Out of the Darkness, into the Night

[Courtography]

She couldn't be serious. No she would never shoot him. She was one of the best friends he had. Correction, only friends he had left. No she would come around, she just had to give him a second to explain how it would work. He took a step forward opening his mouth to speak and-

The shotgun blast blew apart the floor in front of him. His eyes met Stefanie's as they went up from the new dent in the floor. He knew she was serious now. His mouth opened, he wanted to ask "Why?" but no sound came out. She had just shot right in front of him.

That's when the horrible conclusion reached his brain: they weren't friends anymore. He had thought that being down to one friend was terrible, but this was way worse. She hadn't been taken from him like the rest, she had chosen to do this. He couldn't contain the emotion rising in him, that had been rising since he first learned about Vaughn and Nikki getting killed. "Fine." So much for the emotion, the tears were in his eyes and the anger was in his heart, but his voice came out dead. It even lacked it's normal sarcastic tone. Nothing.

He turned, it was time for him to go. He wasn't getting shot by his ex-best friend. He didn't know what would happen next, he was lost. Clearly he would have to go with his other plan, hunting down the killers for revenge. It was all he had left. He took the steps forward to go back the way he came.

Forget about her man. Go kill someone, get killed. No don't get killed. Do. Not. Get. Killed.

The thought didn't work. He didn't care as much as he used to.

[Fiori]

He was leaving... Thank god. For a moment, Stephanie honestly believed that she'd be forced to open fire on her own friend.

That being said, it didn't change the fact that she still felt as if she had lost one of the few friends she had left in the world. Sure, Louis was alive, but at what cost? That look on his face... His tone of voice... It took a lot of willpower to stop Stephanie from bursting into tears right there on the spot.

What had she done? What was she doing? She'd just rejected one of the few people left in this compound who honestly wanted to help her out! Who genuinely cared about her safety and well-being! And she'd nearly shot him. Nearly shot one of the few people out there who she could have called her friend. Most of her other friends were now either dead or hating her guts. Louis was one of the few people out there who would have been willing to help her cope with the horrors of the program, and she'd turned him down and threatened to kill him.

But...

No, this was the only way. If he didn't leave now, Sophie would kill him for certain. She didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. Either she killed Louis right there on the spot, or she frighten him off so he could live.

Live to die by someone else's hands...

"I... I'm so sorry....." was all Stephanie could muster up in the end. She wasn't even sure if Louis even acknowledged her. His back was turned, and from all she could tell the boy had completely disowned her. Then again, perhaps that was for the best. Perhaps it was better that he shouldn't feel sorry for her, that he should leave wishing to never see her again. It wasn't quite how Stephanie envisioned their friendship to end. Then again, there was lot of things going on nowadays that Stephanie never even considered possible...

Anyway, I should be heading back now before...

"STEPHANIE! I heard a gunshot, are you..."

Time, for a moment, seemed to freeze.

Stephanie didn't have to even turn her back to notice that her sister was standing right behind her, or to realise that her sister could see Louis very clearly. The poor boy had barely managed to get a few steps down the hallway before stopping and turning to see who this newcomer was, standing perfectly still rather than running away like he should have done. NO! Nonono, please god, no! Why didn't you leave more quickly Louis! Why did you have to make things more difficult!

Why did you have to care so much...

She knew what Sophie was about to say before her sister even opened her mouth.

"Steph, what're you waiting for?!? Shoot him! If you let him go, he'll tell everyone that we're working together!"

Huh, Stephanie had never thought about it that way. One of their main advantages was always the fact that people were only aware that at least ONE of them was playing. It wasn't exactly common knowledge that they both happened to be working as a team. But, now that Louis knew, the pragmatic thing would be to silence him to make sure nobody else could.

But... No, how could she? Louis was her friend! She couldn't be expected to shoot HIM of all people! But, if she didn't do as her sister asked, Sophie would never be able to trust her again! She'd had to work so hard already to earn her trust after the fiasco with Priscilla in the library, and something told her that another blatant act of disobedience like that would cause Sophie to lose what little remained of her confidence in Stephanie's abilities!

This was exactly the kind of situation Stephanie had been trying so hard to avoid. The kind of moral choice she had never wanted to be forced to make. And no matter how much she detested it, there was little doubt in her mind that she only had two options here: Kill Louis, or lose her sister's trust once and for all.

Little did she realise that, within a few short moments, that choice would be made for her.

[Cake]

[[Luke Mendoza & Ryan Montoya Continued From: Hell on Bare Feet.]]

((OOC - Sorry for non-descript on certain parts. Currently sick. Hollyquin should be going into more detail when she gets back. Just helping to speed up the process))

They had gone back to the horrible Officer's Quarters. The place of bad memories for Luke Mendoza. Now Luke was reliving those memories, by visiting the deceased bodies of Henry Barren, and his close friend Sor. It was horrible, but Ryan insisted to see them one last time. Luke simply watched as Ryan said her goodbyes to Henry and Sor. Comforting her afterward.

Henry's messed up corpse smelled awful, rotting on the floor like that. Luke tried his best not to throw up again. This whole room was the site of where everything went horribly wrong, instead of tessellating correctly. He tried to keep those thoughts out of his mind. Difficult as it was.

Logan Sorenson's body was underneath the sheets on the bed, exactly as he'd left her. Luke couldn't bring himself to lift the sheet. Ryan did, however, and Luke saw her again. She was in much better shape than Henry was, that's for sure. She simply looked asleep and...

Oh gosh, I look awful.

...it was like she was still alive, ready to wake up and talk again any second. Luke watched Ryan give her heartfelt goodbye.

Quit your crying girl! Haha. Really though... Thanks for doing this for her Luke. She really needed it. Appreciate it.

It was hard. Was Luke really hearing Sor from beyond, or was he just losing it? Or was.. was his mind coping with her death, by taking on her voice and saying things that he thought Sor would say herself? What was going on?


At least for Luke, it felt like she was still here, with him.
That was all that mattered, anyway.

---

They were ready to leave the building, when voices started going on, by one hallway. Together Luke and Ryan walked down the hall, to follow the location of the voices. They neared the corner when the voices got louder, it was a guy and a girl.

Then there was a gunshot, which made Luke jump. He hadn't expected that at all. His ears actually wrung in pain this time. He was sure he was over that already. Or maybe it was because he simply didn't expect it. He wasn't prepared for it, and hadn't done shot it himself. Maybe that was the same feeling that fat chick of many names: "Hit Girl", Kami "Beatrix Kiddo" Steele, felt when Luke surprises her, with his own gunshots.

He had no time to really hear the conversation, and no time to move before a boy walked up near the corner of the hall, right in front of them.

It was Louis Johnson, that same boy from earlier, in the lounge. The same boy, Luke stopped himself from shooting in his sleep. He was walking right in front of him.

What happened though? Had he shot and killed the girl he was just talking too? That couldn't have been the case, as the gunshot sounded like one, from a rather large shotgun, like the one, the Mason twins used back then. Louis didn't appear to be armed with any kind of gun at all.

Luke held his Rough Rider Revolver in the air sideways, in his hand. He wasn't pointing it at him, but he was gonna make sure Louis saw that he had it.

In his best library voice, as to avoid getting whoever it was that shot that gun to hear him, Luke spoke:

"Hey Louie." He said, arching his eyebrow and lowering his shades to give the boy a wink. "Had a good night's sleep?"

There was arguing going on now, around the corner, it sounded. "By the way, who were you just talking to?"

Before Luke could get anykind of response, he saw Ryan look around the corner, with fury in her eyes, and then saw her walk around the corner, with the big Grendel R31 semi-automatic in her hands.

"Shit. Ryan Stop..." Luke turned the corner to see just exactly who it was that pissed Ryan Montoya enough for her to do this.

It was those Fucking Mason Twins.




They were talking with one another. One of the twins, had her back facing them. Everything went incredibly fast: Luke watched as Ryan put the gun, forward.

Then loud, ripping thunder, erupted in those halls...

[Fiori]

"Stephanie... Why're you just standing there? Shoot him now!"

"I.... I........"

She just couldn't think of anyway out of the dire predicament she'd found herself in.

No matter how hard she tried, Stephanie just couldn't come up with a reasonable third option to take. She knew for a fact that she couldn't bring herself to kill Louis, but neither would she ever forgive herself for losing Sophie's trust. It was a lose-lose situation.

Given enough time, Stephanie was certain that she would figure out an answer eventually. That if she had opportunity to sit down and properly think about it, she could come up with a way that she could let Louis go whilst still keeping Sophie's trust. But she knew for a fact that she wouldn't be allowed to do that here, and that time was of the essence. As time trickled by, she was certain that Sophie's faith in her abilities would also slowly begin to fade the longer she put this off. If she was to keep the trust she'd worked so hard to earn in the first place, it would mean having to actually DO something within the next couple of seconds before it was too late.

But...

"I...... I can.........."

"Damnit Stephanie! Fine, give it to me, I'll do it..."

What?!? NO!!!

It all happened so fast. Before Stephanie even realised it, Sophie had ran up to her and grabbed the shotgun. Normally, Stephanie would have just let go of it and let her sister do whatever she wanted with the dreaded weapon.

And yet, for some reason, she found herself not wanting to let go of it. No, she knew exactly why her body didn't allow her to let go of it. If she did that, then Sophie would kill Louis. Giving Sophie the gun was no better then pulling the trigger herself. That was why she didn't let go. Why she actively refused to give it up when her sister tried to wrestle it from her grip.

"Stephanie, Let go!"

There was genuine anger in Sophie's voice. The kind of anger which Stephanie was not accustomed to. After all, her sister was always so level-headed. Even in the middle of this horrific compound, she always kept her cool and never got overly emotional about anything. So to see her getting angry about something was a rare sight that chilled Stephanie to the bone, especially when the cause of Sophie's anger happened to be herself! What am I doing?!? Oh god, she must be so ashamed of me...

However, despite the tears in her eyes and the unbearable feeling of betrayal in her heart, Stephanie refused to let her sister harm Louis. As they struggled for control of the shotgun, Sophie eventually found herself with her back to Louis and Stephanie looked over her sister's shoulder at the confused boy whom she was trying so hard to protect.

It was at that point that she spotted Ryan with the gun.

No!

It happened so fast. Stephanie didn't have enough time to think about it, or come up with any alternative options. What she did was simply the first thing that had come to her head as she stood there, a shocked expression on her face as an armed girl aimed a gun at her sister's back.

She barely had enough time to shout "Sophie, LOOK OUT!" and shove her sister onto her back before Ryan opened fire. The first bullet pierced her shoulder, causing the young girl to scream out in agony. The next couple of bullets missed entirely, allowing Stephanie a brief moment of peace to look towards her sister one last time. Then the next bullet came along and hit her right in the arm, followed by another that hit her in the chest and punctured her lung.

The bullet which came afterwords silenced her almost immediately as it hit her in the neck, missing her jugular vein by mere inches. Her scream became a gargled mess as she lifted her hand to the injury, her legs giving away as she began to fall onto her back. The pain was unbearable. Truly unlike anything she could have possibly imagined. Another couple of bullets flew by as she fell to the floor with a loud thud, one of which hit her right in the stomach. But by that point, the damage that had been caused was already enough.

As Stephanie lay there on the floor, blood pouring freely from the fatal injuries that covered her frail body, the only thing she desperately tried to do was speak. She wasn't a doctor, but even she could tell when someone had barely seconds to live, and all she wanted to do right now was share some final words with Sophie. Tell her how thankful she was for all the good times she'd shared, or how grateful she was for everything Sophie had done for her. The last thing she wanted was for her final moments with Sophie to be the two of them fighting over the control of some stupid gun.

But whenever she tried to speak, the only sound she made was a gargled mess. All because of that one tiny bullet that had hit her right in the neck, impairing her ability to talk coherently. Her sight was fading now, along with her awareness of what was happening around her. There were gunshots, that was obvious enough. Loud ones at that... Was Sophie firing at the others? Stephanie couldn't tell. Nor would she ever learn whether or not that was actually the case. Only one solitary thought was on her mind right now, as she slowly found herself fading into the darkness.

That this was how it was meant to end.

Deep down, Stephanie always knew that escape for both of them was impossible. That their attempt at teaming up was only delaying the inevitable. And yet, that didn't stop her from trying. That didn't stop EITHER of them trying. Nevertheless though, a part of Stephanie knew that by the end of the game, if one of them had to die it had to be her. There was no way she would have ever allowed Sophie to sacrifice herself like that. That was the reason why she had sacrificed her own life to save Sophie's, after all.

At least... At least this way, Sophie will be able to go on without having to worry about looking after me. She was always the smart one after all, and if anyone could win this, its her........

Besides... Only one of us would have been allowed to live anyway, right? So perhaps this is for the be-

It was at that point that her heart finally gave up, and Stephanie Mason finally found herself at peace. No more pain. No more terror. No more moral conflicts.

Just peace.

F10: Stephanie Mason - DECEASED

[Hollyquin*]

[[OOC: WAAAAY overdue post here. If I need to edit anything, just tell me, yeah? :3]]

She'd kept her promise.

She'd only made the promise to herself, but a promise was still a promise, yeah? Yeah. Ryan Montoya kept her promises because Ryan Montoya was a good fucking person, and she could keep believing that, even after she'd killed someone, because the twin, whichever one it had been- yeah, she was definitely dead. There were only so many bullets that could rip through your body before there was nothing you could do.

Ryan took a step back.

She'd seen, yeah? She saw what they'd done. The bodies. Poor Henry. Poor Logan. Poor Luke! The look on the boy's face, honestly, when she pulled that sheet up to say goodbye. You'd think he loved her- hell, maybe he did, but this wasn't the best fucking time to ask. Maybe she'd haunt his dreams like she was so sure she'd haunt hers. Her and Chanel. Her own personal fucking ghosts.

Henry...Henry would haunt her nightmares. She really needed to learn to take people's warnings about things seriously, particularly when they had to do with dead bodies. Not that she could regret it. Not really. If she was all rotted and gross and shit she'd still want her friends to say goodbye to her.

And she'd want whoever did it, dead.

Which would be why she made that promise.

It was easy. Really easy. Honest. She pressed a fucking button a few times, a piece of metal jerked around in her hands, and then there was this bloody sack of shit lying on the floor. This fucking bitch, whatever the fuck her name was- one of the Masons, who cared which, she'd kill them both if she had the chance, it was them, it was them, this was their fault, the way she kept choking and screaming and holding back tears. The way Logan was out of her life forever. The way Henry was reduced to this.

The way she didn't get to say goodbye. Not really. Not in a way that really counted.

She stepped back again. Away from this. This was disgusting. This was her fault, but that didn't matter. They deserved it. They brought it upon themselves, they'd started it, and now one of them was dead, but she couldn't find it in her to pull the trigger again. Take care of the other one, easy as it would be.

Some dark voice within her whispered something, something about suffering. How the other girl would hurt more if she left her alive. But no, that wasn't why, she wasn't a sick fuck, she wasn't getting off on this, and that was the problem, wasn't it? She wasn't happy.

Ryan was supposed to feel better now. Ryan was supposed to be amused by this. This was supposed to be revenge. What they would have wanted. Right? What she would have wanted herself if it was her. Right? Right? She was supposed to laugh and do some one-liner shit but she couldn't even crack a smile. The weight was still there, because they weren't coming back.

She turned and ran. Away from the twins, away from this other boy whose existence she gave absolutely zero fucks about right now, away from the gunshot she heard crack behind her- missing, not that she was sure she'd notice if a bullet hit her. She'd run off still, bleeding to death anywhere other than here. She prayed silently that Luke followed. She still needed him. More than anything, she needed him. Maybe he'd understand, at least a little.

He's killed people. A bunch of people. Is it always this...hollow?

[[Ryan Montoya continued in We Are Finally Cowboys]]

[Courtography]

That's when he walked right into someone he had been half hoping to meet: Luke Mendoza. He had killed Matt, it wasn't a difficult thought process to handle: he had to kill him. At least that's what Louis thought he needed to do. Of course Luke made it pretty damn obvious that it would be difficult, with the revolver in his hand.

He could, naturally, feel his face contorting into a scowl. He needed to do something, most of his friends were dead, the only one left had made it abundantly clear how she felt.

Then he noticed Luke hadn't come alone, oh no, he had brought Ryan Montoya with him. This was bad, very bad, she had a gun as well. Louis hadn't always been the best student but he knew box cutter versus two guns wouldn't end well at all.

The remark on a nights sleep confused him to no end, yeah he had slept but how did he know that? If only he could get the box cutter out without being shot, there had to be a way, some sort of way. Then he could get him, he could do it.

Then Ryan got past him, gunshots. No no no no no, this was bad. He turned the corner to see something he never should have seen: Stefanie bleeding out of her neck as she screamed. That was it. He was done.

The box cutter was in his hand now, blade out. He didn't care anymore. He would kill both of them. Luke had killed Matt, and Ryan had killed Stefanie. He had no one left, they needed to suffer how he did, even if he could never really make up for it. As Ryan ran past him again he lunged, trying to chase her down.

(Louis Johnson continued in We Are Finally Cowboys)

[Cake]

The Mason Twin. One of them. She pushed her sister out of the way. She took the bullet for her sister. Several of them. Sacrificing herself for her sister.

Luke stood in the very back of the action, only watching. His eyes, his mouth, his expression. Disbelief.

Another look at the position of the twins and Luke saw something different. He had just seen a Mason Twin push her sister out of the way, but now there was someone else there. Instead of the Mason Twin laying bloody on the floor, Luke saw... Sor.

He removed his shades completely, shoving them away to rub his eyes of the image of Logan Sorenson, laying bloody and dying on the floor. Luke gasped, his jaw almost dropping, with what he saw next. He saw:

Himself.


Luke's neck and chest tightened. He could hardly breathe at what he had just seen. He had seen himself kneeling on the floor with a dying Sor in his arms - dying after having just saved him from death, only to get shot herself.

He looked at Louis who was also watching the whole thing. He spared Louis back then. Luke would have been comparable to those twins if he'd killed Louis back then, in his sleep. Louis didn't kill anyone. But these twins did. Right? They were evil. Right? They deserved to die. Right? This was what he promised. Right?

He had planned this revenge, since the last time he encountered these twins. One of them was being shot to death in front of him right now. He was supposed to be happy. Right?

No. The Twins dying didn't make anything: Right.

Carrying on, this whole revenge, made him no better than those twins at all. The whole scene was eerily similar to the last time they met, but with the tables turned... and it made Luke sick to his stomach.


Ryan stopped shooting, and everything went quiet for about half a minute. Ryan turned and started running away, with Louis on her tail.

Luke was alone for a split second, staring at the Mason Twins, with a look of remorse on his face.

Right before the surviving Mason started shooting at, all of Ryan, Louis, and himself... Right before Luke started running away with the other two, as best as he could with his injuries, away from the danger of the gun firing...


Luke, managed, in a cracked voice from his tightened throat, a small and weak - "I'm sorry."

[[Luke Mendoza Continued To: Show Them What the Backs of Our Hands Are For.]]

[Fiori]

Stephanie?

Ever since she'd heard her name mentioned during announcement day, Sophie knew that she had to survive by any means possible. That she shouldn't expect some miracle to happen that would make everything better. Being the only student left standing was the only option, not matter how much Sophie didn't want to be forced to play this game.

However, at the same time, Sophie didn't want to have to get her own hands dirty. After all, the last thing she needed was to turn herself into a public enemy, especially once she realised that they announced the names of all the killers alongside those who were killed. That was something that still continued to bother her... Surely it would make more sense to NOT tell everyone who to look out for so that it can heighten the paranoia? The only thing it did was put people off playing, seeing as very few people would want to make a huge target of themselves. Sophie suspected that if it wasn't for the announcements telling everyone who the killers were, then there would be twice as many players as there were now.

To make matters worse, barely a minute or so after her own name had been announced, Stephanie's name had also been mentioned. By that point, Sophie had already decided that she was going to find a way to survive by any means possible, so to then realise that her own sister's life was on the line came as something of a shock to her.

It was during the ride to the compound that Sophie thought to herself: Should she still try to ensure her own survival, or should she make sure that Stephanie could live at the cost of her own life? No matter how much she wanted both of them to make it out of the compound alive and well, she knew for a fact that it was virtually impossible for that to ever be the case. If this was an island or an abandoned city, then perhaps they might of stood a chance of escape. But a compound? No, escape was virtually impossible. In order to do that they would need a team of experts, and be given enough time to formulate a good plan and act it out. However, they had neither the experts OR the time needed in order to mount such an operation, so the only real option she had apart from death was to play along with the game.

But that still left her with the problem as to who should survive: Herself, or Stephanie?

In the end, although she never truly admitted it, she had decided on herself.

However, there was no way on earth she would ever convince herself to go as far as declaring Stephanie as an enemy. She was still her sister, after all. Her TWIN sister for that matter. The two of them had grown up together since the day they were born. They always hang out with one another, always practiced badminton together and discussed modern issues with each other. They were practically inseparable... So the idea of actually going as far as killing Stephanie herself was something Sophie knew that she'd never have the heart to do, even if it seemed like the most logical choice to make.

So instead, she had decided to have Stephanie take the role of her personal bodyguard. She never personally told her about this, of course, but she knew from the start that Stephanie would always be the one to do all the hard work. That's why she had given her the task of killing Henry Barren and Logan Sorenson. Partially because she didn't want to take the blame herself, and partially because she knew that eventually something would go wrong and somebody else would take Stephanie's life for her.

Of course, deep down, it pained Sophie deeply to see her sister commit the atrocities she'd instructed her to do. The sight of her crying her heart out never failed to make Sophie question whether or not she was doing the right thing. There were many occasions where she was strongly tempted to flat out admit what she was doing rather then let her manipulations carry on any further.

But in the end, she would always shake off any feelings of doubt or worry from her mind. What she was doing was a necessary evil, one that had to be done so that she could survive this nightmare. It was tragic that Stephanie had to be the one who bore all the guilt, it truly was, but the only other option was for Sophie to go ahead and turn herself into an outright serial killer like Madeline Harris.

However, as time went on, it quickly became evident that Sophie was caring too much about Stephanie's safety for her idea to work. Unless something happened to Stephanie eventually, it would come to the point where the two of them would end up being the only ones left standing, which would mean Sophie would have to kill her own sister. Something she desperately wanted to avoid doing at all costs. That being said, whenever Stephanie looked as though she was in the slightest bit of danger, Sophie would also panic and try her utmost to save her.

It wasn't until Sophie decided to abandon Stephanie in the barracks that she decided to take action. The idea was simple... Leave Stephanie alone unguarded and hope that someone came along and killed her in her sleep, allowing her to carry on without having to worry about Stephanie's well being anymore. Seeing as she wouldn't be directly involved in the actual killing, she would have to justify letting it happen in her head afterwords. It would have just been a simple case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But of course, it wasn't that easy leaving Stephanie to her death. And in the end, despite what her head was telling her, the moment Sophie heard her sister's cry for help she knew deep down that there was no way she could ever let her die. The sight of Stephanie at Bryant's mercy was something that was bound to stick with her for years to come... How close she had been to more-or-less murdering Stephanie herself by acting deliberately careless.

From that point on, Sophie had completely changed her mind. She wouldn't let Stephanie suffer at the hands of this game any longer. She'd find a way for her to survive, maybe for them BOTH to survive. There was just no way now that Sophie could let her sister die at the hands of some sick psychopath like Bryant or Madeline, not after nearly seeing it happen first hand. That was why Sophie had cried genuine tears the moment Stephanie told her how much she trusted her, why she had chosen to personally kill Corrina herself rather than let her sister do it for her...

...And why she was now on the verge of breaking down at the sight of her sister falling over in a hail of gunfire.

It had all happened far too quickly. First they were bickering, then she was trying to pry the gun from Stephanie's grasp, then Stephanie pushed her over onto the floor, followed by several loud bangs and a loud crash.

The moment Sophie opened her eyes to find Stephanie lying on the floor, covered in bullet wounds, she wanted to scream.

It was like an image from some horrific nightmare, the kind that sticks with you for hours after you've woken up. She just lay there, blood pouring from the numerous holes that covered her body, gargling pitifully instead of actually speaking. She wanted to rush over to her side, try to comfort her during her last moment, but Sophie was in a state of shock unlike anything she could have possibly imagined. This was her own sister, her own flesh and blood, the person who'd been right by her side ever since the moment they were both conceived... And she was choking to death on her own blood.

Sophie felt sick. Tears had began to flow down her cheeks, genuine ones this time. Not the fake ones which she'd forced herself to have back when she was trying to earn Juliet Watanabe's trust. She wanted scream out loud, tear the entire world apart piece by piece as she took vengeance on existence itself for taking her sister away from her. She began to shake as she found herself engulfed by sheer blind fury.

It wasn't until Luke Mendoza made a vague attempt at an apology that she finally let out her piercing shriek of anguish that echoed down the corridor, her eyes turning back at Luke with a hateful glare of pure unadulterated rage.

HE did this! It was HIS fault that Stephanie was dead! He just couldn't of accepted the consequences of his own carelessness, could he? No, he just had to avenge the death of his whore of a girlfriend, didn't he? A sister for a slut... In theory, it should have been a perfectly karmic fate, had this been some kind of fictional tale.

But for Sophie, she didn't care how close Luke was to Logan. Even if they were engaged to be married, it would of paled in comparison to the unbreakable bond she had shared with her sister. One that had taken so long for Sophie to fully realise, that by the time she realised how much she really cared about Stephanie it was already far too late to do a single thing about it. And Luke honestly believed that his connection to Logan was BETTER then that?

And to make matters a thousand times worst, he was now apologising. Acting like he was the better man by saying sorry, as if he had some kind of moral high ground to her. He was the brave hero her whilst she was the pitiful villain. That just infuriated her more than anything else he could have possibly said... How DARE you! Do you have ANY idea what you've just done! You bastard... I'll kill you! I'LL KILL YOU!

Just as he turned around, Sophie grabbed the shotgun from the ground and opened fire, missing him by mere inches. But that didn't stop her. Not for one second. After getting back up from the initial recoil, Sophie then turned the corner and fired down the corridor at the fleeing students who'd made her life a living hell. She pulled the trigger again... And again.... and again....... Until she finally realised that she'd ran out of shells.

Afterwords, she simply stood there with a vacant expression on her face, eventually falling to her knees. She hadn't hit any of them. All of them managed to get away scott free, with the exception of one random burst which nicked Luke's leg. But that wasn't enough to satisfy her... No, nothing would be enough until Sophie knew for certain that Luke Mendoza and everyone he ever possibly cared about was dead.

And not just quickly either... No, in order to fully understand the pain she was in, she would have to make sure they suffered severely for what they have done. Before, Sophie was planning on doing things as quickly and painlessly as she could manage... Now, though, she had every intention of making sure Luke's inevitable demise was as drawn out and agonizing as humanely possible. Then perhaps he could possibly get a taste of what she was feeling right now.

She stood up, a scowl on her face as she slowly made her way back to Stephanie's body. In the end, killing everyone else had always been the main plan. Only this time, she had specific targets she would be looking out for.

Juliet Watanabe... The Japanese girl whom she had failed to gain the trust of.

Bryant Carver... The negro who dared to threaten her sister.

And, of course, Luke Mendoza... The boy who murdered her innocent sister.

All three of them would have to die. No, EVERYONE in this compound would have to die. Louis, Marilyn, Karl, Brett, Madeline, Jessica, Michael, Kami........ Every single last one of them would have to die.

She reloaded the shotgun and place the crowbar back into her bag, took one last look at her sister, then headed out without saying a single word.

She had a lot of catching up to do...

((Sophie Mason continued in A Brief Moment of Solace))