unhingedchaos | @ inthesaferoom

She doesn't know what the hell happened, if she's completely honest. The last, completely clear memory she has is Mike telling her not to move. She tried. She tried to stay completely still, but she slipped. Failed. And then- nothing.

Nothing and then someplace she didn't recognize. A hallway of some kind? She follows it, not sure what to make of the eerie bluish-white it all seems to be basked in. The hallway never seems to go anywhere, and simultaneously feels like it's somehow taking her in circles. It feels like she's walking inside an Escher painting. She's not sure how long she's been going, either; she doesn't really have any sense of time in this place. But she also hasn't gotten tired or hungry, either. How strange.

After some indeterminate amount of time, Sam hears... a voice? Multiple voices, maybe. It makes her pick up her pace, following the sound of it until she finds herself in front of a door. Nothing fancy, just plain and probably white- hard to tell in the creepy lighting of the place- with a small window she can peek through.

"Hello?" she presses her face to the glass and cups her hands around her eyes to try and get a better look. A hospital room, she thinks. Hard to say, she can't see much from where she is. She tries to open it, but no luck. The door seems to be locked tight, and there's nothing to break it open with. No amount of slamming against the door or the window seems to damage it at all. No one hears her screams, either.

It took some time, but she realized it was Mike in that hospital room. She can't be sure how long he was there; all sense of time is just... nonexistent here. She's not sure what any of it means.

The scene outside the window changes sometimes. She sees the woods, sometimes, she thinks. Some kind of office once or twice, maybe? Someone's house or apartment. She hears the conversations he has with people and tries to reach him sometimes, but it fails.

And it fails.
And it fails.
And it fails.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Over.
And over.
And over.

Until she feels too defeated to try anymore for awhile. So she just stays there, watching out her tiny window into Mike's life and wonders what the fuck is actually going on.

She's there when he was in the hospital.
She's there when Emily shows her power over him.
She's there when he meets... himself?
She's there when the databomb drops.
She's there when he fights with Gavin.

She's here now, while he lets way too many thoughts spin in his head late at night.

She's not sure why she thinsk it would be different than any of the hundreds- thousands- who knows- times that she tried before. Nothing has changed, nothing is different, not from her side anyway. But she decides to try again anyway. She'll always keep going, whatever it takes.

Sam bangs on the door with everything in her. Rattles the knob. Tries to break the window. And then she just screams his name.

Maybe he hears her.
Maybe it makes the lights flicker.
Maybe it makes his whole room shake.

Whatever it does, there's no ignoring Something is going on.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He doesn't see ghosts anymore, he's realizing that. It doesn't matter if he's on the good pain meds or trying to push them lower, nothing's happening. So when everything starts to shake, it's a damn shock.

He knows that scream. He's heard it before, when -

He knows it, okay? But what can he fucking do about it? Lying here with a million fucking tubes, wires and lines. ]

Really, Samantha? You pick now?

Not the thousand times I've actually tried?

[ Just. He's tired. Close to becoming a ghost himself one way or another, if it weren't for the life inside him that needed other shit to happen like staying alive. ]

Mike! Goddammit, open this fucking door! [She doesn't even know if he can see the door. Or her. Sense her? She has no idea how any of this works, okay?

She huffs a soft annoyed sound, not even sure why she tries the door again like it would be any different than––

Oh.

The knob turned, smooth and unhindered, and she blinks, staring at the door like it had just turned into Jason Vorhees or something. Before there's time for her to get locked behind it again, she yanks it open and stomps out of that awful fucking hallway.]

Sorry, I was busy being stuck in an endless, circling hallway. I'll try to be more timely with my interdimensional-whatever-the-fuck this is next time. [Yeah, she's cranky. But she's still Sam.] What happened? [She sits at the edge of the bed next to him, trying to take one of his hands between both of hers.

It doesn't work, of course.
She frowns and stares down at their not touching hands in a sort of dismay she hasn't had time to process yet.

No. Nope. She can't do this. She simply won't. He doesn't deserve to deal with her having oh-hey-I'm-dead crises.

Her eyes move back up to his face: ] Talk to me...

@ inthesaferoom

CW SI

Mike ;_;