Chapter 1: þæt forhenedde
Chapter Text
another day, another round.
it just repeated, and repeated, and repeated.
fix generators.
get chased by a maniac.
escape the maniac.
or, if you don’t escape the maniac, get stabbed or clobbered or eaten or… something.
but it was always the same, and no matter if you escaped or died, you’d always wake up right where you were before—in a cabin, with your roommate. the repetition killed her.
the majority of crystal’s hope of escaping the mist had faded a long time ago. or was it that long, really? ugh, just thinking about it made her head hurt.
so, she didn’t.
crystal was working on fixing a generator (or, as the survivors call them, gens) in a sort of office building—crystal thought it was called Emperor Finance, but she wouldn’t bet on it—with mamo, who used to be a softball player. she’d talked to her a few times, and she seemed nice enough, but she tended to stick with her other friends—riley, and a girl named dakota who REALLY liked pink.
neither mamo nor crystal bothered to say anything to each other while working on the gen, other than mamo’s slightly nervous “sorry” after accidentally messing up a “skillcheck”, as they called them.
crystal suddenly felt her heartbeat increase rapidly before the ghost, kiara’s counterpart—crystal still had a bit of a hard time wrapping her head around that one—phased up right behind mamo.
crystal gasped and grabbed mamo’s hand, dragging her away and barely leaving mamo time to grab her bat with a confused yelp.
”Ghost!” crystal informed as they jogged down a dark hallway, the ghost chasing after them with a wicked smile.
mamo grunted, letting go of crystal’s hand and gripping her softball bat tightly before swinging it at the ghost, stunning her and knocking her backwards a few feet.
crystal didn’t really understand the logic behind being able to hit a non-solid ghost with a very solid bat, but, hey, who is she to argue about something that gives them a chance at living?
(despite herself, crystal kept hoping that maybe, just maybe, one of these escapes would free them from the mist for good. just.. maybe…)
the blood-soaked ghost let out a laugh as mamo’s bat came into contact with her stomach.
“HAH… isn’t it so funny that he disappeared and then you came along?” she questioned in her psychotically-upbeat tone, eyes locking onto mamo’s.
“w-what are you talking about?!”
“no time for that!” crystal yelled as she grabbed mamo’s wrist and dragged down the hall and into the parking lot, the ghost seemingly leaving them alone.
crystal died that round—shooting pain flaring through her torso before she blacked out and woke up back in her cabin, which she shared with millicent, who was relatively new to the mist. she seemed to be from the 1900s, which crystal couldn’t deny she found interesting.
she wasn’t in the cabin when crystal sat up, though, wincing at the remains of her wounds—no marks were ever left, but that didn’t stop the mist from letting the pain simmer for a day or so—spotting millie’s recorder laid on the nightstand near her bed.
not out of the ordinary, as millicent hadn’t been scheduled for that round.
crystal looked up as she heard the speakers in the cabin click on, a static-y Ghost’s voice announcing the results of the round.
”SURVIVOR WIN! oh, joy…
KILLER OF THE ROUND: THE GHOST
SURVIVORS: ELIJAH SONGAA, MAMO IKAIKA, JUN INAGAKI, RYDER PARIKH, AND GAVIN PRESCOTT!
LOSERS: CALLUM GALLAGHER, CRYSTAL KAUR, AND DAE-JUNG PAK!
our next round is scheduled for 17:30 TOMORROW!
the survivors of THAT ROUND will BE EMERY RIVERA, BECCA PRESCOTT, IRIS DALEY, KELVIN MARS, SERENA WOLFE, TABITHA HARRIS, ARLO FLORES, and DANTE FONTANA-ROSA!
GOOD LUCK, IDIOTS!”
crystal sighed as the speakers clicked off, laying back down in her bed.
her mind drifted to what the ghost had said to mamo—something about him disappearing, whoever he was, and then mamo coming.
whatever. crystal was tired.
she fell asleep within a few minutes.
Chapter 2: Þa worda of an stalka, wilt þu hiora truwian?
Summary:
something taliyah says sticks with crystal.
Notes:
chapter title translation: the words from a stalker, would you consider them trustworthy?
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
another day, another round.
it’d been a few days since crystal’s last round. she hadn’t thought about the ghost’s words to mamo at all, mostly brushing it off as her trying to distract them and forgetting it.
and now, here she was, watching the Stalker chase down arlo. they were close to dakota, who’d been downed. crystal was waiting for them to get farther away so she could safely helo dakota, and maybe give her her quartz, since she’d yet to give it out-
“I know you remember… blonde hair, blue eyes…”
her thoughts were interrupted by taliyah’s words, directed at arlo.
“What are you talking about-?” arlo questioned, calmer than crystal would be as he jumped over a vault.
huh.
that was weird.
there were multiple blondes in the mist, but why wouldn’t arlo remember any of them?
crystal brushed it off and stood up, sprinting over to dakota and fixing her wounds.
“yay, thanks!” dakota said.
dakota was blonde. but she had green eyes, so it couldn’t have been her stalker was talking about.
“Yeah, no problem.”
crystal handed dakota her quartz before they split up, each going their own way to take a gen.
[-]
crystal escaped that round, along with makoto, anais, dakota, arlo, and amari.
saadiya and diego weren’t as lucky, but crystal knew they’d be fine.
crystal’s thoughts kept drifting back to what stalker had said while chasing arlo.
the only blondes with blue eyes were ted and kelvin, though crystal couldn’t think of a reason arlo wouldn’t remember them.
crystal shook her head, standing up and heading to the mess hall—a cafeteria-like place the mist gave so they had food to eat during breakfast and dinner. the food wasn’t that good—infact, most of it was slightly expired. but, hey, it was something.
crystal entered the hall, where most of the survivors were already.
she looked around with a sigh before grabbing some food—an overripe apple, a bowl of soggy/watery rice mixed with oatmeal, a small bowl of tough ham (?), and some weird tasting water.
she chose to sit at a table where mamo, dakota, yan, eiji, nathan, and jun were sitting.
dakota, mamo, and eiji waved, though the others were too absorbed in their own conversation to notice crystal’s presence.
she waved back, sitting next to dakota—though not too close. she liked to keep her space.
“hey! thanks for saving me last round!” dakota thanked her as she sat down.
“oh! yeah, don’t worry about it.” crystal gave her a smile.
crystal spaced out slightly as dakota and mamo continued their conversation, absentmindedly eating her food.
“yeah, arlo said something kinda weird last round i was in, too.”
crystal looked up at the words mamo spoke.
“what’d he say?” she questioned, suddenly interested in the conversation.
both dakota and mamo looked at her.
“oh, he said i reminded him of someone. it was weird though, ‘cause he acted like he didn’t know who i reminded him of,” mamo replied absentmindedly.
“that IS weird,” dakota commented, swirling her spoon in her rice-oatmeal mix that she acted like she really didn’t want to eat.
crystal looked down.
that was weird.
maybe the blue eyed-blonde arlo was supposed to remember was the person mamo reminded him of? but why wouldn’t arlo remember them? and was this related to what ghost said to mamo?
crystal sighed, shoving a spoonful of soggy rice into her mouth.
Notes:
idk i’m bad at ending chapters sorry 3
TalaPala on Chapter 1 Sat 04 Jan 2025 02:09PM UTC
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