SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

What would she do?

That was a good question. She thought about killing Iz. Hurting her, making her regret hurting Asha (and the other people she's killed too by doing it). She knew she would tase her for sure. She had a non-lethal weapon, it was the whole point of a taser: hurt someone enough to give you time to run away. It was self-defense but Dorothy wanted to use it as an offensive weapon: to hunt down the girl, hurt her but how would she kill her?

She didn't know. Maybe her heart would stop or maybe she could drop a rock on her twitching head. She wasn't sure.

"I-I didn't think the 'how' yet but I know the 'why'!

I saw her when I woke up like on the second day. I saw her look at me as if I was a bug she could just squash.

She didn't kill me though but I'm sure she wanted to. I'm sure she got off killing especially after seeing her disappointment when it was announced it was Kikimo or something that won."

She took a breather.

"Like I don't even hate Mikimo or whatever, she killed her boyfriend or something! It must have been an accident or he attacked her or something. You don't just kill someone you love like that!

I saw Nancy too, she was scared. Shaking and shivering and just... absent. You know, she was hollow, I tried to comfort her but she looked so scared and she was covered in blood. It looked like she went to hell and crawled back!

Isabel though. I'm sure she's getting off on it. I'm sure it's her high, she loves it, I'm sure! I hate her for that, I want to see her suffer, I hate her so much especially after what she has done to Asha.

She stabbed her! Not once but several times! Asha got her good too, and now she's weak. It's now the best time to get her and to kill her. I want her dead, that's all."

She took a pause, biting her lips then looking at Lucilly.

"Asha always said she wasn't evil and I kinda believed her. But no, my eyes are now opened and I see that Iz is a monster and I want her head and make sure she cannot hurt anyone else."

Dot looked down. She wanted to feel shame or some kind of remorse, but she couldn't. Isabel had it coming, she deserves to get mouthed off.

"I'm sorry, I'm just done with her doing her things."

Lucilly was feeling out of the loop. Something was going on. Something that escaped Lucilly's scope of awareness. That was plenty annoying, for certain, but mostly is was terribly confusing.

Whatever happened, it made feel Dorothy very emotional. It was an earned display of emotions, one that woke a deep-seated instinct in Lucilly to comfort and help the girl.

Unfortunately, Lucilly had not the slightest clue about what Dorothy was talking about.

She nodded along, smiled along, and offered a 'Yes' here and there to show she listened. Yet all Lucilly could hear was incoherent rambling. She might have just misunderstood. Perhaps it was Dorothy, who in her emotive status has lost the ability to speak properly. That wasn't bad at all, of course! It was, in fact, very understandable. If people got upset they sometimes can talk less properly. It is just what it was.

However, if Lucilly did not grasp what Dorothy wanted, she could not truly help her.

"It's okay, I can understand. These things are tough on us, but I promise you I'll do my best to help you!"

Lucilly was going to help her out!

That was great!

''So you understand me! We have to stop her! Together! To! Get! Her!''

Dot's hands wrapped around Lucilly's, her fingers ensnaring her wrists tightly then with a quick pull, Dot started jumping out of excitation.

''This is great! Thank you so much! So much!''

She was smiling, her heart was filled with glee, knowing that she had the support she needed to remove the creature.

She stopped jumping and started to clap her hands together rapidly.

This was going to be so nice!

Did Lucilly understand?

No, without doubt she did not.

Did Lucilly like what Dorothy said nonetheless?

Yes, yes she did indeed. Lucilly had resolved to help, and Dorothy had decided to accept her help. It made her happy. To see Dorothy be filled with euphoria and great joy filled Lucilly with the same. A joy that without doubt could mask the soreness of her wrist.

Soon, Lucilly too was jumping and clapping.

"Now ? I ? know ? this ? seems ? weird ? but ? I ? have ? a ? ques- ? tion ?

Do ? you ? like ? por- ? nos?"

Lucilly was happy too, this was great!

She was mimicking her, jumping and clapping her hands quickly.

She felt like the island was there anymore. As if it was a bad dream, like she had woken up and she was home and doing normal teenager things. She never planned to murder anyone back home but it sounded as if they were discussing about an incoming project and they decided to work together.

She didn't really understood what she said because she was clapping but one more came through her mind: pornos?

What?

She shoved her hands in front of mouth and started laughing.

''What do you mean?''

"Oh you must see - something most amusing has occured."

Lucilly stopped clapping - obviously of course - and jumping. Instead, she unfastened the bag on her back and slid it to the ground. She had no problems rummaging around for too long to find it. Lucilly made sure not to look at it directly, though, she still was determined to touch it. She should, for fairness' sake, show it.

"This magazine is not catering to my tastes, but it would be improper if I just threw it away. I supposed someone else might like it."

''Oh, wow.''

That was... something.

She didn't the human body could bend in that particular angle, especially with someone on top of it. The more she looked at it, the more she felt curious about it. There was nothing hot or sexy about the magazine itself but she has never seen anything closely remoted to sex. She saw love scene on television or in movies, or random genitals on her dash but she never really got interested in it.

If she had to resume in one word how she felt about the forbidden apple in front of her, she would just say intrigued.

As if she was inspecting evidence on a crime scene, she picked up the magazine, squeezing her thumbs and her index on one of the corner. She lifted it away from Lucilly's possession and decided to keep it.

''This is...''

She squinted, trying to keep a straight face while looking at Lucilly. She was about to start laughing.

''I'll keep it.''

"Why, excellent. In that case I must not burden myself any longer with it!"

Lucilly was in a genuine mood. Lucilly always was in a genuine mood, but the genuineness of this one mood, even if not particularly different, was still worthy to be pointed out.

Now, that this topic was sorted, Lucilly had to answer the call of serious matters.

"Now, as to our plan - do you have specifics in mind? As in, what you think we should do right now and here?"

''I think we should start thinking like Iz!''

Dot tossed the naughty magazine aside and squeezed her face with her hands and started mumbling.

''I am Isabel. I am a psycho bitch. I killed a lot of people, and I won't stop until someone puts me down.''

She visualized her. In the dark hallway, crouching over Asha's body.

''My name is Iz and I have a shadow that was there when I killed Asha. I must know who it is because I didn't kill it when I escaped bloodied and hurt.''

No images came up, she searched further in her mind.

''I am a shadow, I am behind Iz, I can't live without her because when she dies I'll be defenseless.''

At least, that was what Dot thought. If someone hang around Iz, they better have a good reason. Maybe they were dating her, or they were protected by her. She explored her mind, searching for someone that met the criteria. She listed the option: possible a ballet friend, possibly a friend in her social circle or possibly someone found at random that she kept around like a pet.

Thinking about Iz's mentality, Dot settled that the last one was plausible but she saw no reasons why Iz wouldn't just kill them. Isabel had a running track of killing people she used to know so maybe the person she kept wasn't a threat, someone she could just dispose of when needed.

She continued

''I am Iz. I am Iz. I am...''

She opened her eyes.

''Ah! I don't know. Sorry, can't think of anything.''

By that point, Lucilly had assumed a squatting position on the floor near by Dorothy. In fact, it had been the second instance of that position. The first time she did so, she also repacked her bag on her shoulders. However, something shifted in it, or maybe Lucilly was just too clumsy for that, but when she squatted with the bag on her shoulders she fell backwards.

So either way, she nodded. She had followed Dorothy's little roleplay and tried to put herself into Dorothy putting herself into Isabel's shadow. Why her shadow in particular escaped Lucilly, as many things did.

Was there a specific point to the shadow? All people really had one, didn't they? Some even had two, or four, or five and three quarter. Once in a documentary narrated by a Briton with a pleasing deep voice, Lucilly meant to hear that in the poorer corners of the Mississippi Delta, there were people who couldn't afford one shadow.

But she doubted her memory on that point.

Regardless, Lucilly tried to imitate Dorothy.

"Hm... uh... Oh! I get it, you mean someone else was Isabel's 'shadow'? So you mean someone else 'helped' Isabel in her tasks? Is that not then called a 'ghost'?"

(Godmodding of Lucilly allowed by Riki)

''Yeah there was like someone else with her that night and I was like 'woah, who is that?' and I've been thinking about her for a while now!''

Lucilly's words echoed in her.

''I don't think it's a ghost because I don't even think dead people would want to stick with her. She may kill them dead or something. She's that nasty.''

Dorothy let her shoulders rest on the padded wall and stared blankly at one of the corner.

''Maybe Death would stick with her since she's giving it a job, but I think it has higher standards that that.''

She let herself slide down to the ground, landing on her butt on the floor.

Lucilly followed her.

They were both sitting on the floor of the room, thinking about the ungodly creature that followed Iz around.

They would have talked until their faces turned blue, until their eardrum pierced, until their vocal cords ripped apart. They talked to each all day and all night. Speaking about everything and anything.

The day went by. Not quickly, not slowly, just at a normal rate. Their conversations turned to monologues when one went to sleep and then went to total silence when both of time lost their fight against time.

They were awaken once by the blaring sounds of the announcer, doing what an announcer's job of announcing a fire that announced itself somewhere on the island.

This resulted in giggles. The two girls laughed about the fact that someone who were also fated to die here decided to burn down some places. Their chatter went back to a normal rate then it accelerated, as if time was suddenly running out. They spoke out of turn, they bit their tongues, they scratch their voices on the back of their throat to be able to spat out the words they carefully needed.

Then, their eyes slowly shut. Both of them were fighting it, the girls started making jokes about their situation, their weapons, their captors, the announcer's grumpy voice in the morning. They fought and fought until they both passed out and went back to their quiet sleep.

When the sleepover ended, they went back home.

(Lucilly and Dot left together but were separated)