suspicious mind

who: december
where: marten's scrap yard
when: late

December had made it out there, and no one was around. The dogs let her in, not paying any mind to her presence, like usual. They were used to her presence. Part of her had half hoped they might give her a hard time, bark or growl at least, like they could sense her motivations for being there, but there wasn't any such event. Instead, all that happened was she petted them as much as they'd allow, and she was free to roam the yard.

The skeletons of machines loomed in the shadows, dark, sharp bones seeming to reach for her but never manage to capture as she drifted through the rows and piles. She didn't know what she was looking for. Really, she was hoping that this stupid trip proved once and for all that she was paranoid and rude, that she was stupid and just trying to sabotage herself. She'd never been in a relationship before, and maybe this was just her trying to crash and burn it before anything else could. So maybe, she'd look around and there would be absolutely nothing wrong, nothing weird or untoward.

December had almost convinced herself that was the case before she started getting farther back in the yard, past the buildings, into the darker, less traveled areas. Places she'd not seen before, and she didn't think the crew ever went either. There was an old shed back there, a huge one, and she slipped inside easily enough, using a flashlight she'd taken with her to light her way.

What it caught first wasn't helpful. Or, it wasn't helpful to her state of mind, anyhow. It sort of looked like a horror show. Traps, that's what she was looking at, though traps for what she wasn't even sure. Not normal ones, that was for certain. These were home made, something fashioned by Eric's hand. Seeing his work before, she believed she could tell his craftsmanship when she saw it, and that's what it looked like to her.

She saw razorwire that seemed to be fashioned into traps as well, a lot of half finished sorts of projects she couldn't guess the purpose of. She frowned as she passed a decomissioned refridgerator, not because it was unusual, but because it wasn't where she'd seen others out in the yard proper. It had her looking it over, and she saw the big difference--it had a hose embedded into it. She opened it up and saw all of the shelving had been removed, and all that was in there was the hose, that was bored through the casing of the fridge.

She stood there, looking at it, and a shiver went through her as a cold realization dawned. This was a cell. A very, very small cell to keep someone in, that they couldn't escape but wouldn't kill them outright. Abruptly, she shut the door then turned away, stopping as she saw a looming tarp draped over something rather large. Something that looked like a cannon to her, or the shape of something like it.

Frozen in place, she stared, not sure she wanted to see what was beneath it. Slowly, she started to inch forward, reaching out, though she stopped when she heard noise out in the yard. She didn't know what it was, but it was enough that her self preservation instincts kicked in, and she exited the shed, planning on leaving now. Then she was going to have to come up with her next move--whatever that was. It wasn't like anything was confirmed beyond the obvious. She'd gone there because her suspicions wouldn't quiet in the back of her head and apparently there was good reason for that. "Goddamnit, Eric." she whispered under her breath.