In The Dark
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In The Dark is a Spice Girls/Backstreet Boys fic written by Kohala8 on Wattpad. During their joint American tour, the two groups end up in a bus crash causing three of the characters to go missing. After a rescue party locates two of the missing characters, the third reappears a changed person after having been through a situation that creates a turn of events for all involved. This link is provided.
Tropes used in In The Dark include:
- Adult Fear: Granted Melanie is adult, but her parents are fearful of never seeing her again... that's gotta be difficult.
- Beware of the Nice Ones: Emma loses it after seeing Melanie's recovery in danger.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Emma rejects any pity.
- Break the Badass: Melanie is known to be a tough girl, hence Sporty. After her trauma, she has a long road to return to her old self.
- Break the Cutie: Emma has a breakdown of her own.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Melanie is subjected to this.
- Cute Mute: Melanie becomes this after her trauma but she recovers.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia
- Heroic BSOD
- Despair Event Horizon: Downplayed Melanie almost goes through this moment.
- Hope Is Scary
- Torture Cellar: Melanie is locked in a small closet.
- Loss of Identity
- Bruiser with a Soft Center
- Darker and Edgier: With head trauma, getting lost in the woods, almost being killed by a cultist, suffering post-trauma... ya think?
- How Many Fingers?: Brian checks on Melanie with this.
- Flipping the Bird: A.J. does this as a prank. Melanie isn't amused and calls him a twat.
- Holy Shit Quotient: Dropped twice after James notices what Simon and Vern are preparing to do to Melanie.
- Geri drops one after hearing Emma's breakdown.
- Hurt/Comfort Fic
- I Should Have Been Better: Brian blames himself for not staying with an injured Melanie, despite being told otherwise.
- Kick Chick: A panicked Melanie kicks Simon in the thigh, making a serious bruise. Rather than getting upset, Simon admits to having it coming.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A minor character, James, approaches Melanie when she's alone. After looking at her injuries, James quickly realizes he's made a mistake. After Emma is able to calm a terrified Melanie, James looks at his co-worker and admits his stupidity.
- In Chapter 55, Geri tricks Melanie into hypnosis in order to ensure the men who assaulted the latter are put away for good. Afterward the session, Melanie had to relive the living hell she went through. Cue the Mass "Oh Crap"...
- Manly Tears: Both AJ and Brian are seen crying around Chapter 55 after Melanie's came to light, Howie, Nick, and Kevin just stood there without a word
- No One Should Survive That: Melanie suffers a head injury that is commonly fatal; add being the victim of cold-blooded torture... sweet lord.
- No Sense of Direction: After suffering a head injury, Melanie becomes confused and ends up in a serious situation.
- Obligatory Swearing: There is a lot of swearing, even Emma drops a few.
- Out-of-Character is Serious Business: Melanie goes from a tough chick to a Broken Ace, while Emma drops her childlike personality. The folks around them know the situation has clearly become serious at that point.
- One of the Kids: Melanie is introduced to children in an attempt to help her recover.
- Repressed Memories: This keeps Melanie back until Geri tricks her into hypnotist. To Geri credit, it worked as it some have some basis, even the Myth Busters tried it out.
- Tear Jerker: Seeing what Melanie is going through, it's hard to hold back.
- Time Out: Joan and Dennis try this after Melanie runs off.
- Crazy Enough to Work: They're told to try some role-playing like this in an effort to help Melanie overcome her trauma.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Emma delivers this one after seeing most of the others rushing Melanie though her recovery, includes herself in the process. Many try to use sedatives on Melanie, which Emma is against. This speech involves Emma wanting to find a better alternative that doesn't involved drugging Melanie, which makes sense because Otis did the latter.
- Stunned Silence: Victoria has this one.
- Mass "Oh Crap": Victoria, Geri, and even Melanie all had this reaction to Emma's breakdown. Melanie feels guilty for causing this.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Many dismiss Emma's fears of Melanie's growing issues. After Melanie suffers a mental breakdown during the court case against her torturers, Emma is taken more seriously.
- Rage Breaking Point: Emma pretty much goes through this one.
- Torture Porn: Chapter 55 explain what Melanie had to go through, if you can read it.
- Strapped onto the Altar:
- Human Sacrifice: Melanie almost became the 4th victim of this.
- Black Cloak: The men were wearing these.
- Moral Event Horizon: Otis Darwin crossed this one when he tells Melanie about her fate being sealed. Luckily, Melanie had other ideas.
- Stoic Woobie: To some degree, Melanie fits this trope.
- Not So Stoic: After seeing what she might have done to Emma, even Melanie breaks down and asks about what did she do to hurt her.
- Woman Child: Melanie regresses to a child-like state.