F

[VoltTurtle]

((Amber Yates continued from Mildew and Melancholy))

Amber grumbled, trudging through the jungle, her tank-top soaked around her armpits, uncomfortably hot.

It was getting vaguely close to sunset, and light rain had started just a few minutes ago, so that might bring some relief from the heat, and she could probably try to refill her empty water bottles if the rain grew more intense, but she hated being rained on, even if she had a fair amount of experience with it with her outdoorsy hobbies. Plus, it wouldn't help with the sticky feeling from all the humidity and the sweat soaking into her clothing, and would probably make walking around even harder. Also, her boyfriend was dead and she let the killer get away, and that obviously made her feel absolutely fantastic.

All in all, Amber could really use a smoke.

The vegetation was growing more sparse as she approached some kind of clearing, eventually catching a glimpse of some kind of temple in the distance. Amber approached the old building carefully, eventually arriving in some kind of strange garden with a bunch of statues and overgrown potted plants scattered about. It clearly looked like some kind of memorial for something, that was for sure, but even after looking around, Amber couldn't identify any markings that would glean information as to what this place was actually for.

Shrugging and electing to take a moment to rest, Amber sat down in the shade of one of the larger statues, breathing a sigh of relief as her muscles finally got the chance to relax. Her mind couldn't relax, however, an immense weight seemingly pressing down on her chest, her face scrunching up as she began to cry once again.

Hey, Blue?

Yeah?

I don't really know what to do about Abel's death. I just... can't get it out of my mind. I don't even want to get it out of my mind, because I feel like if I did, especially so soon, that'd be devaluing his memory.

Hmm... perhaps you could try dedicating something in his memory? Maybe hosting a little memorial service with just us? It seems to me like you just need some kind of closure.

Amber's took a deep breath, leaning her head back against the statue as the rain started to pick up a bit, hiding her tears from the world.

Yeah, that's... actually a good idea.

Abel wouldn't have wanted her to mope around over his death. He would probably even crack a joke about it, if he had the chance. She just needed some closure, that's all, so she could move forward. To what exactly she was moving towards she didn't know, but she knew that she had to move on regardless.

Sitting up and wandering around the length of the garden, rain pouring from the sky, Amber collected stones of varying shapes and sizes, before returning to where she had been sitting. She slowly stacked the rocks, one by one, beneath the statue, the largest stone at the bottom and the smallest at the top. Looking at her work after carefully making sure it was balanced properly, she concluded that it wasn't exactly much, but it was the best she could reasonably do at the moment, and Abel probably wouldn't mind either way.

Sitting down directly in front of the little stack of rocks, Amber stared at it for a bit, contemplating the fact that she had just built her boyfriend's memorial on this island, the somber truth of his death finally, truly connecting with her on an emotional level. Inhaling deeply, trying to steady her breathing, she began to speak, unsure of what she would actually say before her mouth started moving.

"Um... so... this is Amber Yates talking about my... um... boyfriend, Abel Zelenovic."

Taking another deep breath, the rain beginning to thoroughly soak her clothes and hair, Amber continued.

"So if you're watching this, that means one of two things. Either you're like me and watching a recording of this on the internet somewhere for whatever reason, or you're one of the terrorists that put me and everyone else here." She gulped, considering if that kind of audience would want to hear what she has to say, but decided quickly that it didn't matter. "If you're like me, please stop watching, or at least do so when I finish. And if you're one of the terrorists..." She breathed, trying to keep her voice from wavering, despite her throat beginning to tighten up. "...if you're one of the terrorists, I hope you die in agony, regretting everything you've ever done."

Smiling at her small, inconsequential act of defiance, she moved on to the meat of what she had to say. "For those listening, Abel was my boyfriend, and one of the people I cared most about. He was a sweetheart, and always able to strike up a conversation with anyone about anything, always there for anyone who needed him to be. We met a few years ago when I started cheer-leading and we got along pretty much immediately, even though we had surprisingly few hobbies in common. Because despite all that, he always listened and cared when I talked about my hobbies, and I always listened and cared when he talked about his hobbies."

She took another breath, steadying her voice as much as she could, the rain soaking into her skin and hiding just how much she was crying.

"I'm weird, and I know I am. I think weirdly, I behave weirdly, and I tend to make situations I'm in more awkward. But Abel didn't care about all that, he just saw me for... me. If anything, he liked how weird I was, since he thought it was cute. He never made me feel bad for being who I was, unlike so many other people. He 'got' me when no-one else did."

She choked on those last few words, her voice breaking as she said them, and she took her time to breathe and let her throat relax a bit before she began to talk again.

"He was a wonderful person, and the world is worse for his loss. And... if all we are after we die is the memories of those we left behind, I'm not going to let what happened to him here tarnish those memories. He was more than a victim, and more than the first person to die in this iteration of these death games. I dearly loved him, and I still do, and nothing that happened here will ever change that."

She swallowed, her hair clinging to her head and face from the dampness, the tightness in her throat starting to disappear.

"If you're like me, and you're still watching, thank you for listening. Now please, stop watching. Your life will be better if you do, trust me." Her gaze turned upwards, towards the sky, her hair falling back behind her head as she did so, "And... if you're one of the people responsible for Abel's death," she inhaled, steadying her nerves, "I hope that, after they catch you, that they put your executions up on the internet for everyone to enjoy, just like you did to us and so many before."

Wiping the rain from her face and tears from her eyes, Amber began to stand up, her last words on the matter belying a confidence that she didn't really have-

Amber suddenly heard a loud thumping noise, as pain shot through the top of her head, stars shooting through her vision briefly as she reflexively ducked back down, before backing up and standing up in full. An intense feeling of soreness emanating from the top of her scalp, Amber realized that the statue she had made Abel's memorial under had a bit of stonework sticking out from it, something she had just cracked her skull on.

Rubbing the top of her scalp through her beanie, she muttered curses under her breath, scolding herself for completely ruining the mood of the scene she set just by not properly paying attention to her surroundings. Shrugging it off, she stared in silence at the memorial, unsure of what else to do or say.

That was good, Amber, I liked it.

Thanks, Blue.

Although, Blue began to respond, the wind picking up around Amber, her soaked hair wavering ever so slightly in response, the memorial you made might be destroyed by someone, or by the wind.

That's okay, Blue. Everything fades, eventually. We'll fade, everyone we know and everything we've made will too, but it'll always be preserved in this moment in time. This moment was all that mattered, it was enough.

Slowly nodding her head towards the pyramid of stones, Amber forced herself to smile just a little as she decided to speak one last time, her voice soft, whispering with no intention for anyone but herself to hear it.

"I love you, Abel..."

Turning her head aside, and her gaze towards the horizon, Amber began to walk again, away from this place, her movements slow and deliberate as she wrapped her hands around the strap of her bag.

"...Goodbye."

((Amber Yates continued elsewhere...))