In Theory, This Should Be Easy

[Nadir†]

Steve just watched as William set off, walking ominously as he had done when he arrived, gun still in hand, bags slung over his shoulder. He watched as he picked up Aislyn´s stick from the floor. Steven mentally chastised himself for not having done so himself, but actually he didn´t considered the stick to be a weapon as useful as his cricket bat. Let Will take it. Fuck, let Will take everything, as long as he goes away.

Actually, the last thing William had said to him almost made him want to go up to the boy and literally stick the cricket but up his arsehole. But he decided not to do so. It was that kind of rage the thing that had got Aislyn killed. The rage also had been the reason that Kimberly had tried to take control of the situation. Steve wasn´t responsible of Aislyn´s death. No, he would never, ever, acept that. Now he could understand a little bit of Kimberly´s need to make the other boy eat his words.

He had tried to help the others. He had tried to earn their trust. But then they just had fucked things up. It was not his fault, in any way. It was Kimberly´s fault. It was Aislyn´s own damn fault. And it was Will´s fault too. If he hadn´t appeared, maybe he could have just hanged around with Kim and Aislyn...

Although, actually, Will had a point. Steven would not repeat the same mistake twice, at all... right now he was just in the place where he started, with just a cricket bat and his skills for Drama to defend himself against the roaming murderers and psychos that populated the island. Just lovely.

And then the other girl had just popped out of nowhere. Well, at least she seemed fun. Not crazy, like Kimberly. Not bitchy, like Aislyn. And certainly not as foul-mouthed as Mr.Hearst had been.

"Well...", he said, turning to her "Felicia, isn´t it? You got any idea of where to go right now?"

He paused and then he turned around, staring at the sea. He could feel her presence, still in the air. Aislyn. Fuck, Steven wanted to admit he was sorry. But somehow the words just got choked up on his throat, making a lump.

"The boy that just went that way... his name was Will. The other girl that just ran away before you popped up was Kimberly. The girl that right now is sleeping with the fishes was Aislyn... and I am Steven Hunt. Or just Steve, whichever you prefer. Basically they were the first people I met on three or four days or so. And then one of them goes and fucks everything up. The result? One of them gets killed and then the others storm off... and to think I considered of forming a group with them..." he trailed off.

He paused. He really had to stop talking. Sometimes he even bothered himself by doing that.

"So...", he said, looking at her again "Do I call you Felicia or you have a nickname of sorts?"

[MK Kilmarnock]

This was just one of those days where everything started to rub her the wrong way. First, the atmosphere of the docks was just all wrong. Two guys, obviously at odds with each other in how Will spat out his words, not to mention the killing glances towards each other.

So much for the peace and love aspect, but no... no, seriously, that's blood all over the dock. And I know for a fact it isn't Chris's blood, because this certainly doesn't look like a creepy zombie-filled mansion. So why's it just as scary?

Given all the awkwardness and just how uncomfortable it had made her feel, Felicia would give anything to have that feeling back after what Will had said to her. The combination of what he had said and just how he said it, all foreboding and such...

"Oh, and Felicia? Don't look in the water."

Her body froze up, preventing her from stopping Will. She would never glean the information of just what was in the water from him now that he was leaving her alone with Steve, because he'd never have the bravery to even ask. But when somebody tells you in such a mysterious fashion not to look in the water, it's only natural that you just have to look in the damn water. Not that she particularly wanted to... with the blood all over the docks and this island being what it was, what lay waiting in the water probably wasn't a happy meal or one of those bouncy castles.

Felicia still trembled at the very thought of looking in the water as, finally struggling out of her paralysis, she edged to the side of the docks. It wouldn't be so hard to do this... just take a quick peek down, survey the goddamn train wreck that Mr. 'Hi I'm Will and I'm going to leave now' oh so generously set her up for, maybe puke, get cuddled by Steve, and call it good. When the last remaining boy decided to speak up, it made the concentrating girl jump a little.

"The boy that just went that way... his name was Will..."

Yeah, I know that, goofball, I went to school with you both... remember?

"The other girl that just ran away before you popped up was Kimberly."

Oh, that's who that was? There's one good thing about today, I got to look at a cute butt and live to fantasize about it. Boy, this guy talks a lot.

"The girl that right now is sleeping with the fishes was Aislyn..."

If Steve had said anything after that, Felicia didn't hear it. Aislyn. Aislyn. Aislyn. The name ricocheted through her head, pounding from wall to wall and pushing through everything inside, rendering her brain into a scrambled and mushy pile of slop. The blood, all over things where it clearly shouldn't have been, that was Aislyn's. The pointed stick that Will took... no, STOLE, that was Aislyn's. She had been sharpening it ever since their time on the mountain... why had she not recognized it? And... the body in the water... that was...

Felicia looked down against her better judgement, then turned around and closed her eyes, trying to unsee what would never leave her memory for as long as she would live. Another one of her friends was dead and yes, Aislyn was her friend. They had a spat, something girls had. Friends fought all the time and over the pettiest of things. This was a fight over something more significant, but they would've it worked it out! Felicia would run into Aislyn's arms, hug her, tell her she was sorry and receive the same, and all of it was going to be better.

But that was a fucking lie, wasn't it? Everything was just a bald-faced lie. As long as two people were anywhere near each other on this island of nonsense, they were all just going to keep killing each other, and that was the bottom line because Mr. Fuckin' Danya said so.

"So... do I call you Felicia or you have a nickname of sorts?"

That was the next thing she heard before her hands clamped down on her ears. No matter how much she tried to deprive herself of her senses, each of them fought back, blinding her with images of Aislyn, and deafening her with Steve's voice.

Shut up. God damn it, shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!

"No, what you can do... right now..." Felicia croaked, her eyes shooting open and focusing on Steve. Her hands jerkily removed themselves from where they had locked on her temple, and they did their best to find Steve's shoulders, to clamp onto them with force equal to her despair. ".. is to tell me who killed her. Right now. Right. The fuck. NOW."

She couldn't even feel the tears on her face as they rolled down her cheeks, clogging her words.

[Nadir†]

When Felicia´s hands clamped onto his shoulders, Steven instictively tensed up. He was not the kind of person used to bodily contact, and not especially when it came from a girl who was having a nervous breakdown right there, right now.

Anyway, he had fucked up things. Again. He should have chosen his words more carefully, before having opened bis bloody hole at all. It seemed like the new gal at the docks and Aislyn knew each other, apparently. Pity, maybe if she had arrived five minutes earlier all this shit could have been avoided. Kimberly wouldn´t have dared to threaten more than one person with a gun. Or would she? Well, now he would never know.

He calmed down when he saw the tears in Felicia´s eyes. But at the same time he began to feel his eyes getting progresively wet and misty, darkening his vision and letting him unaware of his surroundings.

Then, he realized, he had been running around during all his time in this shithole... and he hadn´t even had the time to sit down and feel scared. Or feel sad.

He didn´t know why he did what he did next. He just pulled Felicia in for an embrace, hugged her tightly while he rested his head against her shoulder, his tears getting her clothes wet.

"Im sorry..." he said, trying to fight back tears, trying to say something that, for once, would be valuable, would be useful "I´m so sorry..."

Then he raised his head just a little, so then his mouth would be at her ear´s height, and he leaned in quietly and whispered.

"It was Kimberly... the one who did it. She took me as a hostage, tried to use me as a piece of leverage to trade Will´s gun for my safety. However, as you would have figured out, Will couldn´t give a fuck about me. And then Aislyn..."

He paused, choking up. It was still too recent. Too painful. But he had to let it out. He had to let Felicia know. She had the right to know.

"...she tried to attack Kimberly with the cricket bat I gave her. But her plan failed. They ended up on a struggle, and Aislyn got stabbed..." he wanted to say it hadn´t been Kimberly´s fault. It all had been an accident. An unfortunate, deadly accident, but an accident nonetheless... however, he just kept silent. For once, let Kimberly take the blame for all her shit. She had taken him hostage, damnit! She basically had it coming, whatever happened to her.

"I tried to help her..." he kept whispering, into Felicia´s ear. Hoping that would calm her down "But she told me off, she told me there was no way that I could help her... and then she decided to end it on her own terms... she jumped off the boards an into the sea... and then Will was going to shoot me and Kimberly anyway"

He paused for a brief moment. Bunch of motherfuckers turned all of them to be. He would show them. Show them all.

"And then..." he continued, letting his words overried him completely "You appeared and when Will got distracted Kimberly ran away. That´s basically all that happened"

He buried his head on Felicia´s shoulders, hoping that she didn´t jerk away from him. He was alone. Isolated. Scared. He didn´t want this shit to happen again.

"Please..." he sobbed, pretty much the same thing he had done with Aislyn "Please, don´t leave me".

He prayed. To a God or some higher power that had long since forgot about him. But he had nothing to lose. Not now. Just his life and his cricket bat.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Get off me.

"Get off of me..."

Get off!

"GET THE FUCK OFF!" Felicia screeched as she shoved Steven away from her. She had an overwhelming desire to dig at her ear, to scratch out all the whispers that irritated it, telling her things that she asked for but didn't want to hear. Like he was really sorry? Yeah, Steven was full of shit just like everybody else here on this shitty, stupid, shitty, stupid island.

Kimberly, he said, was the true culprit behind it all. If that was true, then Felicia had just missed Aislyn by a few minutes. Even worse, she had watched Kimberly go, free to go about her own business. She was long gone by now, no longer able to face her retribution. That was, assuming of course, Steve was telling the truth. If he was the one who really killed Aislyn, wouldn't he just lie to Felicia to get close to her, neutralize her as a threat?

It was too hot here and the air became to stagnant to breathe. She wanted to scream at Steve and call him out for the little shithead that he really was, to kick and punch him and tell him that she wanted to kill him for what he had done, because he was guilty of something. Either he killed Aislyn directly or he failed to save her life; either way was just as incriminating. She didn't deserve to die, not yet! They were all supposed to get old and become old cronies, becoming something reminiscent of a scene on the golden girls.

She stepped towards Steve, but turned to the side and stepped that way, gripping her hair. Those steps weren't right... she turned around, walking the other way. The grip on her hair became tugging, and tugging became pulling, and pulling became yanking. Maybe if she inflicted pain on herself, as superficial as it was, she might ease the terrible aching inside her that deprived her of breath.

Felicia lost her footing, and she crumpled down onto the docks with a sharp, pained yelp. Her exclamation seemed to free up her throat, and she lept at the opportunity to fill her lungs up with all the air she could hog for herself. It was all in preparation to scream; Felicia wanted to scream with everything she had, to show the world all the anger and frustration that had built up with everybody around her dying and leaving her helpless.

The scream never came to pierce the air. Instead, Felicia sobbed until there was no more of the precious air inside her. There was a gasp, another desperate bid to breath, and a continuation of sobbing. She could only hope Aislyn would allow her to cry, just this once.

[Nadir†]

(OOC: I asked some person on this site and they told me that character´s dead bodies can be moved without the consent of their handlers. But anyway, if someone thinks that what I did is innapropiate in any way, feel free to contact me via PM. Thank you very much).


He inmediately, right away, regretted having pulled Felicia close to him. He had felt sort of awkward during the hug, and it had left him exposed to whatever potential threat that could have sneaked upon them while they were at it. But part of his plan had been a success. The girl now was an emotional wreck, and now she would be fixated on revenge. Against Kimberly, hopefully. He didn´t want her to think he was bullshiting her in any way.

Her reaction had been perfectly understandable, actually. It was all perfect. Drama, tragedy, comedy... everything on a nutshell. Now she was on her knees, crying, tears streaming down her face, trying to scream but it seemed like her vocal chords weren´t paying her any attention.

He looked at her for a brief moment. He decided that it would be better to leave her alone, even if it was for a couple of minutes. He had a thing or two to do to keep himself busy. Shooting her a last glance before moving on, he set foot for the bait shop. He slammed the door open, and then the unsavory stench of rotten fish and rotting flesh saluted him, making him frown in disgust. His eyes darted inmediately to the corpse that was lying right there in open view. Daniel Kensrue. Alas, poor little Daniel. He had been shot. Well, at least it had been quick for him.

There was nothing useful in the bait shop. Or, if it had been before, it had been taken by William when he scouted there. Steven cursed at him in silence. He felt tempted of going outside and tell Felicia that, in some way, William and Kimberly were accomplices and that they both had killed Aislyn purposefully. It would be a lie, Steven knew it fully, but right now his rage at the other boy was such that he did not stop to ponder the ethical ramifications of letting Felicia set loose with only her rage guiding her. She would end up just like Aislyn. Dead and alone. How ironic.

Well, he had better do what he had come to do.

He grabbed Daniel´s corpse by the legs. Damn, the motherfucker was really heavy! He sighed and panted heavily as he pulled the dead boy outside the store, leaving behind a bloody trail that seemed to hightail the path the body was taking. He considered asking Felicia for help but in the end just decided against it. She was right now pretty much busy mourning her friend. He could ask her some questions later. About her plans or so. What she wanted to do, for example. Trying to kill Kimberly? He would want to go with her on that one. True, Aislyn wasn´t even his ally, but he had to admit she had come pretty much close to it when she actually had attacked Kimberly. Even if she had been a complete and utter bitch at him, she didn´t deserve that fate.

He pulled Daniel, and then took him right around the corner, until they were actually behind the bait shop, right were Felicia had been hiding just moments before. He stopped for a moment to catch breath. He knew what was doing was wrong, using a dead boy and tearing him away from his last resting place. But he knew if roles were reversed, Daniel would have pretty much done the same with him. After all, it was not like he was using him as food or even bait for fish. No, what Steven wanted to do was use him as a warning.

He slowly, and somewhat respectuflly, propped the boy, to look as if he was sitting up. He knew that from some distance Daniel would actually look dead, but that wasn´t the point at all. No, Daniel was to be seen by all folks that came around the docks. They would know that there was danger in that area, and that would keep most students out. Hopefully. Unless some psycho like Mr.Lombardi came along. In that case they were all toast.

He stood up, and shot a remorseful glance at the dead guy. He wanted to say something. A prayer maybe. Two, one for him and one for Aislyn. Or maybe another one for Eric, or for that girl that had fell on the river when all he could do was only watch. Maybe even one for Alex, as much of a psycho he had been. And for Brock. And for Lillian.

"Fuck this..." it was everything that left his mouth. He could say a prayer for everyone who had died on this island at that point. He could make a prayer for everyone who would die if a stop was not brought to this. He could do all of that . But he knew it wouldn´t accomplish nothing, only waste his breath. He had never been a particularly religious man, and he didn´t intend to start praying now to a God he didn´t even knew if existed.

He wanted to say something to Felicia. Tried to comfort her, even if he knew that there was no use for it. It wasn´t like Aislyn or even Daniel here were sleeping, they were not unconscious, they were dead. And he had to begin to face the truth: probably he would go down the same way, unless he took a stand here and now. He had to stop running away in circles. He laid against the back of the bait shop, trying to make up his mind.

"Im sorry that this happened to you... and I´m sorry that this happened to her too" That was everything he could think of right now. Then he turned around and went back the corner, hoping that Felicia was still there, but knowing she would have probably ran away by now.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Felicia had to learn the hard way that once you cry for long enough, your body shoves itself into a great deal of pain in order to try and get you to stop. It was when the breaths that she took between sobs could no longer sustain her, and she just ran out of any more tears that she knew she'd have to get up. Crying like this over Aislyn's death would result in nothing useful. No amount of tears in the world would ever bring her back, and nobody here would have pity on her if they were to find her.

If Aislyn found out that I got myself killed by crying over her, she'd kill me...

That alone would not be enough to put a smile on her face. Thinking of Aislyn and her drive, her unshakable faith that she'd survive and be rescued, though... that meant strength. She had been right in pushing Felicia to survive, to get past her tears and forsake humanity if she had to in order to make it to the next day. She had been looking out for her all along, possibly even to the end. That was the Aislyn she knew. If Felicia was going to do her any justice, she was going to have to buck up, pick up the pieces, and move on.

Sniffing and opening her eyes that were blurred with tears, Felicia brought her hands under her and started pushing. Fingertips gripped at the rough and weathered wood, squeezing until her knuckles were white. Her arms shook under the strain, shaking off the sadness that seemed so inescapable by herself.

I'm going to make you proud, Aislyn. You'll see.

With a deep breath, she strained and clenched her teeth in exertion. She was going to get up, she was going to leave this place, and she was going to live as long as she could. Felicia finally succeeded in lifting her frame into a staggered crouch, gasping the salty air as her bittersweet reward. Steve wasn't anywhere on the docks when she looked, nor was he over by the bait shop. She couldn't care less, given her eyes locked upon the path that she approached this place by. The path that Kimberly had used to take her leave.

"I'm going to find Rosa..."

And she'll help me survive.

"... and Kimberly..."

And then I'll make her pay.

((Felicia Carmichael, continued in Legoland Empire.))

[Nadir†]

Actually, he felt glad when he turned the corner and saw that the girl had dissapeared. Rejection was one of the few things Steven didn´t took relatively well, and that included girls who he was not even barely interested in, even if he was gay. When she had pushed him away, basically Steven had hated her for it. He was just right there, offering her comfort and companionship after telling her how her friend had died, and then she just tore him apart by pushing him. Well, he hoped that she at least would serve her purpose. That is, find Kimberly and kill her.

He had more important things to worry about at that point.

Then, the loudspeakers crackled, again, and Danya´s smug voice began filling the air with the words of the island´s resident dictator. Steven began to listen through the names called out in the announcement, and he couldnt do but smile a little bit when he mentioned Aislyn´s death and Kimberly´s role in it. Now everybody in the island would know she was a murderer. She had prided herself on being so different than Will, so pure, so full of innocence. Well, that was to be no more. Now she was just cannon fodder, like the rest of them. Bitch thought of herself so intelligent, so calculating. It almost made him laugh.

He instantly tensed up when he heard the next danger zones being named out, and his heart began to race at one hundred per minute when "The Docks" were mentioned as being one of them. Shit! He had spend the last few minutes thinking about barricading himself on the bait shop, now that Daniel´s body was out of it and posed as a warning for the rest of the students. Fuck it, then.

He instantly grabbed his backpack, and, cricket bat in hand, he ran in the same direction Kimberly (and hopefully Felicia) had taken when they had decided to set off. His purpose was not to find them, but he had to admit that if he came across them fighting it would be a match interesting to watch.

He passed Phillip Ward´s body along the way. Strange nobody of them had seen him before. They have had some things to keep them busy at the moment. Steve just shot a look at the body and then kept on his way.

((Steven Hunt, continued in Peripetea))