Along the Path to Destiny...

[Megami†]

(OOC: I've got full permission from Kaishi to do this. MooCow and I had been discussing this prior to his LOA from the site anyhow.)

(Elsie continued from the woods; You can't turn back the hands of time.... Cody continued from the ravine, Reflection.)

Girl #29, Elsie Darroch, had seen a lot on this island. She'd witnessed an intense gunfight between Cody Jenson and Shinya Motomura, she'd watched the murder of Fred Hughes, she'd watched Vince Samsa all but turn his back on their group and leave them to die, and she'd found her best friend, only to lose her again. Unfortunately, Elsie Darroch couldn't remember any of that. All she remembered was that several hours ago, she'd woken up lying in the middle of the woods, and since then, she'd wandered aimlessly around what she could only assume to be an island looking for some companion trip. This was turning out to be a lame school trip.

Somewhere in the hours that had followed her "awakening", Elsie had wound up here, and now stood in a field of grass nearly waist-high on the young blonde. There was something eerie about the field in front of her, and the hairs on the back of Elsie's neck were standing up as she waded through the lightly swaying grass. Even though the setting sun cast a radiant glow over the field, Elsie was unable to see the remains of the helicopter that had descended from her current vantage point, and was even less able to see the bodies that were strewn in various places across the field. Had she been able to see any of these things, Elsie Darroch might have ran. Fast. Instead, Elsie continued to slowly wade through the overgrown field, in search of somebody, anybody.

The loud rumbling noise echoing in the distance piqued the young girl's curiosity, and she stopped in her tracks to face the direction the noise was coming from. The roar became louder and louder, until at last the source from which it came was clearly visible in the form of a boy riding a motorcycle at an almost blistering pace. The motorcyclist all but ramped a small hill and landed in the field, continuing to ride on and drawing ever closer to Elsie. Her eyes widened with joy and Elsie began jumping up and down, signaling for the rider to come closer. Elsie Darroch saw answers, a friend, and a ride. Cody Jenson, however, saw another obstacle standing in his way.

"Hey! Hey YOU! OVER HERE!"

Elsie continued to shout and jump until the motorcyclist skidded to a hault directly in front of her, slinging up a bit of dirt from the ground as he did so. Her eyes traced the boy's figure up and down quickly, trying to assess the boy in a matter of moments. All thoughts of Survival of the Fittest had been temporarily purged from her mind and instead, she merely assumed the boy had met with a series of unfortunate accidents. Either that, or he was a really, really bad driver. A smile crossed Elsie's lips, and Cody seemed to smile too, although the look on his face was actually more one of mild amusement than anything else. Still, in the back of her mind, there was something so familiar about him.

"Mind telling me where I'm at? Or what's going on? Who are you, anyway? I... I woke up in, I don't know, a forest or something, a couple hours ago, and I've been wandering around here ever since. I'm supposed to be with my high school on a trip to Paris. And, well, THIS..." Elsie emphasized the point by motioning around to the field surrounding them, "most certainly doesn't look like Paris."

Cody looked on at the blubbering blonde before him, a look of amusement forming on his face. This girl really was stupid. Hell, she was probably the reason the whole "dumb blonde" thing got started in the first place. As she started rambling about a class trip and Paris, France, Cody Jenson could no longer contain himself and burst into a fit of laughter, causing the girl to shoot him a dirty look.

"What's so funny?" Elsie practically demanded.

A frustrated expression began to form on the blonde's face, and Cody Jenson could do nothing but continue to laugh. He hadn't been this amused in a long time. This girl, his new little toy, she was amusing, that much was for sure. Still, Cody couldn't shake the sense of deja vu he was feeling. All at once, it clicked. This girl, she had been with her back at the lighthouse. Back before she'd betrayed him, just like all the rest. This girl had been there. She'd escaped death then, but not this time... not this time.

"Stupid twat."

The words were spat hatefully from Cody's mouth as everything seemed to click into place all at once. Elsie's face scrunched up in an angry manner at the snide remark Cody had just made, but once again, that sinister smile began to appear on the lips of the motorcyclist. This really was fate. Fate had sent her to him a second time so that she could be effectively dealt with. Meanwhile, Elsie Darroch was thinking nothing of the sort, and was in fact rather annoyed by Cody's smart-aleck remark toward her. What had she done?

"Excuse me?!" the girl practically shrieked.

Sighing loudly as if exasperated, Cody looked toward the girl and rolled his eyes, then shook his head. This was becoming a real incovenience, he didn't have time for such trivial matters. Then again... what was the fun in doing someone in who was completely oblivious as to what was going on?

"I suppose I should tell you, then," he muttered quietly. After all, it's the gentlemanly thing to do, before I kill you. "You're on an island, you're... playing a game."

Satisfied with the answer, Cody flashed her another grin, his teeth still stained a dull red in color from all the blood he had expelled from his body earlier. At the boy's response, an even more confused look formed on the blonde's face, and she looked at him, quite dumbfoundedly.

"A game? What the hell are you talking about? What kind of game? Why're we playing a game?"

"Oh, it's a fun game," Cody responded slyly, "You've played with me before." Almost as if it was an afterthought, Cody stated the last line with no particular emotion to it, "When I killed that pig-faced Brit. Remember? Got him good, too. Three times in the stomach. Bang, bang, bang, and he was dead. Just like that."

Elsie's eyes widened and she took a few steps back, suddenly realizing that she was in the prescence of a madman. Cody's eyes narrowed as she began to step away, and a sinister look slipped over his face. He retained a certain innocence in his voice, however, as he voiced his next inquiry.

"Where are you going? Don't you want to hear my story? It's a good one."

With a roar, the motorcycle was suddenly brought to life, and before Elsie could run more than five feet, the bike had completely circled her, and Cody was now once again in front of her, a wild look now in his eyes. He smiled again, that same toothy smile, and continued to glare at the girl.

"How rude," he mused after a moment, "You aren't supposed to walk away when others are talking. Didn't your parents teach you any manners? As I was saying before I was interrupted, it's a fun game. A game where you get to kill people. See, I've got people to kill. I've killed a lot of people to get to them, and I've gotta go through a couple more, but there's two people I'm gonna kill before I leave this island, and that's Sidney Crosby and Adam Dodd. I killed Dodd's bitches. Both of 'em. Even saw him just a short while ago. Idiot was sleeping in the woods, can you believe that? Could've just walked up to him and BLAM! He'd have been none the wiser, he'd have just been, well, dead. Didn't do it though, where's the fun in that? Ya gotta fuck with them a little first. We had a long chat, told him my name was Andrew, we allied for a while. He doesn't have a clue."

Cody grinned again, clearly proud of his accomplishments. Meanwhile, Elsie had started to back away again, clearly scared of the boy sitting before her now. Her eyes searched the area in a panicked manner, searching for someone to help her. Elsie Darroch quickly discovered, however, that there was no help here.

"Well..." she sputtered furiously, "I'm gonna find Dodd, I'm gonna tell him, and I hope he kicks your ass!"

As the last words left her mouth, Elsie took off in a full sprint across the overgrown field. Loretta once again roared to life and Cody withdrew the tire iron from the back of his pants where it had been stowed. The hunt was now on, and Elsie Darroch was his current pray. Cody laughed inwardly then gunned the engine, enjoying the noise the motor made as it ran. It may have been oblivious to anyone else, but Cody Jenson was giving the girl a head start. All at once the bike took off, Cody waving the tire iron about haphazardly as he stalked toward the sprinting girl. Within moments a sickening thud was heard, followed by a loud and anguished scream. The bike was once again shut off, his pack disguarded to the side, and Cody Jenson was standing above Elsie Darroch, his tire iron held idly in his left hand and that sick smile once again gracing his face.

"You were supposed to be more of a challenge," he cooed lightly as he swung the tire iron around in his left hand.

Meanwhile, Elsie lay writhing in pain in the grassy field, her eyes, nose, and mouth filled with dirt and a strange rasping sound coming from her lungs after the tire iron had impacted with her back. She sputtered and coughed pitifully, spots of red dotting the ground as she did so. Despite that, Elsie struggled to get to her feet, and Cody stood by and watched as she did, an indescribable expression playing on his features as he seemed to bask in her suffering.

"Get up," he mused, "You're supposed to be a challenge. You're supposed to fight back. Where's the fun in killing someone as pitiful as you? You're weak."

That being said, his foot impacted with the girl's stomach, sending her sprawled out across the ground once again. Again and again, Cody's foot came pounding down on the downed girl's abdomen, and all the blonde could do in retaliation was let out a series of pained yelps. Somewhere in the back of her mind Elsie thought of her unborn child, the fetus inside her that Cody Jenson was no doubt brutally murdering every time his foot impacted with her stomach. Out of sheer frustration, Elsie grabbed the tire iron hanging limply at Cody's side and made an attempt to wrestle it away from him. Clearly no strength for the boy, Cody used Elsie's grip to all but pull her to her feet from the ground, then connected another punch to her temple, sending her stumbling to his left. In a rage, Cody raised the tire iron over his head with both hands and swung down furiously. Fortunately for Elsie, the lag it caused had allowed her to grab his pack, and she thrust it up into the air, blocking Cody's attack with the tire iron. The impact nearly tore the bag to shreds and sent Cody stumbling backward in the process. Inside the now unzipped bag, Elsie saw the glimmer of a blade and quickly grabbed for it. It was Cody's handaxe.

Swinging the handaxe around, Elsie managed to meet another attack from Cody's tire iron with the handle of the axe, but the pure strength of the boy sent her stumbling backward. Quickly regrouping, Elsie ran at the boy, swinging the axe at an angle attempted to cut his head off. Cody ducked, instead connecting the tire iron into Elsie's ribs with a sickening crack. A deep gasp escaped Elsie's lips from the sheer pain of the injury, but she was now running on pure adrenaline, and the pain seemed dull in comparison to the thought of dying. Swinging the axe once again, the blade met Cody's tire iron and the grating noise of metal on metal was heard as the two warriors pulled away from one another.

Taking a few steps back, Elsie took a defensive stance with the axe, still breathing heavily from the wound she had incurred to her ribs. Meanwhile, Cody used his arm to wipe away the blood that had once again begun to drizzle from his mouth, the smile returning to his face. Swinging the tire iron in front of him, almost as though it were a sword, Cody began to circle the axe-weilding girl, and a laugh began escaping his lips. Likewise Elsie began walking in a large circle in an attempt to keep away from her would-be murderer, though she certainly didn't find anything funny in the matter.

"This is more like it," Cody cooed once again, seemingly turned on by the recent ongoings.

Elsie's eyes couldn't help but trail down to the bulge that had once again formed in Cody's pants for what had to have been the dozenth time during the course of the game, and a hate-filled glare mixed with a look of pure disgust was cast toward the tire iron-weilding psychopath.

"Sick motherfucker," Elsie spit out.

Almost instantly, she once again found the tire iron swinging through the air toward her. Swinging the axe around once again, the weapon absorbed the brunt of the blow. What Elsie hadn't expected, however, was that Cody had now dropped the tire iron and grabbed her wrists with his hands, effectively positioning her in an awkward manner that she was unable to get out of. Unable to move in her current position, Elsie was completely defenseless to the headbutt Cody issued her, sending her sprawled out on the ground once again. At that moment, all Elsie Darroch could see was the orangish-pink sky overhead, which was quickly fading into darkness. A shadow overtook her view as Cody Jenson emerged hoovering over her, and all at once Elsie felt a sharp pain in her chest as Cody practically tackled her into the dirt, placing all his weight on her. Instantly, a fist connected with her face, then another, and another. By now blood was pouring from virtually every imaginable place on Elsie's face, but she still continued to struggle against her attacker.

"STOP!" Elsie shrieked, coughing up a spattering of blood onto the boy as she did so.

Cody looked at her, then to the blood on his white wifebeater as though disgusted. Rising to his feet, he actually stepped away from the beaten girl, much to her own surprise. Kicking up dust in a feeble attempt to scurry to her feet, Elsie was in no condition to run, nor to stay here and continue the fight with this monster. She hadn't seen Cody Jenson kneel down as she was trying to get up, and as he turned toward her, a glazed over look in his eyes, Elsie was taken completely aback as she saw the gleam of the axe in his hand. In one fell swoop, Cody Jenson swung the axe and all Elsie Darroch saw was the gleam of the blade, followed by an intense black, as Cody completely severed her mid-section in half with the weapon. Elsie continued to stand for a moment, as if dumbfounded, before finally both her top and bottom half fell to the ground with a loud thump.

Cody Jenson stood back a moment to marvel at his own artwork. She had been a worthy opponent indeed. In fact, she'd put up more fight than probably anyone else he'd encountered thus far on the island. Taking a moment to pick up his tire iron and re-gather his belongings, Cody continued to marvel at the bloody speciman before him. As if finally deciding on a course of action, Cody once again raised the axe and severed the blonde's head from the rest of her body. The quiet sound of humming once again started to emit from Cody's throat as he went about using the blonde's hair to fasten her decapitated head around the handlebars of Loretta. To anyone else, it might have been weird, even freakish. To Cody Jenson, though, it was a thing of beauty. This girl had been a warrior, surprisingly more of one than many of the other kids on this island. And now he had his trophy to always remember her by.

There'll be others who stand in my way... who threaten to take away my glory and defy my destiny... but they'll all meet the same fate, and this girl, she's a reminder of that fact.

The motor of Loretta roared to life for the umpteenth time since Cody Jenson had found her and Cody once again blazed off into the sunset, this time with his new trophy, the wide-eyed head of Elsie Darroch, tied to the handlebars of his other prize. The remnants of the blonde flapped wildly in the cool evening breeze as Cody once again set off in search of Sidney Crosby, the next on his list of kills, the next stepping stone on his path to destiny.

GIRL #29 - ELSIE DARROCH - ELIMINATED

(Continued at the Hillside Cliff; The Casualties of War.)