Waking From One Nightmare into Another

[Primrosette]

Violet suddenly felt an uneasy tension seeping through her and her heart and mind was telling her to act. Maybe it was because Quinn was making her way down the hallway towards her. Violet didn't know why she didn't like the sudden movement. Maybe she was actually starting to lose her calmness around the situation. The gun in her trembling fingers wasn't making things any easier for her. But she didn't want to let it go. Ned had trusted her with this weapon with no hesitation and she was going to make sure that she used it way.

"Stop right there, Quinn." She warned in a calm, cool tone and she moved the gun down towards the ground in front of Quinn. "I think you need to back off a little. I don't think I can trust you yet."

Violet gulped softly as her finger was at the ready to pull the trigger. Should she just fire a warning shot? Was she being unreasonable to Quinn?

[Namira]

Quinn stopped. She was closer now, could make out a few of the details on Violet, could see the taut lines in her face, the creases of worry. She could see the tremor in her hands, the way the gun's barrel wavered to and fro even as Violet lowered it yet further, betraying the controlled tone of her words. Calm? Violet was the furthest thing from calm.

"I'm unarmed," Quinn said in a small voice. She kept her hands up, palms out in front of her abdomen. Another step.

[Primrosette]

Violet didn't like how Quinn seemed to be ignoring her warning and she was still trying to get closer to Violet. What was this girl trying to do? Violet didn't understand why-

The gun. She was not pointing the gun at Quinn in a threating manner and the other girl thought that it was okay for her to approach her. Violet felt her hands stop trembling suddenly and she couldn't help but feel a bit upset that Quinn seemed to think that she was an easy target. Violet instantly raised the gun back up quickly and she aimed it right at Quinn's hands that were shielding her stomach. Violet moved the gun up more until it was locked onto Quinn's shoulder and she did not move it up to Quinn's face.

Quinn was a danger. Violet had to shoot at her. She had to do something. Violet had to shoot at her. Just make sure that the injury is a scrape. Violet had to shoot her. Make the bullets miss her. Violet had to shoot her. Scare Quinn away. Violet had to shoot her.

Violet pulled the trigger.

……

Nothing happened. But a clicking noise.

Violet glanced down at the gun with a puzzled expression visible on her face and she wondered what she had done wrong. She didn't understand, she didn't understand, she didn't under-

Violet's eyes widen with fear and she felt herself gulping more nervously.

The safety...! I never di-

She heard footsteps coming towards her at a quicker pace. Violet realized that she had messed this up badly for her and she was about to be attacked. She tried to look for the safety on the rifle in a state of desperation.

[Namira]

The gun came up again. Quinn's eyes widened. Too far. She was too far away. She'd underestimate how spooked Violet would get, overestimated her own ability to soothe the girl.

She flung herself against the wall. Hard. Instead of another gunshot though, what Quinn heard was a resounding click which rang out into the dark. Unloaded? Jammed? Quinn didn't know enough about guns to tell, but she wasn't going to pass up the opportunity that had spilled into her lap. Sometimes, one just had to make one's own luck.

Rebounding off the wall with a vengeance, Quinn charged, sprinting at full tilt. She slipped a hand into the front pocket of her hoodie, extracting a length of wood almost an inch in diameter that came to a jagged spike. She'd had plenty of time to search.

She reached Violet, and as one hand came across to force aside the rifle and clear space, Quinn drove her makeshift shiv into Violet's gut with all of the force of her rush.

[Primrosette]

Violet couldn't help it. She let out a loud, short scream at being attacked by Quinn and she felt the force of Quinn knocking the rifle to the side of her, making her grip on it loosen slightly. Then Violet felt the full impact of something impaling her in the stomach and she let out a strangled cry. It had felt like someone had punched her right in the gut, but this time it was much more lethal than just a gut punch. This was something that was killing her.

Quinn.... Quinn is really killing me. I....I was right to not.... not trust her.

Violet let out a choked gasping noise as she felt the gun falling out of her hands and it cluttered loudly on the ground, making it echo throughout the quiet infirmary. She then feebly pushed Quinn's hands away from her and she stumbled backwards a few steps away from the other girl, breathing in a more hollow breath. She glanced down at her wound and the piece of wooden-like shiv that was sticking out of her stomach. Her fingers weakly touched around the area and she was feel ill as she stared at her own red blood on her palms and fingers. She was.... She wasn't going....

No, no, no, no. I.... This.... It can't be.... I.... Quinn....

Violet's vision was starting to glaze over and as she glanced up to stare at Quinn in disbelief. All she could see was a blur of a figure and she could taste some blood in the back of her throat.

Violet then collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud.

She did not move at all.

[Namira]

Blood spurted out around her hand, dripping warm and slick into her palm. Quinn's breath caught. Oh. Oh. The air felt charged, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end. Violet screamed in pain and Quinn barely heard it, the sound swimming past in an idyllic dream. Both corners of her mouth twitched up and then she was smiling to herself. It was electrifying, dizzying; she'd thought what she'd done earlier had set her adrenaline pumping. The choking had nothing on this, not on feeling what she'd done trickle through her fingers.

Violet went down. That wasn't enough. Katelynne had gone down too, and she could have been alive. A stomach wound was survivable, at least for a while, and who knew what prompt medical attention might do for the stabbing? It wasn't as if Quinn had knifed her; a good part of the improvised weapon was protruding from the wound. No. No uncertainties this time.

Quinn measured the distance, took a step back, and then soccer kicked the shiv as hard as she could. More blood splattered her sneaker, the floor, Violet's abdomen. She nearly closed her eyes just to drink in the sensation, but she reminded herself that basking in it was a luxury she couldn't afford. Sadly, Violet had screamed, and Quinn wasn't going to stick around to see if the noise attracted attention. Quinn stooped and picked up the rifle, noting that Violet didn't have her duffle bag on her person. Unlikely there was any spare ammunition in that other bag, which meant it was time for her to leave.

She stopped, stared at Violet for a long moment, capturing the curled up position, the blood, the pain. Breathed it in. Then she turned back and hustled for the exit.

((Quinn continued in Darkness closes in, haunting the hearts of men))

[Primrosette]

Violet felt more pain and more agony as she felt the shiv piercing more into her fragile body and she felt herself letting out a gurgled moan, feeling herself letting out weaker breathes. She was trying to curled herself up more and she felt like more blood was coming out of her wound, seeping through her clothes that she adored so much. She was going to die. Quinn was going to hurt her more to torment her in her final moments.

But then it stopped.

Then she heard footsteps rushing away from her. Was Quinn leaving her to bleed out and die like this? Was this a cruelty that Violet deserved? Violet felt her blurry eyes trying to focus on the ground around her and she could just about see that the rifle was gone and her heart felt like it was suddenly taken over with guilt. Was Quinn going to kill someone else with that rifle? Will it be my fault for not knowing how to use Ned's weapon?

Ned.

Aurelien.

Jeremiah.

She tried to slowly more herself up into a sitting position and she felt the shiv pressing in her gut more, making her let out a wheezing noise. She coughed a few times and droplets of blood splattered onto the ground in front of her. She then half-dragged, half-crawled herself over to the wall, putting a blood-strained hand onto it. Then she slowly turned her body around and she leaned her back against the wall, feeling like all that she could hear was the sound of her own weak-willed breathes.

Mom.

Dad.

"I....I'm.... s-sorry...." She whispered in a quiet, weak voice.

Then she could just about hear something or someone coming towards the direction of where she was. Was she not going to die without someone by her side?

[Ryuki]

Ned woke with a start. He was laying on one of the beds. He looked around, groggily. It looked like it was sundown. The orange and purple colors of twilight had seeped into the room.

Must have dozed. What time is it? Where’s—

Ned realized what had woke him up. A scream. And clattering, as if something had been dropped. It sounded like...

“Violet!”, Ned shouted.

He grabbed his duffel bag and rushed out the door and into the hall. He saw Violet, curled up to the wall, and another girl making off with the rifle.

Oh no!

Ned rushes over to Violet. The first thing he saw was the bloody wound in Violet’s abdomen. Ned felt sick upon sight, but he swallowed hard and knelt down next to Violet to get a better look at the wound. Oh God, this looked bad.

“Violet hold on!”, Ned desperately shouted, “I’ll get something to take care of that wound.”

He frantically unzipped his duffel bag and searched for the first aid kit. He found it, pulled it out, and opened it up. He grabbed the bandages, but then he realized he’d have to pull that thing in her stomach. How could this happen? Ned’s thoughts began swirling around in a frantic whirlwind.

If you hadn’t been sleeping you could have helped her! You should have kept a better eye on things! You don’t even know how to dress a wound!

Ned’s shoulders slumped. Tears began to trickle down his cheeks.

“I’m so sorry Violet,” Ned sniffled, “I should have been here.”

[Primrosette]

"N....Ned...?"

Violet blinked a little as her eyes were starting to droop and a line of blood was trickling from her mouth down to her chin. She couldn't even focus on her family at home and all she wanted to do was comfort the boy that was crying in front of her. It was hurting her heart to see him like this and she wished that she didn't have to go like this in front of him. She let out a choked cough.

"Not.... your f....f-fault...."

She forced herself to move one of her bloody hands up to touch Ned's face and she weakly wiped a tear from his cheek, smudging a bit of her blood on his cheek. She felt bad about that and she knew that she getting weaker by the second. Quinn had really messed her body up so badly and that was nothing that Ned could do to help her. Violet knew that she was dying and she had to accept it.

"I-I messed u....up.... Quinn got m-me and t....took the g-gun..."

Violet lowered her hand as she felt her eyes starting to get wet and a few tears were rolling down her face. She felt herself trying to smiling in a warm way for Ned and she hoped that he and the others will be able to take care of themselves.

"Ned...? T...Try to be s-strong for y-yourself and the others. If you find P-Princess...."

Violet's breathing was getting more slower.

"Tell h-her...."

Violet closed her tired eyes.

"That's I'm.... sorry.... and that I....I love h-her...."

Violet's heartbeat was fading away.

"T-Thank you.... Ned...."

Violet's smile was more or less content on her face as Ned's voice was the last thing she heard. She was happy to have someone at her side as she breathing her last breathe and she went into an eternal sleep.

G006 - Violet Quinn - Deceased
155 students remaining

[Ryuki]

“Violet? Violet... Please, no...” Ned whimpered. Tears continued to stream down his face. Violet was gone. The first person he had met on this horrible island and she was already dead.

Why? Why did turn out like this?

Ned wiped his cheek. A red streak painted his hand. Ned’s thoughts fixated on Violet’s last words. Ned had to be strong. Not for himself but for others. How could he, after what has happened? He just watched someone die and they were the closest thing they had to a friend. They had just met today, but Ned had a feeling he could have trusted Violet. But, he couldn’t be there for her when she messed up. Now, she will never see her family, her girlfriend...

His thoughts turned to Princess. She must be out there, wondering if Violet was alive. What was he going to tell her? Violet’s last words, maybe? Poor girl will be devastated. And then what?

Ned began to process what he could do. He may not have been able to help Violet when she was alive, but perhaps he could still make things right. He could find Princess and help her, for Violet’s sake.

He reached inside his first aid box and pulled out the emergency blanket and placed it over Violet’s corpse. He stood up, fists clenched, cheeks drenched in tears.

“Don’t worry Violet,” he began, “I’ll find Princess and help her however I can. I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

[Pippi]

He’d kinda shrugged at Ned’s question, when the smaller boy had walked back into the main room of the infirmary. He’d been too wrapped up in his own thoughts to pay much attention to anything outside of his head for a good while, just kinda slumped next to the metal scraps that used to be the wheelchair. He’d been… ruminating, if you were generous. Moping, if you weren’t.

Jeremiah had always been shockingly quiet, for a dude that big and tall. It wasn’t a huge surprise that he’d managed to just sneak off unnoticed, it just kinda sucked that the person he was closest to (and who hadn’t shot at him) had just up and vanished without a word. At least Ned and Violet were still here. At least they were both good people.

It was still hard to decide whether it was a good thing to be surrounded by fundamentally decent people out here, though.

Attempting to wrestle with that thought whilst he was playing Tirzah’s actions over and over in his head, though, was nigh-impossible. All that it did was cause his blood to start rushing again and for his anger to flare up. And he still didn’t have a goddamn clue what he wanted to do after this, either.

So instead of ramming his head into a brick wall, Aurelien dropped himself into one of the hospital cots, wrapped the thin blanket around himself, and screwed his eyes shut. He wasn’t feeling tired in the slightest, but sleep was better than this, so he forced his body to co-operate until he passed out.

At least Jeremiah had left the mace behind. Cold comforts.

---

Sleep had found its way to Aurelien surprisingly easily, but the sound of screaming was still enough to rip him from his slumber instantly, jolting him upright in the bed. The room was dimmer now, flooded in a dark orange light. Even as he blinked away his grogginess and looked around the infirmary through the shade, though, Aurelien could tell something was up. Ned was gone. Violet still hadn’t come back.

He slipped out of bed, sprinted across to the mace, and grabbed it with both hands, before he headed out to the hall, as fast as he could with the weapon weighing him down.

It didn’t take long. Didn’t take long at all for Aurelien to find what had happened, for the air to vanish from his lungs and for his feet to root themselves to the floor. He didn’t need to see the face of the person under the blanket to know exactly who it was.

“Oh Jesus, no… no, come on…”

They’d just avoided this. They’d only just finished driving Tirzah back, and now it was all for fucking nothing. His hands felt welded to the mace as they squeezed it even tighter.

“Ned, what happened? What the fuck happened here?”

The heat was rising once again, as Aurelien stared down at Ned, eyes boring holes into the other boy’s skull.

[Ryuki]

Ned turned around to face Aurelien, who was glaring down at him, mace in hand. Ned looked back with a sullen, if slightly fearful expression.

“Violet, she...,” Ned tried to explain, “Some girl stabbed her... made off with the gun.”

Ned hung his head in shame, still guilt ridden. Now Aurelien was probably going to blame Ned and take his anger out on him. He was probably going to swing that mace at Ned’s face. This would have been different back in school. An administrator would have been able to keep violence between students from getting out of hand. However, there were no restrictions on this island to keep the students from killing each other. Ned feared for the worst.

He thought back to Violet’s last words. She said it wasn’t his fault and that she had messed up. That Quinn—

Suddenly, Ned’s head quickly shot up to look at Aurelien, eyes widened in epiphany. He had a name! Violet mentioned the killer by name! Quinn was a basketball player from what he recalled. Plus she had a knack for fighting games.

“Quinn!,” Ned exclaimed, “Violet’s killer. The one that took the gun! It was Quinn!”

[Pippi]

Bullshit.

That was what his instincts screamed out to him, as his eyes narrowed and his knuckles whitened, looming over Ned, daring him to try and say anything else. Total bullshit. The guy had been caught red handed after fucking up hard, and now he was scrambling and pulling lies out of his ass to try and cover himself. ‘Some girl’ had killed Violet? Some girl who, as soon as Ned miraculously remembered who she was, happened to have the exact same name as Violet’s surname? Yeah fucking right. Who the fuck was he trying to fool?

Aurelien’s fingers twitched. It’d be easy, sweeping Ned aside. One swing, that’d probably be all it took. One swing, one hit, and the boy would be clattering into the wall and he wouldn’t be getting up again. He just needed to swing. Just needed to let his rage take control, and swing.

He hesitated. It was enough. Enough for his blood to shift from a boil to a simmer, and for him to realise that Ned’s claim held up.

Violet’s gun was missing, after all, and there wasn’t really anywhere for Ned to hide a weapon like that. Outside of a sudden flood of remorse, it was also absolutely not in anyone’s best interests to stop and pay respects to the person you’d just killed when you knew there were other people in the building. And Quinn? Aurelien knew Quinn. They both played basketball; not on the same team, but sharing a court meant you shared more than a few ‘Hellos’ and stuff. She was pretty good with a ball, but also socially awkward, kinda standoffish, and weird. It wasn’t nice to think about, but if he had to imagine a list of people in his class who might do something like this… yeah, he could make a case for her.

And considering the other option was Ned fucking Jackson, her guilt was pretty much ironclad. How the hell could he think for even a second that Ned would kill somebody like that? No way. Not like this, not on the very first day.

Aurelien took a step back. His shoulders sagged, and he squeezed the handle of the mace one more time before his fingers loosened and relaxed his grip. He felt very empty for a moment, and then like he was about to throw up a moment later.

“Fuck…” he mumbled, voice dry and hoarse. “Okay. All right.”

He grit his teeth, then shoved the mace away from him, letting it slam down hard onto the floor. He didn’t want to look at it again for a while. He’d really, really and truly, been planning on killing Ned with it for a moment there. Jesus Christ. What was wrong with him?

“Fucking hell…”

He started to pace, shoving his hands into his hair, grabbing tight fistfuls of it, then releasing it again, breathing heavily through his nose. He realised something was missing and, without looking, shoved his hand into the pocket of his bomber jacket. He closed his eyes, haphazardly tying his white red and light blue bandana around his hair and forehead. When he opened them again, there was a stillness to him, but it certainly wasn’t in a calming manner.

“We should, ah… move her. I think. So she’s not just… here. I can carry her, take her to one of the beds, something like that.”

He cast a glance over the sheet, pointedly avoiding the blood staining the floor.

[Ryuki]

“Y-Yeah,” said Ned, nervously, “I’ll, uh, grab the sheet.”

Ned looked over at Violet’s corpse, covered in the emergency blanket. He grimaced at the thought of picking up a dead body. Especially because they were the body of some he considered a friend. He turned and uncovered the body. The husk named Violet Quinn came back into view. What was once a person had now become a mere shadow of their former self. Ned stared at it with a mix of disbelief, disgust and sadness.

It was very surreal. Ned had talked to Violet not too long ago, ever since he had woken up on this island. And yet she wound up dying the same day. To end up dead on an island far from home, it was an undignified way to go. That’s how every student, sans a single person, would end up in this game. With this grim thought in mind, he turned to look at Aurelien.

“Uh, I’ll grab the legs. I-if that’s okay,” Ned said, trying to stomach the sad sight.

[Pippi]

“Yeah. Yeah, sure, no worries.”

Did it matter which end of the body either of them held? It wasn’t like s-like it was about to start complaining that neither of them was holding it comfortably, after all. They just needed to transport it. Just needed to pick it up and move it to the bed, make sure it didn’t get kicked or trodden on. Give it the respect it deserved.

…

Yeah. Yeah he wasn’t… he wasn’t gonna think about that any more.

Maybe Ned was right though. Maybe it’d be better for the smaller guy to hold the legs. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe there was some load-bearing part of the body that would be better for Aurelien to hold, and if he missed it, then the body would crumple between them and fall to the floor. Maybe, maybe, maybe. He didn’t know! He didn’t fucking know! He’d never held a dead body before! He’d never even looked at one until now!

God. He didn’t wanna think anymore, full-stop. He wanted to get this done, leave this place, and get outside. Get some fresh air. Clear his head.

Aurelien bent down, shifting his hands underneath the sheet, trying to find the arms. A shudder ran down his spine as his hands drifted over clothing and skin, already unnaturally cold. He but his hands underneath the armpits of the body, making sure he was ready to hold it securely. He looked up at Ned, nodding once at the other boy.

“Ready? Lift with your knees. Count of three. One… two… three.”