Little Fires Everywhere

[Wham Yubeesling]

She felt her body topple, fall to the ground once again.

She felt the gun leave her hand as her back hit the sand with a thud - softer than the other times, she didn’t know why.

And she felt the weapon bury itself into her shoulder, the pain, the sound that came out of her throat unfamiliar to her.

And she felt weak.

Helpless.

Unable to stop what was coming next.

Unable to stop Brigid from finishing her off.

…

…

No.

No fucking way would she have that.

She clenched her fists.

Clenched her teeth.

Swung her left hand up, the silver of her blade glistening in the sunlight.

[Laurels]

The gun was out of her hands. Brigid knew she was really doing it. She was really defeating Jasmine. The girl who betrayed their trust and murdered two people. Maybe this wasn't right, but in each swing, Brigid knew she was doing everyone on the island a favor. For a moment, it felt quite good.

That moment was gone, however, as soon as Jasmine swung that weird bladed object up. Brigid stepped back, but the thing managed to slice her up her leg a bit. She let out a cry as she stumbled back a bit. She could feel blood start to trickle down her leg. Brigid's breathing got a little more intense. She clenched her teeth and moved back.

She swung the bec de corbin again, hitting Jasmine on her side. As the girl fell down, Brigid swung again, this time smashing the hammer part into the girl's chest. She was sure she heard something crack.

[CondorTalon]

And then Jasmine raised the gun and Chris realized what was about to happen. Before he could even take another step forward, the gun fired, and Chris dropped to the ground.

No pain. No wetness. Chris was still on the ground. Brigid told him to run but he just scrambled backward, away from Jasmine. Brigid didn't do that. She ran forward. Swung her weapon. Sand in Jasmine's face.

Chris debated whether he should help. But that wasn't safe. It looked like Brigid could do it. But he had to help, because if Brigid lost, Jasmine would come after him next.

But then Brigid hit Jasmine again. He saw Jasmine fall to the ground.

Only when he heard the crack of bone did he force himself to finally stand.

[Wham Yubeesling]

She felt the blade stop. Dig in to Brigid’s flesh. She felt a smile come on as she saw the blood leak down. As she heard Brigid cry out in pain.

For a moment, it felt good.

And then she felt the pain in her side. The crack of her chest.

And she moved.

Tried to crawl.

Tried to crawl away, knowing what was going to happen next.

[Laurels]

Brigid watched as Jasmine started to slowly crawl away. It was hard to believe. Two days ago, Brigid was sure Jasmine would be someone who would stand by her through this horrible game. She thought the girl was smart and knew how to defend herself and her allies. Now the girl on the ground who was probably dealing with a cracked rib or two wasn't anything like that girl. She didn't even look like the kind of girl who murdered two boys.

As she saw the girl crawl, Brigid knew she had the chance to end this. She walked over, trying to ignore the pain in her leg. As she got closer to the girl, she took her good leg and raised it up. She then stomped down hard, pressing her foot into the girl's spine and forcing her into the sand.

"It's over, Jasmine," Brigid said. "You played the game, and you lost."

Brigid raised the bec de corbin up.

"Any last words?"

[Wham Yubeesling]

And it happened. The foot went down. She felt her bone crack against the force of the hit and her body seemed to dull. Soften. Disappear under where Brigid stomped.

And she tried to crawl.

And she tried to move.

But she couldn’t. Her body wasn’t responding. Every time she tried to push her leg forward it would only budge, drag itself along the sand. She could move her hands, she could move her head, she could try to pull her body out from underneath Brigid’s foot but there was no point in trying. No point in attempting to escape. No point in trying to fight back, trying to win against Brigid because she had won. Because she was standing over Jasmine, weapon in her hand, ready to kill her once Jasmine had made her last mark upon this world. Even if Jasmine could escape, even if Jasmine could win, there was no point. Her body wasn’t moving. Her body wasn’t responding. All it would take was for someone else to find Jasmine and she would be as good as dead.

It was over.

She had lost.

And everything she had done, everything she had tried to achieve would be for nothing. Brigid - Chris, wherever he was - would leave her corpse behind after they were finished. This game would continue on, and someone else - Brigid, Chris, whoever the fuck knew - would be crowned the winner of this game, would be able to go home to do whatever it was that they wanted to do, and Jasmine? She would just be left here, dead on this beach, remembered as nothing other than a victim of this game. Forgotten as more happened. Her parents would just keep on worshipping her brother. Her brother would keep on doing nothing to deserve it. Aster - her other brother - would keep on never having time for her, while Primrose would just keep on being a little shit.

And she wouldn’t ever be able to show them.

And they wouldn’t ever know what the meaning of fear was.

And she hated that. She knew she didn’t want that. She knew she didn’t want to just be forgotten by this game, forgotten by everyone. No. She didn’t want to be that. That was why she killed Paris. That was why she killed Lance. She didn’t want to be that nameless victim of the game of Survival of the Fittest. No. She wanted to win. She wanted to show them that she wasn’t just going to die. She wasn’t going to just be a victim.

No.

She didn’t want to be that.

But there was nothing she could do.

And as her eyes scoured the beach, she knew that she had no more options. She could see her gun but she couldn’t reach it. She could see the trees but she couldn’t run to them.

And she was gone. Dead in the water. They’d all forget her just as they always did. They’d just see a girl who died in fear and terror right in front of their eyes and they’d look her up and find out who she was and you know what they would say? You know what they’d think of her?

‘Aww, the poor girl. She tried so hard and yet she still failed.’

‘Honestly, I just feel sorry for her.’

And she hated that. She despised that.

And she knew more than ever that she wasn’t going to be like that. Not now. Not ever.

So she moved. Rolled her body. Felt Brigid’s weight topple off of her as her chest hit the sand - softer, almost comfortable - again. She saw the gun - her gun - in the distance and crawled, pushed her body as far as she could in the hopes of reaching it. Her body below wasn’t as responsive, her legs could only barely move, but she tried anyway, because she knew that she needed this, because she knew that she wasn’t going to die the way Brigid wanted her to, because she knew she wasn’t just going to be the victim of Brigid Paxton.

So when her hand touched the gun, when her fingers wrapped themselves around the hold, she smiled. When she rolled onto her back, when she saw Brigid standing above her, she grinned.

And when Brigid raised her weapon above her, ready to give the finishing blow, Jasmine knew exactly what the perfect thing to say to her was. She moved the gun towards her head, not even feeling the gun dig into her hands as she pulled the trigger.

“I win.”

She heard the click. The empty noise. The sound that the gun usually made, gone.

And in that final moment, that final millisecond before Brigid sent the weapon down through her head, Jasmine King could feel the true meaning of fear.

G25: JASMINE KING: DECEASED
44 STUDENTS REMAIN

[Laurels]

Brigid awaited Jasmine's response, the weight of the bec de corbin getting heavier with each second it was raised. Just then, she saw Jasmine reach for the gun. Brigid knew this was bad. Her weapon above her head meant she was defenseless. She would probably have to jump to the side to avoid getting shot.

To her surprise, Jasmine pointed the gun at her own head.

"I win."

Then, a clicking sound. Brigid felt the tension let out of her like air from a balloon. Jasmine wanted to take the easy way out. The coward's way out. She wanted to deny Brigid the chance at justice. To avenge Paris and Lance, and to rid the class of a dangerous person. She wanted to change the narrative, but that wasn't what Brigid would allow. Brigid normally loved twists in her shows, but not right now.

She closed her eyes, sighed, and finally lowered the bec de corbin down, directly onto Jasmine's head. She heard a crunching sound and felt some blood splatter on her. She opened her eyes and felt slightly sick. She could see Jasmine's forehead caving in from the bec de corbin. Her eyes were bulging open, and they looked like they were going to pop out from the amount of force Brigid applied to Jasmine's head. Maybe they did pop out slightly, Brigid wasn't sure. Either way, she was staring at Brigid, even though there was nothing behind those eyes anymore.

Brigid stared at the motionless girl and realized she did what she said she would do. She wanted to kill someone and she did. This was what those terrorists wanted, wasn't it? Now she suddenly felt really awful. Maybe it was the sight of Jasmine's corpse, or maybe it was the blood she was losing from her leg. Maybe it was even the guilt that came from killing a peer, even if it wouldn't have happened if they weren't kidnapped. Either way, she felt like a black hole was about to open in her chest and suck her in.

Brigid let go of the polearm, letting it plop into the sand beside Jasmine. Brigid stepped off Jasmine's body and stumbled back a bit. She suddenly felt extremely exhausted.

"Chris..." she began.

She then fell back, landing on her rear. She kept her legs stretched out before her, allowing her to see her pant leg stained with her blood. There were other flecks of blood on her clothes to. Brigid stared at them, and remained silent. She could hear the sounds of seagulls nearby.

[CondorTalon]

Don't let her.

Don't let her do anything, because the minute she's free she'll go for the gun, or for the weird blade and do something with it.

Chris was half-right. Jasmine scrambled for the gun with the last of her strength. But she didn't aim it at him or Brigid. Instead, she pointed it at her own head.

Said some snarky last words. And utterly failed to deliver on her own manifesto.

So that was it. I couldn't have been more than a few minutes from when they decided to kill Jasmine to when it had actually happened. In a way, there was a feeling of emptiness to the whole thing.

Well, he hadn't done anything. He'd tried and failed and cowered and made Brigid do it all herself.

But maybe that was good. That was the smart thing to do.

...

Brigid was bleeding. Pretty heavily actually. How deep was the cut?

"Hold on," he said, "We can't just leave your leg like that."

He dug through his bag, searching for the first aid kit.

"How bad is it?" he asked.

[Laurels]

Brigid snapped back to reality when Chris asked her how she was doing. She shook her head as she looked down at her leg. It looked like Jasmine cut the leg directly up the upper thigh of her left leg. She could see the fabric cut in a straight line and the blood seeping out.

"Uh, let me check," she said.

Brigid wasn't sure she could roll her pants up to show the wound off. This was slightly embarrassing, but Brigid couldn't hold onto pride. Besides, she just killed someone. Taking her pants off in front of a guy was the least of her issues.

Brigid unbuttoned her pants and pulled them off. She got a better look at her thigh. The wound didn't look too deep, but blood was still coming out.

"Yeah, I definitely need alcohol at the least."

[CondorTalon]

Chris didn't expect Brigid to take off her pants.

When he thought about it, it made sense. The wound was up on her leg, and she wouldn't really be able to roll her pants up that high. On the other hand... yeah.

But no, the wound was more important, so he focused on that.

"Yeah, I'll probably need a drink after this, too," he joked, in response to Brigid's comment.

He pulled out the first aidkit and opened it up, his hands immediately going for the alcohol pads. He took a second look at Brigid's wound before reaching into his bag for a water bottle.

"First we should clean the blood off," he said, "And possibly any sand."

He wished he didn't have to use his water for this, but he definitely wasn't using the sea water, and there was really no other option. Luckily they had a pilferable corpse within easy reach, so...

Focus on the wound. Right. There was still blood coming out of it.

"Okay, uh," he started, "can you apply pressure on it, or something? We can't have the blood keep flowing."

[Laurels]

((Timeskip approved))

Brigid and Chris got to work stopping the bleeding. Brigid tried to be a trooper as she held some cloth to try and stop the bleeding, then tried even harder to resist crying out when the alcohol was applied. After a few minutes of rough first aid, they had the bleeding stopped and the injury bandaged.

Brigid finally sighed as she pulled her pants back up. She looked around the area. The tide was coming in a bit, and she could see a few seagulls had landed on the beach. Some were getting closer to Jasmine's body. Brigid sighed. She still couldn't believe she killed her. It was hard to believe that she actually committed murder, even if it was to someone bad like Jasmine.

Brigid shook her head. She couldn't dwell on this. Jasmine needed to be stopped, and her behavior showed she wasn't going to repent. Brigid had to be strong. People may come for her now, and she still needed to do right by Chris.

Brigid looked back at Jasmine's body. One seagull was now perched on the bec de corbin's pole, taking a look at Jasmine's head.

"We should get her stuff," Brigid calmly said. "Then we should get out of here."

[CondorTalon]

"Yeah, and yeah," Chris said. He took a few steps toward Jasmine's body, the seagull on Brigid's weapon staring at him until he got close enough that it presumably felt threatened by his presence and flew off.

He looked for Jasmine's bag; he hoped it wasn't tucked under her corpse. He supposed it wasn't really pragmatic at this point to draw a line between looting bodies and desecrating them, but-

Ah, there it was.

He picked it up from the sand, before turning to Brigid.

"Can you walk?" he asked. She did take a hit to a leg, after all.

[Laurels]

"Yeah, I'll try."

Brigid pushed a hand into the sand and slowly stood up. She felt a bit of a sting from her leg, but it wasn't enough to make her want to get back down. They couldn't just hang around the beach now that it was the site of a murder. Brigid sighed a bit as she stood up and brushed some sand off of her pants.

She looked over at Jasmine's body. It looked pretty horrible. Even though Chris had scared away the seagulls by walking over, she could see they were still around, eyeing Jasmine's body. But Brigid had to pay them no attention. There were other more important things to grab.

She walked over to Jasmine's body and knelt down. She grabbed the gun off the ground and held it up.

"She ran out before she died," Brigid said, "but maybe she has more ammo in her bag."

Brigid pocketed the gun. She then reached over and lifted the bec de corbin off Jasmine's body. She heard a squishing sound, and was a bit disgusted at the site of Jasmine's shattered skull. The bec de corbin dripped blood down onto the girl's body. Brigid turned away so she didn't have to look at it any longer.

"Okay, let's go."

Brigid turned away from the sea and started to walk towards the woods. Jasmine was dead. That was finally accomplished. But now they still had a few dozen classmates still running around, and she knew a number of them would be dangerous. Either way, they had to be ready.

((Brigid Paxton continued elsewhere))

[CondorTalon]

It seemed Brigid was okay to walk. That was good. He watched as Brigid pulled her weapon from atop Jasmine's corpse, and cringed a bit at the noise it made.

"Right behind you."

He didn't know where they were going at this point, but anywhere was better than near a body, he supposed.

((Christopher Schwartz continued elsewhere...))