Breaking Secrets

[liquia]

((A lot of you aren't on TSW-RP, so double post!))

Episode 1 - Pilot

Beryl kicked the crumpled another few feet down the sidewalk of a back street, hands in her pockets. Was it really that hard to find a paying job?, she thought to herself. Its not every day you see a man on fire… Wait there's a man on fire. Beryl sprinted towards the man half engulfed in flames and smoke. As she approached he cursing became clear. "Stop, drop, and roll!", Beryl yelled, unsure of what to do in this situation.

The dropped and became a swirling log of flame. Beryl approached the man and patted out the flames. "Are you alright?", Beryl adjusted her glasses in the smoke coming out of the man's burnt flesh. Beryl cringed and pulled out her cell phone to call for help. "No, no…", the man obviously did not want Beryl to call the cops.

Curious as a cat, Beryl walked up towards the half opened garage door. The smell of burning electronics instantly filled her lungs, Beryl brought her sleeve up to prevent breathing too much of the strange smoke. "We need to call someone", Beryl turned back to the medium rare man on the sidewalk a few steps away.

"Hell no we won't they ain't gonna catch me, I've already done 8 months. I ain't go'n back.", the man replied with a short breath. Beryl peaked into the garage again, noticing the large amount of flammable symbols around the room, "You're going to blow up the neighbourhood if we don't do anything.".

"Just, go if you ain't go'n help.", the charcoal man waved dismissively. Beryl looked back and forth between the man and the garage. He was a criminal, but he certainly did not deserve to die like this, not to mention anyone living around the area who would loose their homes. Beryl bit her lip and clenched her fists, unsure of what to do. "Too much lithium, I put too many fuck'n batteries in the thing....fuck what was I thinking....", the man muttered to himself.

"FINE, tell me how to stop the chemicals." , Beryl told the coughing man, she couldn't tell if he was smiling from the soot covering his face. The inside of the garage was a car in the middle, with the strangest collection of items littered around the rear. Matches , empty medicine bottles, boxes, lighter fluid, what looked like a giant bleach jug, deformed AA batteries, and Drano among other things.

Beryl walked towards the back of the car and gasped when she found a makeshift lab in the trunk of the car. "Umm… Ok… there's some sort of smoke", Beryl stuttered, not wanting to touch anything. The man moved slowly along the side of the car using it to keep him on his feet, "Smoke is good". "Just pour the hydrochloric acid in and keep the heat up - that'll…. Neutralize the chemicals.", Beryl was too busy searching for the right jug to notice the man's voice changing tones.

"Oh you might want to put on one of those masks. The… volatile chemicals leaving are quite dangerous.", he wagged his finger at the mask on the floor as he closed the garage door. Beryl struggled with the mask as the chemicals began to bubble. "Keep the thing heated, or it WILL blow up", the man told Beryl after the sounds of a fan came on. Beryl followed the pipe from the nearby propane tank to a wrecked burner on the other end.

Unsure of what to do, Beryl quickly held her hand under the bubbling chemical, and a lime colored smoke emerged from behind the trunk. "Is it stable?", Beryl's blue hair swiped from side to side as she removed the mask. The man leans on the quarter panel of the car and breaths normally. "Yeah it's start'n too..." He points to what was forming at the bottom "look it's cool'n...crystals are form'n up nice.". "Wait…", Beryl backed away from the man in small steps. No… this couldn't be, Beryl thought to herself, "What did I just do? Are those drugs? Did I just cook Drugs?", Beryl still could not believe what just happened. He smiles. "Hell yeah ya did, you just saved my batch. "Wait, your BATCH?", Beryl looked disgusted.

The man's arm raised for a high-five, but Beryl was going to leave him hanging. "No, I-I'm a student, this, all this", Beryl makes a circle with her finger, "I'm not a criminal.", Beryl's was not sure if it was the air or situation which made her eyes watery. "You are now.", the man slowly pulls out a roll of $20s held together by a rubber band. "How much do I owe ya?"

Beryl shook her head and waved her arms in front of her frantically. "NO, I'm not a drug dealer", but the money could help with paying this month's rent… Beryl quickly buried the thought. "Na, ya a cook.", the man replied, eyeing the crystals slowly taking the shape of a honeycomb. "NO, you- you stay away from me.", Beryl backed up towards the garage door, looking for a way to open it. The man was still counting from the wad of bills when Beryl found a ledge to raise the door.

"One hundred...two...three…four…", Beryl ducked under the door and out of the garage. "We NEVER speak of this, and I don't want to see you again - ever.", Beryl let gravity have the garage door.

~#~

Beryl finished another cup of chocolate milk. How could she not have seen it? There was the fire, and the threat of an explosion, and the man was half cooked. Beryl never imagined an injured person could take advantage of her like that. The next cup of chocolate milk quickly found Beryl's throat. Did they know? Beryl thought to herself, eying people the in other booths, standing around, socializing, talking, about her? What was going to happen if they found me? Beryl downed the remainder of the milk, but it did not work its calming magic like it usually does.

[liquia]

Episode 2

Beryl's eyes blinked behind the circle lenses of the gas mask, the lime haze licked lazily at the slick black material protecting Beryl's lungs as it slowly ascended towards the full moon. The soft exhaling made a sound not unlike a famous Sith lord.

"Beryl? Can you let go?", Beryl's fingers clenched tightly to the stack of money, the paper strained from the tension between the landlord and the tenant. "Uh, the money is dirty, let me get you some clean bills.", Beryl stuttered trying to pull the stack back towards her. "Rent is rent.", the landlord tugged the bills towards him. "BERYL!", the landlord's shout startled Beryl, causing her to stumble back releasing the ill gotten money.

The mismatched door to the landlord's office closed and Beryl began her walk up the stairs - the elevator had been broken since she moved in a year ago. Each floor had its own unique foul odor, a mix of urine, second hand, and burning electronics among other things. Beryl took a whiff of a bitter sourness when she was on her floor - she was content that she couldn't figure out what the smell was.

A single uncased light bulb flickered on over the lonely table in the middle of the room. Beryl sat down, staring at the roll of money wrapped with a cheap red rubber band. It had shrunk quite a bit since last week, the bills would actually fit into her wallet now, but something about leaving it the way it was made her feel… clean.

Beryl was wondering if she was an accomplice, even thought it was an accident. She had the money now though, Beryl didn't take it willingly, that counted for something doesn't it? Beryl gave a sigh of loss hope, stuffing the bills into her wallet before going to the fridge. Not only was there no chocolate milk, there was no milk at all.

"What? The price of chocolate milk went up again?", Beryl complained to her frosty reflection on the dairy fridge in the store. There was no other way, she needed the chocolate milk for comfort. Closing the glass door with her rear, Beryl walked down the isle with 1 liter of comforting smoothness in each hand. "Hey, watch where you're goi-", but it was too late, the man had purposely stepped in her path - It was the drug dealer.

"Yo, I need you.", the man closed this month's copy of a knockoff maxim. Beryl's eyes bugged out, "H-how do you keep finding me?", she turned him back towards the magazine rack as if it would muffle their conversation. "You did something to that batch, my boys, and my boys' boys can't get enough of it.", the man's arms were quite animated when he was talking. Beryl was pretty sure all of his hand gestures were gang signs of some sort.

Beryl rested the two cartons of perspiring milk on the magazine shelf. "Listen, I don't wan-", "Then why you using the money?", the man moved his hands like a rap artist dropping a verse. "Money is money", Beryl snapped back. "Money is money, I like that, yea, I like that.", the man pointed with two fingers from above at Beryl with his other hand under his nose.

Beryl took the milk from the Magazine rack and attempted to sidestep the man with no success. "Ok, ok, Listen, LISTEN", he held up his bling covered hands, Beryl crooked her head unamused. "I get it, I get it", he pointed to himself, "Really?", Beryl asked in a mocking tone with a notched lips. The sounds of a fire engine's siren startled the man, as he handed Beryl his Maxim ripoff, and she quickly deflected the magazine with the milk. The magazine exploded in a pool of cash on in the middle of the isle.

Beryl and the man dropped to the ground, quickly shoving the cash back into the pages of the magazine. "WHAT are you doing?", Beryl exclaimed louder than she would have liked. "Yo, it was supposed to be like a slick cash transaction, you know?", the man pulled at the belt of his oversized pants. "Can I help you?", the squeaky voice of a store assistant came from behind Beryl. "Uh-No, we're-", Beryl quickly turned over and sat on the pile of money. "We're good.", Beryl brushed some of the hair away from her face to get a better look at the pok marked faced of the teenager.

"Please don't do things like this in the isles, the washroom is easier to clean", the teenager rolls his eyes before re-inserting his ear buds and walking off. Beryl turned to the man, realizing the awkward suggestive position they were in. Her face quickly flushed, "Yo, I ain't like that.", the man backed off as Beryl got up with tomato colored cheeks. "We cool right?", the man walked off before Beryl could reply.

"Is this yours miss?", the storekeeper asked Beryl with a thick Indian accent pointing to the Maxim knock off. She wasn't just going to leave a magazine stuff with cash and coated with her fingerprints laying around inside a store right? Beryl bit her lips as the storekeeper gave her a wink. "Thank You, come again.", the cashier waved with a grin on his face. The man was waiting outside, leaning on a classic muscle car, bright red like Beryl's face.

"No.", Beryl pointed at the man before turning down the road towards her apartment. "Yo, common, do a bro a favour Blue.", the man followed her down the road. The loose buckle of his hanging belt was making an annoying sound before it was drowned out by a fire engine's siren. Beryl took a deep breath as she turned the corner, ready to give him a rebuttal - but no words came out of her lips, she could not even exhale.

Her apartment building was ablaze.

Beryl was drinking the second litre of chocolate milk directly from the carton as she approached the roped off building which used to be her home. Beryl paced back and forth in front of her building as it slowly disintegrated into a thick, black smoke along with everything she had. The smoke wrapped its dark tendrils around the full moon, a pure white bulb embraced by a stem of corruption, creating a beautiful flower in the sky. "Ma'am, you better find yourself a hotel for a while. Your insurance should cover lodging while you look for a place.", a fireman with a gray mustache told Beryl attempting to comfort her.

Beryl gave off light sobs sitting on the curb, as the man approached him, offering her a thick tissue for her tears. "I-I don't have *sniff* insurance", Beryl wiped her face with the oddly rough tissue, clearing her vision revealing a president's head on the 'tissue'. "That's cool, with your tears and all", the man out Beryl's interesting use of a $100. "Like Yo said, Money's money", the man spread his arms open.

"Yo we'll find you a hote-", "Lets do this.", Beryl looked up at the man with a new determination from behind a film of tears. The man bent his head in a weird angle studying the crying girl. "Lets go, lets do your... thing", Beryl cringed her nose a bit as she sniffled, taking in a whiff of charred air.

For the second time tonight, Beryl watched as smoke rose towards the moon.