Victoria was a wreck as she passed through the basin. She felt her body tremble as she anticipated the worst of all possible outcomes. Once again she was out in the open, only now she had nowhere to run and the walls of the crater were difficult to scramble upon. The thought that she may have possibly trapped her defenseless self seemed to only make her sobbing heavier and the more she tried to muffle her sounds so that no one could hear her, she could not. Instead she moved past shattered rock and piles of litter left unnoticed on the ground.
Hardly any of it mattered to her; she’d seen it all before and it was growing to be quite repetitive. Victoria had given up sifting through such useless debris a long time ago. It was, once again, trash. Few things were considered trash in this day and age, almost anything could (and should) have been reused. Unfortunately, the woman found that often the paper was good for little more than kindling and the metal in bits too small to matter. Therefore it didn’t matter and therefore she didn’t even notice it as she anxiously moved across the crater in search of safety.
Paying more attention to where she was than what was in her presence, Victoria nearly hurried by the one unique item in the debris before her. Se stopped in her tracks as she did a quick double take in the direction of a decimated stuffed bear. With its soft insides protruding out and its body worn from its original distinctive shape, it took her several moments of staring to make heads and tails of the figure. An eye was missing, and though she realized that the object was inanimate, the sight of its single remaining eye tugged at her emotions. What had this poor thing been through to stare at her with such desperate eyes? Where had its owner gone? Was this person careless enough to leave the bear behind… or was their fate similar, if not worse, to that of the bear’s?
Again, she had to remind herself that it was only a toy. It had been so long since she’d seen one, the thought came to her t present it to Ella as a gift. Ella would love the bear, Victoria thought. By now, Victoria’s sobbing had already quieted then stopped. She was intrigued by the object that was partially trapped under concrete. She mulled the thoughts of taking the bear with her on her journey as she began to take a step away from her original path in order to get a closer look. This was unusual of Victoria. If she wasn’t anything else, she was focused. Added with the fact that she was currently scared out of her mind, it would seem like a very odd thing for her to do. However, such an object was a rarity and Victoria wanted to adopt it as her own.
It was then that she heard a crack that didn’t seem natural if she were truly alone. The paranoia in one brief moment had managed to rush back to her and she trembled as she whirled around to try and face it.. Then, form the corner of her eye she saw a figure pass over the basin. Now she knew that something was there. Her eyes did not usually play tricks on her and her careful nature wouldn’t allow her to pass it off as just noting. Victoria furrowed her eyebrows fearfully as she searched around the crater, looking in every direction and backing up toward the crater walls. The only reason she didn’t take off immediately is because she didn’t know where or what it was that she saw and did not want to run right into it.
Meanwhile, blind to the eyes of most casual observers, there was conflict deep within Victoria's mind. Personality traits individually lashed outward, trying to be most prominent in order to do what it thought best. Fear, the expression that Victoria actually currently expressed was allowing other traits to pass through. And that is when a personality composed itself... This personality, compliments of the fragments of Victoria's mother, understood the rules of fight or flight. It just so happens that Lesleigh was a fighter... Victoria stopped backing away and instead her head tilted in concentration as she studied her own brain briefly. She searched for the most effective areas of the brain to sever if she were to make it out of the crater alive. She'd come to realize with this more rational personality being adopted, that she was not a very dexterous runner and that she would have to slow them down. It was then that Victoria went searching for a nearby mind, hoping that it had a mind. all the while her mentally augmented mind was focusing upon the earth around her. |