Little Fires Everywhere

[Laurels]

((Brigid Paxton continued from I Jumped Out and Pranked Him to Death with a Tire Iron))

Brigid rubbed her eyes, trying to avoid getting any sand in her eyes. She sighed and looked out at the coastline. Two days ago, she was screaming at the sea in general frustration at her situation. She wanted to keep screaming, but it seemed so fruitless. They were probably going to die on this island, and it all felt so useless.

She and Chris spent most of the second day hiding out in the woods. They stayed near the coastline to make see if anyone else would come near. Fortunately, they didn't see anyone else. This allowed them to sit peacefully, tending to the bruises Miranda left them with and to just chat about life, family, and whatever else came to mind.

The announcements on Day 2 confirmed that Jasmine and Paris were still alive, as was whoever Jasmine shot. People were dying, which certainly didn't make them feel any better. At the very least, she and Chris could take some solace in that they were probably safer where they were than anywhere else.

Brigid had woken up a bit before the Day 3 announcements. The sun had come up a little while before. She wasn't sure how long it was until the announcements played, but she was prepared to hear what they needed to know about their classmates.

She sat on the sand, staring out into the sea, with the bec de corbin lying across her lap. Any minute now, they'd know where they stood.

[CondorTalon]

((Christopher Schwartz continued from I Jumped Out and I Pranked Him to Death with a Tire Iron.))

Chris was not an outdoorsy person at the best of times, and this was certainly not one of those times. He had not slept well the past two days, and it was starting to get at him. He stirred, refusing to move for a few seconds as he tried to compose himself.

People were dead, he'd learned yesterday. Well, that wasn't really a big shock to him, after what he and Brigid had already seen. Really, what was shocking was that Paris and Jasmine weren't on the announcements. Did they miss it? Was Paris somehow still alive? He guessed the couldn't really know either way.

He looked over to see Brigid already up. Well, he supposed she was an early bird. Or maybe she'd slept just as badly as he had?

He stood, wavering a bit, before approaching.

"Hey. I hope you slept better than I did," he said, sitting down next to her.

[Laurels]

"Not really," Brigid told Chris.

She rubbed the back of her neck, moving the collar slightly up and down as she did. She briefly closed her eyes and groaned a bit as she stretched her neck a little.

"I don't really feel that-"

Before she could continue, there was a sound, and the voice of the announcer came on. Brigid tensed up and clutched the bec de corbin as the voice filled the air. Blaine from the track team had died, but he apparently killed someone else in the process. She thought back to seeing Blaine briefly on the first day. If she tried a little harder to keep herself under control, would he have stayed around and avoided his death?

Saachi Nidal killed two people, and one of them was one of the Day One killers to die. Knowing that Jay and Bridgette died should have made Brigid feel better, but it didn't. New killers emerged in their wake probably as reactions to the kills on the first day. She figured something like this would continue at this rate until they were all dead, so she needed to be careful if she killed anyone.

Then came the announcement Brigid was dreading. Jasmine had killed twice as well. It turned out she did kill Paris from stomping on him, presumable a delayed death, and then killed someone else named Lance. Brigid dug her nail into the wood of the bec de corbin. Her nails had gotten a little long in the few days they were here, so she began to slowly try to grind them down. She couldn't believe it went so wrong back at the cliffs, and now Jasmine was a repeat murderer.

Katarina killed someone else, and then they learned the Mess Hall was gone. Once the voice fell silent, Brigid continued to stroke her long fingernail against the grain of the wood. She could feel along the slight ridge in the pole of the long weapon. She clenched her jaw and stared out into the sea.

What was she going to do here? All she did was scream and run. Jasmine killed two people, and Brigid and Chris were nearly killed by another girl. After three days, their situation had barely improved. Would just running around avoiding dangerous people really keep them safe? There was still so much that could happen to turn their situation in a direction towards oblivion, and no one path was guaranteed.

As Brigid stared out into the sea, deep into its gray abyss, she closed her eyes, and finally addressed Chris.

"..."

She breathed in, then out.

"We should kill Jasmine."

[CondorTalon]

Chris didn't really get much of an answer before the announcements started up again. Chris listened as more names were read off.

More people dead... some of whom had been killers on the first day. Those were harder to pin down, he thought. Was it someone else enacting vigilante justice or the killer screwing up? Well, Jay was apparently neither: he was apparently killed.

And then Jasmine's name came up, listing her as a double killer. Paris was dead. That was weird. They'd seen him bite it on the first day, but he hadn't died until yesterday? And then the announcements ended.

So... now what? The third day was afoot, and they were still no closer to making any sort of progress towards a solid plan.

Brigid said something. She said that they should kill Jasmine.

Chris blinked. He didn't respond for a few seconds.

"We should what?"

He turned his head toward her.

"I mean... I agree that she's dangerous, and someone should stop her, but..." he said, pausing at the 'but'.

But what? What was his his problem with that plan?

Was it that he didn't want Jasmine to die? No, Chris couldn't say he particularly cared whether Jasmine lived or died, and in fact, a dead Jasmine would probably be an overall net gain.

"Brigid, are you sure?" he asked.

[Laurels]

"Well, if we can find her," Brigid said.

Brigid sighed in and out. She turned towards Chris.

"Look, we saw how she acted to Paris. We even saw how Miranda was acting just a few hours into this game. This game is changing people, and people are going to do dangerous things."

Brigid stood up, keeping the bec de corbin in hand.

"I just think that, if we find Jasmine, we may need to take the serious option. We know two people are dead because of her, and she's probably going to keep going."

"I mean, isn't it possible Lance died because we ran away from Jasmine? Aren't we at least responsible to do something about her after leaving her to her devices?"

[CondorTalon]

"Yeah, I get all that," Chris said, looking back out to the ocean, "I really do, but..."

Chris was in a weird situation. If they ran into Jasmine, then what? Would Jasmine let them go free? Could they convince her to let them go free? After hearing what happened to Lance... nah, he doubted it. Talking was out. Fleeing? Jasmine had a gun. That was a straight up no.

"Well, okay," Chris said. He stood up, using his weapon to boost himself onto his feet, "Let's not go looking for her, because looking for trouble is the archetypal 'bad thing to do'."

"But I think you're right," he continued, "If we run into her... or into any player for that matter, we'll have to fight. Running from a gun isn't an option, and most likely talking isn't either. We'll have to fight."

Chris hoped it wouldn't have to come to that though.

[Wham Yubeesling]

”Aww, you guys wanna make a pact? To kill me?”

A voice called through the woods. High pitched. Cutesy. Acted up, in a way.

“You shouldn’t have, guys! You’re making me feel so special right now.”

And a figure stepped out of the trees behind the two, gun in her right, hunga munga in her left, and a giant smile on her face.

[Laurels]

"Alright, that sounds-"

Before Brigid could continue, she arrived. Sure enough, the woman of the hour had appeared, armed with something dangerous looking and with a rotten attitude.

"Jasmine," Brigid said calmly.

She tightened her grip on the bec de corbin. Of course Jasmine would be here. This was where the three of them met on the first day, so why wouldn't Jasmine remember it.

"That all depends on you," Brigid said. "Two people are dead because of you, and all three of us could die right here and now."

Brigid stared the girl down. Her parents, who both had military training, had lectured Brigid and her siblings on the nature of standing tall and strong when faced with trouble. Brigid had often chosen to just avoid conflict entirely, but now she couldn't. Not now that there was a murderer here.

"So what are you going to do?"

[CondorTalon]

Chris was getting tired of the situation turning to shit as soon as he said or thought something. Sure enough, Jasmine was there, right behind him. He turned, facing her.

So now the two of them were staring down a two-time killer, someone who had a gun, someone who didn't even look remorseful.

Brigid was saying things. 'That all depends on you', she said. Chris' eyes went to the gun in her hand.

Yeah, it did depend on Jasmine. Jasmine, who had the gun. Jasmine, the one with superior firepower.

But that was bullshit. All three of them here knew how exactly this situation was going to progress. Waiting around for it to escalate would put them at a disadvantage. He hoped that Brigid wouldn't wait around for something to happen, but he couldn't take that chance.

He'd said this already. No running. No talking. They had to fight.

"I think it's obvious what she's going to do," Chris said.

Then he moved forward, the club up and ready to strike.

[Wham Yubeesling]

“I dunno. You tell me.”

Honestly, Jasmine wasn’t exactly happy with the fact that they didn’t appreciate her little performance. Like, seriously. One of the essential tenets of drama club - if someone else was doing improv, you did it as well. You played along with them so that they had something to bounce off of, something that they could give a quick response to.

Doesn’t matter.

Once all this is done, you won’t ever have to think about them anymore.

Right.

She giggled.

It wasn’t like they didn’t give her anything. She could reply. She could still play around with them.

She could still do this.

“What do you think I'm gonna do?”

[Laurels]

"It's hard to say," Brigid replied.

Brigid took a few steps closer to Jasmine, but didn't move more than a foot. She didn't want Jasmine to immediately see her as someone to gun down. She had to choose everything carefully.

"If Paris was any indication, we can't predict what you'll do. And even if we tried to guess, you'd probably subvert it for the heck of it."

Brigid quietly breathed out. She tried to quickly take in where she was, where Chris was, where Jasmine was, and what everyone had. She was probably going to have to make choices really quickly, and needed to know what her options were.

"So maybe speculation isn't needed right now."

[Wham Yubeesling]

“Guess so.”

Admittedly, Jasmine didn’t really like how Brigid was getting on to what she was doing. How Brigid was trying to act as if she was the one who was in control here. As if she was the one with the gun. As if she was the one in front of her and Christopher, the one who could so easily decide whether the two of them lived or died. The one who would show them all. The one who everyone on this island would fear.

…

Whatever.

It didn’t matter.

Once this was done, she wouldn't ever have to think about them anymore.

“I’ll cut to the chase.”

She raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

[Laurels]

Brigid paused as Jasmine spoke. She felt her feet dig into the sand a bit. Something told her she'd need to be ready for whatever came next.

Jasmine said she'd cut to the chase, and that's when Brigid knew what Jasmine's choice was. Jasmine raised the gun towards her, and pulled the trigger. Brigid felt her feet sink into the sand, then pushed up. She side stepped to the left, towards the water. She felt her feet dip into the cooler, wet sand.

She had managed to avoid the gun shot, but there was more to worry about. Chris was still a target, and Jasmine was still armed and dangerous. Brigid had to do something and fast. Jasmine had already killed two boys, and she couldn't be made to do that anymore.

"Chris! Run!" Brigid shouted.

As she did, she pushed forward, praying her track training would help her run across the sand. She swung the bec de corbin back. She had to swing fast and strong. Jasmine could attack faster, so Brigid couldn't afford a moment's slowness.

[Wham Yubeesling]

The shot rang. Missed. Brigid ran. Towards her.

Towards the only one here with a gun? Man, you’re winning this one easily.

Jasmine raised her gun. Curled her finger around the trigger. Smiled-

as the sand went into her eyes, pain and sting forcing them shut as her body stumbled back along the beach.

[Laurels]

Brigid felt the hammer head of the bec de corbin start to dig into the sand a bit. She forgot exactly how long the weapon was, but an idea came to her. Jasmine was already raising the gun at her, prepared to shoot. Brigid was at a massive disadvantage, and she needed something to throw the girl off.

Brigid clutched the pole as tightly as possible, then swung up. The bec de corbin dug into the sand, and as Brigid swung it up, sand flew into the air. To Brigid's complete surprise, the sand flung into Jasmine's face, causing the other girl to cry out.

Brigid knew she needed to keep going with the momentum. As the bec de corbin swung in the air, she felt it swing over her head. She moved her right hand up the pole, tightened her grip, and swung down as hard as she could.

As she heard Jasmine cry out as the be de corbin connected with the girl's shoulder, Brigid knew she may have a chance to stop her after all.