Elsewhere.
There is a very distinct feeling when a gun is pressed to the back of your head, and it is one William Holmes had never experienced before. The only real times he’d experienced much of anything with firearms were in the past few years and the times he’d been a teenager and someone had decided that it made no goddamned sense that a young man from the south had no clue how to do something with a weapon. His father had given up after some time, but at least taught him the basics of gun safety.
Then again, he didn’t cover what to do when there was a gun to your head and there was literally nothing you could do about it.
His hysterical panic over being trapped- the thing that had impeded him from being able to continue with rational anything- had led to this moment. His mind raced, flooded thought after thought with the overwhelming knowledge that, like most things, he’d brought this on himself. Like most things, he deserved this and the matter had to be taken out of William’s hands with-
It’s hard to breathe when someone has a knee in your back, when your arm is wrenched up your spine and the pain was enough to make you malleable. It’s hard to breathe when the fear of knowing you’re about to die sets in and he isn’t afraid of the result and he isn’t afraid of the fact that it will hurt but he is afraid.
-------
Earthbound. (Kiara & Ned)
His breathing had been easy, and the fact that it became less easy during the conversation between Ned and Kiara had nothing to do with the nature of said conversation. It grew shallow in the way breath becomes when something is keeping your lungs from expanding by its presence. Forced. Desperate.
--------
Elsewhere.
It was expected that William would thrash, but Mike did his job and did it damned well. The Hermetic isn’t strong- not physically anyway. Nobody’s ever accused him of being particularly muscled and the man with the gun to his head was bigger in both height and weight. All his studying, all his magickal knowledge and his practice and the ways he’d grown didn’t matter. He had no control here. (Did you ever?)
William still had no idea that he didn’t write the rules here, that the rules of the game aren’t written in a way where he can break even- all he’d done was hasten the inevitable. The part of him that bleeds defiance and shadows and secrets wails, screams for him to Get. Up.
“I-I-I’m sorry-” eyes clenched tight, please don’t do this.
------
Earthbound (Kiara & Ned)
There is no change in his facial expression, but his eyelashes are damp and soon enough Kiara’s lap may be, too. His breathing stops.
----
Elsewhere.
There is no bang, but his body takes the force anyway. He feels the impact, the splatter, everything he expected it to be, but he is still alive. William forced a harsh breath, cheeks still damp and body trembling. There is still a cot underneath his body- uncomfortable but better than being strapped to a chair (No, not better. Different.). He doesn’t want to open his eyes yet, but he does anyway.
The scenery is different now. It was no longer that beautiful house with the immovable windows and doors. No, it was a much more familiar house. One with a dagger on the cold floor (curved blade, half “rusted”, a metal eye where the handle met the blade). One with poor lighting and offerings left in front of a wall. There were a couple wooden chairs in the room.
The wall had something scrawled on it in big, bold, bright rusted redness but its meaning (like all written things) was completely lost on William.
“Oh, shit,” he whispered. He climbed off the cot and proceeded to wedge himself into the corner where the bed did not occupy. He pulled his knees up and waited for his faculties to come back to him before he could decide what to do next and how to process what did- or did not- happen.
-----
Earthbound (Kiara & Ned)
He exhales after several beats of not breathing, though it reverts to something shallow and uncomfortable. His body is tense.
There is a very distinct feeling when a gun is pressed to the back of your head, and it is one William Holmes had never experienced before. The only real times he’d experienced much of anything with firearms were in the past few years and the times he’d been a teenager and someone had decided that it made no goddamned sense that a young man from the south had no clue how to do something with a weapon. His father had given up after some time, but at least taught him the basics of gun safety.
Then again, he didn’t cover what to do when there was a gun to your head and there was literally nothing you could do about it.
His hysterical panic over being trapped- the thing that had impeded him from being able to continue with rational anything- had led to this moment. His mind raced, flooded thought after thought with the overwhelming knowledge that, like most things, he’d brought this on himself. Like most things, he deserved this and the matter had to be taken out of William’s hands with-
It’s hard to breathe when someone has a knee in your back, when your arm is wrenched up your spine and the pain was enough to make you malleable. It’s hard to breathe when the fear of knowing you’re about to die sets in and he isn’t afraid of the result and he isn’t afraid of the fact that it will hurt but he is afraid.
-------
Earthbound. (Kiara & Ned)
His breathing had been easy, and the fact that it became less easy during the conversation between Ned and Kiara had nothing to do with the nature of said conversation. It grew shallow in the way breath becomes when something is keeping your lungs from expanding by its presence. Forced. Desperate.
--------
Elsewhere.
It was expected that William would thrash, but Mike did his job and did it damned well. The Hermetic isn’t strong- not physically anyway. Nobody’s ever accused him of being particularly muscled and the man with the gun to his head was bigger in both height and weight. All his studying, all his magickal knowledge and his practice and the ways he’d grown didn’t matter. He had no control here. (Did you ever?)
William still had no idea that he didn’t write the rules here, that the rules of the game aren’t written in a way where he can break even- all he’d done was hasten the inevitable. The part of him that bleeds defiance and shadows and secrets wails, screams for him to Get. Up.
“I-I-I’m sorry-” eyes clenched tight, please don’t do this.
------
Earthbound (Kiara & Ned)
There is no change in his facial expression, but his eyelashes are damp and soon enough Kiara’s lap may be, too. His breathing stops.
----
Elsewhere.
There is no bang, but his body takes the force anyway. He feels the impact, the splatter, everything he expected it to be, but he is still alive. William forced a harsh breath, cheeks still damp and body trembling. There is still a cot underneath his body- uncomfortable but better than being strapped to a chair (No, not better. Different.). He doesn’t want to open his eyes yet, but he does anyway.
The scenery is different now. It was no longer that beautiful house with the immovable windows and doors. No, it was a much more familiar house. One with a dagger on the cold floor (curved blade, half “rusted”, a metal eye where the handle met the blade). One with poor lighting and offerings left in front of a wall. There were a couple wooden chairs in the room.
The wall had something scrawled on it in big, bold, bright rusted redness but its meaning (like all written things) was completely lost on William.
“Oh, shit,” he whispered. He climbed off the cot and proceeded to wedge himself into the corner where the bed did not occupy. He pulled his knees up and waited for his faculties to come back to him before he could decide what to do next and how to process what did- or did not- happen.
-----
Earthbound (Kiara & Ned)
He exhales after several beats of not breathing, though it reverts to something shallow and uncomfortable. His body is tense.