm covered in grey lead. She stood straight and held the note up.
Gally's hand traveled up her back to rest on her shoulder as he leaned in for a better look. He held one side of the paper and she held the other as they leaned further under the light, trying to get just the right angle to see the faint words.

Chan el or Pa e
Th is not w t I si ned u for. Y u
dec ve me. I ver wa ed an ne to et hurt. I ca t do t is an more.

At this point neither of them noticed the light begin to sway.

If you do t stop im d tly I will be
f rced to t ke act on. W t yo re do ng to th se kids wro g and I can't al ow it to co tinue. Th trials must end ow

Trials? What was it saying about trials? Aussie could hardly see with the shadows moving across the page.

Wait. Aussie looked up, wondering where these shadows were coming from. She was just in time to see a metallic claw, like some kind of robotic chameleon foot, reach out and grab the top of the paper. She followed it upwards and saw it was attached to an equally robotic body, like some kind of toy insect. It was hanging from the light bulb and it was trying to steal the note.