From the radio station to the preserve, Sunday night [NFB]

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia was on her way back to the dorms when she got the voicemail. She didn't think twice when she altered her path and headed out into the preserve, instead.

She really didn't know what had happened, despite the brief explanations she'd gotten, but she'd do her best to try to explain it to Walter. . . .

[ooc: locked to, well, me. And I know I just posted radio, but just to be on the safe side, this post is NFB.]

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[sneerkite]

Steerpike had been quite busy, of late, though not with studying for finals that he felt had no bearing on his future. Instead, he had handwavily spent much of his time in the preserve, preparing for just this event. He spotted Nadia well before she might have had a chance to see him, and placed himself so that his back was to her as she approached.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia started to hurry when she spotted the familiar outline through the trees. "Walter. Dios, Walter, I'm so sorry."

[sneerkite]

"Are you alright?" Steerpike asked, without turning to face her.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia slowed as she got close. "I'm fine. Just a few bumps and scratches. I'm so sorry I ran out like that, I--"

[sneerkite]

"That's too bad," Steerpike interrupted, turning his head so that the unmasked side was silhouetted. "Maybe if you'd have been injured. . . ."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia stopped, then started approaching again more cautiously. ". . . What?"

[sneerkite]

"Maybe if you had been injured, I wouldn't have to do this." He turned slowly.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia was almost upon him, then, and could see the outline of the mask. "You!"

[sneerkite]

Steerpike grinned. "Quite." Then he grabbed Nadia's arm, and throwing the full weight of his body and using the advantage of surprise, swung her around and forward and . . . down.

Into the deep whole he had discovered while out for a walk a few weeks ago, the one he'd covered so carefully with sticks and fallen leaves.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia tried to brace herself against the swing, but loose pine needles and leaves skidded beneath her feet and she tumbled, breaking through the sticks and leaves over the hole, and before she quite knew what was going on, she fell into the well, fell into the well, fell into the deep dark well was at the bottom of a deep sinkhole, staring up at the sky and Steerpike's leering face, staring down at her.

"You bastard!"

[sneerkite]

"Hm, no, not quite. My parents were actually married when they bore me." Steerpike put his hands on his knees and grinned down at her. "And you have been having dreams about me. I can't have you about when you might be able to have more. So you're going to stay down there, like a good little girl, and perhaps I might even bring you something to eat in a few days."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia's body ached from the fall and the abuse it had taken earlier in the church, but nothing was broken. She pushed herself to her feet and glared up at Steerpike. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but when I get out of here, so help me. . . ."

[sneerkite]

"Oh, don't try to pretend. I've read all about it." He pulled the scrap of note paper which had been tucked into the book she'd brought him in the clinic. It was a page from her dream journal, and it detailed, in the vaguest of comments, some of Steerpike's plans, though it was obvious she hadn't yet figured out what it all meant. "Poor, dear Nadia and her horrible prophetic dreams. You know, you're not being very nice to me. Perhaps I won't feed you after all."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia glared again, then turned to look around the hole, searching for some way out. "Annette was right. I felt sorry for you!"

[sneerkite]

"That was your mistake. Goodbye, Nadia." Steerpike straightened, kicked a pile of leaves and rocks into the hole, turned, and headed off.

Time for phase two of this particular part of his plan.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia raised her arms to protect her face from the falling debris, then ran to the wall of the hole, grabbing into the dirt and trying to pull herself up it.

She made it four feet off the ground before the handholds turned to crumbling dirt and she fell back to the floor.

"//Dammit! Dammit, you bastard! Get back here!//"

When he didn't return, she tried again, and again, to get up the wall, before finally collapsing back and pulling her knees up to her chest. She fumbled in her pockets, and pulled out her cellphone. Which fell into pieces when she tried to open it.

This was bad. This was very bad. She could only hope that Walter would notice she was missing and someone would come find her.

Somehow.

This sucked.