The X-Project

Sarah joins Layla on her wandering outside in the woods but things don't end well when Sarah has to call Hank for help.

As the days went on the end of the year loomed larger and darker in front of Layla. She hadn't brought up her birthday to anyone. There were probably people who knew anyway, like teachers and stuff. Hiding in the mansion seemed to be getting sort of...obvious. So Layla had fled today. She considered going into the city to see her parents but she wasn't sure she was really up for the trip to the cemetery today. She would go tomorrow, though, sneak in, hide, and camp out with her parents all night so she was with them at the very moment of their death eight years ago. Layla had done it every year since she was old enough to pull off getting away with it. For today, though, she was walking into town. Or, rather, she was walking to town and then planning to wander around the less populated edges of it.

While Sarah knew about Layla's parents from the other girl having told her about it a little, she certainly hadn't pressed or dug for more information. She did know that this was a hard time of the year for her, of course, and Sarah would've been lying if she'd denied wanting to come back to school before New Year's to be around for her friend in such a hard time. At the same time she didn't want to force herself on the other girl either, so instead of tracking her down in person or stalking her or something, Sarah instead fired her off a quick text message to see if she was around, free, and up for some company. That way if Layla didn't want to see her she still had the easy out of pretending she didn't get the message, or not having her phone on, etcetera.

The vibration from Layla's back pocket drew a frown onto her face. She pulled the phone out to find the text from Sarah. It was a short deliberation before she replied 'wandering nearish Salem. I can wait if you wanna come with.' Anyone else she would have ignored but it was Sarah and Layla knew she wouldn't be on about Layla seemed depressed or whatever.

It didn't take long for Sarah to reply. Sure thing, be right there! :) She was ready and out the door within a minute, heading out to meet up with Layla. It didn't take her too long to catch up with her and she smiled, waving a little as she drew near. "Hey their lady. How are you?"

Layla had headed back toward the school to make catching up easier for Sarah and by time the brunette had found her Layla was loitering not far from the main gates. She answered Sarah's inquiry with something mostly resembling a shrug and headed away from the toward the woods on the eastern side of the mansion's grounds. "How was home?"

Catching up to her, Sarah put her hands in her pockets and shrugged, though she was having a hard time downplaying the smile on her face from seeing Layla again. "Eh, it was ok. Same old same old, I guess." It really had been nice to hang out with Jess again, and her parents were far more tolerable in small doses and separate from each other. Her grandparents had been happy to see her again but she didn't want to gush about her family to the blonde. "It's good to be back, though. How've you been, Laylasauce?"

"Bored, mostly." She was trying to think of something to say, really she was. Part of Layla was happy to see Sarah, like genuinely happy, But most of her couldn't get up any enthusiasm for anything, even Sarah. So she shoved her hands in her pockets and shuffled along toward the trees. "There's nothing on TV but holiday movies and I fucking hate Christmas movies. They're always so lame. I had a lot of really fucked up horror movie marathons." Because other people's pain made Layla feel a bit better about her shitty ass mood.

Sarah just nodded, keeping her hands in her pockets. "Yeah, I dunno why people get all excited this time of the year." Walking along side of Layla, she looked up at the trees as they approached them. "I know, they just won't let up, it's so annoying." She wasn't fudging about that part, having nothing but holiday movies on for such an extended period of time really was a bother. "Aww, I missed out on that." Horror movies weren't so important but time with the other girl was. "Maybe we can watch some more later?"

"I dunno what's around. Might hafta go into town to rent more movies from Blockbuster." Layla frowned. "I dunno, there might be movies at the mansion still. I dunno, we can check later." The blonde picked her way thought the trees as they entered the woods. It felt like she had spent a lot of time out here among the trees but she had been mostly holed up in her suite or the rec room late at night. Still, there was something familiar and comforting to being out here where it was quiet but not quite.

"We can, yeah. If we have to go into town too, that's ok by me." She really didn't mind making a trip if they had to, as long as they had something to watch. Pushing an errant tree branch out of her way, Sarah ducked into the woods behind Layla. It was nice and peaceful in the woods, and the scent of pine needles was pleasant to her. "It's kinda nice in here, huh? For the woods, I mean."

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, sometimes it's sorta weird how quiet it is." Layla hopped up on a large rock, looked around then hopped off and changed direction. "It's like prime serial killer territory isn't it? Like some dude with a machete is gonna pop out any minute."

"It is, peaceful like." Sarah frowned at the mention of serial killers, instinctively moving closer to the blonde girl as she brought up the subject. "That's a little creepy, though. That would be as scary as hell, but it's not gonna happen, heh." Right? Following Layla as she changed direction, Sarah looked around the woods again just in case.

"I dunno, what's the going tally on local psychos?" Layla was headed for a clearing she had spotted through the trees. She wasn't sure if anything was in it but why not check it out while she was here? "It's not like it'd be the weirdest thing that's happened here."

"They keep score on that kind of thing?" Sarah climbed over one chunk of a tree stump that was sticking out of the earth, reaching out to steady herself on Layla's shoulder for a brief instant as she did so, just so she wouldn't fall. "I mean, yeah, weird things do happen I guess. But we're ok." That last part might've been said outloud for her own benefit more than anything. She brushed her cheek for a second as flashbacks to evil!Hank popped into her mind unbidden for a few fleeting moments before talking again as they reached the clearing. "Huh, this is a neat little spot in the middle of the woods."

Contact made Layla tense even though she usually managed not to with Sarah. Her jaw clenched on one side and her shoulder came up a bit when her entire arm locked up only to relax again when Sarah's hand moved away. "I dunno, I'd think they'd like keep a list of known psychos or something. Like sex offenders. You know what's freaky? Looking up the neighborhood on the map of convicted sex offenders. There are so many fucking perverts everywhere." And they were all alive while her parents, who were good people, were dead.

Layla broke away from Sarah now that they were in the middle of the small clearing. She went wandering around the edge of it, seeming to inspect it. "Wasn't like Dr Grey-Summers and Mr Drake and people here when they were kids? I bet they found this place and totally did like their drinking and pot smoking and shit here." She paused, eye catching sight of something that didn't quite blend into the shadow a tree was casting. After stepping into the tree line she realized what it was. A dog. One that wasn't breathing. Layla stared at it, trying to will it to breathe somehow. It had a collar and a tag. It was someone's pet. A lab, those were family type pets right? It didn't even look like it had wounds or had been out here for weeks.

"Oh yeah, right, those things. That's true I guess." She shuddered at the thought herself, and would probably never look that kind of thing up for fear of never wanting to leave the mansion ever again. Sarah followed Layla further into the clearing, folding her arms over each other and hugging herself, as it was a bit cooler there. She squinted and recognized the poor creature's corpse as she drew nearer as well. "Oh no. That poor, poor dog." It didn't look like it had been dead for long but it clearly wasn't alive any longer.

Layla shrugged it off, though it didn't look half as nonchalant as she had intended for it to. "That's life, though. Even if you're a spoiled pet you die in the fucking woods. He probably got lost and froze to death or has like a disease or something." She didn't really know what could have killed the dog, but in case it was something they could catch she dragged Sarah away and to the other side of the clearance where there were some sections of tree trunks and large rocks. It looked like they had been assembled there so people could hang out with something to sit on.

"Still, it's so sad." She looked down and wished the dog was alive, it looked like a cuddly sort of pet, one who'd appreciate it when you petted it. Sarah followed Layla to the trunks and rocks, taking a seat on one of the bigger stones that had something spray painted on the side of it. She sighed and looked over at Layla, then around the clearing. "Yeah, this is a nice place to hideout from the world, kinda. Except for, you know." The poor dead dog, which she turned and looked at again, poor creature.

Despite her pointedly not looking in that direction, the dog was the only thing Layla could think about. Abandoned, alone and dead. They had two of those things in common, didn't they? "Yeah, except Fido. We can leave if you want, though." Sarah had sat down but death freaked most people out. Layla had gotten uncommonly comfortable with death considering how often she had to kill things to put them out of their misery after her mutation had decided to resurrect them from the dead.

"No, that's ok, it's nice here. I don't mind." She wasn't thrilled about the dead dog, of course, but she wouldn't freak out, not with Layla there anyway. Looking over at her friend, she wanted to ask her how she was doing, how she was coping with things, but she didn't want to pry. Being there in case she wanted to talk was the best thing she could do, she figured.

"Okay." With that Layla found a fallen bit of tree trunk to straddle. Sarah didn't want to pry and Layla didn't want to talk about it. She didn't bother to tell her friend that today was actually her birthday.It was the second worst day of the year for Layla and ignoring it was the best method for dealing with it that she'd found thus far.

The next half hour or so passed fairly quietly. Layla picked at the bark of the trunk she was sitting on and occasionally asked Sarah about DC. Sarah hadn't seemed to want to talk about being home with her family, for which Layla was immensely grateful. The last thing she wanted was to think about someone else's happy family times.

About fifteen minutes into the stuttering conversation Layla started yawning. Within the following fifteen to twenty minutes she went from yawning to barely being able to keep her eyes open. Exhaustion was stealing over her quickly and she had no idea why. "Why'm I so tired?" she complained in the middle of another yawn.

Sarah had been enjoying the conversation, as she often did with Layla, and even sleepy Layla was no huge surprise after all the mutual naps they'd alternated between taking on movie nights. "It's just peaceful and quiet here, I think. It puts you at ease, you know?" She leaned back, looking up through the trees and then over at Layla. "You can nap if you want, Layla." She almost said aloud that the blonde could use her as a pillow if she wanted but she bailed at the last second, not wanting to sound too familiar or something.

The blonde's nose wrinkled up. It was warm, especially for December, but something about napping out in the woods wasn't appealing. Maybe it was because she kept thinking of that Labrador and how it just looked like it was sleeping at first. Some irrational part of her brain was convinced if she slept here then she wouldn't wake up again, just like that dog.

"Nah, I think a nap's a bad idea." Layla stood up, figuring walking would maybe help her wake up quicker. Only standing up was hard, like when someone woke you up three hours into sleep you desperately needed and make you get out of bed. But she did stand up, then wavered where she stood. "Sarah? I think...something seems..." And then Layla collapsed.

Near simultaneous with Layla's collapse was movement in the trees. Movement could be heard in the fallen leaves and pine needles. Then the same chocolate Lab that had been laying dead in the trees walked out into the clearance.

"Layla!" Sarah cried out when she saw the blonde girl collapse. Leaping off of her rock she rushed over to the girl's side, falling to her knees on the ground beside her. "Layla, are you ok? Are you alright?" Not wanting to move her too much - isn't that the right thing to do when people fall? You don't move them in case you might hurt them more? - because this had never happened to her before and it was all a shock and oh no, Layla. Sarah fumbled into her pocket, clutching her phone and calling the first person who'd come to mind, Hank, he'd know what to do wouldn't he? He was a doctor after all and Layla wasn't moving. Oh dear lord, she wasn't moving. What was happening?