twenty. text. backdated to monday.

[goryteller]

In the 1940s, rumor has it that a prisoner on the island of Alcatraz was killed by a ghost.

Back in those days (unlike these days), they had isolation chambers called hole cells where the prisoners were kept in near darkness for weeks on end. "Bang bang bang," one prisoner cried and pounded. "Someone's trying to murder me in here." But the guards thought he was hallucinating, as those being tortured with solitude tended to, and so they did nothing. When the prisoner stopped screaming, they were quite content until they opened the cell and found that he was dead. He had markings on his neck. Strangulation. No one else was in the cell.

Ghost stories have a sort of charm, don't they? Whether or not you believe them, I mean. I don't generally because we didn't have imports back then and because the living can be fucking horrible enough. I'm certain one of the guards killed him and thought they had a clever way of covering it up. Which they did.

I wonder what the prisoner's crime was. But I don't even have a name.

I know I would take death as a legacy if nothing else.

Comments

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

Why are you so invested?

[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

I'm not invested. It was just a question.

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

Is it just a question? We're not for your perusal, you know.

[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

She hasn't, then. Okay.

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

She will.

[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

I don't think so.

[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

Your bias is noted.

[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

I just hope she doesn't get kidnapped or anything because of you. Held hostage, tortured, whatever.

You'd feel really terrible if that happened, right? Real bad.

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[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

What are you doing?

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[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

Pointing out the inevitable. With him around, it's bound to happen.

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[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

This is why you're supposed to infiltrate his schemes.

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[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

I haven't gotten around to it, okay?

I don't even know why I should infiltrate rather than just join him.

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[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

Aside from screwing me over, what are the benefits? You know, before he inevitably tries to kill you.

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[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

Being able to actually worth with someone other than fuckups like Deadshot to bring down the symbol I want to bring down?

You should know this.

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[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

Hush is psychopathic and paranoid, inevitably the cause of his own failure.

You should know this.

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[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

But I can get so much farther with him.

I can ditch him at an early point, I just need a little boost.

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[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

Can you? You don't think he'll be playing you, every step of the way? Or, at least, attempting to?

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[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

I do, but at least one of his goals aligns with mine.

I'd be willing to do anything, suffer through anything to see one more moment of weakness in him. I just know it'd be worth it.

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[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

You're obsessed.

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[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

We were going to kill Batgirl and Red Robin, too.

We were so close.

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[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

I wonder, really -- what would you have, if you didn't have this?

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[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

What do you mean, "this?" What's "this?"

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[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

This hate. This ideal to despise, this focus, this goal. This scapegoat -- because that's really what he is, isn't it? Your scapegoat.

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[nine-tries.livejournal.com]

He's not my scapegoat. But I don't know.

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[enigmaestro.livejournal.com]

You give me such tingles, Thomas.