Stuck in the Middle with You

[Maraoone]

Norma wasn't really making this easy for Cathryn. Why hadn't it been that way with Jackson or Nina? Hell, with Nina, they talked about To Kill a Mockingbird for half an hour.

Or maybe they were past some type of event horizon, where after a certain time on the island, everything, every topic, every word, look, smell, taste, shiver would turn to despair, to treachery, to death. Maybe at this point, it was too much to hope for any conversation at all. But still, Jackson had only been a couple of hours ago. The horizon couldn't have arrived this quickly, right?

She put on her sweet face, the one she'd perfected for those videos she'd posted on tumblr way back- no, a week ago. Fuck. Seven days felt like seven years by now. No, out of sight, out of mind, remember that. Back to that sweet face, the slightest hint of a smile, the face that her few followers loved so much. Maybe that would coax something out, bring them back to that bliss called normality. Or at least, something like that.

"Fine, I can get that. Look, I really don't like being this nosy type of person, but I don't think-"

All of a sudden, the speakers hissed and crackled. The announcements. Shit. They really were past the horizon, weren't they? There'd be no respite.

Without hesitation, Cathryn lunged for Norma's spear.

[Carrion Queen]

Norma huffed and bit her lip, trying to stifle her crying in front of Cathryn. She looked back up and saw a blurry vision of the other girl sitting next to her, smiling. Norma blinked away a few of her tears and she came more into focus, still looking sympathetic and comforting.

Maybe she was too harsh with Cathryn. It was possible that being all this time on the island and having one bad thing after the other happen had smushed down her cheery, trusting nature.

She smiled back just a little bit, but a harsh noise spooked her and she jumped and held onto her heart. It was the announcements. As chance would have it, Norma was with a killer once again. This deep in, it really shouldn't have been any kind of surprise, but the sort of surprise she was normally concerned with was when the heroine DIDN'T choose the poor free spirit with a heart of gold.

She watched Cathryn's face turn dark and that was about a one second warning of what would happen. Long enough to know what would happen, but not long enough to do anything about it.

"Christ-"

Cathryn grabbed her spear and Norma tugged back. Her girlish grunts and squeals were hardly intimidating, but she tried her best to glare at Cathryn. Hopefully it was coming out as a glare.

"H-hey!"

She stopped pulling and instead pushed forward, throwing Cathryn off her balance. Normal landed on top of Cathryn, still attached by the spear. Their legs were a tangled mess and stray pieces of Norma's pig tails had come loose in the scuffle, nearly touching Cathryn's face.

"Let. Go!"

[Maraoone]

Cathryn's eyes were focused on nothing but the spear. On getting its blade as far away from her flesh as possible, on untwisting Norma's fingers from its wooden shaft. Cathryn's left hand tried to use the fringe hanging from the shaft to grab it, but only tore it off. Her right alternately tried forcing Norma's hand off and jabbing the other end  towards her body.

Her heartbeat rose, thumped against her chest violently, and her muscles screamed. There wasn't much time, what little energy she had was being sapped. It wasn't even supposed to be like this. The one time she had no ill will in mind, and this happened. Not even a second of peace could be granted.

They rolled around the floor, hitting the walls at times. The blade grazed her cheeks once, twice, forcing Cathryn to yelp a bit. Release, she needed release, an end. She needed that spear, needed to get out, needed to do something. Anything. She curled her left hand into a fist and aimed for her eye.

[Carrion Queen]

The two girls rolled to the side and hit a wall. Norma was looking up at Cathryn now. She tried to throw her off, but the girl stayed put, still trying to get the weapon away from her. She tried kicking at her and gritted her teeth.

Both girls were panting from the effort. Things changed within milliseconds; just a moment before Cathryn was trying to get Norma to tell her why she was down and cheer her up. She wasn't doing a good job, but the intent seemed genuine. Maybe it wasn't. It was all an act and Norma was just too stupid to realize it until they were trying to kill each other.

Her hands were getting numb and with both of them occupied, she didn't have anything to shield her face when Cathryn punched her. Norma yelped out and let go with one hand, her right hand reflexively going up to her eye. Her adversary was still holding on, her hand touching Norma's still on the spear. What would Sissy have done?

Bite me, bitch.

Norma bucked up and sank her teeth into Cathryn's arm as hard as she could. Blood welled up around her lips.

[Maraoone]

Did she

Cathryn's widened eyes looked towards Norma whose teeth. Were in her arm. In her arm.

Part of her saw red, and tasted red, and the other part of her felt her blood pumping, throbbing through her veins, her heart at a breakneck speed. She screamed long and loud, her vocal cords threatening to tear themselves apart, yanking her arm away from Norma's jaw. The latter's teeth dragged a bit, enlarging the wound.

Her joints were weak, her head felt woozy, but rage and fear, always the two together, had come back to Cathryn once more, and so with all her force, she kneed Norma in the gut.

And just like that, it was over. Norma's legs loosened, her grip loosened, and the spear suddenly found itself in Cathryn's hands.

She stood up and backed up a meter or so, pointing the blade at Norma's head.

"You... you fuck-"

Nina

Right there, closer to Norma than Cathryn, still staring at the ceiling. Another body in the same place, both by her hand.

no

No no no. Not yet, not now, not ready.

She staggered backwards from Norma and Nina, her eyes not sure who to focus on. She decided on neither. Her head swiveled behind, towards the hall. And so she left the way she came, running for her life.

((Cathryn Bailey continues in The Final Curtain))

[Ohm]

((Zoe Walker continued from The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway))

It had been a long walk from the Ice Palace, the danger zones were making sure the more convenient locations were blocked off and the Spa sounded like a good spot to recover and plan. It had been weird travelling alone, but Zoe had to get used to it, everyone else were gone.

When she got inside there was corpse on the bench, just like the Ice Palace, she felt a sense of uneasiness. But what got really under Zoe's skin was someone she hadn't seen since she bailed on them a day or two ago, Norma.

"So you're here..."

Her hand tightened around the handle of her sword and sneered at her presence, Norma was the last person Zoe wanted to see right now.

[Carrion Queen]

She couldn't stop her. Cathryn wrenched her arm away and ran off with her weapon. Norma sobbed, hugged herself and between gasping breathes, spit out pieces of Cathryn's arm. She thought if he tried to swallow the bits of flesh she might throw up.

Norma huddled against a cabinet and pushed the heels of her palms into her eyes. She failed again and now she had nothing to defend herself with.

She saw only darkness and her failures looped in her head as she sat there. When there was another noise, she wasn't sure that it was real until she ventured a look. She uncovered her eyes and though there were some bright spots of light, there was also Zoe.

The other girl had a sword and now she had nothing. In a panic, Norma tried to stand up, slipped on some blood, but caught herself on a cabinet.

"Wh-what? What do you want?"

[Ohm]

Norma didn't look too good, like someone had just tried to beat the shit out of her, Zoe noticed her spear was gone, it made her eyes narrow at the pathetic display in front of her.

"Some answers would be nice, like why you ran off on us and where's your spear?"

She took a few steps forward as the words came out, if what she said wasn't satisfactory to her, then she knew what she would have to do.

[Carrion Queen]

"Go to hell" shot back Norma.

"I don't owe you anything, least of all answers."

She didn't feel like recapping what became of her spear and if this girl was too thick to remember that the old group had yelled at her then she certainly wasn't going to help with that either. Most of all she felt like any and all questions from this person about her thoughts or what had happened was an invasion of her privacy.

Though really everything around them could be classed as that, given the situation.

So it was with that thought that she did not want this hostile person who was probably looking down on her right then that she didn't want to spend more time with her.

"Just buzz off, okay?" she said shakily.

[Ohm]

She was flat out told to leave, it seems that them being teammates had completley flown out of this girls mind, Zoe had enough of that.

"No, I don't think so."

If she wasn't so damn selfish, they could have gone to the end with good weapons and everyone alive, but since it's every person for themselves...

She rushed forward and swung her sword at the girl.

[Carrion Queen]

She saw the flash of metal come towards her. Without any weapon to counter with Norma responded before thinking, going only with what her body decided in the moment.

Norma put her hands in front of her as if to shield her face and body. It worked and her body and face were unharmed, but that wouldn't matter much as it turned out. She screamed, but wasn't sure if it was just from the anticipation of being hit or from the pain of the sword cutting into her.

She let out the breath she had been holding in and opened her eyes to see what had happened. Norma looked down and saw that her right arm from the crook of her elbow down to her wrist had been slashed vertically, deeply. She turned pale and stumbled backwards as her blood spilled out onto the salon floor.

"Wh-why?"

Tears started welling up in her eyes and she felt dizzy and nauseated. Her head felt light and with her back against a counter she slipped down until she was sitting again.

She couldn't say anything. Being sassy or snapping at Zoe wasn't even within her power if she wanted to. Norma cried on the floor and hyperventilated as her slashed vein continued pouring out blood like an oil spill.

[Ohm]

"Why? I don't trust you Norma, that's why you have to die."

It was a pitiful sight, Norma was sobbing her head off in front of her, blood raining down her arm like a faucet set to full throttle, but it had to be done. She knew where the rest of them stood, they were all enemies that had to be killed for her to go home, but Norma was a weak link. When you have a weak link you eliminate it, doesn't matter who or what it is, you do it.

Zoe felt herself grin despite what was happening in front of her, she had the control, whatever happened now was in her court. She decided she wasn't going to leave the job half finished and readied her sword, just to make complete sure she would not get out alive. Zoe swung it aiming for her throat.

[Carrion Queen]

Norma's stomach bottomed out as she simultaneously bled out. Zoe gave her a reason that wasn't really a reason at all. There wasn't any reason to kill her. If anything, she was one of the only people left on the island that Zoe had no reason whatsoever to kill at all.

"And people said I was dumb. Who would have thought I'd be taken out by someone dumber?" she warbled.

She looked down at the tile floor being eaten up by red and didn't even know Zoe had swung. She felt a sharp pain, but it didn't last. There was hardly any life left in her by the time the final blow had been delivered.

Norma Jean Torkleson: Dead

[Ohm]

And so it was done, Norma was gone, the only one left on the team besideds Zoe dead, maybe their mentor would be pissed, Zoe didn't care.

She looked over the result, Norma was covered in blood pooling out her wound, she herself smile at her work, it didn't matter if she was responsible or not for the whole team falling apart, she was gone now and now Zoe could work.

She sat down besides the corpse, taking out the gun she had swiped from Vahka and it's instruction manuel, if she was gonna survive she would have to know how to use it properly.

((Zoe Walker Continued in Silver Lights))