I Will Find You, When All the Stars Align

[Espi]

((Henry Spencer continued from In This Starless Night))

In a way, returning to the asylum was ludicrous, patently absurd. He'd been here when he'd stolen from some others, and if they were still present, they might attack him if they were suitably angry. But Henry wasn't too worried about that; he could just give the stuff back, right? Minus two protein bars and half a water bottle, but still. Better than nothing, right?

Besides, he kind of wanted to explore. He'd never been to an asylum at home, after all!

Henry found himself in one of the therapy rooms, though, and was disturbed by the bloody scene of two very dead people. Abby Floyd was a complete sweetheart, and was now lying in a pool of blood from self-inflicted wounds. Henry looked down somberly, unsure of what to do. Abby had been of some religion, he thought, and he didn't know if there was some form of funeral rite he ought to perform. So he was silent.

There was a different body in the other room, though it was eerily similar; corpse of a young woman covered in blood and surrounded by shattered glass. Tina Luz, if he recalled. Both the bodies were starting to decay, having been dead about two days. It was chilling. He crouched next to Tina, who he knew very little about. The girl kept to herself, and Henry thought that was kind of sad. She didn't have a chance to bloom, like a flower caught in a midspring frost.

Henry studied her body, not touching anything, but examining. There were bugs, small maggots it looked like, and the smell was thoroughly unpleasant. Henry grimaced and stood back up.

He wondered where Jae was. If they'd ever see each other again, discounting metaphysical meetings in any sort of afterlife. Jae was Buddhist, after all, and Henry was pretty sure Buddhism believed in a cycle of rebirth, right? That was cool and all, but...Henry wondered if that was good for his class. Selfish, maybe, but Henry would be sad if they didn't get the chance to live as they wanted because of the stupid jerks running this thing.

He sighed and leaned against his backpack.

[RC†]

((Alessio Rigano continued from Smoke Screen))

And so Al went through the Asylum. He now had a gun. A clean way to kill fast. There was no need to build traps now. He can kill from the distance.

He got rid of the blood on his pickaxe by getting rid of the pickaxe. But that still would not change the fact that he killed Cameron, that would still not change the next announcement, where he will be announced as a killer. Well, then he will be announced as a killer and it will be fine for him. In fact, he hopes Vanessa listens to the announcements and regrets leaving him all by himself. He hopes Vanessa will also listen to the next murder he was going to commit and the next one and he hopes that she will want to stop him and perhaps talk him out of it, but he wouldn't listen to her and then Vanessa gets emotional and hugs him and Al hugs Vanessa and Al will be happy and can stop killing and can die happily and perhaps gets a kiss from her before he dies while she survives, maybe wins this thing. This was fucked up. But it always was fucked up since they woke up in this nightmare and he wants to end it, since it's been dragging for days.

But perhaps he wins. And receives a new chance to have a childhood, a youth in a different town. But who would want to befriend a murderer?

Alessio did want to cry, but resisted as he saw a new face in a new room.

A boy in the room. Henry. Henry was nobody he thought about. He almost forgot he was there, too. He thought about Vanessa, about Isabel, about Cameron, but totally forgot that there was a Henry on this island as well. And if he had not seen him, he probably would have not recalled that. Damn, how many days ago was the trip?

Henry was alone. He probably hid from other people. He was not on the announcement, so Henry would outlive Al. He won't be remembered by anyone.

Al put his gun into the same pocket his rubik's cube was and stepped into the room. What if he misses Henry? Al had never shot a gun before.

"..."

He had to get closer.

[Espi]

A shadow fell across the room, and Henry felt a jolt of surprise before turning to look. Oh hey, it was Al. Al was a reasonably nice person, kind of soft-spoken and shy but a nice guy. Henry grinned and stood up.

"Hey man, wassup!" He moved forward towards Alessio, still smiling. "Have you seen Jae anywhere? I've been looking for him all day and I've got no clue-"

He noticed Al's pocket bulging with the handle of a gun. Henry tried to not let his shock show on his face, but he definitely slipped a little. Still, best to brush it off.

"So...yeah. Everyone's armed but me, I guess." He chuckled. "So what's new with you?"

[RC†]

Jae. Grr.

Henry wanted to see Jae. Al had seen Jae. Jae was not good. Jae was not somebody he wanted to see again.

"..."

God, what should he say? Should he lead Jae and Henry together? Tell him to go back to the Chapel. Perhaps let Jae kill Henry? Or perhaps lie to him, save him from Jae? Avoid being bothered by hyperactive, overcurious Henry who would ask how Jae was, if he looked injured, if he still has his jacket or whatever Henry would ask.

Did he also need to justify himself for having a gun? Henry saw Al's gun, saw that he was armed and explicitly said that he was not.

"Uhm..."

But there was no need to think about these difficult decisions when he already had a simple solution. He could stop himself from doing it, it was not the decision that he wants to make. But he should, it was the rational choice.

A gun always meant death. That's why Al left Mia. That's why Henry should have run away when he saw Al's gun. But Henry did not run away. Henry was naïve. Henry would die on this island. If he was not a victim on Al's list to show Vanessa how much she had fucked up his life, somebody else would do it.

Henry's face was hard to look at. Especially when he pulled out his gun to point it at his face. How did Cameron look like when he killed her? It was not pleasant to think back. Will he get the image of a feared face out of his head when he leaves this island?

So Al shot.

[Espi]

Al seemed baffled by Henry's question. His smile grew forced as he watched Al stand there, struggling. He took a step towards his friend, wanting to help, trying to find words to comfort the poor guy.

Then Alessio pulled out the gun and held it at Henry's face.

There were a lot of things Henry could've said or done, he supposed. He might've tried to talk his way out, or make a heroic attempt to leap and strike preemptively, or bolt for the door. None of it mattered, because before Henry could say or do anything but hear a scare chord in his mind, in harmony with the beat of his doomed heart, Alessio pulled the trigger.

A flag popped out. That was a thing.

Henry heard the sound of the 'gun', and flinched, eyes closing, but then, he opened them, almost out of morbid curiosity. He stood there, for a brief, silent moment, staring at the flag. Then he chose Option 3.

Henry darted past Alessio, but in his haste, he left his bag on the floor. He hesitated as he moved past the boy, and glancing at Alessio caused him to miss the turn towards the door out, and instead slam into the opposite wall.

Stunned, Henry staggered backwards a foot, nearly losing his balance in the process.

[RC†]

Oh no.

Astrid's. Gun, it said something. He read it out loud.

"Bang."

Alessio did not think about the Astrid situation back then, did not think about the fact that Astrid threatened him with a fake gun. He just thought about Henry and Henry's panic, which lead to Alessio panicking.

Henry escaped. Al was scared of Henry escaping, he did not know why. He felt like Henry should be dead after having pulled the trigger, but Henry was alive and ran away and he looked so scared and Al saw Henry at the door.

He jogged to Henry while putting the gun back into his pocket.

He grabbed Henry, pulled him by his shirt, wanted to keep him here. So he shoved him against the window. But the window was already broken. Al had no control and no clue what to do with Henry, until he saw something.

Glass.

He grabbed the shard tightly and his hand hurt and probably bled, but he did not look at it since he was too focussed on using it as a knife, or a pickaxe he could inject it into the stomach of Henry, who also had his important organs in them, just like everybody else on this island. And Al had to repeat stabbing. And his hand hurt.

But god fucking damn it. Using a gun was easier. Godfuckingdamnit. His hoodie used to be white.

[Espi]

"Woah!"

That was the sound Henry made when Al grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him against the wall.

"Hey, wait!"

That was the sound Henry made when Al picked up a shard of glass and-

"Uglh."

That was the sound Henry made when Al stabbed him in the abdomen, right under the sternum, with the chunk of sharp ex-window, and-

"Aaaah!"

That was the sound Henry made when Al stabbed him again, this time just to the right of his belly button.

Al let him go and ran. Henry slumped to the ground on his knees, holding his belly as blood came out and got all over his fingers as his insides leaked. He'd never been stabbed before, nor had he seen anything like it. It felt like he'd been punched all in his insides, and red stuff was everywhere,on his pants and shirt and making a puddle around him.

Inside wasn't much better. Henry wanted to cry, so he did, tears running down his face as he sobbed, loudly. He wanted his dad. He wanted to go home. He wanted Jae.

[RC†]

It hurt. His hand. He dropped his weapon. He swiped the blood off by rubbing his hand palms against his hoodie, making it have more strains of red in it. He left Henry to die. Running out of the room, grabbing Henry's bag.

Henry's sounds wanted to evoke empathy from Al, but Al knew that empathy hurt. Empathy was no good for him. Al did not want to think to be Henry, who probably was in pain. Al did not want to think to be Cameron, who was dead. Dead. Al did not want to die. He did not want to think about being dead. Al was Al, Henry was Henry. Henry had awful pain, Al has a sting from the cut in his palms. Facts.

He left to a location that was much more peaceful. The hallway. It was empty, but he spoke.

He killed Cameron. He killed Astrid. He killed Henry.

"I'm not a monster."

But he just becomes one.

((Al left.))

[Espi]

Wishes don't come true.

Henry was bleeding out. Al took his bag but left the staff. In a way, it was karmic; Henry had stolen something, and now that same thing was being stolen from him. As his muscles weakened, starved of nutrients and oxygen, he fell from his knees onto his right side, laying helpless in a pool of blood.

He closed his eyes; tears were still dripping from his face, but he was too fatigued to cry anymore. Did it matter what he did now? He was dying, right? Not even a heroic death, doing something worthwhile with his final moments of existence like he would've hoped.

But wishes don't come true. It was like some of his movies and books; in the end, none of it mattered. He would die, just like everyone else here, and all those deaths were wasteful.

Henry wished someone else was here. Jae, or his dad, or Asha, or someone he cared about. He wanted to be with them, selfishly, so he didn't have to be scared of what was to come. In his last moments, as his breathing became more difficult, as the bleeding slowed and his chest ached and his vision blurred and his head hurt, he wished for a companion to make things a little easier.

But wishes don't come true. He was all alone save for the gleaming camera he could see from the corner of his eye. He wanted to smash it, just because, but he couldn't even sit up anymore.

He didn't know what happened when a person died; nobody did, not really. Not anyone alive at least. He wished he knew. He wished that, when he couldn't see anything, as the last sound was his own ragged breathing, as he died, that things would be okay. He wished that he wasn't scared, or angry, or sad, that he could face whatever was left with dignity and a smile.

But wishes don't come true. So he died, soaked in blood and tears and other things, trembling and alone.

B014: Henry Spencer
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