Whom Gods Destroy

[D/N]

(Eris Marquis continued from One By One)

She'd stopped sobbing, but the tears still occasionally came as she walked back through the sweltering, ugly nature of the island's jungle, keeping track of the recognizable areas that would lead her to her destination. But Eris Marquis had been denying the tears for some time. She was not one to cry, and so she did not. Simple as that. She hadn't needed any of the group of idiots from the tree anyway, so what did she care that she was alone again?

All the time, she'd been working obsessivly with the pistol. Loading and releasing the magazine, again and again. Sliding the safety back and forth. Poring over the manuel as she'd walked. She guessed the nature of the small gun she held appealed to her. It was just so... efficient. Thousands of small parts working seamlessly to create an instrument powerful enough to control life and death itself.

Finally, after what had seemed like hours, she found the spot.

And Jim lay exactly where she'd left him, the smile still on his face.

Her headache, which had kept steady since the hollow tree, kicked it up another notch. She squatted beside him, pursing her lips. One hand reached down. Feeling the congealed blood at the back of his head.

Well, what now? She couldn't deny it anymore. Not that it had been all her fault. He'd been hiding his gun from her. She was drunk at the time. And it hadn't been like she'd MEANT to kill the putz.

And hadn't she tried to make things right at the tree, when she'd helped clean up Liam's wound, tried to get little psycho girl off of him later on? What else could she have done? They'd all been put on this ridiculous island to do one of two things, kill or die! At least she wasn't going around raping and ripping people apart like it seemed half her bloody classmates were doing according to the announcements! And furthermore...

"OW!"

She hadn't noticed it before, but since she'd seen Jim's body, Eris had been unconsciously biting at her lower lip, the pressure just increasing. Finally, she'd managed to draw blood, and it brought her out of the state she'd been in.

She stood up, wobbling uneasily as she did so. Well, now that didn't make any sense, it wasn't like she was still drunk or anything. Her headache was now relentless, her sinus cavities feeling like they'd been filled with lead. She wiped at her lip and stared at the blood and dirt that had come off on her hand.

Not for the first time, Eris considerd how absolutely filthy she must be. Her hair had long since come undone, and was probably filled with twigs and bugs and who knows what else from wandering around in this godforsaken forest. Her hands were filthy, she was out of clean clothes, and she didn't even want to THINK about what her face looked like. Well, no wonder any attempts to integrate herself with others hadn't worked out. Teenagers did base all things on appearances, after all.

Someone coming.

Ducking down into the bushes, she watched as two guys walked past in the distance, chatting to each other as they did. They were too far away to have seen her or Jim unless they'd been looking very hard, so she was still safe. As they passed, Eris stared daggers at them. Then, with trembling hands, she raised the pistol towards their retreating backs.

"Bang." She whispered the words, mock firing her gun.

"Bang."

"Bang." The reality that they were far enough away that she'd have next to no chance of hitting them if she'd actually fired did not even enter Eris' mind.

It was all so easy. So simple. So efficient. Kill or die. And it was all THEIR fault that they were in this situation in the first place, wasn't it? Such CHILDREN, like them. Was there any wonder that their class had been chosen for this game? The terrorists knew full well that the class was full of idiots; emotional, barbaric kids who wouldn't hesitate to turn on each other like a bunch of savages. And Eris Marquis did NOT deserve to be lumped in with them. She'd spent her whole life waiting to get the hell out of high school, and into the acadmic world, where should would be respected. Eventually revered. Now? Well, now she was damned either way. Kill or die.

Head still pounding, Eris strode away from Jim, leaving him behind forever. Why on earth had she bothered to go back there in the first place? She'd known full well what she was going to find, it was just an absolute waste of her valuable time to go and check.

First things first, she needed to clean herself up.

(Eris Marquis continued elsewhere)