Hideaway

[Slam]

Sandy saw Alvaro looking like absolute hell when he opened the door. He knew Alvaro from some classes, but only as a familiar face. He'd obviously gotten into quite a beat down, though, given how roughed up he looked.

He still could not give any more of a shit about any of this.

"Nope." He replied simply, pushing his way out the door and walking down the hall. More people, more problems.

((Sandy Bricks continued in Amoung these "hallowed" walls...))

[ViolentMedic]

Sandy left. Well, he wanted to be left alone, so… what's the worst that could happen? Well, there was death and dismemberment. But besides that? Oh man, Danny did not want his mind going down that road. There were a lot of nasty ways to kill someone. The internet loved surprise-linking to the stuff that happened on here for shock.

Shut that line of thought right down. Focus on Audrey and her cough drops, and Vacanti, the guy from Vacanti's. Audrey said Alvaro. Alvaro? That didn't sound right, he was sure there'd been an N in there, but—

Danny shuffled past Audrey and got closer to the door. He picked up his CD player from where it had tumbled in a heap after he'd thrown it at Sandy. Did it still work? Hell if Danny knew, there wasn't even a CD in it. But it was still his only weapon. Once he'd picked it up, he moved outside where Alvaro had sat down.

Yikes. Alvaro looked like shit. All smashed up.

"The fuck happened, man?" Danny gestured at his own face in order to clarify. "You, uh… you fight someone off? Are people already…?"

Nope. Didn't want to consider it.

"Or maybe you tripped?" Danny finished lamely.

[Yugikun]

Sandy was gone - that was about as predictable as Audrey could expect. Honestly, she didn't feel like making him anything like a partner in her endeavors; she knew enough times from group projects that one bad egg can spoil the rest. Audrey wondered whether her rather immature comparison to inane high school classes was a coping mechanism brought upon by her subconscious in a meager attempt to compartmentalize further, in order to prevent her from becoming a stress zombie that was prone to anxiety attacks. Whatever.

Audrey looked to Alvaro, suddenly now noticing the wounds on his face. Her eyes shot wide, her mind now far away from Sandy What's-His-Name. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, rushing to his side. Many, many long memories of her mother nursing her wounds when she was a little girl rushed to her mind as she quickly brought out her bag. She fished around for the medical kit. "You need to get some help, stat." She propped him up against the wall, quietly urging him to keep his body straight.

"Alright, well..." She remembered that she had to ice the area of the wounds, but she doubted there was any ice. However, there were alcohol pads and bruises hardly ever came without scrapes. That would almost certainly cause more pain than the bruises themselves. Audrey pulled out a bottle of, what was that, ibuprofen? "You should take these," she said, holding out to him another pair of pills - this time painkillers. "Here..." She took a bit of the pads - not too much - and started treating where he had been hit. "How the hell did you get so badly injured, anyway? Are people already... you know, killing each other?" She lifted his chin, holding onto it with her small fingers so she could more clearly see and access his wounds.

"Hey, Danny?" She turned to the larger boy. "Do you know what could've caused wounds like these? Are they bad? Fatal?"

[K-Robe]

People. More. Around him. Audrey came closer. Danny came closer as well. Sandy didn’t, moving past Alvaro outside of sight. Alvaro didn’t mind that, not too much. At least he wasn’t one of the people crowding around him because even though he knew that they were only trying to help him they were close and it was scary and as much as he wanted a bit of space he didn’t want to say it out loud because he knew that they would hear and they were trying to help him and he appreciated that. It was just that they were close. A little too close. The only other time someone had gotten that close to him was Min-Jae when he was sending the bar down on Alvaro and he knew that they were friendly but he just couldn’t shake the feeling off and it felt like the worst thing in the world.

And they were speaking to him, too. The voices were blending in his head, individual words and messages not making it into his mind but the idea of both made it into his head. Someone had hurt him. Who was it? The answer to that question was Min-Jae, but-

Oh god.

He had started that fight. It was his fault. He had attacked Min-Jae and if they knew that they wouldn’t help him. He knew they wouldn’t. He figured that they were doing this out of sympathy for him and if they knew that he wasn’t innocent then that sympathy would be gone. So he needed to lie. Just… say something that would keep their sympathy. He didn’t want to do it and he didn’t want to lie to these people but he needed it. He couldn’t treat the wounds he had, but they were willing to. He just needed to say something but it needed to be a lie and he needed someone to treat him and he needed to just do something.

He needed to breathe. In, out, then:

“It was Min-Jae. He hit me.”

[ViolentMedic]

To Audrey's question, Danny shrugged and made a noise that sounded a little like ‘I don't know' except high-pitched and like it'd been put through a blender. Alvaro could be anywhere between ‘just a little bruised' and ‘lots of fatal internal bleeding.' Danny wouldn't know the difference.

Although, he was reasonably sure that Alvaro should have his own supplies, and that Audrey didn't need to give him hers. Nice of her and all, but wouldn't she need those? Unless any wounds killed her before she could—aaaand cutting that chain of thought off. Nope.

Alvaro explained what had happened. Ohhh, Min-Jae. Yeah, Danny could totally see Min-Jae deciding to punch someone so fast. Guy was kind of a dick. Angry, sometimes. There were worse people, but Danny wouldn't have been going in for a hug with that guy any time soon.

"Yeah. That's rough."

Danny eyed Alvaro's bruises warily. Maybe he should avoid Min-Jae if he sees him. Then again, Min-Jae was like a skinny goth dude, how tough could he be? Danny could just football tackle him and be like ‘you need to chill and stop punching waiters.'

"Uh, but you got away from him, yeah? He's not following you?" A horrible thought occurred to Danny, that maybe Alvaro had ended the threat in a super permanent way. Self-defence and all that, sure, but… "He's still alive, yeah?" As he said that, his grip tightened a little on his CD player.

[K-Robe]

"Min-Jae?" Audrey blurted out. "The goth kid?" Jesus, if there was a less-intimidating kid at Cochise High School, Audrey didn't know who it was. That fashion-conscious nerd daring to lash out as he did, hitting a short, defenseless kid like Alvaro - cute kid, too - made Audrey's insides boil with rage. She felt her stomach churn, the same kind of churn that she felt when she saw any sort of injustice done in the name of irrationality. There shouldn't be people out to hurt other this early in the game, there just shouldn't be. And Min-Jae of all people? What a crock. Audrey hoped that whoever was managing Survival of the Fittest was getting a nice big laugh out of this because she was going to find their control room, take out her nunchucks, and just start going to town on those motherfuckers.

But that was neither here nor there and Audrey's hate-boner would need to be sated at some other time.

She sighed, placing a hand on Alvaro's shoulder. "It's alright. He's not going to hurt you anymore." Audrey spoke with sincerity, though there was just a hint of indignant disappointment in her voice. She place a hand under his chin and lifted his face so they were looking straight at each other. "Hey, chin up. You look better that way. Okay?" She gave him a bright smile.

Audrey looked at Danny. He was asking questions, logical ones like whether or not the psychopathic goth was on their trail. Shit, he was right. Audrey whispered to Alvaro, "Can you move? If you can, we should get out of here."

She got up, walking over to Danny. "Listen," she said. "We don't know each other that well, but you seem a nice guy. You wanna, you know, get into a truce or whatever? You look like you can take care of yourself." Yeah, speak for yourself, Audrey. This relationship might not be entirely symbiotic. She glanced at Alvaro, before turning back to Danny. "Seriously, this game is all sorts of fucked-up. We want to be able to take care of our own and, like, not become murderers. Right?" She lightly punched his shoulder. "Besides, we could listen to some kickass music in that CD player of yours, right? Who else has that?"

[Yugikun]

He hated it.

He had lied to them and he hated it. He had found people who wanted to help him and he immediately decided to betray their trust. And they believed it. They believed it and now they were talking badly about Min-Jae and even though Min-Jae was a jerk and even though it felt slightly good that he wasn’t alone in not liking him he still felt bad because they only thought that because of what had said about him and he was lying and they believed it and he couldn’t stop thinking about it. This wasn’t something he would have done at home. Not at school, not at the cafe, not at home, not anywhere. He was nice, and given the company he tended to be in he didn’t need to lie about anything but now he had to because they were the only two people who were nice to him and he needed someone to help him with his injuries and-

Alvaro jumped as Audrey placed a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t want to look up, he didn’t want to see her eyes-

A hand - Audrey’s - moved his head up. He could see her eyes. They were bright. Hazel, in colour. Warm.

There was a smile on her face. A request. A compliment.

His hands were shaking. There was a smile on his face. There was probably something in his eye, as well. She liked him. She trusted him. He could trust her. He had finally found someone on this island who wasn’t going to hurt him and maybe they could join up together with Danny alongside and maybe they would be able to get out of here. Yes. Yes. Yes. Things were finally looking up for him and he was happy and he could forget about Min-Jae and he could forget about his injuries and he could forget about his lie and he could just look at right now, where he had friends and where he finally felt safe.

...He was blushing, wasn’t he?

She let his head down, asking him if he could stand up. He nodded, quickly, slightly. He pushed himself against the wall, moving himself up. It hurt, slightly. Not as much as he thought it would. His arm ached, his face hurt and he knew that there were other parts as well but he did it anyway. He didn’t want to disappoint his new partners, after all.

He shook his head. That was right. Danny had asked him a question. About Min-Jae. He could tell the truth about that, at least.

“He went after me. I’m not sure if he’s still following me or not.”

He looked down the hall in the other direction from the room. He couldn’t see anybody.

He could breathe, now.

[ViolentMedic]

"There's no CD in it," Danny said. "And I've got terrible aim. Granted, I have baller muscles, but..."

Audrey suggested a truce. A team-up. Friends.

"I don't have a problem with trucing, I mean… I don't want to kill anyone. But… I dunno," Danny muttered, hugging the CD player to his chest.

Normally, new friends was an awesome possibility. Danny liked people, and he liked it when they liked him. But he wasn't sure he was comfortable with the idea of getting buddy-buddy with a guy he only knew in passing and a girl he didn't know at all. Not now.

What if one of them died? What if one of them died after he'd become friends with them? It was like adopting a puppy that had two weeks to live. And even as Danny's mind recoiled from the thought, there was that little part of him—the same part that occasionally stepped in to tell him to fucking deal with shit, pansy, albeit usually at times when it was either that or be too much of a jerk, even for him—that was hammering that thought in.

This was not the situation he wanted to be friends with everyone in.

He clung to the CD player a little tighter and rocked awkwardly on his feet, not really looking at anyone.

[K-Robe]

What was up with this guy? A fucking wussy-wishy pussyfooting coward? Danny, despite being as big of a man as he was, was somehow neutral about joining up Audrey's band. That got her a bit pissed off, just a bit. "Seriously?" she spat out. She clenched her fists, stamping her foot on the ground. "You want to be alone by yourself? You're not even going to give me a straight answer?" Audrey absolutely hated people like Danny; they reminded her too much of her false, inferior self from years ago. She'd gotten over that hump and, if she could do it, other people should be able to. Audrey held no patience, no regard for people too embroiled in their emotions to do something about their situation.

Baller muscles. She couldn't roll her eyes any faster.

What a waste.

She sighed, placing a hand on her quickly-sweating forehead. She took a second to calm down. "Look, I'm sorry," she said. "Maybe this game is already stressing me out or whatever but I'm still going to try and find a way to live through this. If you don't want to help people - and don't think I didn't notice that you didn't go to help Alvaro when I did - then fine. That's fine. I understand." She looked up at him; she hated tall people, too. "I'm going to go. You do... whatever it is that you do."

Audrey walked away in a huff, towards Alvaro. At least he was being logical, at least he was being sweet. She saw it in his eyes and his body language when she was comforting him. And he's damn cute! She hadn't noticed that too much before, but now that he was standing tall - and slightly taller than her, too; the perfect height - she noticed it more than ever. She lightly placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Alvie," she said, sweetly, before placing her hands on his cheeks - like a big sister (or maybe more like someone who was quickly developing a crush). "Why don't we get out of here before more people get here? It'll just be you and me." Audrey urged him along. She spared a final glance at Danny, before moving away from this place.

Compartmentalize.

You don't need to be so pissed off right now.

(Audrey Reyes continued elsewhere...)

[Yugikun]

The breaths reached.

The air went into his mouth and down his throat and at long last they were able to reach his lungs. He spent a couple of seconds just letting his body breathe, each individual one not as pleasant as the last but still a moment and a place in time that he wanted to stay in as long as possible. It was nice. Relieving. He was safe and he knew now that there was nobody after him and he had two people in front of him who trusted him and even though he lied to them they still liked him and he liked them back and there were so few ways of him saying that he was relieved he was safe and he couldn’t think of any more but he was so relieved and happy and he just wanted to let it be known and know it himself.

The breaths still grew long, but now they no longer had the pleasure that they had to them before. He let go of the moment, letting the world come back to him. Audrey had started talking to Danny, again. She seemed angry at him. Alvaro hoped that wasn’t the case. Danny was nice, he was one of the two people who talked to him when he had fallen, so he didn’t really want any harm to come to him. Really, he didn’t want any harm to come to anyone, but if he had to pick and choose right now he’d probably try and see if he could avoid anything happening to the two people in front of him. He was grateful. He wanted them to know that. Although at least it seemed that Audrey had calmed down. That was good. Maybe they had stopped arguing.

Audrey came over, placing her hands on his shoulders. Then his cheeks. They tingled. He was definitely blushing. She was pretty; he couldn’t help but admit. It was something about her eyes. Her face. She was sweet, and as she began to lead him off elsewhere he hoped that he got to see her smiling at him again, if they catched-

A bell rang, chimes echoing from outside and through the halls. Wait, where would there be a bell in-

His hands began to shake.

He stopped moving.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in breathe out breathe in breathe out breatheinbreatheoutbreatheinbreatheoutbreatheinbreatheout he could and the air was hitting his lungs but it was getting faster and faster and faster and faster and the world was phasing out and he couldn’t think about his safety and he couldn’t think about the people who trusted him and he could think about Audrey’s smile because the only things in his mind were the fact that he was here on this island where he could only get off if he was the last person still alive and how he had messed up and how Min-Jae was after him and how there were people out there who hated him like Min-Jae and Isaac and Lily and he didn’t want to know who else and how he couldn’t trust them because only one person could get off the island and anyone could try to kill him at any moment and he didn’t know what to do because he was injured and couldn’t breathe and, and, and

No. He couldn’t stay. As much as he wanted to stay and believe that all of this was going to be okay and that he could just be with Audrey and Danny he couldn’t.

He breathed. In, out. Shallow. Breaths not reaching his lungs.

He had to get away from here.

So he moved. Suddenly, harshly. Away from Audrey, down the hall and out of sight.

((Alvaro Vacanti, continued elsewhere))

[ViolentMedic]

Yikes.

"I didn't… say..." Danny trailed off awkwardly as Audrey turned her attention on Alvaro.

He didn't want to be alone. Being alone was the worst. Especially now. He just didn't want to befriend a stranger only to watch them splatter like Mr. Graham—

And trying not to think of that for some reason made him start thinking about graham crackers. Not the right direction, either. No matter how great s'mores would be right now. Pretend it was all a happy camping trip to an abandoned insane asylum.

He hadn't helped Alvaro because… well, guy had made it there on his own power and had his own supplies, right? It was just some bruises, Danny got worse from football. Or ballet, even. (Man, he'd fucked up some moves there.) It wasn't that he didn't want to help, he just… just…

Fuck, what did he want?

Honestly, though… the sudden mood change in Audrey mixed with how she was touching Alvaro's face—she'd said ‘oh, I know you' earlier, so it wasn't like they were boyfriend and girlfriend—was kind of freaking him out. He'd had clingy girlfriends before. Scarlett had been pretty clingy at points. Always weird if he talked to other girls—and yeah, okay, Danny had a reputation, but he'd never cheated on a girl, he could say that much.

Point was… girl who'd just been met already been clingy? Plus nunchuks? Yeesh. Good luck to Alvaro on that one. Nunchuks might not be too bad, but if she got an axe or something… full-on yandere simulator without the simulator part. If ever there was a place for a girl to flip out that bad...

Maybe his imagination was getting away with him. Even so, Audrey'd made her stance pretty clear. Right there in what she'd said to Alvaro. ‘Just you and me.'

So he didn't say anything when Audrey lead Alvaro off.

After that, there was a bell. Super fucking loud. Danny had to block his ears. A bell… did that mean people? Did he want to be around people? He wanted to be around friends, but would friends be there?

Did he want to see his friends die? But if he wasn't with them, he'd be alone.

This was the worst.

With no options left, Danny wandered off. He still didn't know where the fuck he was in the asylum, anyway.

((Daniel ‘Danny' Brooks continued in Companion Rectangle.))