Hyphaema

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((Raina Rose continued from Drawn To The Blood))

Well, things had all gone tits-up again pretty quickly, as they were wont to.

First Danger Zone. No, first the announcement, then the Danger Zone, since that only came at the end. Halfway to the end, Danya had said. Fully half of the people that Raina had set out to save were gone, victims of her hesitation and failure as much as whatever and whomever had done them in. The Danger Zone was the cherry on top of that particular mess of a cake, barring them from the bell tower. She and Penelope didn't know where Ben, Kiziah, or Lili were now. They would have to wait until the next day for their meeting place to be free.

But she couldn't let them stop moving. Half their class returning alive once she got them in gear was better than nobody at all. She had thought of something, finally, and she would make sure it came to fruition. So she led Penelope by the arm to the burnt-out shell of the library and hoped to find wisdom (and more importantly, kindling) in the pages left over.

[Malloon]

(Benjamin Lichter continues from On open ground, do not block the enemy's way.)

Ben approached the library from the back. He'd stayed close to the dormitory, to avoid having to walk down the hill and be in the open. As he got nearby he saw more clearly what the fire had done: dark stains of soot coated the windows, the ones that weren't broken, that is, and the roof had fallen in. But that wasn't what Ben had come to see.

He crept closer, hoping he could have a look inside without being disturbed.  

[VoltTurtle]

((Penelope Fitzgerald continued from Drawn To The Blood))

Penelope looked around the wreckage that was once called a library, ash coating every surface, bookshelves crumbled and broken, burnt away.

The spectacle was almost poetic in how it reflected upon her.

The danger zone had forced them away from the bell tower, and Raina had decided to drag her along back across the bridge and to the wreckage of the library. She had stayed mostly silent during the trip, far too worried about Ben's safety. He had never made it back to their meeting area before they were forced out. She had no way of knowing where he was, or if he was even okay. The best she could hope for was everyone to meet back up at the bell tower the next day, hope that nothing would come along and harm any of them.

Part of her doubted that everything was going to be okay.

She let go of Raina and took timid steps around the area, her eyes darting from burnt spectacle to burnt spectacle. Ash stirred into the air around her as she moved, the dust staining her black leggings and skirt with flecks of gray. Even the buildings were coming undone around her. Everything fading, everything she thought she knew going up in smoke.

She had never felt so little control before in her life.

She reached down, pulling the charred remains of a book from the ashen pile. She stared at it, her gaze vacant, her hand becoming stained with ash.

Words poured out of her mouth involuntarily, absentmindedly.

"You know... I used to spend a lot of time in the library back at Cochise with... with Sam."

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Raina nudged a bit of debris with her toe, gray ash smudging her shoe. "Yeah?" She said absentmindedly as Penelope spoke. She knew that the school library was one of Penelope's regular meeting places with Samuel; hadn't she joined them there time and again? It wasn't really about telling Raina something she didn't know or giving some big revelation. Penelope just needed to talk, to let everything out. Nice as Ben probably was, he didn't seem like the sort of person you could really pour your heart out to.

She tucked stray locks of hair behind her ears and knelt, pulling a second book from the wreckage and flipping it open. Part of it just disintegrated in her hand, but it wasn't entirely burnt.

There wasn't enough paper here for posters, but Raina deposited the half-intact book into her bag anyway. Let them think she was dumb. Let them think she wasn't planning ahead, planning anything at all. After this they could go back to the asylum, to the library there, and then to the bell tower when it was open again. There was no lighthouse on the island, but they could make their own beacon.

[Malloon]

Ben crept close to one of the broken windows. He crouched low to avoid anybody inside spotting him. The broken glass on the ground made him very glad he had shoes. Slowly he straightened, and peeked through a hole in the soot-covered glass.

Then he saw them - two girls. They didn't seem to notice him, so he started to look for what he came for. It wasn't easy among all that ash, and he strained to remember what it looked like.

He didn't see it. He would have to get closer. Should he risk being seen by the girls? He looked at what they were doing, and it seemed like they were collecting half-burnt books. Why? What was worth saving about them?

Ben didn't know, but it didn't seem like they were dangerous. And if they were, he could always run. And throw his boot. And if they weren't, maybe they would give him some food.

So he called out through the window: "Hey, uh, hi. " Despite his confidence, there was still some nervousness in his voice. "C-- can I come in?"

[VoltTurtle]

Penelope glanced over at the sound of a voice, her eyes narrowed.

She looked the boy over, not recognizing him beyond an extremely basic familiarity. A face she had seen in the hallways, once or twice. Not somebody she actually knew.

Thoughts about recruiting him to their cause raced inside her head, but she quieted them. There was no point to it, not anymore.

No reason to not trust the boy, however. He had been polite enough to ask to come in, no reason a ruthless killer would want to do that.

"Do what you want." She said, her gaze turning away from the boy and back towards the burnt book. "We can't stop you anyway."

She stared at the book, her thoughts drifting back to her time at Cochise, which already felt like a distant memory. Something that she could never come back to, no matter how badly she wanted it.

Words quietly poured out of her mouth again, addressed to nobody in particular.

"Sam, he..." She stopped, her mind struggling to come up with ways to properly describe someone who was no more. "He... meant a lot to me. Whenever I was feeling down he was always there for me and... and he always helped me feel better where nobody else in the whole world could manage."

Her grip on the book weakened, and she watched it fall into the ashes below. Ash stirred and stained her clothes even further, as her eyes focused on a few particles, watching them loftily drift back to the ground.

She sniffled, tears already beginning to flow. "I loved him and he's... he's j-just gone... I n-never got to say goodbye..."

[Riki]

"Hey."

[[Johnny McKay continued from Another Disappointment of Many]]

It was a subdued entrance.

There would be no other way to do it either way. Ben Lichter had taken a peek through a window into the burnt library. By the sound of the voices replying to him, Johnny recognized Penelope.

Still, he kept his distance. Something caused Johnny to hesitate, and it was something he couldn't quite place his finger on. That moment of hesitation did not last as long as Johnny had feared. He caught up with Ben. Slowly, his walk more akin to a shuffle than what a normal human would call 'going somewhere'.

Johnny have Ben a nod when he reached the guy. Then, he shifted over to the window Ben used just a moment before. Johnny could see Penelope. Johnny could see Raina.

It was less of a triumph than he had hoped for.

"Guess I'm here too."

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Raina's head jerked up when Ben called out, shoulders tensing. Penelope answered before she could, and now wasn't the best time for a lecture on why just inviting randos over to were they were was a bad idea, Raina really would have thought that their encounter with Kimiko yesterday - the day before? Things were starting to blur together when she thought back on them. - would have driven that point home.

"I mean, yeah, I guess- Johnny!"

She all but jumped to her feet. God, leave it to Johnny Ray McKay to hide out while she was looking all over for him and then just casually roll up once he slipped her mind. "Where the hell have you been!?" She called, ignoring the fact that she was the one who had run off on him. "We've been looking for you!" Raina found something like a smile tugging at her lips. She had been glad to see him on the first day, when he was just a familiar face in a confusing hell. She was more glad still now, probably really happy to see him for the first time ever.

Soon, she would be able to deliver on all the trust he had put in her.

Penelope wasn't feeling the cheer (and neither was Ben, but Raina didn't care about him that much). Raina turned back to her, almost-smile sliding off her face as Penelope continued her morose talk and yep, here came the tears. Raina had been wondering when they would show up.

"Penny..."

[Malloon]

The girl with the black hair looked him over, then told him to do what he wanted. The other girl hadn't protested. Ben would have felt better about it, though, if the first girl hadn't then started rambling to herself, obviously sad about something. That just made him feel like he was intruding. He pulled away from the window gingerly.

Then a guy approached from behind and greeted them. Ben's stomach lurched, and he froze in shock as the guy slowly approached the window. He only managed to twist his head around to look at the guy when he was almost beside him. Strangely, his inner voice supported his not socking the guy with his boot - something about "too many people around". The guy gave him a curt nod, as if he hadn't just snuck up on him and almost scared him to death. Ben watched wordlessly as the guy greeted the girls through the same hole in the window as he had just done. The other girl - the girl with the blue hair - greeted him back and called him "Johnny"; it was clear they knew each other and had been looking for one-another. Meanwhile, the black-haired girl had started crying.

It all felt very familiar - just like in Cochise, people would talk, relate, laugh, cry, and he would just stand on the sidelines, wondering if it would be rude to just go, or do whatever he needed to do at the moment.

He made the same decision he usually did.

He left Johnny talking to the blue-haired girl and walked around the library to the entrance. Inside, he saw more clearly just how excessive the destruction had been. Rubble was all around, and ash coated every surface left. But on the ash, difficult to see at a distance, but clearer when he crouched down, was what he'd been looking for: a yellowish powder.

Powder from a fire extinguisher. He remembered quite clearly the broadcast two days ago: "We will be resolving the situation shortly. Interfering would be ill advised." That hadn't been a trick, or lie. No, unless they had somehow managed to get onto the island without using a noisy boat or a helicopter in the middle of the day, there was only one possibility - there were terrorists on the island.

Ben stayed crouched for some time while he thought this through. What it meant.

It meant he needed to get prepared.

[VoltTurtle]

Penelope covered her face as she sobbed, temporarily shutting out the world around her.

The Johnny that Raina had been looking for had finally shown himself, but Penelope found it difficult to care. Everything seemed to be falling apart around her; her classmates were committing murder, her friends were dying left and right, and her plan was showing itself more and more to be nothing but a pipe dream.

She dropped to her knees, a cloud of ash being stirred into the air around her. Her hands timidly came off of her face as her sobbing quieted down.

Her voice escaped her lips once again, as her thoughts drifted back to Sam.

"That guy... that guy who killed Sam. He..." Her hands trembled, her voice tinged scarlet. "He... that bastard... he killed him..."  She balled her hands into fists. "He killed him and why did he even do it? Why would anyone want to kill someone as sweet as Sam? Why... why..."

She put her hands on the sides of her head, her breathing fast and heavy. "He's... he's probably some sort of... sick fuck that got off on killing Sam. There's... nothing else would make sense. Sam wouldn't have hurt him, Sam wouldn't have been a threat..."

"If I ran into that scumfuck degenerate I'd... I'd..."

Her hands quit trembling, and her breathing slowed down. "I'd..."

She sighed, her eyes downcast, her hands lowered. "I... I don't... I don't know what I'd do."

[Riki]

The reactions to Johnny's sudden arrival had certainly been varied. Penelope met him with apathy, and the only thing she would spare him were tears. Evidently, no tears spilled for him. Ben showed an even greater apathy and simply left Johnny to be. Went somewhere around the corner. Johnny could care less.

At least Raina was happy to see him.

That had to count for something.

Johnny took hold of the window's edge, and pulled himself up. The library was even worse to look at now that he saw it from the inside.

"Um... well, I was looking for you?"

He halted, got stuck a bit while trying to squeeze through the frame. Dust settled on his face and on his clothes on his everywhere, and the pain in his left hand flared up. This time, he managed to ignore it. This time, he felt he could do it.

Johnny arrived in the library on his feet. He dusted himself off, and sighed in relief.

"Guess I can- uh, guess I can mark this off my list then."

[backslash]

Raina rested her hands on Penelope's shoulders, unsure how to respond to the words that spilled out into a rant and then back into despair. The anger was new, but not entirely unexpected. These flares of emotion before sinking back into hopelessness seemed to be the cycle Penelope was settling into lately. It was concerning, to say the least.

She glanced between Penelope and Johnny, trying to parse who she should react to and how. Penelope needed sympathy and comfort, but Raina was at a loss for words. Johnny was easier to figure out, but it didn't feel right to be pleased to see him with what was going on right next to them. She settled for mouthing We'll talk later, at Johnny and turning her attention to the more pressing matter.

"He'll get what's coming to him, one way or another." They would get out of here and then the killers could face justice, somehow. The legal system seemed unlikely, given what she could recall about the kids that had escaped back in 2008, but they would still have to face the families of the people they killed. They would still have to go through life day to day with everyone they met knowing what they had done, their faces and names all over the internet.

Raina squeezed Penelope's shoulders. "If we happen to run into him... well, we can figure something out."

[Malloon]

Ben very much tried to ignore the scene happening near to him. But it was difficult; the black-haired girl was bawling her eyes out while the blue-haired girl comforted her and Johnny climbed in through the window. Part of him wanted to go over and tell her it would be alright, that she should cry until she felt better. But he couldn't: she wasn't Minnie, for one, and the reason she was crying wasn't because of a scraped knee or a mean word from a girl in school. She was crying because someone she was close to had been murdered.

Ben didn't know what he could do about that.

Probably nothing.

And we need to start collecting the things we need. Even if it disturbs them.

Ben grimaced at that, but knew it was true. And perhaps his efforts would help them, even if he couldn't tell them about it. He stood up, and went over to one of the chairs that had survived the fire. He picked it up as best he could, straining a bit, and carried it to the entrance of the library. There he raised it up and smashed the legs onto the ground. CRACK! He winced at the sound, then muttered "Sorry" over his shoulder. Then he raised the chair up again.

[VoltTurtle]

Penelope tensed slightly as Raina took hold of her shoulders, only to relax and lean back into her friend.

She sighed and leaned her head back, staring up into the sky. The air was chilly, despite the sky's near complete clarity. It was almost ominous, as if something was coming their way.

She turned her head toward Johnny, finally deciding to acknowledge his presence. "Sorry you had to walk in on this, Johnny." She said, her voice betraying the stress she was feeling.

Her arms were crossed and were soon found resting on her knees as she pulled them up to her chest. She put her head down on her arms, taking a moment to breathe in and out and calm herself. She didn't want to bother to acknowledge the other boy. He seemed to be keeping to his own devices, so she would keep to hers.

Her mind began to feel cloudy, as she stared into the blankets of forgotten ash around her. Keeping focus on any one idea was difficult as she raced from one thought to the next, seemingly unable to give any of them the proper time for her to really think and consider them.

She found herself speaking again, absentmindedly. "Raina," she began, her voice timid. "What if... what if someone were to hurt you? What would you want me to do?"

"Or if that's too hard a question..." She squeezed her arm as she consciously considered what she was saying. "What would... what would you do if someone were to hurt me?"

[Riki]

Raina mouthed to him that they'd talk later. Or well at least that was what Johnny had guessed with what he could see. It was fine, though. They could talk later. 'Later' was a good word. Saying 'later' meant you'd try and do something in the future. It was, so to say, a plan which you were having.

She was good at that whole planning thing, wasn't she? Better than Johnny either way.

Penelope acknowledged his existence as well. Which was great, to be honest, because she also stopped crying, though Johnny feared that was just a pause. Couldn't stand to see her crying. Blair's wailing was unbearable enough on it's own, he could do a day without hearing someone spill their tears.

Johnny jaunted over to where Raina and Penelope was. He got what Penelope asked. Quite the dark change of topic there, huh?

He shut up. His eyes wandered over to Raina, curiosity in them, as Johnny waited for her answer.