Prayer for the Someone Who Is Somewhere Dying

[Sansa]

Bella fought back the tears that threatened to surface as Ami spat acidly at her, responding to her words with further insults. She wasn't used to getting insulted, having tried to avoid giving reasons for people to do so for much of her life, nor had  she ever responded well to criticism - taking advice and the like a bit more personally than she should - so they hit her even harder than expected. Sure, she and Ami hadn't been as close to each other as she'd been with Megan or Venice, but they were still friends, right? Bella really had enjoyed talking about Ukraine with Ami, and about poetry and even about maths, even if they'd never had a sleepover together or hung around much with each other after school.

Ami's spiel drifted off as she turned her attention to Garrett, leaving Bella standing stock still as Ami's words washed over her. She didn't say anything in reply, merely contorting her mouth as she struggled to find words - her ready willingness to speak from earlier diminished under the weight of what the other girl had said. She was right, though. Every word that Ami had said was right; a few days ago she would've rushed straight to Ami's aid, helped her friend in whatever way she could, but instead she'd let her be accused and insulted her and turned her attention to a pretty boy she barely even knew. Bella thought for a moment whether doing what an earlier-her would've done would've been the better option, but she didn't care.

She was beyond caring, now.

Morally, it might've been the right choice, but when it came to survival and keeping herself and others safe, it wasn't. She didn't want to hurt Ami's feelings, but if it meant keeping her and her Garrett safe, then she had no qualms about jeopardising things like friendships. Not anymore. She had to do whatever it took, and being short with a friend was almost infinitesimally small in comparison.

Even so, Ami's words still hurt.

She said "I'm sorry" again, speaking to nobody in particular, not even acknowledging Matt or Finn as she pivoted on her heel and followed Garrett out, body working on automatic as she left with the only thing in the world that mattered to her anymore, footfalls echoing hollowly throughout the building as she made her exit.

((Mirabella Strong continued in All Battles Are Fought By Scared Men Who'd Rather Be Some Place Else))

[Ciel†]

Mira was crying. When did she start crying? She wasn't crying before. Ami made her cry.

Any sort of assertive energy left Ami, a mass exodus of spine and willpower. She said she was done. But seeing Mirabella like that, it...

"F-" Something caught in Ami's throat. She didn't know what it was but it felt like a pin needle when she swallowed it back. "Fuck."

Ami only noticed Mira's expression when Garrett turned to leave. At that moment, she had glanced at Mira with only the vaguest notion of interest, but that all changed when she saw Mira's eyes. Her immediate reaction to seeing Mirabella on the verge of tears was to scream for her to stop, just stop. The guilt came just as quickly, overpoweringly so. Ami did not understand the full extent of the pain she felt but it was horrible. It made her feel hollow, like a hammer striking the Liberty Bell, cracking the copper and tin and forming an ugly scar.

Seeing Mira made Ami want to rewind time, not just minutes earlier but when they first met in order to redo every last thing she had ever said to her. In hindsight, she wanted to apologize, but that was hindsight again. What really happened was that Mirabella mumbled something and followed after Garrett. Ami didn't apologize, whether it was her waning pride holding her back or simple shock. Ami turned her head to watch Mira leave.

Then she was alone, again.

Her breath came and went in short bursts. The tears were back, hot and disgusting. She looked at Mallory's corpse, crumpled up on the floor like a ragdoll. What was left of her friends, after Ruby decided to ditch her? Ruby and her, they weren't even friends! The chances of her running into someone like Maynard was so low. But when she runs into Mira...

Christ. What was happening to her?

...

Ami did not stop to think, there was no time for that. She reached down to pick up her gun, her bag, securing the tied up scalpel in her pocket. She was still mad but the anger was blind and so was she, blind and utterly stupid. Barely registering Matt and Finn, both of whom she insulted just as badly, or the pouring rain outside that threatened even worse things, Ami turned on her heel, stepped over Mallory, and walked right out the door.

Part of her prayed that Mira and Garrett had not disappeared, like Ruby. She prayed for a lot of things.

(Ami Flynn continued in All Battles Are Fought By Scared Men Who'd Rather Be Some Place Else.)

[Will†]

Finn raised his eyebrows in disbelief when Matt said that Finn's attempt at stitching his leg was fine. He looked back down at his leg again, staring at the mess of stitches. Was Matt seeing the same thing as him? He'd done a terrible job.

"Umm, I think so? I just poured whatever I could find in my kit onto it." Finn responded.

A barrage of insults started being tossed around the room between Matt, Bella and Ami. Finn pursed his lips and looked awkwardly around the room; this wasn't exactly the situation he'd been hoping for when he decided to find a group to join. Part of him sided with Ami. The other three had barged into the hospital and by the sounds of it, had straight away blamed Ami for killing the people in the room without waiting for any explanations. However, Ami was a killer, so Finn could understand why they'd be so edgy around her.

As the groups argument continued, Finn could feel the attention slipping away from him and moving onto Ami. He was bleeding to death for Christ sake. Ami had said she didn't kill the people in the room and her kill on Sara was an accident. Move on.

"Ow, my leg really hurts." Finn whined whilst his eyes slowly panned across the others to see if they were looking at him.

His attempt to get the others attention again failed at the rest of the group seemingly didn't hear him. However, then Ami shot a comment at him. Finn's eyes narrowed as he started intently at the girl. He clenched his jaw, trying to prevent himself from shouting abuse at her. Finn didn't want to make the situation worse; he'd have to play nice if he had a chance of tagging along with them, as much as it pained him to bite his tongue. How dare she call him an asshole. She didn't know a single thing about him, they'd never even spoken before.

Then, out of the blue Garrett sprinted out of the door. Finn leaned forwards to peer around Matt as he watched Garrett dash out of view. Garrett was then shortly followed by a crying Bella. Finn's eyes darted around their sockets in confusion as they switched between Matt, Bella and the duo that had just ran out the door. This was disastrous. He barely even been there for two minutes and already his new group had split up and ran off.  

"But... my leg!" Finn called out to Bella and Garrett in a last attempt to re-gain their attention.

Finn's attention then turned to the sobbing Ami as she bent down to pick up her gun. Finn leant back into Matt, wincing in preparation of what was to come. Ami had gone crazy, those other shit heads had pissed her off and now Finn was going to have to pay the price by being gunned down. His hand shot up to his pocket where he was storing his gun, but before he had time to take it out, Ami had followed the other two out the door. He looked up at Matt with utter bewilderment.

"Do you think we should go after them?"

[BROseidon†]

Matt didn't even have a chance to respond before everything changed.

Bella snapped and Garrett freaked out and ran and Ami and Bella followed after and... then it was just him. Well, him and Finn. That was fucking awkward.

"Uh, we're not gonna catch up with that leg of yours, and... I hate to say this, but I don't think Garrett's in particularly good spot right now. He wanted to kill the killers, buy us time for rescue by slowing this whole thing down, y'know? He killed Jaquilyn yesterday, and I think it's fucked him up." Matt was being half honest here. Garrett didn't look like he was in a good spot. Hell, he'd just flipped a shit and ran out wailing. On the other hand, Matt sort of wanted to follow. He wanted his knife back.

Also, Finn was a pretty cute guy who had a lot of friends. Matt had a vested interest in both of these things.

Matt looked back up at Finn, remembering that he was supposed to be looking at his leg. Not that Matt had much of a medical background, but he had enough chemistry knowledge to know what antiseptic they'd been given.

"Let's just deal with your leg, okay? They gave us iodine. Fuck, they probably don't expect any of us to know that it's the antiseptic we're supposed to use to clean out any wounds. Did you use any of it, or did you just use the saline solution they gave us?"

[Will†]

Finn listened to Matt's story and a surprised look formed across Finn's face when Matt revealed that Garrett had killed Jaquilyn Locke. Taking this into account, it was a bit strange how hostile Matt and Bella acted towards Ami considering that they had been travelling with a killer the whole time. He thought that Garrett was a bit excessive for killing Jaquilyn just for having one kill. For all they knew, her kill could have been out of self defence.

Perhaps it wouldn't be the best idea going after them, well, at least going after Garrett. From what he had just experience and from what he heard from Matt, Garrett wasn't very stable. Mara had three kills now, and if Finn and Matt ever found the rest of the group again and came across her, Garrett would more than likely kill her. Or maybe it would be best if Garrett stayed with them so they could keep an eye on him. After all, it would be better to be with Garrett if they ever bumped into Mara so they could talk him out of it rather than him running into her on his own and not being able to stop him.

However, Finn did still want to join up with more people, whether that be Garrett, Ami and Bella or some new people. It would be awkward with just him and Matt, they'd never spoken before. Finn would rather be with a whole group of people he didn't know than just one person he didn't know; at least in a group there wouldn't be any uncomfortable silences. It was also safer in a large group, especially at this point in the game where the number of killers would be growing. But before they'd do anything, they'd need to sort out Finn's leg.

Finn began thinking back to the previous day when Matt asked him what he had used on his leg. He bit his bottom lip and stared at the ceiling as he tried to recall the name of the liquid.

"I'm not sure, I think I just used the solution thing."

[BROseidon†]

"The saline, then? On the bright side, your wound's clean, but it's not 100% for not getting an infection. I think they gave us iodine; if you're want, we could undo the stitching and use that to disinfect everything. Might hurt a bit, though."

Matt didn't know why he was being so honest here. He needed Finn to die eventually for him to live, and infection was as good a way as any to get someone killed, right? It meant another body that he wouldn't have to kill, another way to coast by while still being able to pretend that he was a good person.

Then again, Finn probably wasn't surviving this with that leg. It was only a matter of time before someone would get him, right? If a killer found him and Finn, he knew he could outrun Finn. Same couldn't be said about Hansel.

[Will†]

Finn tightened his lips and nodded as Matt told him they'd need to undo the stitches. It was bad enough the first time he did it, now he'd have to go through it all again. Although, in the long run it would be better than how it was now. If they just left it, then the wound might get infected and his leg might have to get amputated or worse. Plus he'd done a crappy job with the stitches the first time and as a result the wound continued to bleed, so if they re-did it then it would sort out that problem.

"Okay, do it." Finn mumbled.

Finn tilted his head back and rested it against the wall. He closed his eyes and waited for Matt to begin taking out the stitches.

[BROseidon†]

((GMing approved))

"All right, let me get everything set up, first."

Matt walked over to his bag and dug through it. He found the first aid kit relatively quickly, and walked back over to Finn. He opened up the kit, digging through it to make sure he had all the right components in order. He quickly pulled out the iodine solution, saline, and antiseptic wipes. Those would clean the wound and the area around it. Matt also saw butterfly bandages, which would probably be a lot less painful than stitching the wound, and also equally effective.

"Uh, I don't think we're gonna need to restitch that. They gave us butterfly bandages, which should work just as well." Finn gave him a nod, and Matt began. He put on the rubber gloves from the kit and worked at undoing the stitches. He really wished he had his knife; it would have gone a long way in helping him take the stitches out. Instead he had to poke at them with tweezers until they came apart.

Once the stitches were off, Matt opened the wound and looked inside. There didn't seem to be an infection yet, but that could change very easily. Matt took the saline solution and poured in the wound, to make sure it was clean. It would have been nice not to have poured it from the bottle, but the fuckers didn't give them any syringes in the first aid kit. Once the wound was adequately cleaned out, Matt did the same with the Iodine.

"Okay, give the iodine a few minutes to do it's work. It'll stop bacterial growth." Finn gave him another nod. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes as Matt waited. "Okay, should be good now."

Matt grabbed the saline again, using it to clean the iodine out. Once he was done there, he took the anti-septic wipes and wiped down the area of the wound, to make sure it was clean as well.

"Okay, hold the skin together so I can apply the bandages." Finn did as he was told, and Matt put four butterfly bandages across the wound to seal it. Everything was set now.

"All right, that should be a lot better. Should we get moving?"

[Will†]

A slight sense of relief came over Finn when Matt told him they wouldn't need to stitch his wound back up again, but instead use the butterfly stitches. He wouldn't have to go through the pain of sticking a needle through his skin again. When he thought about it, he probably should have used the butterfly stitches to start off with.

Finn winced as Matt began undoing the stitches. It wasn't extremely painful, but it was a very uncomfortable feeling. The worst part was when Matt had finished taking out the stitches and opened up his wound to pour the iodine and saline solution in. He bit down hard on the edge of his hand as Matt separated his flesh. Finn's other leg began jittering as Matt cleaned out his wound. Finn tried his best not to look at what was happening, but couldn't resist sneaking a look in every now and then. However, once he did, Finn immediately regretted it as a sickening sensation instantly ensued in his stomach.

When Matt had finished patching his leg up, Finn released a deep sigh. He slumped down the wall and ran his fingers through his greasy hair, pushing it out of the way of his face. He really wished he'd had time to shower when he was at the hotel, he felt disgusting. Every inch of him was covered in grime and it was making him feel sick. Wherever they were going next, Finn hoped there would be a shower.

Matt suggested that the two of them got going, and Finn responded with a weak nod. He extended his arm out to Matt and grabbed his bag with his other hand.

"Help me up then."

[BROseidon†]

((GMing approved))

Finn still managed to look kind of cute when he brushed his hair out of his face. He'd been the sort of guy Matt had crushed on back in Seattle: fit, athletic, clear skin. Matt thought that it was fairly absurd that that was the sort of thing he was thinking about at this point. They were all going to die, and thoughts like "wow, he's cute" where still running through his head.

Matt was glad he still had his humanity. He needed to hold onto that. He couldn't become a monster. He couldn't become like Theo.

"Yeah, here ya go," Matt said, holding out his arm. Finn grabbed on, and Matt helped pull him up. It'd be slow, moving with someone with an injured leg. If they came across a Hansel or a Katarina, they'd be shit out of luck.

Or Finn would be. Matt could always run.

"Let's get moving."

(Finn and Matt continued elsewhere))