"I know every story has to end, but that doesn't mean I won't hesitate before the last word."

[Yonagoda]

"Mary," she muttered.

"Mary, she's coming, she's here-"

[VoltTurtle]

((Where had Mandy wandered off to?))

Seo-yun was getting desperate to find her only ally. Being this painfully alone was sucking the life out of her. She needed someone to talk to and confide in, if only to stave off the crushing loneliness. Mandy was the only one that would understand and listen to her. Nobody else would or even could this many kills deep.

Part of her was afraid that if she didn't find Mandy soon, something bad would happen to her. She hadn't exactly been all that competent back when they were together, and Seo-yun couldn't help but imagine all the trouble she would get herself into on her lonesome. Concern for someone else was an unfamiliar feeling to her, and not one she liked. So the simplest option was to end end it, by finding her.

So that was why she was here, back out on the deck, near the open air pool. The cruise ship was the biggest locale, and was where they first met. The pool in particular was nearby where they had last been together. Maybe Mandy had wandered her way over here, looking for Seo-yun in turn. While the pool was hardly a good place to hide, there was always the possibility. Even if the hope that Mandy was here felt hollow, it was still worth a try.

Seo-yun took her first, ginger step out into the open, scanning the area around the pool for any movement, her gun clutched tightly in her hands and following the motion of her eyes. From where she was, she could see the inside of the dining hall, and the leftovers of the chaotic scene that had erupted inside. The pool itself was no stranger to the chaos itself, with chunks of refuse and bullet casings dotting the deck. A few bodies were scattered around the pool—hardly an unusual sight in these parts—and that sickly sweet scent of decay hit her like an ocean wave as she stepped outside.

Not seeing anyone in particular, she continued further out, her heels letting out a distinctive crunch as they crushed the bits and pieces of scattered debris. She still didn't see anybody, scanning the open air. There was only one spot where anyone could hide, that being the ice cream stand that was off on one side. She knew how easy it was to hide even in the most unlikely of places, given that was she had ambushed so many others. Trudging towards it, she readied her gun, refusing to let herself be surprised like so many others.

Except, just as she rounded the stand, there was a flurry of movement, and before she could react to what was happening there was another explosion of pain in her face. She tumbled to the ground, her gun coming out of her hands and skidding off across the floor.

[KamiKaze]

And just like that, Seo-yun fell.

((Mary Cheung continued from All Cats Are Grey))

Mary stood over her, the oar braced for another swing.

She had a whirlwind of feelings about S-Y. Hurt. Hatred. A sense of loss. Some confusion, some understanding. She knew that if she saw her again, they’d fight.

And Mary made due on that.

“Good to see you,” she said, her voice low.

And another swing.

[Yonagoda]

Leah held on to the bundle of rope

She felt a little less responsible this way, if she let Mary do the work. It wasn’t really her right to hurt Seo-yun, anyways, because she didn’t kill anyone that Leah liked, not that blood for blood is a concept that she abided by at all. And she didn’t really fancy the concept of revenge, of justice, of whatever drug Anthony was on.

So she just stood there. She didn’t want to kick her when she was down- but it was her job to make sure Seo didn’t get back up. It was her job to be the supporting role to the two’s show.

[VoltTurtle]

A jolt of panic as she hit the ground. Brief recognition as her attacker came into focus. Sudden realization that she had been ambushed by Mary. She couldn't defend herself, the gun was out of her hands. Fear unlike any other she had felt before crashed over her. So unceremoniously and abruptly, this was it. She was about to be beaten to death.

It couldn't end like this. She hadn't even found Mandy yet. There was still so much she needed to do.

"Wait, Mary," her plea spilled out of her mouth, involuntarily. "St-stop-"

Another blow came down from above, her arms moving to block it. She shrieked in pain as the sting of the impact shot through the both of them. Her whole body wailed at her, all her injuries reigniting their pain in unison. Then, after the agony came the nausea and the panic of imminent doom. Her survival instincts kicked in with full force, screeching at her to get away, to fight, to do anything and everything she could.

She kicked back on her heels, trying to get some distance from her attacker. More words tore out of her throat as a desperate, half-screamed cry.

"Wait wait wait, please, WAIT-"

Except Mary didn't stop. The oar came down again. This time, she didn't block it.

This time, Mary got the top of her head.

Then everything went dark.

[KamiKaze]

Somewhere in there she heard Seo-yun beg her to stop. But the oar still went down. Again.

Until she stopped moving.

Adrenaline rushed through Mary’s body, the surge of energy keeping her going. But the oar stopped for the moment.

“Seo-yun?”

No immediate response. Mary knelt down, reaching for her neck to feel for a pulse with her trembling hands. A swarm of nausea hit. Even without what she just did, she looked awful. What happened to her eye? Her ear?

“S-Y?”

She was still alive. Just K.O’d.

“Leah,” Mary breathed out. “Tie her up a little, will you?”

[Yonagoda]

''Alright,'' she said, even though the situation wasn't alright at all. Her body was frozen up until she took that tentative first step. For that terrifying second, she thought that Mary had killed her.

Leah didn't know how to tie knots very well. When they were tight, she never knew how to untie them. Maybe she wouldn't even have to untile Seo at all, and that's even worse.

But she didn't say any of that. Instead, she knelt down and grabbed at the wrists of the unconscious Seo, in half a way just marveling at how… ordinary, if not very beaten up she looked. Leah could pin both of these thin wrists to the girl's back with one hand, and that was what she did, wrapping the rope all around her wrists and forearms with the other. Not tight enough to cut off air circulation, although Leah wasn't really sure why she should give that courtesy to the girl who she just agreed to ambushing and possibly murdering- but it made her feel good about herself, the being-considerate part. Not the tying a comatose girl up part.

'Is this good enough,' she asked, 'Or do I have to… tie her to somewhere? Like the railings?

Like a dog on a leash, Leah realized.

And there was a chance that nobody's letting her out.

Leah had never felt as helpless as she thought Seo would feel if she woke up. And that scared her. The fact that she just let Mary do this, that she heard Seo's cries for mercy and that Mary kept on hitting her and that Leah didn't do anything to stop all that.

But she held onto the rope and kept a knee on Seo-Yun's back and she looked at Mary for an answer, even, no, especially as she felt the girl beneath her begin to stir.

“Mary,” she half-whispered, voice breathy and hoarse, “Mary, she’s waking up, what do- what do I do?”

[VoltTurtle]

Seo-yun stirred, dregs of half-faded consciousness returning to her not long after she had lost it. Prickles of dull sensation pulled her back from the void, her senses alight with brand new varieties of suffering. The pain was all there, greeting her like an old friend, but her head hurt differently from before. Instead of hurting from the outside-in, it was hurting from the inside-out. She felt confused, nauseous, dizzy. Where was she again?

Then she tried to move, and she felt the ropes tied around her, and the knee pressing down into her back.

Her eyes shot open. She was back, she was still here. Except, she was tied up. Why was she tied up? Why was she still alive?

"What the fuck is this..."

Didn't they have her dead-to-rights? Why wouldn't they just kill her-

Oh.

She had watched this show before, plenty of times. She'd seen this exact scenario play out over and over again. Being alive and tied up after being knocked out only ever led to one conclusion. They were going to torture her to death. Why else would they not just kill her?

"No, no no no, no no no no no no no no," she began to babble.

Then, her babbling turned into screaming, and then thrashing, the desperate motions of a caged beast on its way to be put down. Fear overtook her, giving her strength that she didn't know she had left. Except, despite her best efforts, her bonds held tight, and the knee pressed into her back didn't go anywhere.

"Mary, please, you don't have to do this," she begged, slurring her words, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, for everything, I really am."

She'd still do it all over again, but she was sorry. It wasn't her fault she was cast into a death game and had to be utterly ruthless in order to survive. Blame the producers, not her.

"Please, please, you don't have to kill me, please-"

[KamiKaze]

She was awake. Mary knelt, oar in hand.

And, for the first time since she’d laid eyes on her, made friends with her, Seo-yun looked pathetic. It was funny how the game brought certain sides out. She remembered Dale, and how he looked before he… you know. Curled up on the floor, dejected. Seeing Seo-yun like this too…

Admittedly, Mary had rehearsed this a few times in her head. Not in that ‘planning’ way, but in that ‘rumination’ way. Sometimes, when nothing was happening, she’d play out her meeting Seo-yun again. Play out the idea of fighting her. Sometimes it ended with her defeating Seo-yun, sometimes Seo-yun would defeat her. It was kinda the same with RJ, and Junji, and maybe Anthony now. Some part of her appreciated the idea of her fighting Seo-yun and winning against the person she’d ever first fought here. Some part of her even wanted it, just to show her strength. It wasn’t even entirely hatred, or even hurt.

But it was playing out differently than the fantasy script in her head.

“S-Y… you’re not going to die just yet, don’t worry,” she said, her voice low.

Would it be a mercy if she died now?

Mary looked up at the camera, then back at Seo-yun.

“We could… talk, I guess,” Mary said, her voice low and her grip still on the oar. “Or not.”

[Yonagoda]

“Shhh-shh, it’s alright,” she muttered, putting all her weight she can on the girl. “I just- I just want to-”

Just want to what? To pick her brain apart and see everything inside? To break Seo down into little individual, digestible traits for the whole world to see? To get answers?

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

No guarantees about Mary, though.

She put her knee off of Seo-yun. Grabbed her hands with her own, pinned to her back, pinned to the ground. The other hand reached out for the gun, but it was too far away, and she awkwardly crawled off of the girl to grab it- finger off the trigger, pointing at the ground. She never really felt like she was in such a position of power before. It made her so sick. She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to do this.

It doesn’t matter how hard Seo-yun screamed, now. Nobody would try to find her. Nobody would try to save her. Leah wasn’t an Anthony. She didn’t- god, she didn’t want to see anyone suffer, she didn’t want to see Seo-yun like this, she wanted to let her go even though she knew that she’d be stabbed in the back the moment she turned around.

“We can talk,” she echoed. “We can just talk.”

Seo looked so little and frail and pathetic. The way that she babbled like a child, the way that her fingers are so thin. Leah thought that she should probably eat more, if there was still food left in her possession. It wasn’t an in-the-moment thing. She looked like Rebecca, except Rebecca was dying and Seo was just begging there, tied on the ground.

[VoltTurtle]

Seo-yun couldn't help but let out a brief, involuntary whine as Leah picked up her gun, like a child being denied their favorite toy. She hated everything about this situation. She especially hated that, unlike Mary, Leah was an enigma to her. She had been quiet, and completely unassuming. She was someone that before had been beneath Seo-yun's notice, but now here she was with all the power in the world over her life.

When all was said and done, Seo-yun remained frozen, overwhelmed by the throbbing in her head and tired from her pointless thrashing. They claimed they weren't going to kill her, but did that mean they just wanted to interrogate her first? Mary's words suggested the latter interpretation, but Leah's limited emotional display seemed genuine. Seo-yun supposed the distinction didn't matter, so long as she was tied up and at their mercy both possibilities may as well be one and the same.

It was best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not questioning it had worked out with Bethan, so it could very well work out here. If they said they wanted to talk, and were letting her talk, then that meant she might be able to convince them to let her go. However slim the chance, she had to grasp at it with both hands.

"Alright," she responded, her words still slightly slurred. "You want to talk, so in that case..."

She did her best to sit up, shifting underneath Leah. She should bring up something that would make her look better. No pathetic begging for her life or obvious negotiations. Keep it tangential, and then maybe some cracks would open up.

"There was this girl I was with, named Mandy Gross," she said, her voice low and soft. "She- you remember her right, Mary? We were traveling together, but got separated. She's still alive, I think. I'm..."

Seo-yun paused, considering her words and her feelings. No need to lie here, the truth would be better.

"I'm worried for her. Have either of you seen her?"

It was a legitimate question. The fact that it also had the pleasant side effect of making her seem more sympathetic was just a bonus.

[KamiKaze]

“No, we haven’t,” Mary said, frowning.

So she was alone, then. That made things a little easier. Without her little sidekick minion thing going on, that made whatever came next easier. She looked around, though, hoping not to see a dog hat anywhere.

She hoped that Mandy wouldn’t jump up out of nowhere anyways. For all she knew, this was all a ploy to distract them for long enough, while Mandy hid in the back somewhere waiting for the right cue.

Well played, if that was the case, if it weren’t for the whole fact they’d be in trouble.

“Leah, in case you didn’t know… Mandy is this girl with a dog hat. She’s a junior, and she was pretty much her minion when Leo and I ran into them at the start. They attacked us both, I mean. So… uh, ring a bell?”

[Yonagoda]

"No."

Leah shook her head earnestly.

"I'm sorry you... lost your... um, friend."

Friends. Friends. Seo yun seemed to be the kind of person who had friends as resources, near-endless and easily available in her own way. One of those people who had so many connections, emotional and maybe physical. It made her so envious sometimes, how many people seemed to love people like her. But she also pitied her. It's so hard to keep friends- you have to first establish a connection, and then maintain it, and that was the hardest part. Your interests most likely need to align with their's. Without continuing contact, the relationship would slowly break apart, so you'd have to put at least some effort into engaging with them in one way or another, and that's just tiring. Leah only really knew how to love things. Concepts. She didn't know how to love people and how to be loved back, and she wasn't really surprised when she saw the state that Seo was in.

She was. She was. But she wasn't surprised that she had it within her to do it, because you can't maintain so many relationships without at least a handful of them being shallow, right?

"But we're the one who would be asking questions for now, alright?"

How did you stomach it? How did you picture yourself after this? Why this, why not another way where you won't have so much blood on your hands? Why do you need so many people around you? Why did you care about Mandy but not the six other people? Who do you really think you are?

"What are you planning when you get out, anyways? Or, uh, 'if' you get out. Isn't there just an... easier way to do this? Or did you just... not care?"

"I'm going to let go of your hands, now, Seo. Don't thrash around, please," she muttered, her hand still holding the gun. The barrel still pointing at the ground.

[VoltTurtle]

What an odd series of questions to ask to someone you were holding hostage. What was the point? Who did Leah think she was, doing this to her?

"I..."

She felt Leah's hands let go of her wrists. She wouldn't bother struggling any more, there was no point when she was at such a disadvantage. Better to just cooperate and answer what they asked, one question at a time. That hardly meant she had to tell the whole truth, though. Especially not about the real reason why she had started down this path to begin with. They'd never let her go if they knew.

"I'll have a life, that's what I'm planning," she slurred. "I can't have that if I die here."

Everything she had planned before has since gone up in smoke. With her new disfigurements and everything she has said and done, there would be no long-lasting fame for her. Only the barren wasteland that lies beyond, when everyone will know what she's really like. Where nobody will care about her, and how great she was. Or rather, how great she thought she was. A life like that would, in all likelihood, be a miserable one. But at least it would be a life.

"Maybe it could have been easier to win with my team, but I made a promise. Mandy and I agreed to help each other get out of here, but we were on different teams. So one of us had to get the ten kills, and it wasn't going to be her."

Technically truthful and paints her in a positive light, but omitting critical details. She had made the decision to kill before she saw anyone else. Mandy just happened to be the first person she could manipulate that she ran into. The unintended consequence of that was that now Seo-yun actually wanted to respect the deal. She cared, in spite of herself.

"And it didn't feel good, if that's what you're asking, but that didn't mean I would stop. I don't compromise once I set my mind on something, and I take every opportunity I can get," her words were coming out more clearly than before, the fog that was enveloping her thoughts beginning to lessen. "That's why I attacked Leo back when Mary and I first found each other. That's why I killed all those people."

No point in denying it. They all knew she was a murderer, and they all knew what her goal was. What other explanation could possibly make sense to them and convince them to let her go?

[KamiKaze]

Mary listened. Thought.

She clenched the oar.

“You do realize that it might have been useful to at least work with me like you did with Mandy? I mean, we were friends, weren’t we? So… why Mandy…? Did you know her well and I missed it somehow?”

She hated you all along, you know. She thinks you’re stupid, pitiable. No wonder she would toss you aside the second it benefited her. She’s like the others. Leo probably would have, too. Maybe Leah and Jewel are next.

I’m having these thoughts again. Maybe the argument with Anthony rattled me more than I thought. I’m still feeling aftershocks from that. And since I’m dealing with Seo-yun right now… plus, I said it myself, didn’t I? At least the reason why Seo-yun and I aren’t friends anymore is at least something understandable, rather than some pointless high school drama.

Seo-yun killed people. Hurt Leo. Don’t make it about yourself. You’re continuing to be a selfish moron.

I need to figure out what to do.

Mary breathed.

Maybe it would be a mercy.