Darkened rooms in a darkened home {Alex}

[Alex Linus]

"That's what he said. But he suffocates me - and I hate it." Alex mumbled. Even if she had grown up on an island as strange and unknown as that one was, she was still a typically teenage daughter - who had the tendency to hate anyone who tried to give her rules to follow. To her, rules were meant to be broken, and to hell with the concequences.

"Pride is something that people seem to get a bit head over - they do something right or good and get all cocky, thinking they can do anything. It's silly, in my opinion." She mumbled, leaning back on the headboard again. So far, her headache had receeded to a dull pain in the back of her head, a pain that would go away soon enough.

She sighed, then looked back at Richard. A part of her was slowly growing, a part that was excited to see what sort of place Los Angeles was. Another part was afriad of what things it held, but then again, nothing could be as dangerous as the island, right?

[Richard Alpert]

"You're still young, Alex. He's going to smother you even if he's miles away, because that's just how it is. But you can't disobey his rules, or mine, not here. This place...this place is far more dangerous than the Island, but if you pay attention and follow what I say, you'll do just fine." And he knew that partly, it was true. The real world...it had so many different people, people ready to kill, to hurt, to steal. The Island was in ways more safer than the real world. The real world was so harsh, blinding. The Island...he missed the greenery already. The views.

As he watched her sigh tiredly, he knew that he needed to get her up, moving, to flex those muscles and get her strength built up again. He stood from where he sat on the bed, laying the cool rag in the bowl of ice water. "We need to get you up. You'll feel weak, but once you get moving and get your strength up again, you'll feel much better."

He held out his hand for her to take to rise to her feet. "I'll show you outside if you're ready for it."

[Alex Linus]

"I know." She murmured. How could a place be more dangerous than that island though? With smoke monsters, polar bears, and other freaks of nature roaming the jungle. But Richard had never lied before - so Alex believed him. She crawled out from under the blankets and took Richard's offered hand, carefully getting to her feet.

A wave of vertigo hit her and she swayed for a moment, grabbing Richard's arm to steady herself for a moment. Blinking, the room finally stopped spinning and wavering at the corners of her eyes. She ran a hand through her mess of hair and nodded, even though she wasn't sure if she was ready to see the outside world yet. She had never known more than the island - but she wasn't going to know anymore unless she got off her butt, sucked it up and went with Richard outside.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Alex murmured, her voice barely above a whisper as she looked over at him, smiling slightly.

[Richard Alpert]

As her fingers curled around his, he helped her slowly to stand before watching her saw on her feet. The one thing he liked about his apartment was the view. High up on floor 24, it gave an impressive view of the city. He figured that this would be the best for now, both shocking and intensely real.

He lead her to the balcony, opening the glass doors to the sounds of the busy Los Angeles streets. Clouds were building overhead, threatening to dump Los Angeles with rain. The sounds of Los Angeles were violent, with screeching cars, honking horns, and general sounds of life that almost sounded alien compared to the tranquil, peaceful sounds of the Island. He kept a hand in hers, making sure she didn't fall from dizziness or sheer wonder at it all. "This place is so much different than the Island, Alex. On the Island, you could hide from the things that frighten you, but here...there's no place to hide here." It was becoming harder and harder to hide Alex from Widmore, from the world, and Richard knew that soon, they would have to leave, to find some other place.

[Alex Linus]

Alex followed him out onto the balcony, the noises hitting her all at once. She nearly recoiled - they were different, much different than the quiet of the island. But this was the concrete jungle. Blaring horns and noises were supposed to be common in a place like this, she supposed. Sucking it up, she stepped all the way out onto the balcony and gripped the railing with her free hand, staring at the scene around her.

They were high up, she knew that. Buildings rose up everywhere, but there were even larger ones in the distance. She peered cautiously over the railing and down below at the street, watching crowds of people move along the sidewalk, places to go and people to see. Cars blared their horns and zoomed down the street, looking as if there was going to be an accident at any moment. She slowly began to process the scene in her mind, her gaze sweeping over everything in the surrounding area.

"Wow." She murmured softly, the only word she could manage to form at the moment.

[Richard Alpert]

As Richard looked at the cars, people and life around him, he missed the Island. Sure, he had spent just as much time on the Island as off, but he missed the simpleness of the Island. The peace. A horn broke the silence, and he looked over at Alex. "I'm not quite sure we're going to be able to get back to the Island. Not without very careful persuasion."

The sound of a doorbell made Richard frown. Ben wasn't supposed to be back for...a while. "Stay here." he told her, hoping that Alex would heed his warning and not move from the spot, in case he had to do something that he didn't need her seeing. He entered the apartment again from the patio, grabbing the gun from his suit pocket near the door. He held it behind his back as he opened the door.

"Hello! I'm with Church of Christ, spreading the word of the Lord."

Richard merely stared at him blankly. "I'm saved. Go away."

"Are you sure? God loves everyone, and he's always willing to open his heart to the willing."

Richard felt his thumb move down slowly, cocking the gun with a slight click. "Look, I'm real busy here. Are we done? Leave the bible on the floor if you have to."

"If I could only come in for two seconds--"

"I said. Leave. It. There. And GO."

[Alex Linus]

She nodded simply, glancing over at him. Of course getting back to the island wasn't gong to be easy. But did she really want to go back? Alex didn't really want to go back to that place - there was so much more to see and do here than on an old boring island where she had to follow way too many rules. Here, of course, there were rules, but Richard wasn't exactly as demanding as Ben - at least not from what she had gathered. As a little girl, he had wanted to protect her, and that's what his rules were for, then and now.

"All right." She nodded when he told her to stay there. She didn't care who was at the door anyway - she preferred just standing here. Leanign against the railing, she smiled slightly as she wondered how much Karl would like it here.

Karl.

A frown crossed her lips. She hadn't asked about him yet, so Alex wondered where her boyfriend was. If he had made it off the island just like her.

Even if Richard had told her to stay there, she headed back inside, carefully moving down the hall. She heard him yell something, but ignored it as she poked her head around the corner.

"Richard...." She began softly. "What about Karl?"

[Richard Alpert]

As the seemingly now meek shepherd for the Lord left the bible on the threshold, Richard closed the door and uncocked the gun, partly thankful that he didn't need to shoot the man infront of Alex. Sure, he was a simple bystander, but bystanders were the worst kind. As Richard turned away from the door, seeing Alex peeking around the corner, he moved, placing the gun in the back waistband of his pants.

Karl. Shit. He knew it would come up, but he was planning on later than the very sooner that he had found himself in. "Karl died on the Island. I'm sorry." Richard said simply, his voice straight and to the point. He stepped past her to the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee that had been brewing since Alex had woken. He prepared himself for the onslaught, wondering if it would be anger or sadness or both.

[Alex Linus]

Alex blinked at him for a moment, letting his words sink in.

Then, the tears sprung to her eyes quickly. Tears of sadness, and tears of anger toward Richard. He had saved her, why couldn't he have saved Karl too?! She followed him into the kitchen, using the sleeve of her shirt to roughly wipe the tears from her cheeks.

"Why didn't you save him too?! Or did dad tell you to leave him?! We all know that he hates Karl, so I bet he told you to leave him for dead, didn't he?" She shouted at him, anger washing over her like a flood, masking the sadness. "Didn't he!?!"

[Richard Alpert]

Richard felt his eyes close as Alex spoke, first an angry question, and then furious yelling. He brought a hand up, pinching at the bridge of his nose for a second before he heard Alex ask if Ben had ordered him to leave Karl for dead. "Ben doesn't order me to do anything, Alex. I merely follow because I believe him to be correct." Richard had spent so much time as a leader, it had felt good slightly to step back, let someone else take the lead. He had alrerady commited the Purge, what Jacob had wanted him to do, so it was Ben's turn. To clean up the mess, as it were. "And as for Karl and his ability to be saved, when I came upon Karl, he was already dead."

Dead with no ability to come back. "But believe me, Alex, the people that murdered Karl are taken care of." He had been indifferent to Karl most of the times; even when he had taken him to the Room, watched as he slowly became more and more calm, more brainwashed as the days went by. But Alex had loved him, even if Ben had hated them. Richard knew that Ben had realised that sometimes, the reason the two had been together late at night was because Richard had told them ways around the jungle near the camp, but he had never said anything to Richard. He wasn't sure why.

But as Alex's voice rose once again, he shook his head slightly. "You need to calm down, Alex. I understand this is a loss, but you have to understand that could I have done something, I would have taken him off the Island."

[Alex Linus]

Alex narrowed her eyes at Richard, their color darkening by several shades as she stood rooted to the spot, listening to him talk. She didn't care. She didn't care what he had to say. Karl was dead and as far as she was concerned, Richard had done it. "How did you know he was dead?! He could have just been injuried or something!"

Tears were starting to roll down her cheeks again as she took a step forward, her head pounding again. She grabbed the corner of the counter as the room began to spin again, but forced herself to focus. She was supposed to be pissed right now, and fainting or passing out wasn't going to help.

"Who the hell killed him? I want to know!" She cried, her other hand gripping the counter now. "I want to know who killed Karl." Alex said, this one in more of a whisper, looking at Richard again with blurred vision, mostly from the tears and partially because the room was starting to spin again.

[Richard Alpert]

“Alex, they’re dead. It doesn’t matter who killed him because they’re all dead now.”

But of course, it mattered to Alex. And for a brief second, Richard regarded that fact with a small sort of pity. “It was the people on the boat. The ones that had came after Ben and the survivors.” She had cared for Karl a great deal, and now he was dead. However, he had made sure that at least some sort of revenge for the murdered man. The three men that had shot Karl and two other Others had met a most violent death. One had been cleanly shot in the head, while the two others...well, as they had ran into the jungle, the Smoke Monster had gotten them. Richard had watched them get torn apart limb by limb.

“I came up behind one and shot him in the head.” Richard told him simply, however, he blinked and tilted his head slightly as he watched her. “The other two…well, they weren’t exactly attached to their arms and legs when the Smoke Monster got to them. I watched the entire thing. They got what was coming to them.”

It still didn’t soothe the fact, Richard knew, to Alex that Karl was gone. “I am sorry, Alex. Truly. Like I told you before, if I had been there before they had gotten to him…he would still be alive. And you know that’s the truth.”

[Alex Linus]

Of course it was the people on the boat. But she didn't understand why it had to be Karl. Why not someone else? Then again, they were ruthless mercenaries with no mercy, so that probably had something to do with it as well. She began to wipe at the tears on her face again with her sleeve, sniffling slightly as her knees felt at though they were about to give out.

She felt slightly sick when he told her how he killed them. Good. Karl's murderers were dead - and Richard was right. They did deserve it after what they did. All of them deserved to be dead - just should have blown up the damn boat - That would have taken care of everyone. Then again, it would have killed the survivors as well, but she didn't care.

Alex nodded when he spoke again, finally leaning against the counter and sinking to the floor, her back again the drawers on the lower counter as she leaned forward, pulling her knees to her chest and resting her head on them. It made her wonder slightly who else they had killed.

"What about Mom? And Juliet? Is anybody else dead?" She asked, her voice muffled as she did not lift her head.

[Richard Alpert]

"Juliet's alive. She chose to go with the Survivors."

Richard watched her silently for a moment, and then moved, placing a hand on her shoulder before sitting down next to her. "Your mother..." his voice trailed off slightly. "The last time I saw your mother, she was on her way to the Temple with Karl, but when I came upon Karl, she was gone. I'm not sure if she made it or not. Jacob hadn't mentioned it, but perhaps, he kept it from me. I don't know."

"If she made it, the Temple is the safest place on the Island that she can be, Alex. You know that. She will be safe and protected there until we can find a way back."

[Alex Linus]

Well, at least someone had made it through.

She felt Richard's hand on her shoulder but didn't register it. And her mother - well, hopefully she had made it to the temple. Alex desperatley hoped so, as she had just met her mother and hadn't had much time to spend time with her. But she supposed right now, Richard was the one closest to a parent right now.

She nodded and finally lifted her head to look at Richard with watery eyes. Alex wiped at them again, sniffling slightly as she tried to stop herself from crying. She was almost eighteen and crying just made her look like a little girl again. Heck,e ven as a little girl, she had barely cried except for when the smoke monster came after her.

The thought made her shiver slightly.

"I don't want to go back there Richard." She spoke softly, resting her chin on her legs. "I want to stay here."