entrancelogs | [ open ] no light, no light in your bright blue eyes

[ It is starting to itch. It is almost as if she can feel it rushing through her blood, her body wracking with aches and pains as if she has caught the flu. It is only a matter of time before one of them notices the sweat on her brow or the panic in her eyes. That doesn't stop her from obscuring the bite mark with her long sleeves, careful to make sure one didn't ride up and betray the festering mark on her forearm where the zombie's mouth had torn into her flesh.

She manages to wrap it in gauze when they aren't looking. Living in such close quarters with three other men, two of them who she cared about, who she loved in ways that were impossible to explain. Chloe wears her heart on her sleeve, though, ever the emotional thorn in everyone's side and it is only a matter of time before her fear explodes.

And only a matter of time before the people she loves become nothing but her victims, once the inevitable occurs. She doesn't know how to protect them, and she knows her only option is to leave. But she can't bear to, not until she can't control it anymore. Every last part of her that remains Chloe Decker will be dedicated to keeping them safe.

Instead, she busies herself making them sandwiches with the scant amount of food they have left. Wiping the sweat from her brow with her shirt sleeve, she tries to concentrate on building the sandwiches, as if it is somehow her final thread to her humanity. ]

[The end of this event could not come sooner.

Lucifer has been through plenty since his arrival in Wonderland, but this might be the worst bit he's been through yet, which is saying something considering he's visited not one hell, but two due to Wonderland's shenanigans.

Fighting demons was nothing compared to watching the dead walk, watching them attempt to tear into the flesh of the living, to see fallen allies become mindless creatures. On top of it all, he'd been nerfed like the others among them with supernatural powers and abilities, which made him a liability instead of an asset.

It was quite possibly one of the worst things he'd experienced in his entire existence.]

You look tired. [His voice lacks any mirth that it usually carries.] You should rest.

[Seth knew from talking to others that zombies were going to happen again. Likely sooner than later given how many worlds seem to have them, but at least they're not culebra. Which is his thought right until he saw how many of them there were.

Then he's just thankful for his own paranoia and the things he's stockpiled since his first event.

Now he's counting days. It's been three so far, and he's trying to remember how long the longest event he's been through was. Four days? Five? Certainly not longer than that. They can wait this out with what they have.

Just so long as Richie didn't get hungry and Chloe didn't keep rushing out to play hero. Damn cops!

So he's pacing the house, checking the windows and doors on circuit, watching out from the few small openings he has at the windows to see how bad things are outside. Pausing though at Lucifer's words as he comes through the room, glancing to the man and then to Chloe. Truth is he's been worrying so much, just glad to have them safe and in the house, that he hadn't notice how bad she looks. Until now.

Leaning against a door frame, pistol at his waist and one in his left hand.]

Chloe, we've got the house. Listen to the Prince of Darkness.

[No heat or rudeness to his words, just being Seth on the edge, and needling her as well. If he didn't, would he be okay?]

Stop mothering me.

[ She doesn't mean to snap at them, and she looks away, back down at the sandwiches after she says it. She knows they are just worried about her - hell, she hasn't looked in the mirror, but if she looks as bad as she feels, she'd be worried too. But their concern is grating and she clears her throat, trying to talk down the feeling that is trying to crawl up her throat. ]

Really. I'm fine.

[ Chloe slaps some meat on the sandwiches. They are out of just about everything else, but she has managed to stretch their resources with the kind of talent only capable of a single mother. ]

I have a kid. And I work full time. I'm used to running ragged. [ She looks up at them again, trying to offer a weak, pale smile. She has no intention of sleeping until whatever is happening to her happens. She finds herself hoping she can fight it off the next day or two until the event is supposed to end. If she can't, she doesn't intend on waking up from a nap as a zombie and killing her friends.

The thing is, she's not sure she's going to make it. The longer she's on her feet, the worse it gets. Lucifer and Seth aren't stupid; they'll figure it out, and she doesn't know what comes next. She doesn't want to think about it. ]

You guys need to eat.

You're not used to running ragged in the middle of a bloody zombie apocalypse, Detective.

[Her daughter might be a parasite, as all children were, but she was at least slightly self-sufficient. She didn't groan and try to eat her at every turn, nor did she bring a horde with her.

Trixie was also one little girl. They were three men.]

Technically I'm parroting the mother.

[It was a smart ass comment, probably not helping their case in the least. Watching Chloe, not liking that she's fighting them, but he shifts, pushing away from the doorway and coming to where she stands.]

How about this. We'll eat and you go lay down. No one doubts you can do all of this, but that doesn't mean you have to.

[He glances at Lucifer and then back to Chloe.]

Let the people that give a shit help you.

[ The little amount of domesticity is actually helping, although she knows neither of them would understand. It's the little things she realizes she misses; while for the most part, she loved being a mother, there were days when it was exhausting. Making meals, juggling getting Trixie to school, fighting between being good at her job and getting home in time to read her a bedtime story. Chloe wishes she hadn't resented it the times that she did. Making sure her boys ate at least made her feel useful, feel wanted.

Seth's tone both grates and sobers and she finishes the sandwiches, passing him a plate. ]

Eat. I appreciate your concern, I really do. But I'm fine right now.

[ Chloe lets out a long sigh and moves to the sink, instinctively pulling up her sleeves to wash her hands. It isn't until she feels the fabric snag against the gauze wrap on her arm that she realizes her mistake and she moves to pull down her sleeve quickly. She doesn't look at either of them, palming the sweat off of her forehead with her hand. ]

I'm just restless. I hate being cooped up in here.

[She was always useful and always wanted. Thinking otherwise was absolutely ridiculous.]

Detective, you're sweating.

[For awhile now, Lucifer simply attributed it to the weather, or to the fact that she was tired and moving around, but making sandwiches shouldn't be all that labor intensive.

He moves closer, reaching out to touch any area of exposed skin, his palm cupping her throat.]

You're not just sweating, you're burning up. Are you sick?

[Surely, it's just that. If it were something else, he would have noticed, she would have told them, something.]

[Anything that Seth is about to say stops then and there with Lucifer's words. Frowning, his brow furrowing as he leans against the counter, enough that he can try and see her face more closely.

Peering at her, his frown only growing more defined.]

Chloe, what the hell's going on?

[He really doesn't want to think about what it could be, what his brain is screaming but he can't accept. Sickness has to happen here just like everywhere else, right?]

[ Lucifer's palm feels like an ice pack on her skin and she can't help the way her eyes flutter shut at the relief. It's only then does she start to realize how hot she is, how her body feels like it's crawling out of her skin, and everything just aches.

Seth's words pull her out and she pushes Lucifer away, meeting Seth's gaze as her heart thumps in her chest. More than anything, she wishes she could tell them it was just a flu bug with bad timing. Back home, she had an immune system of steel, what with all of the bugs Trixie brought home from school every day. Unfortunately, that did nothing to help her current problem. ]

Please don't freak out.

[ That's more for her than for them. She's managed to keep her cool this far, accept that it was something that would happen and when it did, she would leave, take her gun and deal with it herself. Turning into something that would hurt her friends was unacceptable. If she had been smart about it, maybe she could have done this right and when the event was over, they would never have to know anything different.

She was lying to them. Maybe she wasn't always as truthful as Lucifer, but she tried to be. Lying to the people she loved never felt right. ]

I, uh... [ Chloe takes another step away from them and then pulls up her sleeve. Working her fingers under the medical tape, she peels away the gauze with a wince. It looks worse. Regardless of the amount of alcohol she had poured over the wound, the bite already looks infected. The skin is already peeling away around it, the veins under her skin now dark, twisted pathways up her arm. She can't even pull her sleeve up far enough to show how bad it is, and she knows it's starting to spread faster. She didn't have much time left. ]

I thought I could just wait it out. [ She shutters a sigh. Chloe can't look at either of them now. ] I have it handled, okay?

[Lucifer knows that something is terribly wrong the moment she pushes him away; there's not nearly enough spunk to it, enough life.

She was lying. Lucifer hated liars, though suddenly he very much wanted her to keep doing it until it was real, because this alternative simply wasn't acceptable. He feels like his entire chest has been torn open and scooped out, left in a pile on the floor.

Not her.

Under any other circumstance, he'd be parroting her words, giving her a hard time, attacking her with exasperation and a lack of understanding. No, he knows why she hid this from them, because she wasn't just sick, she was dying, and the entire thing was unthinkable.

She doesn't have it handled; this is the furthest thing from having it handled that he's ever seen.]

No.

[It's all he says because it's his answer to everything. There has to be a way to fix this. Surely the event will end at any moment. Surely she'll be spared.]

[Let it be a knife wound. A stray bullet from someone else. Let it be that some stray fucking dog that he hasn't seen in this world fucking bit Chloe. Anything but what he knows is coming as she begins to peel back that gauze and bear the wound for them.]

Motherfucking sonofabitch.

[Snarling the words, spinning away as he rubs at his mouth with one hand, trying to hold back a whole tirade of other words that probably were only going to make her pissed and bristly.

Except he's going to say those words as well.]

What the fucking hell, Chloe? Why the hell did you hide that?

[Except he knows why. He knows why she hid it and kept going. He knows because it's the same goddamn thing he would have done, hiding it from Richie and her if it had happened to him.

That wasn't going to stop him from snapping.]

When did it happen?

[He could guess though. When she ran off to play hero. Damn cops and their hero complexes.]

Edited 2017-07-18 19:33 (UTC)

[ The differences in their responses is heartbreaking; she expected the anger, especially from Lucifer. He hated when people lied to him but she was willing to do it to save him this. It's not as if she hasn't been lying to him the whole time she's been here, but this time she had done it to protect him. Seeing the look on his face is only made worse by Seth yelling at her. ]

This morning. [ She'd gone out to play hero and it had come back to bite her in the worst and most literal way. If she could do it over again, she would. She would have just stayed inside and not even thought about the people who needed help in order to spare the both of them.

But she can't do it all over again. And she's glad she can't. This or not, hiding away while people need help isn't who Chloe is, and both of them knew that. She feels sick, not just the physical symptoms but inside of her heart, the very heart that would soon stop beating and turn into some kind of monster. So she turns away, bracing her hands against the lip of the sink as she tries to gather herself, as she tries not to cry. ]

I'm sorry. [ As if that even begins to cover it. Soon, she'll be dead, since she never intended to become a zombie. They have enough ammunition to make sure that wouldn't be a problem. She would be dead and it would be Seth and Lucifer carrying the grief that she had felt when they lost Elena.

Chloe never wanted to hurt them like that, either of them. And it broke her to know she would be causing that kind of pain. Wonderland broke everyone, sooner or later. ]

I don't think I have a lot of time left so... Let's just eat lunch and then I'm going... [ She swallows, or at least tries to, but her mouth feels like it's filled with sand. ] I'm going to take care of it.

[He feels as if his head is swimming, yet he hears each word with a sickening sort of clarity. He remembers what it had been like to watch Damon walk off with Elena's body, pale and lifeless, and that had only been a fraction of an instant. Her death had been quick, he could tell by the wound.

That had been horrific enough.

It's the first time since his arrival that he's wondered if his Father were involved in all of this. It would be just like him to set him up to suffer.]

You most certainly are not. You can't possibly expect me to just eat a sandwich while you're...

[Dying. He can't say it. The word sticks in his throat like a tumor.]

Okay, first of all...

[Fucking hell. She was dying. First Kate, now this. What the fuck even?

Crossing to where the food supplies are on the counter, he picks up a bottle of bourbon and twists the cap off, drinking straight from the bottle. He hadn't been drinking since this started, but what was the point of avoiding that now?

He held out the bottle for either of them to take.]

Okay, now that that's taken care of, how are you feeling? And don't give me some shit about being fine. You've got a fever. Dizzy? Headache? And no, I don't know the damn symptoms, but its got to kill you for you to be... [Undead. He wasn't saying it.] So how are you?

[Seth has no idea what the hell he's doing but he has to do something! He can't just go: oh well, okay, nice knowing you, see you in a few days. That wasn't happening.]

[ Chloe's eyes are still locked on Lucifer's face as Seth stalks by and opens the bottle of bourbon. Once he holds it out towards them she takes it first, pressing her lips against the damp mouth of the bottle and closing her eyes as she lets the drink burn down her throat. Maybe if she gets drunk enough this will all be easier, maybe it won't hurt as much.

She lowers the bottle in her hand and holds it out for Lucifer to take, hoping that he will. ]

I feel sick. Like I have a bad case of the flu. [ There's no point in lying to them anymore. They know what's going to happen to her, and pretending she is fine is just going to make it worse. At least now, Lucifer isn't dragging her off to a hospital so she can wait around to die while the doctors stood around completely helpless.

Now it was her friends standing around, completely helpless. For a moment, Chloe thinks it would have been better for her to have not come back afterward. Maybe it would have been easier for them. ]

I feel like I'm crawling out of my skin. I can't really explain it. The symptoms don't matter, Seth. I got bit and we all know how that turns out. [ They'd seen it enough already. It was happening to so many people around them, so many familiar faces. Chloe wasn't anything special. That didn't stop her from trying to put on a brave face, though, as if death didn't scare the hell out of her regardless of whether or not she was going to come back. ]

It doesn't turn out to be anything if the bloody event would just end.

[There has never been a time where he has been more willing to destroy whoever he had to to get to the bottom of whatever was behind Wonderland and it's atrocities. Lucifer had encountered some sick and twisted individuals, but to push this sort of thing on them time and time again took quite the mind to create.

He might not think that harshly if Chloe weren't the one in the line of fire.]

There has to be a way to slow it down.

Edited 2017-07-31 15:43 (UTC)

[This is literally what Hell is. Those he cares about in danger, in deathly trouble, and having to watch it unfold. Fuck all the stories of lakes of fire and burning in pain for all eternity. People didn't realize what Hell truly was until they were facing it as he and Lucifer are now.]

We can't count on it ending. We can... try something. For one, stop so much movement. If it's a blood born virus like Georgia has talked about then you're only speeding the spread of it throughout your body.

[The idea probably wn't work but that doesn't stop Seth from reaching out for her and gesturing for the couch.]

Sit down. Let your heart rest, slow your blood pressure. Maybe we can wait this out.

[We. Plural. Nope, not abandoning you, Chloe, so don't even think it.]

[ Chloe can't stop the look that she shoots Seth, the one that tells him she thinks he's full of shit.

She doesn't know a damn thing about zombie viruses, and her best guess is that it's either the bite getting infected or the flu that will do her in. Something she could have fought off if her body wasn't preoccupied with the zombie virus, probably. Ella would be having a field day with this, and she wants to say as much to Lucifer, to lighten the mood maybe, until she remembers he doesn't have any idea who Ella is. ]

If by "waiting this out" you mean waiting for me to die then no, Seth, I'm not just going to sit around waiting for that.

[ There are only two choices. Wait to die and come back as a monster, or... Well, the other alternative. The one that she knew Seth and Lucifer were not going to accept.

She feels like she's cooking to death, knowing her fever is probably spiking through the roof, and she sways on her feet. ]

I don't have that much time. If it's gotten this bad since this morning... I probably only have a couple hours left, if that.

[ She grabs the back of a chair, slipping into it because she feels like her legs are going to give out underneath her. ]

We need to talk about the other options.

There are no other options, Detective.

[His voice is firm, bordering on madness. His eyes are wide and almost unfocused, flicking around the room as if the answer will materialize in front of him. He looks to Seth, then back to Chloe, lips pressing together into a hard line as he tries in vain to remain any semblance of calm.]

The event could end at any time. When that happens, surely we'll go back to the mansion and everything will be as we left it.

[Except he doesn't know that for sure. Even then, they could go back and she'd still be sick. Die. Turn into a shambling corpse. She'd have to experience the pain of a slow death as fever burned her alive from the inside.

Or they could do what she was likely insinuating; put her down like a dog, wait for her to come back whole the way Wonderland so often did.

He refuses to consider it even before it fully forms in his mind.]

Don't give me that look, Chloe! You don't know this any better than I do, and it might be true.

[He knows he's full of shit, but that doesn't change he will try and do all he can for her sake. Even considering where his brother was in that moment, though turning her isn't going to save or fix anything. Nor is he open to talking about that, especially not with someone else there. Even if that someone else is the devil himself.]

Well, first option is we are not leaving you, so don't even try and suggest that. Two...

[He stops then. They all know what the elephant in the room in. He looks at Lucifer, arching a brow.] Don't you have some kind of Death of the Apocolypse touch or something?

[There. He's put it out there. Even if in doing so he's likely insulted the Prince of Darkness.]

[ That's enough to make Chloe snort a laugh, and for a fleeting second she forgets what a horrible situation this is. Lucifer isn't going to find it funny, and he probably going to be pissed that she did. The truth of the matter was, he was just as helpless as any of them. He didn't have much left of the devil to his name anymore, and most of what little he did didn't work when she was around anyway.

Chloe was good at that. Ruining everything, that is. ]

Don't. [ She practically whispers to Seth, and she looks at him because she can't stomach looking at Lucifer. She can tell this is killing him and she just thinks about his desperation when she was poisoned, the panic he tried to hide from her. He'd saved her life so many times, it was only inevitable that she would end up in a situation he couldn't get her out of.

Chloe lets out a sigh, wincing as she slouches back into the chair. She's so hot and so tired. ]

[Desperation makes it all too easy to look for a place to release it, and he's always been very good at doing so in anger. The Devil has never particularly responded to his own pain well, and with nowhere to put that energy into fixing things and a smart mouthed 'friend' of the person closest to him shooting his mouth up turns into an ugly cocktail indeed.

His head turns toward Seth, his eyes burning red hot for a moment before they fade. It's a miracle he holds the rest of his frightening visage back, all things considered.]

Listen to her, friend, if you want to keep that tongue of yours.

[But then Chloe is wincing and sighing that laying back, and he's back in panic mode, his anger turning to fear and rising up into his throat as he moves over to her, the rest already forgotten.]

Now's not the time for a nap, Detective.

Edited 2017-08-01 01:11 (UTC)

Don't what? Don't try and fine a way for you to not be in pain and not live with attacking one of us?

[Because while he was dickish about it, that's all he wants for her.

He goes quiet a moment, staring at him and those bright eyes and it sends his blood cold and boiling at the same time, but dammit he wasn't backing down.

He's faced the undead. He's believed Lucifer the entire time because he knows there's more things between Heaven and Earth. He's scared shitless, and not sure if its more because of Lucifer or what is happening for Chloe.

The true answer is yes. Yes to all of the above.]

And I've been the one making your case to her, Lucifer, so you don't have to prove to me you're the Big Bad. I know you are! I never doubted that. I just... I don't want to have to say what I'm going to have to say.

I want this to be easier for her!

[Moving away though, pacing, trying to find the words he's looking for.]

I... I can do this. I'm a Gecko Brother. I can do this.

[ She watches them exchange words, watches Lucifer flash his eyes in anger and Seth pace back and forth. It's both their own way of coping, or maybe their own way of skirting insanity. And Chloe knows that all of the suffering happening before her is her fault and hers alone.

Now isn't the time for Lucifer to play devil and she's about to tell him as much, nearly admonishing him for what he did until he's moving closer to it and she doesn't have the heart to say anything. ]

He did make a case for you. [ She manages to look at Lucifer, her lips pulling into a smile. Little did he know that Seth had been in his court for a lot of reasons, most of them things he didn't even know about. The last thing she wanted to do was see them fight over her.

She pushes herself up in the seat, barely, her arms and legs burning with fever and fatigue. ]

You're not doing anything, Seth. I'm going to do it. [ She can't ask them to. She'll have to find the strength to do it herself, somehow. ] Lucifer, once I'm... [ She shutters a sigh. ] Once I'm gone, you shouldn't be affected by me anymore, right? So I need you to make sure Seth and Richie get through this. [ He'll be immortal again. He will be safe and so will Seth. At least she knows that much. ]

[ open ] no light, no light in your bright blue eyes

Chloe Decker + Lucifer Morningstar + Seth Gecko | Day 3

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