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Post by Authenti on Dec 22, 2010 1:02:56 GMT
The trees rustled slightly with a light breeze, the night sky unable to cast the park in shadows because of the vibrant city lights surrounding it. At the edge of a small pond, a pair of legs protruded from the still water. On one was a fur-lined boot. On the other was a black sock. The missing item lay a few feet away from the pond, in a patch of what were probably tulips.
The torso belonging to said legs, however, was submerged beneath the water. It stayed there for almost a minute before with a loud splash the legs withdrew into the water and the body of a young woman struggled to its feet, wheezing in a deep breath and letting it out in a coughing fit, eyes staring around wildly and hands scraping wet hair away from eyes.
"What... What the..."
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Post by Beff on Dec 22, 2010 1:16:43 GMT
The wind rolled past the rickety bench Beth was sat upon, causing her to lean forwards and cup her hands together, breathing out onto them in an attempt to warm them up. It wasn't cold, per sé but she was constantly cold, especially in her fingers and toes. A little condition the doctor's called Raynaud's disease, fun.
Lifting her head, she averted her gaze from her hands to a damaged flowerbed. The rest of the park seemed in perfect order yet this flowerbed stuck out. Having nothing better to do, Beth got to her feet and walked carefully over the flowerbed, the gushing of the nearby fountain growing louder as she got closer. Staring down, she noticed as shoe. Not only a shoe, it was a boot, a fur-lined boot. "What's this doing here?" She mumbled, picking it up and standing up straight, just as a female burst from the fountain. Not even noticing her in the first place, Beth flinched and screamed, falling back to the floor. The female's wet ragged appearence seeming even more ghastly than usual, especially as she hadn't seen anyone else yet.
Surrounded by flower beds, Beth clung to the shoe, changing her position from leaning back on her bottom, from falling, to a crawling position, to crawl up to the stranger. Upon doing so, she raised one knee and lifted herself. Holding the shoe up from a distance, she smiled nervously at the stranger; "This yours?" She asked.
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Post by Authenti on Dec 22, 2010 1:31:16 GMT
The walking swamp monster shook her hair free of her face, giving up her efforts of trying to shift it with her fingers; she turned her attention to the speaker immediately and panted heavily, trying to get her breath back.
"What? Who are you!?"
The young woman was obviously panicking at this point, having woken up underwater in an unfamiliar place, at an unfamiliar time. She could have sworn she was sunbathing on a terrace in Barcelona just moments ago.
"No. Yes! Yes, it's mine. Give that here!" She stumbled out of the pond and lunged for what was now her only dry item of clothing, then thought better of it and stopped, her hand dripping pondwater onto the other girl's shoes. "Actually... hold that for me. Don't go away." In case she hadn't said it with enough urgency the first time, she repeated herself. "Don't go away!"
With that, she began examining herself all over and pulled off her coat, letting it drop to the grass. There was not much else she could do about the rest of her clothing, and she began shaking a little (from cold or shock, she herself couldn't say).
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Post by Beff on Dec 22, 2010 13:48:02 GMT
Beth stepped back an inch as the woman repeated herself. "Okaaaay.." She replied, sarcastically, a little freaked out by the woman. Standing back as she proceeded to drip onto the grass and flowerbeds instead of her feet, Beth placed the boot onto the floor for a second, wiped the fountain water from her converse tips and took off her hoodie, fully revealing the white tank top beneath. "Here" She said, offering it forwards. "You can borrow this until your coat dries. Although you might have to wait till morning for that."
Pointing up to the sky, it was dark and mist filled, with no stars lighting the night sky. "Unless you want to look around for a dry cleaners or something" She laughed, trying to heighten the mood and calm her down. "I'm Bethaney, by the way. Bethaney Loxton" She introduced, holding her hand out before staring down at the lady's hands and taking into account the dripping wet of them, and lowered them back down. "But just call me Beth."
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Post by Authenti on Dec 22, 2010 20:20:40 GMT
The half-drowned teen stared down at herself for a few moments longer, and then gave a half-hearted sob, as though she knew her situation warranted waterworks (no pun intended) but didn't have the energy or willpower to cry properly.
"Thank you..." she sniffed, taking the hoodie and holding it in front of her while she quickly whipped off her shirt with her free hand, slamming the hoodie defensively down over her head before anyone could have seen her topless. "Wouldn't want to get your stuff wet too," she explained, wringing out the drenched shirt and blinking at the resulting twist of wet fabric.
"Excuse me, this might sound like a silly question, but can you tell me where I am?"
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Post by Beff on Dec 22, 2010 20:58:28 GMT
"I wish I could.." Beth replied, sighing and looking back over to the bench she'd been sat on only moments ago. "I just woke up here, a few hours ago, with this strange hoo-hah, in my pocket.." She explained, pulling out her communicator from her pocket. "I haven't tried messing with it yet, I've just been walking around looking for people, then I came into the park and sat down to rest for a bit, and just as i'm resting, you turn up! What luck,eh?" She smiled, picking her shoe back up and offering it to her. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name. And you are?" She asked politely.
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Post by Authenti on Dec 22, 2010 22:08:31 GMT
Val blinked awkwardly at the device shown to her and absently put a hand to her soaking wet jeans, seeming to relax when she found nothing. So she wasn't here for the same reason! What a relief. Maybe she would have an easier time of getting home.
"Yeah... Lucky..." She forced a smile as she took the boot back; but as she turned it upside down to get a better grip, a black object fell out of it onto the grass. Val blinked, then slowly bent down to pick up her new communicator.
"Shit." Val laughed nervously, running a hand through her bedraggled hair. "Er, my name's Valencia. Valencia Allegra... Shall we, er...?" She motioned to the city around them. "I mean, there must be an information booth somewhere."
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Post by Beff on Dec 22, 2010 23:50:27 GMT
A small snicker emerged from Beth's lips as she saw Valencia's communicator, half from amusement and half from comfort as she wasn't the only one with such a strange device. Turning her head to follow Val's gaze, she stared around the city, doing a 360 degree angle before turning her attention back to her.
"Yeah, sure lets go. I had a quick look around before but didn't see anything out of the ordinary...but I was more panicking than paying attention" She admitted, before turning and walking out of the flower beds and back onto the designated path. "So, which way should we head?" She asked, shoving her hands into her pockets, and tilting her head, while at the same time internally cursing herself for being indecisive.
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Post by Authenti on Dec 23, 2010 0:23:48 GMT
Valencia prodded the device experimentally. It beeped at her and activated something; after bopping a few buttons aimlessly with her index finger she scowled at the screen and snapped the thing shut, unaware of the fact that she'd just activated the video camera for several seconds.
"Hmm? Oh, right - yeah. Ehh... Did you see anything like an information booth or wasn't there anything like that?"
Valencia followed Beth out onto the path and then took the lead, heading in a random direction. She hugged herself, rubbing her arms with her hands to try and stay warm.
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Post by Beff on Dec 23, 2010 0:42:38 GMT
Beth rubbed her bare arms before digging her hands back into her pockets in an attempt to warm them up a bit. "As I say, I wasn't really paying attention to scenery, just looking for people" She admitted, looking down at her feet before squinting in the direction they were travelling. Topiary decorated the area they were heading towards, an arch opening out into what looked like a high street of the city.
This made Beth certain she must have travelled from the opposite direction, none of it was coloured so brightly and neatly as the building ahead. "That looks interesting" She pointed out, her gaze staring right through the topiary arch to the building. Frills laced the cover above it, from what Beth saw. Although her vision wasn't great even with her glasses on. "Maybe a café or something? I didn't come by here before. This part of town looks more exciting than the latter."
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Post by Authenti on Dec 23, 2010 0:48:36 GMT
"Well, yeah, I can relate to that. I'm asking the first person I see what the hell is going on. Two of us waking up in an unfamiliar place can't just be coincidence."
Val shielded her eyes from the city lights and gazed up at the buildings surrounding them, then turned her attention to whatever Beth was looking at. She was silent for a few moments, then nodded. "Maybe there are people in there, then... Thinking about it, the lights are on all over the city - it can't just be a ghost town." She cast a wistful glance down the empty street. "Can it?" she whispered to herself, barely audible.
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Post by Beff on Dec 23, 2010 1:39:22 GMT
Upon reaching the arch, Beth extended her arm to brush her hands against the well cut topiary. "There must be someone here. Otherwise, who has cut this to such perfection?" She said, rather rhetorically. Heading through it, she turned to look at it one last time before pivoting back on one foot. "It IS a café!" She exclaimed, pacing out of the park and onto the streets before the café.
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Post by Authenti on Dec 23, 2010 13:04:06 GMT
"True. If this place was abandoned..." She swallowed nervously at the thought. Abandoned places creeped her the fuck out. "...The leaves would be a complete mess by now."
Val trotted in the direction of the café and placed one hand on the door, glancing to Beth for reassurance. Despite knowing this girl for all of ten minutes, she figured the only way she was going to get out of here was if she put some trust in strangers. After all, the world was never as dangerous as the media made out.
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