User blog comment:Prof. Draco/RP/ Cursed be he.../@comment-1674153-20130616073411

After Bri dropped the hammer into the flowing goo, everyone held their breath, waiting for any sign that the desired effect had occured - namely, the salvation of their living bodies and the Warehouse.

But a giant heave of the floor that sent them all tumbling to their knees dashed their hopes to pieces.

(Logically, using an artifact to purify neutralizer isn't going to work.)

...

Sandy tried to breath carefully, knowing each intake could be his last if he didn't manage his air properly. Granted, the air was poisoned, but that couldn't be helped.

He looked over to Felix, his heart breaking. He didn't know how long either of them had left.

...

Marie didn't look at Juan as he spoke, merely staring straight ahead. The world was crashing around her, the air was getting hazy with electricity, smoke, and perhaps even toxins, but her beautiful eyes just kept staring forward, fixed on a point of existence that wasn't there anymore.

After a while, she spoke. "I told you I used Karen Eiffel's keyboard. I used it to manipulate your lives so that we could get to this point, where I would have my cape and be free. But clearly, we've missed something along the way." She never stopped staring straight ahead.

"The keyboard will manipiulate a life as the writer so chooses...but at the keyboard's discretion. I found myself fixated on you and young Mr. Taylor, your personalities, your characters, your lives. It was like I was coming up with everything about you." She sighed. "It's like reading about myself, honestly, in all of your fairy tale books. How I've been portrayed, victimized, empowered...like someone knows everything about me without me telling them. Like I'm not real, only a figment of someone's imagination. Maybe we all are..."

"But it was you and Mr. Taylor who I wrote about. And though I tried to write the story so that I could win and walk away with my cape, with my freedom...I couldn't. I couldn't write the ending,  because I had to give both you and Mr. Taylor a fighting chance. I gave you your powers so you could fight back. I gave myself Mr. Taylor's clock so I didn't lose. I think the keyboard chose me as much as it chose you two."

The young woman finally looked back at Juan, her eyes stormy, broken. "I finally beat my husband. I became the writer of my own story. But I don't even know how that story ends...not yet." She blinked.

"I don't know if I want to die yet," she smiled, sadly, ruefully. "But what can I do? I'm the villain."