"Welcome back, Peter." (Open)

[JAMIE SHOEMAKER]

Jamie had felt like he was stepping back into his past when he walked through the dank dark place called the Alleyway. There were many people he knew there from a year ago, drinking and shouting at whoever was fighting. Jamie even as Peter never enjoyed seeing two guys getting the shit kicked out of them. He usually ordered the strongest alcohol they had and made himself numb to his surroundings. Jamie wanted to be aware this time though. He needed to stay himself for the sake of staying Jamie. He had too many friends on the good side waiting for him to come back and see them.

Jamie sat up on the bar stool and winced when the guy finally got knocked out. He wouldn’t want to be that guy. Jamie had been there only a few weeks ago. Walking out of the ring was the one and only leader. He smiled at Jamie.

“Look who decided to show up! To be honest Shoemaker, I thought you’d chicken out. I’m glad I didn’t have to kill you.” His smile was crooked and it was so obvious that he was drunk out of his mind. His words were slurred and his whole body swayed. Jamie held an expressionless face. He didn’t want to show the fear that was bubbling up inside of him.

“As for your reintroduction, I want you in the ring.”

Jamie’s heart threatened to pop out of his chest at the words. The people in the ring were fighting for money. They had no rules and usually wanted the money to pay for drugs. He’d rather have a gun pointed as his head then let a drug-crazed muscle man go after him. But he also didn’t want to disappoint his friends. Jamie, after a minute of hesitation got up and walked towards the circle. He nudged is way into the middle and prayed that whoever challenge him was about his size.

“Alright! Now who wants to challenge Peter? I’m gonna put five hundred on it. Anyone?”

Jamie felt his stomach tie itself in knots as he waited for a person to step up.

[XERXES HARRISBURG]

Piglet was not normally one to frequent such menial human gatherings as fight clubs, but he'd conceded that this particular establishment was one that warranted a visit.

"I shall take it from here." He nodded to the minions who flanked him on either side as he approached the door. "Return to Astor Plaza. Speak to no one until I have returned with further instructions." The minions vanished in two puffs of rancid smoke as Piglet entered the fight club.

The presence of Reincarnates assaulted his senses the instant he crossed the threshold. They were here. Dozens of them. The Characters, the spirits, the restless spirits, stirring from the depths of their stories. Piglet heard their cries of torment, neglected within apathetic hosts, smelled their fear in this unfamiliar world, saw their auras pulsing from the bodies of those they had chosen to inhabit. Piglet maneuvered his host's body expertly through the crowds of bodies, wrinkling his nose at the scent of human flesh.

His victim must be here. His spies had done an excellent job.

Come out, come out, wherever you are, he thought, scanning the auras before him through the steam, heat, and particles of sweat clogging the air ofthe cavernous room. Ready or not here I come, little boy.

And then, suddenly, he saw him. The boy he'd been tailing for days, hunting across this godforsaken city. Piglet grinned slyly, slinking to the edge of the ring. Yes. Piglet had his prey at last, cornered, helpless, with nowhere to run. Running a hand through his host's hair, Piglet awaited his opportunity.

It came almost instantly.

"Now who wants to challenge Peter? I'm gonna put five hundred on it. Anyone?"

Perfect. "I will." Piglet stepped smoothly into the ring, making eye contact for the first time with one of the most potent heroes in literary canon. "Hello, Pinnochio."

The lights in the club flickered and died, and Piglet smiled as the a deafening clap of thunder echoed across the walls of the chamber. Piglet's voice was magnified as if through a megaphone, inflating to fill the room. "So. Let's get this fight under way, shall we?" He cracked his knuckles expectantly.

[JAMIE SHOEMAKER]

"I will."

Peter’s eyes instantly search the crowd to find his opponent. His muscles tensed up as the man stepped out of the crowd. He was a scrawny kid with death in his eyes and wild hair that said he wasn’t afraid to stand out. Peter never made the mistake of underestimating his enemies. He, being a short but strong individual himself. Though he wasn’t so strong anymore.

"Hello, Pinnochio."

“That’s a new one,” Peter said giving the man a strange look. Those eyes set Peter on edge. Who was Pinocchio again? The puppet dude? Was this kid trying to say he’d string him up and make him dance or something? Peter made his glare deadly and cracked his knuckles. No doubt this kid was packing a weapon. Peter would just have to be too quick for him to use it.

"So. Let's get this fight under way, shall we?"

“Ladies first,” the boss said laying the five hundred in the center of the ring. He walked away and gave Peter a look that made him know that if he didn’t win, there would be consequences. Rage of Jamie’s filled Peter as he face his opponent. He took the first punch right in the guy’s stomach. Peter wasn’t playing games today. He was pissed at the world and he wanted this kid to know it.

[XERXES HARRISBURG]

Piglet stood expectantly in the ring, waiting. He could feel every eye in the Club on him, the reincarnates stirring within themselves, glaring at him through the centuries and literary dimensions and walls of human flesh separating them all. Piglet felt the burden of a physical form pressing in on all sides of this ridiculous fleshy prison known as a body that all reincarnates were forced to take on when they came to this cursed Earth. Concepts did not exist here. And Piglet, a character, an abstract concept, was feeling the pains of being bound to a concrete, physical form.

He would have to return to the Hundred Acre Wood tonight. The pain would overtake him if he lingered here much longer.

“That’s a new one.”

Pinnochio appeared genuinely confused. This threw Piglet for an instant, but he soon regained his suavity. ”I applaud your prowess as an actor, child,” Piglet sneered, clapping mockingly. ”But the time for playing make-believe is long gone. Oh, don’t think you can hide from me in that pathetic excuse for a human. Come out, puppet boy! Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

He felt Pinnochio’s fist in his gut and inhaled sharply: for a second, the human pain was overwhelming. Then it subsided quickly as the human absorbed the sensation. Oh. This little puppet boy was going to fight him, was he? Well then. Let the game begin.

With a subtle gesture of the fingers, every light in the club flickered out. Piglet's eyes glowed, two piercing points of pink light in the pitch darkness. Unleashing a hideous and inhuman cackle, Piglet reached forward and wrenched the boy's wrist around and around in a sickening twist. Piglet stood before his prey in blazing, terrifying glory, sending a wild kick towards Pinnochio's left thigh.

[JAMIE SHOEMAKER]

”I applaud your prowess as an actor, child,” Piglet sneered, clapping mockingly. ”But the time for playing make-believe is long gone. Oh, don’t think you can hide from me in that pathetic excuse for a human. Come out, puppet boy! Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

Okay now Peter was getting pissed. All he wanted was to beat the shit out of this dude and get his money so that Boss would be pleased and he could get on with his miserable life. But instead this jerk had resorted to name calling. What was his deal? Was he trying to make Peter lose his focus? That was a dumb ass way to do it. The anger just fueled the strength of his punch.

The guy stumbled back but recovered quickly. Peter went set up for another swing at the kid’s jaw but something really trippy happened. The lights just instantly went off. Well, except for the dude’s eyes. They glowed pink. Peter blinked a few times and wonder what was in the air. Did they pump some hallucinant into the air just to fuck with people? The guy let out a cackle that made the hair on the back of Peter’s neck stand up.

“What the fuck?” Peter mumbled. A second later he found himself on the ground holding his leg. He took a deep breath and stood back up. The kid was wanting to fight in the dark? Jamie couldn’t see a damn thing but his opponent’s eyes. He aimed for those hoping to keep the fight going. Boss wasn’t visible in the pitch black room. Peter could take off as soon as the kid was on the floor again. Peter remembered the side of him the door was and aimed a kick. He missed pretty badly with being able to see. He cursed under his breath. This was not going to end well.

[XERXES HARRISBURG]

A streak of lightning cracked the blackness before them. This Pinnochio boy was good, that much was certain. Very, very good. He seemed to have the onlookers fooled: Piglet was well aware of the grumblings and puzzled nudgings throughout the crowd of vile humans. Crude little works of creation they were, that was absolutely certain. He’d certainly been keeping up this façade long enough to lure the humans around him into a false sense of security. Piglet chuckled quietly to himself. What feisty things heroes were.

“What the fuck?”

”Language, language, puppet boy,” Piglet sneered, his eyes searing with pink flames. ”Where’s your Gepetto now, pine head? Where’s your Jiminy Cricket? Can’t hide behind your little puppet friends now, can you?” Another ripple of pink lightning illuminated the room for a brief instant, zapping the repugnant hero into convulsions. Piglet cackled again, a hideous chortle that resounded throughout the hall.

The boy’s foot shot towards his eyes. Piglet caught it expertly, twisting the little puppet boy’s leg and grinned at the satisfying crack. He wrinkled his nose at the rancid stench of human flesh, human bones, human brains, human emotions, petty human affairs and filthy human entrails, but he held his composure as he prepared to dig in for the final kill. Piglet’s cackle grew louder and louder until it enveloped the ears of every listener. Lightning continued to flash around him as Piglet’s fingers closed around Pinnochio’s neck.

[JAMIE SHOEMAKER]

Peter couldn’t handle this much psycho. Everything the crazy kid said made no sense to him but still struck a chord. And not like a good chord. One of those minor chords that they play when the good guy was in some deep shit. But was Peter really the good guy? It was too late to think about that now. He had to fight to make it through. The guy didn’t seem to be the type to stop when Peter passed out.

A horrifying shock of electricity coursed through his body. Nothing had been more painful in his entire life. He could feel his body moving but he wasn’t wanting it to. His head smacked again the concrete floor. As stars clouded his vision he found he’d stopped moving and scurried to get back up. He attempted to slam his foot into the kid’s face but only found it mangled by the time he made impact. A scream almost louder than the maniac’s cackles burst through Peter’s lips. It hadn’t hurt as much as the shock but the pain was just starting. His scream was cut off by choking hands around his neck.

The stars appeared again and everything around him began to dull. He heard a voice and listened to it.

“Jamie, it’s me. You can’t die! Think about J! Think about her. If you died, oh she would be so sad!” the voice sounded familiar. He’d heard it in a movie before. He couldn’t place it but his thoughts were slowing drastically. He saw a blur of pink and spikey hair. His hands grabbed the hair and pulled. That distracted the kid enough for Jamie to put his fist straight into the kid’s jaw. Jamie gasped for air as the hands loosen their grip. In a second he was crawling towards the door. The voice in his head urged him on. He felt his mind leaving him and the voice faded.

~-~
Pinocchio wiped a tear from his cheek and sighed. He wasn’t sure if his host was going to make it but he needed to get out of this bad place. He took over Jamie’s body and had him limp to the nearest coffee shop. The smell of that bitter stuff made Pinocchio wrinkle his nose but he didn’t see Jamie do the same. He was like a zombie. This really worried Pinocchio. He knew Jamie was alive but something was making him not able to move some. Would Jiminy know? There was that little rectangle thing with words on it that Jamie always used to talk to J. Maybe Pinocchio could try it. He lifted Jamie’s left arm but it was no good. His right arm seemed to be working well.

After finding J’s picture, Pinocchio pressed a button and the box made a funny noise. Pinocchio felt a stirring in Jamie’s mind and let him take back over. He wasn’t exactly sure how the whole talking thing worked.
~-~

Jamie lifted his throbbed head up slowly and took in his surroundings. It was a cafe. He’d gone to it before a long time ago. Maybe he was in Heaven or something. Like in Harry Potter. When he died, he went to that train station with Platform 9 3/4. But he was fairly certain in Heaven, you didn’t hurt and he hurt everywhere.

“Hello? Jamie?”

Jamie looked back down again to see his phone. On the screen was J’s face and number. Had he called her?

“Jamie? Are you there?”

“J.” he said testing out his voice. It sounded weird to him. He could barely move his face really. “J, I’m in da coffee shop nee da awweway. Can you come ged meh?” he managed to get out. He wondered really how he had even managed to get over here. It made no sense to him how his unconscious body moved by itself. He was certain that someone must have taken him here. But who?

“Hi Jamie!”

A boy appeared in front of him in a yellow feathered hat and red overalls. He sat on the table and waved at Jamie in a childish fashion. It took a second for Jamie to realized, “Hole shid Pinocchio!” The phone dropped from his hands and clattered to the floor. The battery popped out but Jamie could only gawk at the sight before him.

[JEMISSA CROCKET]

Something was wrong.

Jemissa knew it. Jiminy knew it. It was a sight to see for anyone who really could, her and her cricket companion pacing back and forth across the room and checking the phone every few laps in case anyone had called or texted. Now, just what was wrong, neither of them knew for sure, but it had to do with Jamie. IT was that part of Jemissa that was reserved for Jamie, the part that felt every emotion it needed to feel around him. The rest was for covering it up and dealing with it, but now the smaller part was considerably stronger. What was that saying? it was a gut feeling. Yeah, ew. But whatever.

Where was Jamie? Somewhere bad, that part of her said. No, he couldn't be. He wouldn't go anywhere he would get hurt, right? Well, he had been relapsing into that horrible life he had told her about before. Or had he really told her? She couldn't remember if he had said the actual words or if he hinted to it and she had filled in the pieces.

All of the sudden, Jiminy stopped pacing. Barely a second later, the phone rang. One second more and Jemissa had answered it, knowing who it was without looking at the screen.

“Hello? Jamie?” Her voice was a mixture of deep anxiety and sweet relief that he had called her. Though after a few minutes of silence, she spoke again with more urgency. “Jamie? Are you there?”

“J.”

Oh thank God he was there! But his voice sounded funny. Why did his voice sound funny?

“J, I’m in da coffee shop nee da awweway. Can you come ged meh?”

"Of course. I'll be right ther-" Part of the last syllable was cut off as she figured out what he actually said. The alleyway. Which alleyway? Wait, no, he had said the alleyway, which meant it had to be specific, which meant...

The Alleyway.

All the relief washed away, leaving her with nothing but negative feelings. She had heard about that place when she lived on the streets and knew where it was, but never had the courage to go inside. One: she didn't fight unles it was for a legitimate reason. Two: no one, not even Jemissa herself, could deny that her fighting skills were not up to par at all. One time, she had tried to punch someone, but swung too hard and fell, leaving herself with a bloody nose instead. Still, she wasn't sure of Jamie's fighting skills, though the fact that he sounded like that when near a fight club made her heartbeat quicken.

Wait, what was that? She could have sworn she heard something from the other end of the li-
“Hole shid Pinocchio!”

Jemissa and Jiminy did not hear Jamie's phone clatter to the ground, because hers had slipped out of her own hand. It was all a blur as she ran outside. No, she didn't have a car. Subway station was too far away. Not a taxi, they didn't hail for her...

She scanned the Barrie parking lot for an old-looking car. There, there was one. A red one. Probably didn't have any alarms on it, and easy to hotwire (it didn't, in fact. It's owner, Ryan, had fallen asleep while studying for an exam in his law class). Yeah, some skills she picked up. No, she wouldn't do it normally, but this was Jamie and she couldn't take anymore of Jiminy's rushing.

It was easy for her to break in and get to the wires. Soon she was speeding towards the docks, luckily not hitting any red lights. At least, any red lights she noticed. Her mind was on autopilot at the moment, so anything else other than getting to Jamie Shoemaker as quickly as possible were pretty much blocked out. When she skid to a halt parked in front of the coffee shop, it felt like that had been the first breath she took since leaving her dorm.

Scratch that, that was when she walked into the coffee shop and saw Jamie. At first, it just looked like regular Jamie, but when her mind decided to accept it, she noticed the bruises and cuts and everything. Attempting to run, she pretty much slid on over to the booth and had to catch the table in order to stop. She had gotten dressed that day to do something, but Jemissa never put on her shoes until leaving, and she was in a hurry today. Sitting down in the booth across from Jamie, she started at him, mouth open in horror, eyes watering with tears.

Where had she been?

And then she noticed the puppet boy sitting on the table in front of her. Jiminy climbed up the table leg all by himself, not counting on the emotionally-overloaded Jemissa to help. "PINOCH!" he exclaimed, running into the little puppet.

oufit of TEARS!

[JAMIE SHOEMAKER]

Jamie felt his mind going again. Pinocchio was talking to him but he couldn’t hear the words. Either that or he just wasn’t understanding. Was the dude even real? Wait, Pinocchio real? Wow, Jamie was fucked up. Maybe someone had put something in his drink. Jamie just wanted to go to sleep but every time his eyelids started to droop the little boy would pipe up again.

He looked up and saw a blurry figure of J. He blinked a few times and saw her face. She wasn’t smiling. No. She was crying. He opened his mouth but closed it when he couldn’t figure out what he wanted to say. He reached out and touched her cheek lightly with his hand that he could still feel. He wiped away her tears silently.

“PINOCH!”

And there was that cricket dude. Jiminy, Pinocchio reminded him in his head.

Pinocchio smiled for the first time since he appeared outside of Jamie’s mind. “Jiminy!” he squeaked. He picked the cricket up with his hand and put him on his shoulder. He looked up to see the crying mess of a girl and wrinkled his nose. “You have a giiiirl host? Jamie loves that girl too. I mean he’s never said it. Jiminy, what is love?” The little boy watched his host slowly go weak again and squeaked. “No, no, no! Jamie! Stay awake! Jiminy we have to help! Oh wait, girl! J!” He waved his gloved hands until the girl looked up. “His head is all messed up! I can’t go back in without feeling woozy. He needs a... something. A hos-pit-al,” Pinocchio made a pleading face.

“No!” Jamie didn’t want to be hurt again. He just wanted it to be a bad trip. That’s what it was. He wasn’t hurt, just drugged. When he heard the word hospital, it made him wake back up. He tried to form other words but nothing came out. His hand fell from J’s face and he mouthed no. The energy slipped out of him and his face hit the cold plastic table. Even with Pinocchio squealing in his head, darkness clouded his mind and he happily let it take him.

[JEMISSA CROCKET]

Jemissa had never felt so many emotions in her life. Positive and negative were warring in every fiber of her being, and neither was staying the winner for long. Relief overcame despair, but the scale tipped again. Denial was battling guilt and they were pretty tied up at that point. Though mostly, the unfairness of this all was reigning over everything, because why did it have to be Jamie and not her? Jamie didn't know what he was doing; he was innocent just as Pinocchio was, right? But Jemissa almost deserved it for not trying to stop it sooner. If she had somehow been able to hide him from the bad people, none of this would have happened. She was a horrible conscience. Jiminy should never have chosen somebody so incapable as his host.

She could see that Jamie was about to pass out, which couldn't be good. She was about to tell him to try not to talk or something when he touched her face, and that was very nearly her breaking point.

But no. She couldn't break down. She had to help Jamie first, to make the pain go away.

Jiminy, on the other hand, just seemed excited to finally see his best friend. "Girls aren't all that bad, Pinoch." The cricket frowned when he mentioned he loved her. Jiminy didn't exactly approve of them having a realtionship like Jemissa wanted, because it was just too weird an that could cloud her judgement like being best friends with the puppet you were supposed to be the conscious for didn't. "And love is when... well, it's when you care for somebody very much... and you wouldn't let anything happen to the-"

"Jiminy, hush." This was not the time for one of his rambly explanations, and Jemissa could not think about the fact that Pinocchio just said Jamie loved her in a sense that wasn't just a best-friends thing without getting distracted.

Pinocchio was trying to say something. Oh God, why? Why did any of this have to happen? She was about to correct him for caling her J when she realized that Pinocchio and Jamie were one in the same and it was okay, and that wasn't what was important right now.

"Jamie, please stay awake. Please. I-I have to get you to a hospital." Jemissa wondered why he didn't want to go to one. He had to. There were no other options. But wait... no, he couldn't pass out. What if he didn't wake up? She couldn't bear the thought. "Jamie!"

There was nothing she could do now except call 911. Picking Jamie's phone up off the ground, seeing as she had left hers behind, she dialed the three numbers she had hoped she would never have to dial herself. People always dialed them for her when she nearly overdosed back in Georgia, or when a friend had gone too far and passed out. She hadn't been lucid enough. But now, she wished she had a bottle of Jack Daniels and some pills so she didn't have to go through this. The problem with that? No one else was around to help her best friend, and it was her duty as his conscience.

She didn't use language often, but that kind of logic was fucked up.

When the ambulance came, she chose not to ride. Because she'd rather not know if he didn't even make it to the hospital. She loved him, but there was no way she could handle seeing him move on without taking her own life. Besides, she had to return the car and the hospital wasn't far from Barrie.

Though Jemissa was raised a Catholic and her family went to church every Sunday, she neer really put much thought into the possibility of there being a God until that moment when she got into the stolen car and drove back to Barrie University, praying all the way there that Jamie would be okay.

notes; don't mind me i'm just sobbing in the corner