Little Bighorn

[Cicadan]

((Bridie Mossberg continued from Pool Of Blood))

The corpse bugged her. It wasn't as gross looking as the ones by the decrepit looking pool, but it was still eerie-like. Hollow, empty, like a rag coincidentally made of human-shaped, human-faced flesh and eyeballs. Every corpse reminded her of Scott, and Bridie was starting to not like being reminded of him. It made her stomach turn all kinds of weird, squeezed by two brawny hands. Only, obviously, there were no actual brawny hands...

The corpse was in the other room. Out of sight, out of mind. Bridie had already forgotten it.

She was generally in a good mood though! They'd just read out the announcements, kind of reminding Bridie of Summit's PA system only more echo-y for some reason. She'd had the utmost honor of being named as a killer, a dutiful killer doing exactly what she was supposed to be doing. She'd been totally thrilled when they'd read her name off! It was like an accolades for her hard work, for her loyalty. Bridie was also glad to hear Damien's kill confirmed. Also, kills confirmed from Theodora, Charlie, and Danielle... Danielle'd killed her best friend, too. Huh. Well, good for all of them! Getting a head start on the competition. She wondered what would happen if she saw any of them, if they'd fight bravely, nobly...

The hard part now was planning. Bridie's eyes glazed over the patriotic posters plastered over one wall. Messages in cute and bold fonts she agreed with, certainly, but now wasn't the time to be distracted!

'How and when do you think we should get another kill?'

Something like that, that's pretty much what she wanted to ask! Iffy on the details, but...

Instead what came out:

"Ho-...? Wait. Did you hear something?"

Like a door opening, somewhere nearby.

[Primrosette]

((Damien Crossly continued from Pool of Blood))

He felt sick.

His name on the announcements, Bianca's name on the announcements, James' name on the announcements, Bridie's name on the annoucements.....

It made him want to vomit.

But he couldn't. He didn't want to have Bridie think that he was a weak, pathetic boy. No.... He had to play to win. It had been his plan ever since.... he guessed the beginning. He had just been denying it this whole time. But he still had doubts about his plan. He could still die.

He glanced up as Bridie spoke to him and his face turned into a grimace. A noise was somewhere near them. She was not wrong about that. Looks like someone was about to get unlucky today.

He didn't say a word, just nodded towards the door as a signal to Bridie. He hoped that she would understand what he was planning to do.

[CondorTalon]

Carson Collingwood had not been having a good day.

Well... that wasn't necessarily 100% true. He had managed to avoid running into anyone dangerous. Hell, he'd managed to avoid running into anyone, really. So he had that going for him, which was nice.

But that meant he was alone with his own negative thoughts, which threatened to mentally suffocate him. He'd tried to mentally psyche himself up to be able to try and kill someone; an arduous task in the best of circumstances, nevermind when he had such a shitty weapon. And he couldn't help but think about the terrible ways someone could kill him. He really needed a cig right now.

He happened upon the Customs Office, and decided to head inside. It was getting dark, and his first priority was getting shelter. He grabbed the door handle, adjusted his knit cap, and entered, not really thinking about whether or not he'd run into anyone inside.

[Cicadan]

Damien looked not good. Bridie knew that probably meant he was also reacting to the door... Not good. Someone was there for sure. She could hear footsteps.

He nodded... at the door?

That meant-

No.

What did that mean?

"What are you-?"

Bridie was too caught off guard. Too loud. No time to think, to keep the element of surprise.

The door opened and there was someone on the other side. She recognized a stranger's face.

[Primrosette]

Damien should had mouthed something to Bridie, he should have give her something that she would have understood. He should have thought of something in those few seconds that they had before the door opened. There was a guy there. He looked.... familiar. But Damien couldn't even think about his name. He didn't want to remember the name of his next victim in that moment-

Victim...? I really am thinking like other people deserve to die.  

They didn't deserve it. He knew that. Still, he was hesitating. He was holding back. Was it because all he could think about was Bianca's face as he choked the life out of her? Maybe.

He stared at the boy in front of him, forcing a fake smile on his face.

"Carson...." His tone of voice was calm and he shifted his feet slightly, ready to pounce and take Carson out of the picture.  

[CondorTalon]

Carson wasn't expecting to see someone else in the building, much less right in front of him. The guy called his name.

"Uh... hey, uh..."

Shit... what was this kid's name again? Carson couldn't for the life of him remember.

"How's it going?" Carson asked. He decided to eschew the names for now. He looked behind the guy and saw a girl there too.

Carson suddenly wasn't really feeling this situation anymore.

"What... uh... what are you doing?"

[Cicadan]

"We're..." He'd asked what they were doing.

What were you actually supposed to say to someone who you intended to attack? Certainly Bridie wasn't supposed to be telling the truth, but... lying? Bluffing? She'd never been good at the sorts of 'little white lies'- weird name- you were supposed to tell in games of cards. She didn't like the whole thing, because supposedly she was easy to 'read'. Not the actual read as in read books, but read as in tell she was lying, however that expression was supposed to work. People told her that she was easy to read when lying, but they never told her why.

She wasn't going to be good at this part of the killing. And she hated it anyway. She was too honest to lie, she thought. Her parents had told her to never lie to them, and she never had! She'd been honest about everything! Bad grades, crushes on boys, Clay...

She was too innocent for this, she dumbly realized.

But so was this stranger... So had been James.

... This.

Was too hard. She had to do something before she was paralyzed by all the weight of all her thoughts crushing her. Not literally, but.

She started to shout. Adrenaline made her.

"Damien, quick! Go!"

She had no weapon, but she was running at the stranger. Right through Damien's own narrow path of attack, her body blocking as she clumsily rushed into melee, with no idea of the situation, or her own plan.

[Primrosette]

What? What the hell is she doing?!

Bridie was blocking his way, she was running in without a weapon, she was putting herself in danger, she was doing this for him.

Damien felt something that he never thought that he would feel.

Panic.

He was panicking on the inside for Bridie. He never thought that he would feel scared of losing her. He wasn't thinking straight. But Bridie was his friend. He wasn't even seeing her as an enemy. He didn't want her to get hurt by Carson.

Damien lunged himself forward, trying to not crash into Bridie. The kama was lowered as he did not want to hit her.

"Bridie, move out of the way!"

[CondorTalon]

The tension in the air was palpable. Carson didn't like how quiet and skittish the pair were being. Alarm bells went off in his head, and his pulse rose. His hand twitched nervously, and he was about to turn to leave.

Suddenly, there was shouting, and loud noises, and suddenly th two of them were rushing toward him.

"What the fuck?!" Carson cried.

Carson had less than half a second to react. There was no time to think. His adrenaline-fueled brain shouted at him, telling him to survive.

He met them foot for foot, leading with his shoulder. As he rushed forward, Carson felt an impact.

[Cicadan]

She still had no idea, and everything just caught up with her after the fact:

She'd run in, she didn't know why, she'd been in Damien's way, she didn't know why. Her body had felt like a missile, hurtling forward with her feet almost flying off the ground. She'd had no control, and she'd only realized it too late.

Bridie felt an impact. Bony shoulder into her collarbone. Something gave first, and it was her.

Flailing, helpless momentum carried her one way, backwards, to one side. Her limbs a tangle she couldn't make sense of.

She hit something.. someone... Damien. As she toppled backwards, her shoulder clipping him.

Her head clipping a desk. By the largest part of it, the meat of her skull. A heavy metallic slamming sound, then silence as Bridie's fall ended with a still and limp young woman.

[Primrosette]

Damien felt the impact of Bridie falling back against him and he almost felt himself falling backwards himself. He let out a gasping sound as Bridie hit her head badly against a table. He wanted to check on how hurt she was. But first, he had to take out the guy who hurt her in the first place.

Carson....

"You bastard, you bastard, you bastard!"

Damien let out an angry yell and he raised the kama in his shaky hand. Then he did the one thing that he should have dome before Bridie got hurt. He charged right at Carson and took a swung with his weapon at Carson's face.

[CondorTalon]

It would have been a good time to leave. Carson turned, not wanting to be there any longer. Unfortunately for Carson, there was a door in the way. He heard one of them shouting something. He turned, just as Damien swung at him. He moved to dodge.

Unfortunately for Carson, there was a door in the way.

The kama connected, and suddenly Carson's vision went red. He could feel a pain radiating from where his eye... used to be. He could feel blood running down his face.

Fuckin'... got him good, Damien did. But Carson wasn't done. He couldn't be done. Along with the pain radiating from his eye socket, he felt something else swelling up inside him.

"Fuck off!" he shouted. Carson moved forward, his arms shooting toward Damien's neck.

He may have been blinded in one eye, sure, but he could still fight. And there was no way in hell he was going down without one.

[Cicadan]

Thumps, screaming.

Bridie struggled to open her eyes.

Blurs, shapes.

She needed to do something, but she couldn't move.

[Primrosette]

Damien had managed to hurt Carson. Good, good! This asshole was getting what he deserved! Damien was going to take him down-

Carson yelled at him at him and attacked him by getting a grip on his neck. Damien felt himself freeze for a few moments. All he could think of was Bianca in those seconds. Strangling the life out of her. He didn't want to go out the same way as her.

"Get-Get your dirty hands off of me!!"

He twisted his body to the side and he stumbled backwards with Carson's grip still on him. He let out an angered yell and he tried to swing the kama at Carson's arms.

[CondorTalon]

Carson was running on pure adrenaline, now. He could feel Damien's kama connect with his arm. The blade dug into his upper arm. Carson howled in pain, but he didn't let go. He couldn't afford to.

"Fuck you! Fuck you, you fuckin'..." Carson swore. He tightened his grip on Damien's neck. "You think you're better than me? Huh?!"

Carson pushed forward, trying to bring the two of them to the ground.