Burning Down the House

[Cicadan]

In an absolutely twisted, messed up, Lana Del Rey that problematic bitch could never come up with any lyrics this bleak sort of way, Daniella could see the best of intentions behind Liz's worst of actions. That had been her Liz, after all, the frazzled, easily frustrated, fuck up almost as bad as Daniella herself was. Once they'd both felt the fire of passion. For each other, or for their own lives, and who knew when the flame had ebbed to a mostly melted down candle, stubbornly clinging to charred bits of wick.

Stubborn.

"If you would just- wait- I can move fine, I just. I just- need. Fuck. Fuck!"

Each syllable punctuated with stubbornness. With her best effort. Never going anywhere. Whatever she grabbed at, whatever she tried to drag this way or that, the shattered explosion of pulpy, bruised flesh on her hip didn't budge an inch off the ground.

"Don't need- don't need PJ. Just. Please. Please don't. I can! Still- I can, Liz- please, stop pointing that gun at me."

Daniella hated feeling this vulnerable. She cried in front of them, sure, but for them. She shared their pain. She didn't hand it out freely. She wasn't a pity case. She never had been. No matter how hard it'd gotten.

Her eyes burned. Wet, or angry, or something. She saw Liz through a blur, through the rush of her own adrenaline and that pathetic thing called desperation that scared her so badly.

"Just. Back off. You can leave me- please, just go. It's okay. I'll figure it out-" and she was laughing, and she was crying, openly both, she wanted them gone, but she wanted them to stay, but she wanted the regret that bubbled up, the conscious knowledge that she'd treated them both like shit and couldn't blame anyone but herself, she clung to something like it was a life preserver but she didn't know what it was and she didn't know if her hands were still even working

"And you'll see me again, I promise you will, just please, don't shoot don't shoot don't shoot I don't wanna die- Liz, PJ, please!"

Stubbornly speaking, as if she were begging anyone at this point to but herself. Trying to convince herself she was still fighting, even when her body had cooled to stillness and she was staring blubbering wide eyed at the floor an inch under her skull.

[Primrosette]

PJ didn't know what he could do. He could see that Daniella wanted to live desperately, but her body had seemed to given up on her and it felt like it was crushing his heart. Just seeing her like this. It wasn't right at all. But still, Elizabeth's words were burning into his skull wildly. The creature that had killed people... It could really come for Daniella and rip her to shreds. PJ didn't want that. But he also was afraid of Elizabeth killing Daniella. He was scared that it would change Liz into someone that he wouldn't recognize as time went on in this place.

What could he even say right now?

"I... I..." He was choking up a bit and he took hold of Daniella's hand, letting out a shaky breath.

He didn't know what else he could do to help her. If only, they weren't in this messed-up place.

"Daniella.... I-I'm sorry. I don't want to leave you like this. I don't want that monster to kill you in a brutal way. I..."

He paused for a moment and he looked at Liz, sniffling a little. He jerked his head in a motion of letting her know to come closer to the both of them.

"Liz... are you sure that you want to do this...?" He asked unsurely.

[Salic]

PJ wanted her to come closer, so Elizabeth obliged him. Her legs shook each step as she advanced forwards, feet hitting the ground lightly before shakily moving back up. The gun remained raised, and the sights were pointed at Daniella's head, her pleading, desperate eyes almost hidden under her hair. Almost. Elizabeth's hands trembled wildly.

"I don't want to do this," Elizabeth strained through gritted teeth. "I... I..."

The rest of what she wanted to say halted at the edge of her tongue, her mind not wanting her to continue on with what she was doing. But she had no choice in the matter. By pulling her off the scaffolding, she'd already decided Daniella's fate. Daniella would die, either by the beast's jaws or Elizabeth's own hands. PJ would never do it. He could never do it. He never had the backbone to make the really important calls, those which would have long-term ramifications about their futures. Instead, he gratified everyone in the short-term by being a people pleaser, getting the surface-level respect from everyone around him. No, it was Elizabeth who had to do what was necessary to save the three of them, to keep them afloat for another day. The only issue was that Elizabeth was similarly blind to any long-term consequences her decisions carried. It was how she ended up here, at this very moment, with a gun pointed at her (former?) girlfriend's head.

If the ship was piloted by three blind mice, perhaps it was always destined to sink.

The thought that everything she'd ever done for both PJ and Daniella, to keep the whole sinking ship afloat for another day, was a complete waste of her time and effort flared something up within her. Everything- all of her struggles over the years, the heartbreaks, the mental anguish- was for naught. PJ and Dani were tethers to that feeling of losing everything. They were shackles placed around her ankles, dragging her down with that sinking ship she called the past. She was drowning in her past. She had been for a long, long time now.

Now, she was being given the opportunity to lose both shackles at once. For the first time in a long time, she would be able to see the surface. She would be able to breathe.

"I... I don't want to do this," Elizabeth reiterated.

That strange flare of indescribable emotions coursed from her gut down to her feet and up to her head. It was some kind of melancholic determination, a sudden will to action filling a void in her chest she didn't know existed.

Elizabeth spoke once more, with feeling.

"I need to do this. For your sake."

A breath.

"And mine."

Elizabeth squeezed the trigger, her gun aimed at Daniella's temple.

Nothing happened.

The overwhelming silence completely overran all of Elizabeth's senses.

[Cicadan]

She was quiet as her desperation now. Reduced as her dignity. What else was there left to say? If a picture was worth a thousand words then all she had left to spell out was as abortive as drafts of her thesis, empty, embarrassing spills of ink only a shade darker than the internal bleeding consuming all of her hip.

But Daniella didn't quit. Last word in the argument had always been hers. She thought bitterly of her sisters in that moment, tasted it like chocolate. How they'd loved her in the form of words that stung and fists that left red on her skin where they grabbed and dragged.

If only love had been that simple. Life, natch. Daniella looked up, her eyes already distant. Her lips dragged in the undertow, already flaccid and without tone as they tried to wrap around her thoughts. Only a few words, when the rest had already raced off into infinity, a miasma of all the stages of grief too vague to even gesture at.

"Looking forward to it. Are you."

A soft laugh. Maybe bitter, maybe sweet. Definitely too short.

"Okay. You win this one."

Her cheek lilted to one side, over the floor, as she stared apathetically into the eyes of the girl that would take her life.

[Primrosette]

Nothing happened.

It felt even worse when Daniella spoke. Win this one? The words were just making him feel sick to his stomach.

PJ squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds and then he re-opened them to look down at Daniella once again. He never wanted this. It felt like it was ripping at his own insides. He felt like he should do something. But killing someone...? He couldn't even imagine doing something like that. Even to survive. He also felt like he was being selfish for putting it all on Elizabeth. Even if she thought that putting Daniella out of her misery was the right thing to do.

He took a deep breath and then he slowly let it out. He glanced over at his bag that was near him and he let out a small sigh of disbelief.

He then glanced up at Elizabeth who was towering over them like she was a queen above the both of them. "You can use.... my gun from my bag if that's easier." He said quietly, reaching out for his bag and then he hesitantly held it out towards her. "...God."

[Salic]

Silence. There was motion going on around her. Daniella looked up at her with something akin to plaintive resignation. PJ handed over his bag, a look of disgust clear on his face. But there was no sound to go along with the movement. It was as if someone had hit a cosmic mute button.

Her hand trembled, it's aim at Daniella's head wavering. The gun was supposed to fire. It was supposed to go off. Daniella shouldn't have been looking at her like that. Her eyes should be gone. There should be nothing there.

It failed. Her shot failed. She failed.

She tried to decide her fate. She tried to forge her own future. And she failed. It didn't work.

The shackles remain unbroken.

Elizabeth let out an inaudible gasp. Her hand kept quavering. She released the trigger.

An incredibly loud bang shattered the silence of her world, the flash of the pistol burned her eyes like the sun. She screamed, closed her eyes, flinched, turned her back.

When she turned around-

P017 - Daniella Bonifacio: Deceased
27 Students Remaining

When Elizabeth turned around again, all she could see was red.

[Primrosette]

Daniella's blood had splattered droplets onto his clothing and his face a little.

.....

He could only stare down at the bloody mess of his girlfriend in silent. He just sat there. As if he was frozen. He didn't know how long he had been there. He couldn't even stutter out a word to Elizabeth. What could he even say to her after what happened?

.....

He pulled the bag back against his chest and he got up to his feet slowly, wobbling a little and he still felt like he was in a daze.

....

He glanced at Elizabeth and he then averted his gaze. He wanted to get away from this all.

....

So he turned away from her and walked away without a single word.

((PJ Summers continued elsewhere))

[Salic]

Elizabeth could only stare at PJ as he walked away without a word. What could she say to him? How could she comfort him about watching his girlfriend murder his other girlfriend right in front of him? Did she even want to console him about it? Deep down, she already know the answer.

So, she just sat there and watched as PJ picked up his bag and silently walked away, exiting the door without saying a word. She didn't blame him. Elizabeth simply stood for a long time afterwards, in complete solitude. Well, maybe complete solitude. Did fresh corpses count as company? She couldn't say.

Eventually, she worked up the nerve to actually face her handiwork. Her feet slowly shuffled their way over to Daniella's body, the blood from her destroyed skull forming a little crown for the remains.

When Elizabeth peeked at Daniella's ruined head, she expected the nausea to come. The wave of guilt would wash over her. She'd feel remorse for what she'd done, she'd feel physically sick from looking at what she'd done to her girlfriend.

What Elizabeth didn't expect to feel, however, was nothing.

She felt the same way about looking at Daniella's body as she would about looking at a tree. Her eyes took in the sight of Dani's blood and brain matter splattered through the two new holes in her skull, but it was as if her brain wasn't processing it. Like it simply refused to acknowledge the information flood that was coming to it. She gulped.

Instead of being stuck at Dani's body, Elizabeth picked up her bag, hoisted it on her shoulder and walked out of the powerhouse. She'd just burnt down the largest bridge she had to her past. Now, all she had to do was look forward.