All That Remains

A Sucker Punch Fan Fiction

By Rowan Cousland

Chapter One

The Road Home

"It's me." she whispered.

"What?" I asked quietly, afraid that the guards ahead of us would hear us.

"The ultimate sacrifice." She continued whispering. She looked up at me, and stood up from her low crouch. "You have to go without me."

I stood up, putting my hands on her shoulders. "No, we can make it together. I know we can."

She shook her head. "No. You need to go home. Tell your mom what Rocket said. This is your story to tell. Not mine."

"Baby Doll…" I started. But she stopped me from saying anything else, by pressing the map, lighter, and key into my hands. "Go." She said. "I'm going to distract them. When they come after me, I want you to run. You got that?"

The determination in her eyes showed that I couldn't argue with her anymore. I nodded, taking the items she'd handed to me. "I'll never forget you, Baby." I said.

She nodded, and began to walk towards the guards. She walked to the middle of the courtyard casually, making her presence known by the guards. They noticed her instantly, and began to call the doctors out to come get her. She glanced over her shoulder at me, and gave a quick nod. One the guards barely noticed.

I ran then, clutching Blue's master key tight in my hand. I reached the gate, struggling to get the key in the lock. I heard on guard behind me shout, making my heart jump. But after another second of fighting with the lock, the key slid in, and the large rusty gate opened with a groan.

I slipped through the opening in the gate, and slammed it shut behind me, locking it again. Through the bars, I could see two men walking towards Baby Doll. One of them was holding a straightjacket. Another looked to be holding a syringe. Baby Doll's eyes rimmed with tears. She let out a breath she'd been holding in since we had entered the courtyard. She mouthed the words, "Go."

Hesitantly, I left the gate of Lennox behind. I ran for what seemed like days. I didn't stop until I was in a small town I can barely remember the name of now. I had planned to camp out in a back alley behind a motel, but the manager had seen me in my torn clothes, shivering in the rain, and had given me shelter, clothes, and food for the night.

There were five of us in the beginning. Five girls all with a common goal. To escape the hell hole known as Lennox House for the Mentally Insane.

We all had been given nicknames in the asylum by Blue, a supervisor at Lennox. He would take advantage of certain girls constantly, Baby Doll being one of his victims. The names he gave us were Baby Doll, Rocket, Amber, and Blondie. Each of them had sacrificed something in the end.

Rocket was the first one to die. In our attempt to escape Lennox, we had to get a knife from one of the cooks. Things hadn't gone as planned. I had the knife in my hands for a second before the cook took notice. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor, and the knife was kicked out of my hand. The cook had pulled another knife from his belt, and I was his intended target. But Rocket had protected me, just like I had protected her all those years ago. She'd taken the blow, costing her life. She was my younger sister. Her real name was Jena

Blondie and Amber were next. Blondie had been forced to reveal to Blue our plans of escape. In his anger, He'd shot them both, killing them. There was very little I'd known about them. I knew Amber had wanted to become a pilot before she was institutionalized, and her real name was Jamie. Blondie had a thing for weapons, and her real name was Vanessa.

Baby Doll was the last one to sacrifice herself. She'd given up in order to give me time to escape. She never told me much about herself, except for the fact that her mother had died. A few nights after her mother's death, her stepfather tried to assault her, and intended to kill both her and her younger sister in order to gain their mother's inheritance. In her attempt to protect her sister, Baby Doll had shot and killed her by accident. She had been the leader of our group. Her real name was Emily.

The only girl left was me. Sweet Pea. Rocket's older sister. She ran away when she was 15. I was 17 at the time, and I had gone after her. The police found us a week later hiding out in the woods. We were diagnosed with clinical depression after that, and it was declared so unstable, that we had to be institutionalized as well. Rocket and I both had dreams of becoming dancers some day, performing all over the world in ballets, and musicals. My name is Abigail. I liked to be called Abbie for short.

The weeks had passed after my escape. I found myself on a greyhound bus bound for my hometown. I'd been stopped once by police in Fort Wayne, Vermont. The bus driver had stopped them, claiming he'd just let me off at the bus stop to use the rest room, and that I'd been on his bus since Connecticut.

I was confused, wondering if he'd mistook me for someone else. I explained to him quietly that i didn't have a ticket, but he'd just smiled, and told me to get some rest in the back. "You've got a long journey ahead of you." He said. it was funny actually, he looked really familiar.

I'd sat down in one seat behind an elderly couple, and closed my eyes, beginning to drift off into a deep sleep. My dreams of escaping Lennox had returned to me then. They were silly dreams to be perfectly honest. I dreamt that the girls and I back at the asylum had to go through these back breaking tasks in order to escape, fighting dragons, World War One steam powered soldiers, and even robots. It was almost like a movie.

Days had gone by on that bus. I didn't get off of it, until I was back in my hometown in Pennsylvania.

And now I stand on the front porch of my parent's house contemplating whether to knock or not. It was raining again, just like that night I escaped.

After a few moments of arguing with myself, I finally released a long kept sigh, and lifted up my hand. Gathering up all my courage, I knocked.

A/N: Since the names of the actual characters are not provided, i decided to use the names of the actresses that played them. I'm not exactly sure how long this fic is going to be, or where it's going to go for that matter, but i have some ideas. Stay tuned. :)