Ashanti & I

[VoltTurtle]

Pull the trigger.

That's what Seo-yun did the moment Matias went for the gun.

Mandy calling out to her had made it an easy decision. Why waste her breath talking to a few soon-to-be corpses when anything they could have told her had just been answered?

All Matias had accomplished by going for the gun was removing the need to actually make that decision. She had reacted on instinct, her nerves alight the moment he moved. She had warned him not to startle her. Maybe if he had taken her advice, he could've enjoyed a few more moments of life, but everyone just had to play the hero because the cameras were rolling.

There was an explosion of blood and gore when the shot hit. Ashanti had started to move just as soon as Matias did, but in the eruption of chaos that had followed, with her single eye focused on the firearm in front of her, Seo-yun hadn't seen where she had gone. Oh well, it wouldn't take long to find her in a set of rooms this small.

[Maraoone]

Oh.

He'd been up on his two feet just earlier but now he was, like, on his side kinda and it felt cold and, like, a distant sort of cold throughout his body. And he wanted to get up but his body wasn't, like, following him as much as it was supposed to, just this limp flailing about of arms and shit, limbs sliding and slipping on all this fucking blood, all weak-like, kinda like whenever he slept on his stomach and laid on his arm on accident and woke up in the middle of the night and, like, his fingers weren't responding like they were supposed to, and there was just this half-waking thought of 'It's not supposed to do that,' this ​mix of some sleep-induced nightmare and horrible, horrible reality, you know the feeling, kinda like now, and.

Like, she was supposed to be all caught up in her villain speech and shit and he was supposed to have caught her off-guard and she would've been crying and dying and she would've finally fucking got what was coming for her and it had all come together just like that just so fucking beautifully perfectly but, like, the gun was in his fucking hand and his finger was literally fucking lying on the trigger and it wasn't fucking moving it wasn't fucking firing and.

Like. He'd tried his best and this was all it was, huh?

A quiet chuckle filled the room.

[MurderWeasel]

A second after the echoes of the gunshot faded, there was a banging of fists on the bathroom door.

"Seo-yun? Seo-yun, are you okay? Did she, did she—are you okay?"

The doorknob rattled uselessly, the cord binding it holding strong.

[VoltTurtle]

Seo-yun didn't waste any time after Matias hit the ground, running up to and kicking the revolver out of his hand with as much force as she could muster. She felt the heft of the metal as it hit her foot, a mild sting being left behind in her toes, but where the weapon actually went after it flew out of his hand was anyone's guess. Between all of the overturned furniture and debris in the room, it was easy to lose track of small objects.

She looked down at Matias, saw the blood oozing from his gut. That was a killing blow, a real one this time. It wasn't one she was happy to look at either, but it wasn't as grisly as the hole she had put in Virginia, and certainly wasn't as visceral as Leah's head being blown off. She'd seen enough blood and gore at this point to live and move on, unlike Matias.

"Pathetic," she hissed.

Then, without waiting for a reply, she leveled the shotgun at his good leg and pulled the trigger.

[Maraoone]

A pained, almost voiceless scream rasped from his throat.

His head lolled back, and then all that could be heard was an erratic, shuddered breathing.

[VoltTurtle]

Seo-yun could've aimed for his head, could've made it quick and easy, but he hadn't cooperated like Leah had. He hadn't been harmless like Kamille or Lark. He knew what he had tried to do. So he would spend his last moments bleeding out in agony. That was the toll he paid for making an attempt on her life.

With that out of the way, she made a cursory search of the room, checking around overturned armchairs and under tables. No sign of Ashanti anywhere, unfortunately. Maybe she had been smart, unlike her partner, and made a run for it. Oh well, there were more important things at hand.

"I'm okay, Mandy," she announced.

Mandy's voice had been muffled, coming from the direction of the bathroom. Seo-yun carefully made her way over to the door, taking note of the phone cord wrapped around the doorknob and the dresser pushed in front of it. Had she spent all this time away as a prisoner? That would explain why she had been so hard to find, at least, and it made for another reason why Matias should spend these last few moments thinking about what he had done.

The phone cord was easy enough to undo. The dresser would be a bit more of a challenge, given her less than ideal condition. Better get to pushing.

"Just... hold on a second."

[MurderWeasel]

"Okay, it's okay," came the reply.

The doorknob turned again, and the door was pushed with force, and without the cord securing it to the knob of a nearby closet, it moved a little more, but the dresser in front only tilted fractionally before settling back into place.

There was a small sigh, and more rattling.

"Did you get her? Are you hurt?"

[VoltTurtle]

"I'm fine," she huffed, heaving at the dresser with all the strength she could summon. "You can see for yourself in a moment."

A few days ago, this would've been trivial for someone in her physical condition. With the state she was in now, though, it felt like a herculean effort to get this dresser out of the way. What was even inside this thing, rocks? The producers probably loaded it full of sand, to help it better act as cover. She knew conventional furniture wasn't very good at stopping bullets, and they needed their gunfights to be dramatic instead of what they actually were.

Actually, that was probably worth checking.

After a solid ten seconds of futilely trying to push the dresser out of the way, Seo-yun slid open the top drawer, seeing that the inside had been filled to the brim with what appeared to be a bunch of thick, worn-out textbooks. Not quite sand like she had guessed, but it might as well be for her purposes.

One by one, Seo-yun yanked the drawers out of the dresser, heaving them off to the side and out of the way. She gave the dresser another push, and finally it gave way. A few moments later the door was unblocked, and the bathroom once more accessible.

Without sparing another second, Seo-yun threw the door open and pulled Mandy into a hug.

[MurderWeasel]

Mandy let out a little squeal as finally the door opened and she all but tumbled into Seo-yun's arms. It felt incredible, unreal. Over the past day in the bathroom, she'd really come to believe that she would never again get to see anything besides that small, damp, tiled space, and even a return to the room where she'd been a captive before felt overstimulating.

"You're okay," Mandy mumbled, confirming it to herself as much as anything.

There was a lot to take in. Up close, pressed against her, Seo-yun didn't look good, but she looked better than when they'd parted, no longer soaked in foul water, the bandage covering her missing eye less recently applied, so there wasn't goo running down her cheek. Mandy probably had the more inexplicable change on the appearance front; the hood of the panda onesie had fallen back to rest against her shoulders, revealing her shorn head.

A quick glance revealed what had kept her captive so long: a dresser, drawers scattered around, and a phone cord that had secured the handle of the door. There wasn't even a trace of damage from Mandy's attempts at sawing free, but she didn't care, it didn't matter, she could think to herself that she didn't know places even used corded phones anymore and that could be a funny observation instead of a demoralizing one.

Peeping over Seo-yun's, shoulder, Mandy could also see that the room was even more trashed than before, with the mattress partially torn from gunfire, and Matias lying on the floor, bleeding from a pair of deep wounds.

Mandy blinked, turned her head while still holding it tight against Seo-yun, searching for the other body. But there was no other body.

"What's he doing here?" she asked quietly.

[VoltTurtle]

"He was with Ashanti. Tried to shoot me. It didn't take. Ashanti ran, I don't know where."

That was all that needed to be said about that.

Seo-yun held Mandy close, giving her an affectionate squeeze. It was so, so good seeing a friendly face and feeling the touch of someone that didn't want to maim or kill her. It was something she had taken for granted before, but she wasn't going to let go to waste now.

She let her hand rest on the back of Mandy's head, gently stroking her hair, as much to calm herself as it was to calm Mandy. Mandy didn't look the same as she had before, she had changed into some kind of awful panda onesie and massacred her own hair. She looked completely awful, but that didn't matter at this point. The only thing on Seo-yun's mind is that her partner was safe, they were together again, and for the first time since they were separated, she once more saw a real path out of this place. Mandy might not be the most competent partner, but she was Seo-yun's partner, and that was all either of them needed.

Seo-yun pulled back, before flashing a genuine grin.

"You look like shit," she said softly, with a chuckle. "I'm glad you're safe."

Maybe she could take Mandy shopping when this was all said and done. Maybe get the girl some real fashion sense once all the cameras were focused on them both.

With one last affectionate pat, she let go of Mandy, before craning her head around and looking back at the crumpled, bleeding mess that was Matias. He was breathing fast, but the important thing was that he was still breathing. Perhaps she could extract some information out of him before he joined everyone else in oblivion. She still had a score to settle on Mandy's behalf, after all.

"I need to take care of something really fast, okay? We can catch up more later."

Without waiting for a reply, she walked over to Matias and kicked him in the side.

"Wake up," she ordered, her voice harsh, all the warmth that had been present when she had been speaking to Mandy completely wiped away. "Tell me where Ashanti went, or I'll quite literally break your balls."

[Maraoone]

His breathing morphed into this harsh wheezing, something akin to an air mattress being squeezed repeatedly. He rolled his head over, locked eyes with Seo-yun, manic grin on his face.

"She fucking left, you dumb bitch. She ran away in the entire fucking minute it took you to open a fucking door, you goddamn cunt."

[MurderWeasel]

Mandy nodded to both Seo-yun's answer and her expression of relief. But when the time came for her friend to question Matias, she turned away.

This was the one part of this whole process that Mandy actually hadn't missed that much. She had pretty much come to terms with the idea that most of the people they met would have to die, but watching it play out remained unsettling, and whatever connection Matias and Ashanti had—they'd been together back at the banquet hall, and they wore the same color bandanna, so Mandy had at least the start of a guess—she didn't have any personal quarrel with him.

So back into the bathroom she went, leaving the door open of course. She'd been so focused on getting out that she hadn't paid any mind to what she was leaving behind, which in this case was all the stuff from the bag. The faintly damp floor felt familiar by now, and she looked on the same surroundings she'd come to know well with a mix of revulsion and longing.

She set about shoving what she'd need back in the burned bag. There wasn't much left. The first aid kit, a more-or-less fresh towel, a roll of toilet paper, toothbrush and toothpaste and—after a moment's hesitation—the half-eaten bag of dried squid.

[VoltTurtle]

Seo-yun snorted.

"Fair enough."

All the insults that Matias spewed at her would amount to the last tantrum of a petulant child. She didn't need to degrade herself to his level by firing back. All that would accomplish would be entertaining him, and diminishing her own position. It was already clear who the real winner was.

No reason not to believe him, though. He had every reason to rub it in her face that another kill had gotten away. There would always be other kills, though, and once Matias was dead, all she'd have left was one more.

"I hope the insults help you feel better about yourself."

She turned away from Matias and back towards her partner, that familiar hollowness returning to her. She could not revel in her victory here, take any pleasure in what she had done, even if Matias had gotten what was coming to him. When it came to her taking lives, there was nothing left to feel except more emptiness.

"Mandy, when you're done in there, I'll meet you out in the corridor, okay? Don't get lost again."

((And so she left, the grand finale on the horizon.))

[MurderWeasel]

"Got it," Mandy called, giving the bathroom one final look-over. Yeah, she wouldn't miss this place.

As she padded back through the room, she spared Matias a quick glance, but the blood and stuff was enough to make her regret that. She was half tempted to offer an apology or something, some kind of reassurance that she wasn't mad at him, but it wasn't like he'd care, and she wasn't even entirely sure she meant it.

Mandy did spare a few moments to glance around for the gun, but it wasn't anywhere in sight, presumably either already reclaimed by Seo-yun or else spirited off by Ashanti. It didn't matter anyways, really. The shotgun had proved much more consistent and reliable.

So, with a few faint crunches of debris under her soles, Mandy followed after her friend, back where she belonged.

((Mandy Gross continued in God Only Knows))

[Maraoone]

He lifted his head as much as he could, glared at the back of a receding Mandy.

"She's gonna leave you, you know. No fuckin' way she'll choose you over herself. She's just gonna betray you."

He was trying to project his voice, but he sounded muffled, quiet to himself.

All he heard in response was the ringing of his own ears.