Fools and High Places

[randomness]

((Stephanie Wright continued from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ))

The lighthouse itself had been a bad experience. The smell had been bad enough, but there was a corpse against one wall, a pool of blood around it. She tried to keep as far from that as possible. She was only here to climb anyway.

It wasn't long before Stephanie was standing at the top of the lighthouse, what had to be the highest point for miles and miles around. It was still early in the morning and the ocean was dark, a blue-green mess that simply, unyieldingly crashed into the rocks far below. The morning breeze was cold, and Stephanie was pleased to have found a place that she could rest where she wouldn't be disturbed.

She needed the time to recollect her thoughts and calm down. Otherwise she'd be a bawling mess, or ready to burst at any provocation.

It had been bad enough to see Mallory die. One death was bad enough. Three was a completely different thing. Three dead people in a span of one hour was just enough on the wrong side of insane for her understand why some people committed suicide. Not that she was about to. No, she was far too proud, and far too cowardly to do anything like that.

She hit the railing once, listening to the metal reverberate around her. The island seemed dead. Or dying. It was like seeing Chernobyl in real life, as if the pallor of death could somehow seep into the structures.

The usual crackle of static came, interrupting her thoughts. It was a new voice. A different man.

"Good morning, kids. My name's James. I'm the collar guy, and, well, I'm sorry to say, after two promising days, nobody actually managed a kill yesterday. You know what that means."

Stephanie's hands quickly rose to her neck. The collar beeped, as if to confirm what the man said had been true. That was impossible. There were people dead. There were-

"Just kidding." He continued on, passing the announcement back to Danya. But what he was saying didn't matter anymore. Stephanie was crying too much to hear what he was saying anymore.

[randomness]

It was a while before Stephanie managed to stop crying. The people in charge were sick. Horribly sick. It wasn't enough to get kids to murder each other, they had to play with them to the very end.

It was ridiculous.

Stephanie made her way back down, keeping well clear of the body from earlier.

It didn't quite matter to her where she was heading now. Away from here would be good enough for now.

((Stephanie Wright continued in O-Lan, You Are the Earth))