Silver Lights

[Ohm]

((Zoe Walker continued from Stuck in the Middle with You))

A lot of time had passed since Norma died, Zoe had spent that time gathering her bearings of the area as the room had started to reek corpses. That was good though as it would put the attention on the them.  

It gave Zoe time to think and strategize. With the Palace and Boardwalk cut off, she would have to make due with the Salon, with a bit of work she could make it into a good ambush zone.

She had gotten the gun reloaded and ready. The manual called it a pistol despite, y'know, not fucking looking like it. Anyway, with her sword and gun she had her short and long range bases covered. It's all she could ask for really.

She exited the building and made her way over to the salon. She had the gun out in case she saw anyone. At this point showing any mercy was out of the question, just gun them down and move on.

[Maraoone]

((Cathryn Bailey continues from Grievances))

Surprise had been Cathryn's best friend these past couple of days. It had been her accomplice as she smothered Nina, as she impaled Alice. It had helped her avoid many encounters, and right now, it was, perhaps, her only advantage. However, it could be a rather fickle companion. Her bandaged ear, the one that she'd probably never hear properly with again, stung as this thought passed through her mind. Nowhere and at no time was this more true than now. It wasn't really clear whose side surprise would be on.

The nerves on her skin screamed and danced as the icy wind bit through layers and layers of clothes. They yearned for shelter, for a reprieve from the cold. And so Cathryn searched for one. The spa and salon, despite all its memories, would have been fine enough. However, the number of survivors was dropping down to single-digits. The event horizon had long been passed, and every encounter, every move, every breath carried a risk. A risk that it might be your last, that someone might spear your heart or shoot you dead if you didn't watch closely enough. And so she waited, waited for some silhouette to show up, waited until there was not even the slightest doubt that no one was here. Then, she saw it.

It, or she or he, the short hair made it hard to tell, came out of one of the buildings. The spa, if memory served right. It held something long in its hands, a gun. Something like Jackson's, she guessed. Her ear stung again. Anything else was impossible to tell. The silhouette was just a shadow against shadows, a darker black. Along with the blizzard, it was already an hour past the last announcements. Any possible moonlight was blocked out by the clouds.

Cathryn had no choice, she couldn't go anywhere else. But bullets beat blades any time of the year. Jewel certainly knew that. So, who would surprise side with? Cathryn hoped it'd be hers, but hope didn't really make much of a difference nowadays.

The silhouette walked into the salon. After a few seconds, Cathryn walked towards the building. She crouched under a window and peeked, waiting to see what the silhouette's next move would be.

[Ohm]

As Zoe walked in, she dropped her bag on the floor and kneeled down with her gun down on the side and opened it up, took out and started munching on a slim Jim as she inspected her sword for any damage. Who knows what Vahka might have been doing to it besides slaughtering people.

The sword felt light in her hand, stained with the blood of Norma, her first kill on the resort. It's funny, she thought, she's spent this whole time appeasing them, losing weapons and teammates over the course of it when she should have just gone off and killed. Sure, she met Michael because of it and he was a good teammate, but he was also dead, thanks to her and Lukas letting Vahka run off with her sword, thinking about it made her angrier by the minute, She needed some fresh air.

As she picked up her gun and stood up, Zoe thought she saw something in the window and did the first she could think of, she raised her gun and fired at the window.

[Maraoone]

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Cathryn struggled to control her breathing. She could do this, yeah, she could, just needed to calm down, just needed a plan. She'd survived Jackson, she'd survived Vahka. She could do this. No more crying, no more panicking, no more fear, no more regrets, no more. Strong, that's what she'd be, just hold it together.

Quick, quick, only a few seconds to think of a plan, fast. Run? No, no distractions keeping him or her there at the spa, she or he has a gun, could just riddle her with holes from afar. Play dead? No, not enough blood, no fresh wounds, and the person saw her crouch down, not fall back. What's left, what else?

Suicide. No, not suicide, a leap of faith. But it seemed like suicide.

Her choice made, Cathryn rushed out from underneath the window, turned, and went through the entrance. Her right arm, good arm, thrust out, Norma's spear in hand. She rushed towards the assailant, and then looked upon its face- no, Zoe's face. She smiled.

[Ohm]

Fuck's sake, why is it so hard for people around here to take a hint and die? Whoever that was they rushed inside and ran towards Zoe with a cetain spear in their hands.

It was Cathryn, smiling like a fucking maniac and rushing towards her with spear aimed towards Zoe's center. In that moment Zoe quickly started strafing to the left and fired at her.

The shot grazed Cathryn at best and it didn't stop her advance, but it got her aim to waver the spear and narrowly miss Zoe by a hair.

"I should have killed you on the first day when I had the chance!"

[Maraoone]

Cathryn had always hoped that each kill would be impersonal, faceless, without a name to the body. Less pain involved, usually. She hadn't gotten that with Nina, with Alice. And it was the same case with Zoe. She knew her name, her face, her personality, her history, her favorite go-to insults when trying to get a leg up on somebody. Cathryn found that knowing what Zoe's schedule was, where and when she went places helped to avoid her, to avoid some more tears, to avoid feeling small again. She and Zoe were very familiar. But, for once, it helped. Even as the bullet tore flesh once more, went through the side of her rib, perhaps exposed bone, even as the left side of her torso screamed, she didn't fall over, didn't scream. She smiled, no, she grinned.

For a few seconds, she forgot everything, forgot the litanies of 'No regrets' and 'Do you want to live?', forgot the endless hate, fear, forgot the pain. She saw nothing but Zoe. Tunnel vision.

To Zoe's quip, the only response that Cathryn saw fit was an endless series of thrusts towards her torso. Make it hurt.

[Ohm]

No answer, very unlike the Cathryn from home who'd answer every insult and quip thrown at her, she would never leave a confrontation without a final word. Zoe hated that about her. That's what made her Zoe's go to target, it was easier to play it off as her having it coming to her when she would react like that

This was a very different Cathryn though, an unpredictable, possibly crazy murderer. At this point it would be mercy to take her out and that was what Zoe was going to do.

Another rush and Cathryn was up in her face again, trying to stab her to death relentlessly, nothing had prepared Zoe for this. She had trained back home in kick-boxing, but that was in a controlled enviroment with trainers nearby ensuring nobody got seriusly injured, but this wasn't controlled, any move on Cathryn's part or a mistake on Zoe's could result in death.

She dodged a few thrusts before getting hit to the side of her stomach causing her to stumble, getting another thrust right into her left arm, her gun clattering on the floor as a result.

"Is that all you got Cathryn!?" She yelled as she swung her sword at her, it was an awkward swing at best, but it would do it's job of either killing her or get her to make some distance between them.

[Maraoone]

"No, dollface."

Fucking dollface, dollface, dollface, that was all she heard from Zoe sometimes. It hurt back then, everything hurt in middle school. Useless thing, tiny insults, yes, so many fucking regrets then, regrets over not actually throwing a punch, regrets over actually letting herself feel hurt, and then the self-hatred, hatred for everyone, everything. But Cathryn figured out how to make Zoe hurt too, said that her parents probably fought all the time cause of her being such a fucking disgrace. And now she made her hurt again, once, twice, saw blood spilling from her stomach, from her arm, matching wounds. It was nice.

She'd been so caught up in trying to impale the girl that it took her a few seconds to register the clatter of metal against floor. A few too many seconds.

She dived for the floor and stretched her arms out towards the gun. Bullets beat blades, Cathryn, they always do.

[Ohm]

There was still some semblance of the old Cathryn there, Reiterating old insults at her, she was enjoying this, well two can play that game.

"Such a shame Leah died earlier, me and her should have catched up on old times!" It felt like they were back home again, trying to one up each other in insults untill someone got it in their mind to seperate them.

Zoe needed to end this quick, with the injuries from the spear getting more and more severe, even if she won she could end up dead from them.

It was then she saw what Cathryn was going for and rushed forward, her sword already in motion aiming for her face.

[Maraoone]

"Shame that Lukas died-"

The sword slashed towards Cathryn, cut through the several layers of fabric wrapped around her face, cut through them like butter, and made contact. Ripped her cheek open. The blade touched her tongue, even cut it a little. For the shortest second, she tasted traces of metal, both copper and steel. Zoe pulled back the sword, and Cathryn screamed, jaw gaping, ripping up her cheek even more. She clenched her mouth shut instead.

Oh god, bleeding, she was bleeding. But small blessings, small blessings, it hadn't sliced her eye open, hadn't blinded her. Hadn't gone up a bit more, pierced her skull, or her brain, because if it had, then we would have problems, wouldn't we?

And best of all, it hadn't hit her good arm. Still on the ground, she crawled towards the gun. Her fingers touched cold metal.

[Ohm]

It hadn't killed her, but it gave her a nice scar on her cheek, tearing it open. Sight of which caused a smile to etch onto Zoe's face, she was in control.

"When I'm done with you, you're gonna be unrecognisable."

Cathryn wasn't giving up and was still reaching for the gun. Zoe was reluctant to admit so, but she had grown some respect for Cathryn. She wasn't going to go down easy like Norma, she was going to go out fighting and it's gonna make the feeling of taking her out even sweeter.

She raised her foot high before bringing it down on Cathryn's hand, trying her damndest to ensure it was broken.

[Maraoone]

As the bones in Cathryn's hand, her good hand, cracked, her determination did too. Everything started hurting once more, in full intensity. Her right arm, her rib, her ear, her cheek, oh god, and now her hand, so many wounds, so much red. She found herself in a corner, trapped, and the fact that she'd been brought there by fucking Zoe Walker, with a grin on her face like some grotesque parody of the Zoe she knew in middle school, shit, no, just no.

It didn't work. Fingers wouldn't flex, couldn't. For a moment, nothing worked, Cathryn felt prisoner to her own body, Zoe the smiling warden, and was this how Nina had felt? Alice? Wounds dotting them, disabling them, trapping them, while Cathryn did the job? But maybe it had been slightly better, because there were no bitter words to accompany their ends, no rubbing it in. Maybe it hurt less.

But that moment passed.

An option remained. One that'd hurt, yes, but once she got out of here, perhaps she could forget herself, drown away her worries in morphine, in cotton clouds and happy fogs. Just a few hours left. Just gotta get out of here.

While she clenched her jaw shut, Cathryn thrust out her right arm, the bad one, and ignored every nerve that burned and ripped at her skin, at her bones, and got a hold of the gun. She aimed it at Zoe, forced another smile. And fired.

[Ohm]

The bullets tore through her like paper, she fell over onto her back with blood oozing out of her stomach, Zoe wasn't leaving alive, she knew that for sure, but she was not about to let Cathryn leave happy about it

"Your dad...he's gotta love seeing you like that..."  Even through all the pain she felt, the smile never left her face, she had the final word.

What happens after people died was a question Zoe tended to ignore, she didn't like thinking about whether there was something after death, a heaven or hell, a purgatory or endless wandering on earth. Was this what everyone went through near death? Fear and wonder about what was after?

This must have been what Michael felt like when the shrapnel hit him, slowly edging himself to the wall, somehow he looked like he was at peace at the end, good for him.

It felt weird thinking about him, when he died back at the palace she focused on her chances of survivng, of winning, made it easier to cope with him gone. Maybe if there was an afterlife they would see each other again?

"Michael...."

ZOE WALKER: DECEASED

[Maraoone]

Despite the light fading from Zoe's eyes, and the fact that she was slowly emptying herself onto the floor, Cathryn's smile faded. It didn't make sense at first. But did Zoe not get the last word, the last laugh? Words that, no matter how long Cathryn spoke, no matter how witty or cutting her words could be, would never reach her, would never hurt her again? And was every breath, every word, every move, every tear not marked with pain, with dancing nerves and licks of flame? Yeah, she lived this fight. That was something Zoe wouldn't be able to say. But damn if she hadn't taken so much already.

Cathryn lay on the floor, a meter away from the body, as she slowly emptied out too, blood pouring from so many holes. Crimson bloomed anew from her right arm, and her tongue was overwhelmed with the taste of copper. She heard nothing but a faint ringing after she fired the guns, especially in her bandaged ear. And each and every wound pulsed and throbbed with her heartbeat. She felt broken.

She slowly pushed herself up with her left elbow, and winced as her left hand, her broken hand, moved ever so slightly. She felt that she'd never be whole again after this. That there'd always be a few scars, a few phantom pains, a few marks. But she could pretend. She put together the pieces with nothing but cotton gauze and pieces of tape, which was an endeavor in itself since she had to use her right arm, the one that flared at every move. And she couldn't even scream or curse without re-opening her torn cheek. Couldn't even speak. Another thing Zoe took from her. She had to evaluate her wounds for a second, think of something that wasn't broken. She had her eyes. Her right hand still worked, despite its arm. And her legs, thank god, her legs. Small blessings, small blessings.

Eventually, she covered every wound. Her clothes, her protection, had rust-red blotches, and were torn along the left side of her fact, but she didn't bother fixing it. She'd done enough, taped together the pieces. She then laid herself on the floor and napped for a few hours. When she woke up, she had a quick meal, and arranged her stuff, throwing out dead weight. Most of the clothes that remained, she wouldn't need. First-aid kits were lifesavers, of course. She left enough for one last meal. The spear could still find use, particularly in close combat. And Zoe's gun, the most important of all. She flashed back to Jackson, to that failed gambit, and wondered what if. What if she'd been a few seconds quicker, if she'd gotten that gun? Well, she'd still be whole. Alice and Zoe would've been so much quicker, would've been the emotionless kills they should've been. Perhaps Jackson would be dead too. And Cathryn would be without a scratch. What a difference a few seconds makes.

She got her bag, stood up, and looked at Zoe's corpse. She briefly considered spitting on Zoe, and then denied herself that idea. After Leah, she'd had enough putting up drama with dead people. The storm was still strong, and it was darker than ever, but if Cathryn was to be a monster, even for a day, she was to revel in the dark. She flashed back once more to Jewel. How she'd come from the shadows, and without the slightest facial twitch, she'd shot dead Naomi, offered humiliation or death towards Cathryn. Had Cathryn gotten to that yet? Was she the monster in the dark yet? Was she in control?

She still couldn't answer that. But she knew one thing. Staying in one place, especially this place, with Nina and now Zoe, made her uneasy. With that thought in mind, Cathryn walked out the spa. Hopefully for the last time.

((Cathryn Bailey continues in Going forward))