We've All Been Sorry, We've All Been Hurt

[umop-ap!sdn†]

((Cassidy Kant continued from Allow Me to Begin, also all written with approval and input from David's handler, Bikriki))

She stood at the gate to the pool. It was unlocked. She'd pushed on it a moment ago to check, and it had responded with motion. The movement had scared her, it was like having her name called on before present a project. She knew what came next, but it wasn't something she looked forward to. It was something that made her greatly uncomfortable, but something she was compelled by responsibility to do. Responsibility always had a way of rewarding it's followers in the end.

Cassidy rubbed her eyes. She'd let herself sleep on one of the lower floors. The bed had seemed so comforting, not that she deserved that. She'd let herself have a room because she couldn't bare to see anybody from the party upstairs again. Locking herself out of sight ensured that. Now, in the very hours of sunrise, she was fulfilling the promise she'd made before allowing herself those few hours of rest.

She swallowed, pushed the gate, and moved forward.

The pool was hard to miss. The literal, intentional pool, and the red pool around David's body. His face was turned away from hers, his body facing down into the pool. Cassidy yelped as she saw the bone sticking out his elbows.

He'd tried to catch himself. Even if he'd died on impact, and she hoped to death he had died on impact, he'd had time during the fall to turn himself around and try to catch himself. He was still trying to live, he hadn't given up. He didn't want to die.

She willed the tears back. She'd said no more, and she was going to fulfill everything she'd promised last night.

"Ah-I-I-I'm sorry. Duh-David. You-... you were a great person. I didn't kno-know you very we-well, but I know you had a good heart."

She looked around, spotting a camera. This was uncomfortable, this was mad. But she had to pay her respects, it was actually the least she could do.

"It's a sh-shame that so many of our lives are going to be wuh-wasted."

Her eyes looked down at the concrete, trying to avoid the blood that covered much of it.

"And...I hope nobody interprets this as... greedy... I guess"

She moved towards the body, trying to stay on her toes as much as possible.

"Buh-but, all of us really appreciate the gift of your life... even if you didn't mean to give it..."

She hadn't meant to take it, but if there was a heaven, he had been allowed to know such a fact. She fought hard to not look at the camera as she grabbed at his bag, undoing the clips on either side and hurling it behind her.

She lept away from the body, but turned back to him rather than searching the bag right away.

"We all have another day to live... and while it's... terrible... you died... it's not all... well... there's some..."

She choked on her words, what the hell was she supposed to say?

"Thank you. I'm not going to waste this time that your life has granted me."

She moved back towards the bag, lightly bloodied in one corner. She pulled on the zipper and started looking for David's rations. Everything needed to be saved and used. The Native American's found infinite uses of parts of buffaloes they'd... she didn't kill David... she... she...

Sword. Light, but solid enough, and pointed. She looked over back at David's grotesque body, bloody partial footprints leading back to her. She turned back and loaded the unowned rations into her bag along with the water and first aid kit. She rose and held the sabre up towards David's body, cringing again as she accidentally looked at the exposed bone. She stepped towards him, wondering if she was still leaving footprints with the little blood she'd gotten on the sips of her shoes.

The sword's end dipped itself in the blood and dragged itself towards Cassidy's feet. She dipped the tip back in, like a quill, and crossed the first line like a "t." That would have to be enough of a burial for now. A pool side view next to a thin cross drawn in his own blood, by his killer, with his own weapon.

Cassidy turned on heel, stumbling from surprise at how forcefully she'd turned away. She was moving towards the gate now, walking quick, but suppressing the urge to run. She could't be sorry enough, but she couldn't be sorry forever.

((Cassidy Kant continued in The Path is Open))