"I mean....yes." The doctor said, looking at Delilah's Mom and then back at Delilah, as if hoping that the exchange between the two would end. His shoulders were slumped, his face was drawn long, as if he had never been involved with family quarrel.

"There doesn't appear anything to be with your eye."

"Yes." Mom said, mouth barely closing. "Oh that's such good news!"

"Well, I think we're done here Delilah. Let's go back home. What do you think?" Mom noted, her face was still stretched with that smile. Her eyes blinked only once or twice ever thirty seconds or so.

She stood there waiting, face smiling as if daring Delilah to say something else. The doctor didn't seem to notice.

Delilah stuffed her hands into her pockets and nodded sharply. Her mouth was closed and drawn into a tight pucker. She hoped "Mom" would turn and head for the door. Then she could follow and see only the back of her head.

At that's just what happened. Mom pulled out far ahead and Delilah was now in the hall of the hospital, waking by the Nurses who bore a hurried pace. A man with a cart filled with bags of clear liquid pushed by her. Mom just kept walking forward. And the strange thing was that she seemed to part the busy hospital workers just down the center. It was almost as if they were avoiding her.

Their faces were unperturbed and unworried, preoccupied with the tasks at hand and what needed to be done to keep the hospital running, to save lives. Still, it was odd to see the throngs of nurses, doctors, janitors and nurses aids fall to one or the other side of Mom's path, like she had some kind of invisible forcefield around her.

"Hey!" Delilahs' sister said in an excited tone. "What's the deal? Is your eye OK?" She said with hopeful glee, clearly looking up to Delilah with all of the gaze and wonder of a little sister that was eager to please.

Delilah followed along with her head down, at first. Usually, whenever she skulked along behind her mother, she would glare at the floor and bump into someone passing in the opposite direction. This time, she could see the quick, white shoes passing by. Looking up, she noticed they weren't just skirting by her; they were avoiding her mother. The nurses and other workers just seemed to turn at just the right moment. Delilah's mother moved down the hall like the prow of a ship. Delilah was simply in her wake.

That eye doctor didn't react to her mother's new face in any noticable way. Delilah studied the faces of passersby to gauge their reaction, but it was if they simply did not see the woman as she glided by. Delilah was so caught up in staring, that she didn't notice Susan's approach.

"Oh? Yeah. Hey, has mom been weird lately?"

Susan's face looked forward at Mom's back and then up towards Delilah, who was about a head taller than her. Her hair was shaggy, moving up and down as she walked forward, moving her gaze between Mom who didn't walk as much as glide across the floor.

"Ummmm." Delilah's sister said, eagerly. "Yes."

"Moms been weird lately. Probably?" She added in a question.



OOC: Delilah Rolls (Intelligence or Wits or Empathy) + Composure +1

00:17, Today: Delilah Gray failed (no successes) using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((2,5,7)).

"Probably? Aw, c'mon! I mean, just...look! Look at 'er face!" Delilah gestured to their mother moving down the hall. Susan clearly couldn't see the woman's face, not right now, but she couldn't think of anything else.

Without missing a beat, or even looking, Susan said "Yes!"

Then she said. "Mom's all weird Delilah. Probably yesterday, or no!...the day before. Mom was in her room and then she grew purple wings and then her face got weird and then she told me to get here and then we came her together." She said all in one breath.

The girls were still following Mom and they were close to the exit of the hospital now.

"Moms gotten all weird!" Susan announced, almost happily, looking to Delilah to see what she thought about the explanation.

"Noooo! I'm bein' serious here! Like when I told you about the pig-- aw, forget it."

Delilah did not like to be teased. The way Susan looked fit to burst out laughing, this had to be some kind of joke. Her cheeks flushed red. Purple wings! I almost fell for it!

She wanted to stomp away from Susan and be the first one out the door. But she didn't know where the Mom-Thing had parked. And she'd have to turn back and ask Susan (or worse, "Mom") where it was.

Susan's lower lip quivered. Her eyes welled up. Then she pretended, clearly, that she wasn't as upset. It only took a moment, she pushed the palm of her hand into her left eye like she had something in it. Delilah had clearly misread Susan's expressions.

Susan wasn't goofing on Delilah, she was just trying to give her whatever answer her big sister wanted.

But who could blame Delilah? She had just escaped perhaps the worst nightmare of all. Looking at the back of Mom while she walked down the hall, it was clear, that perhaps the nightmare wasn't over.

The Mom-Thing pressed the button and the elevator doors opened. She glided inside, turned around to reveal that hideous, grinning smile and waited for Susan and Delilah to enter.

Delilah didn't see Susan's smile fall. She was stuck staring back into that sickening smile.

The thing that moved like Mom stood to one side of the elevator doors. Delilah nudged Susan forward and off to the opposite side. Suze was rotten little sister sometimes, but they'd made a promise to each other. Delilah stood between her sister and this Other Mother. She wanted to keep her eyes on that horrid face all the while. She tried to keep still and trick the creature into believing that she wasn't scared a bit. But she couldn't stop fiddling with her braids. She couldn't stop glancing at the numbers over the elevator doors.

Susan gladly pushed her way into the elevator and nudged her back against Mom. Mom-Thing's face kept smiling. Susan looked up into that face and smiled herself.

Then Mom-Thing pressed the button '1.' Her other hand dropped down to caress Susan's face and then shoulder. Gentle, loving caresses.

The face smiled broad and wide, the Mom-Thing wearing it like a mask.

The elevator doors closed. Then it started to move.

'ding'

'ding'

'ding'

The elevator was moving down, slowly.

It game to a gradual stop on floor number '2', the doors getting ready to open...

Delilah squirmed and shifted her weight from foot to foot. She kneaded her braids and wrapped them around her hand over and over. Watching the elevator doors felt like watching a bomb's timer run out. Still better than watching those teeth smile down. Even worse, Susan seemed to like the attention.

The elevator doors opened and a man with glasses walked in. He gave the Mom-Thing a polite nod and seemed to smile at Susan. It was the perfunctory smile that Delilah had seen a thousand times. The smile an adult gives at a kid and a mom because there's no other polite gesture that is ready to be taken off the shelf at a moments notice.

The doors closed and the elevator moved down again.

OOC: Delilah Rolls Wits + (Composure or Intelligence)

23:17, Today: Delilah Gray rolled 1 success using 4d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((5,8,2,4)).

Delilah scooted a little closer to her sister and let the man move to the buttons. This stranger noticed her mother, but didn't seem to see anything wrong. He wore glasses and she was reminded of the optometrist upstairs. An idea came to her. First, she closed her right eye and looked at the trio. Then she closed her closed her left eye and checked them out again with the soul rock wish eye.

At this point, Delilah became aware of something: The man didn't notice the smile on the Mom-Things' face. Susan didn't notice the smile. Even the people that were instinctively moving out of the Mom-Things' way in the hallway didn't.

No one seemed to notice.

No one except for Delilah. This realization was only slightly dampened by the sudden and unexpected opening of the elevator doors and the rush of hot, humid air that came inside.

Mom-Thing stepped outside with Susan and Delilah followed. They were in the bottom of the parking garage. But even through the slitted levels and hundreds of parked cars at the bottom of the hospital's garage, Delilah noticed something else:

Palm trees.

Delilah had never seen a palm tree in Minnesota. Never.

Delilah winked at her mom. It didn't matter how she squinted, the face didn't change. Nobody else saw what the circus had done. Not any of the strangers in the hospital. Not even her sister. She suddenly felt very alone. Mom and dad would always say that it was lonely at the top. And that was a good thing. It meant that you had no peers; that you were The Best. But this kind of lonely felt bad. Like the time her mom was late picking her up from practice. Or the time she was picked last at school for dodgeball even though the team captains could not pick anyone better.

Before she could wallow in this feeling, the doors opened and Delilah blinked her eyes against the hot air rushing towards her. For a terrible moment, she thought she was back at the forge. But it was bright here. And there were no pig monsters or slave kids. Cars and pavement and palm trees. All the regular Earth stuff. Well, palm trees were normal for some places on Earth, just not Bald Hill, Minnesota. Palm trees were for places like Florida or California or... wherever camels come from.

Delilah stared wide-eyed at the tall palm. Waves of heat rose from the vehicles. Even in the shade of the first floor, beads of sweat gathered at her hairline.

"Wh-where are we?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:52, Thu 14 Dec 2017.

Mom didn't answer. She just started to walk towards the white Dodge Dart that Delilah had associated with trips to friends houses and long drives on family vacations out of state.

Susan turned to Delilah "What?" She asked, clearly somewhat taken aback by Delilah's question, as if the answer was obvious.

They were all heading to the same old car. That hadn't changed. The last time Delilah saw Susan, she woke up in the hospital and found out the snow fight had been six months ago. Now she wasn't even in the same town.

"I'm serious! Where are we? This isn't Bald Hill. This isn't home. What hospital is this? Why did--? What--? UGH!"

Delilah was pulling at her hair again. There were so many questions and no good way to ask them. Big sisters were supposed to be in charge, not ask their little sisters for help. She reached for Susan's shoulder and tried to start over.

Three. Two. One.

"What happened to my eye? What made mom bring me to the doctor? I don't remember." Her voice trembled. She wasn't simply alone. She was alone and lost.

Susan opened the back door to the Dodge Dart. It let out that familiar squeak as she swung it opened and jumped inside. The Mom-Thing sat in the driver's seat and adjusted the mirror. Delilah could see the wide smile plastered on its face, the Mom-Thing's eyes shifted towards focusing on buckling up its seat-belt, leaving Delilah and Susan to engage in kid's talk in the back seat.

"I dunno." Susan said, suddenly lost. Her voice was strained and defensive, like subject being interrogated at a police station. All innocence and uncertainty amid a line of harsh questions. She looked in Delilah's eyes as if searching for the answer there.

"You said you couldn't see." Susan said. And then, perhaps more shocking. "What's Bald Hill?"

Delilah followed her sister to the Dart. When Susan opened the door, Delilah jostled her. Not really to help her in so much as to hurry her up. The motion was so ingrained in her that she didn't even notice doing it. She climbed into the backseat, but couldn't follow the routine. Susan's question left her gaping open mouthed. She forgot to buckle up.

"What's Bald Hill? Bald Hill, Minnesota! It's our town! We've lived there forever. They named that one big hill after some dead guy." She shook her head slowly and blinked rapidly.

"Everybody goes sledding and has snow fights there every winter. And there's all the lakes. And we go ice fishin'. Skating. Hockey? You're the best right wing in the third grade. I mean, you're not as fast as me, but you're real good."

Delilah waited for some flicker of recognition. "And... and then last summer? There was that catfish contest? And you woulda won, but Justin Trudeau tried to steal your fish. So you socked him in the mouth and while you were fightin', the fish got away. You remember, right?" Staring back into Susan's eyes, she had the sense that the girl wasn't playing at amnesia.

Does my Twilight Zone family even sound like they're from Minnesota anymore? Or do they "talk funny" now?

The car pulled out of the garage into the balmy sunlight. And as they did, Delilah noticed that both her sister had a funny way of talking. It was smoother and softer sounding and it lacked the charm and familiarity that Delilah was accustomed to.

Susan seemed to be surprised by how animated her sister was. But then, her face turned from confusion to a big smile.

"I get it!" She announced, loud enough to convey surprise, but soft enough to keep the conversation between the kids in the back. "You're playing a game!" She announced.

"Wait a minute." Doubt crept into her voice. "Justin Trudeau." She said and she ground her fist into her open palm.

"I pummeled him when we were collecting shells on Venice Beach last summer. Justin tried to steal my shells. So I punched him." Susan said, lost in the moment of the memory.

Delilah didn't recognize it right away, but her own voice had an odd lilt. Not foreign, bit it might as well be. Something about the way vowels stretched and statements curled into questions.

She listened to Susan's version of the story and sank back into the seat. Venice Beach? Seashells? The memories were sort of the same. Like a spot the difference puzzle.

"So...so you remember Josh and Stinky Roger? And John with the red hair, right? Hannah and Sammy?"

There was a look on Susan's face of confusion. Like a recently woken person trying to piece together strands of recent dream that were fading fast into the background of the mind. The increasing reality only leaving echoes.

"No." She said simply. "I remember Justin because I wanted to punch him. Because that's what you said. You said we gotta punch kids that hurt us. So that's what I did. And that's what Dad used to say."

Susan got quiet.

"Before he went away." She finished, the last words seeming to choke her up. But she recovered quickly.

"That's why you gotta take as much as you can in any game. Because you don't know how much longer any game is gonna last. That's why I can't let Justin do that again, and that's why I can't, I can't...I couldn't let him do that then."

"Because if he did it once, he'd do it again. And then other kids would do it. I've got a reputation to look after. Just like you said that one time you hit Penelope."

Delilah nodded slowly when Susan mentioned their father. Susan was very hurt by his absence, but Delilah couldn't tell if "went away" meant that he died or just left. Either way, it felt a bit like losing him all over again. In this bizzaro wish world, Dad was gone and there would be no way to ask why. She would be expected to already know. She glanced to the rear view mirror and hoped their mom hadn't heard this bit of the conversation. Then she turned to the window and might have shielded the sun from her eyes.

"Yeah." Delilah cleared her throat. "Yeah, because you can't let someone just walk all over you. Once a chump, always a chump."

She couldn't think of anyone named Penelope. Same as Susan blanked on the kids that died back on Bald Hill. Didn't matter. Penelope sounded like a chump anyway and there were more important memory gaps to fill. Delilah had to figure out her new life before her mother and sister caught on. And before Hogwash came back. He might be there as soon as she fell asleep.

"What else do we have to do today?" She watched the unfamilar street signs go by and tried to pay attention to the route.