Smile at Truth in the Name of Lies

[decoy73]

((Victor Grail continued from Lost and Lonely))

And Karen was officially dead. The one he was cool with. Everyone knew now. Of course, it wasn't just that news. Josh James was out. Victor knew who Josh was, even if it was as some guy. One half of the Graves pair was gone ... the one that wasn't killing people. And Victor still had some drink. He just shrugged as he took a swig. He was sitting at the bar anyway, and with him being on the announcements and alive, it meant that some attention was going to be on him.

[Carlisle]

[S119 - Julia Guercio - continued from Houston, We Have A Problem]

The afternoon and early evening had passed without any disturbance, allowing Julia to take in the slightly warmer air which was welcomed after a week of treading through mountains of snow. The annoying yet perfect-looking snow that collapsed under your feet with the slightest of missteps. She had journeyed through several houses in the towns residential area without consequence before deciding to go back to where it had all started.

The Hunting Lodge Bar.

Ashlee was gone. Karen was gone. Karin hopefully wouldn't be back to haunt her any longer. Victor was still out there - not happy with indirectly killing one of the group but deciding he wanted more blood on his hands by claiming Karen's life too. The happy group that had stuck together through the shell-shock of the first few days had entirely fallen apart. No more happy families, just one funeral after another. They had shared so much together, the bamboozlement of the first announcements and the harrowing and overwhelming notion that this wasn't all some over the top joke, it really was real and people were dying. The gunshots they could hear echoing across the mining town wore the names and stories of their victims.

Approaching the entrance to the bar, Julia noticed what resembled a candle light burning inside meaning somebody was home. She contemplated turning back on herself and leaving whoever it was to their own devices, but it had been a lonely day ever since Karin had ran away. Maybe it would be a friend in the bar, or somebody new she could team up with. The worst case scenario was that it would be Salem or Katelyn, and if she did disturb them then at least she had the exit. Her strong swimmer legs would be able to get her out of their, she was undoubtedly a faster runner than Katelyn even after a long day of being on her feet. Potentially Shu was still there after their encounter the day before, and he was also not somebody she wanted to disturb. His unrivalled sociopathy told like folklore with similar stories from Joshua, Przemek and Amy was enough to ruffle feathers as it was. Chuck on top that it was her who was announced as being the killer of the blinded boy he had starved and yet was somehow looking for once again. Last time they met she was able to disguise her actions, this time they had nowhere to hide.

Everything felt strangely familiar, reminiscent of the first time she had found this building that looked alien compared to the houses around the rest of the nearby streets. Her recollection of running for her life after seeing Beatrice with her giant battle axe was clear, the vivid feeling of warmth and optimism Julia gained from holding Karen's hand as the two girls entered the bar not knowing what or who they were about to walk in to. The nervousness both girls had was a heartfelt bonding experience, a shared anxiety and feeling of hopelessness. Looking back, there was probably no way she would've garnered enough confidence to enter the building where the voices were coming from without her. Had she been alone maybe the whole story would've been completely different. And now Karen was no longer here to hold her hand, to tell her it would be okay and squeeze her palm reassuringly. So much had changed in the time that had passed since those first minutes and hours that it really did feel like a lifetime ago.

Gun in one hand, propped down to her waist, Julia slowly opened the door with her shoulder, her other hand occupied with her flashlight. Being sneaky was off the cards, the creak of the door stopped that dead in it's tracks.

Immediately she saw somebody there, sat on a stool at the bar amidst the chaos that had ensued in every corner of the bar around him. The familiarity that carried itself from outside was subdued by the ruckus that had taken place. The unsavoury scent of death filled the room. Julia raised her torch and shone the beam of light in the boys face, likely blinding him as a first layer of defence. On the bar beside him were his bag, a gun smaller than her own probably just about within his reach and a nearly empty bottle of alcohol. She knew immediately who it was, a bemusing twist of fate that she was able to seek Victor out merely hours after he killed Karen. Killed her friend. He looked self-assured as he glared back at her in the doorway, covering his eyes to hide from ray of light.

There was plenty she wanted to say, and she wanted to make sure she had time to ask all of the questions she had been saving up for him. For now, the only words that left her mouth as she turned the light of the torch up to expose her own face were both simple and sinister:

"Oh... Victor... What are you doing here?"

[decoy73]

Victor squinted at the light that came in from the entrance, making it very hard to see who had just entered. The light did little to affect his hearing, though.

"Oh... Victor... What are you doing here?"

He just looked around at the bar, blinking to get the spots out of his eyes. He thought about the fact that several people had died in the room where they were, and how he was simply trying to get drunk in plain view of those corpses. He settled for keeping it simple.

"Just ... commiserating." He chuffed at that. "Didn't think I'd use a big word, huh?"

[Carlisle]

Victor didn’t seem his usual self, and even more surprising was his reaction to see her. Given everything that happened the last time they had seen each other, she expected something more of a reaction. Hell – if Karin or Salem had walked in to her room she wouldn’t just sit there chilling and seemingly feeling sorry for himself. His scoff lived up to every expectation she had him of – an arrogant meathead that tried to be funny when the situation wasn’t funny at all. No, this wasn’t the time for a stand up comedy routine.

“Commiserating, huh?” Julia sniped back at him, “I thought you’d be celebrating after taking out another girl.”

His general demeanour seemed a bit out of it, maybe he had too much of the liquor that was laid out on the bar beside him. It reminded her of the first few nights when the gang gathered around the fort that Ashlee had built, swigging on the drink and enjoying a merry silliness amidst the severity of everything unfolding outside. That fort no longer existed, and Ashlee only existed in memories. A lot had changed since then. Julia didn’t care to hide her disregard for him, even though in theory he could absolutely obliterate her with his sheer strength given half a chance. He had proven to be difficult, and yet Julia insisted on waving that red rag to the bull, asking for trouble. If Joshua could see how strong she was now...

“Karen was the quietest of us all, the kindest, the sweetest. Why did you do it? What did she do to deserve that?”

The question itself was jagged. Julia dropped her bag to her side as she bit her lip, a little out of nervousness for how he was going to react to her interrogation, and a little out of boiling anger at this doofus moping around after offing Karen.

“You weren’t content with just killing Ashlee, you’re trying to put us all in the ground?"

She returned his scoff, using her empty right hand to signal down at her body, her voice attuned to a bitter gloating. It didn't feel like something she ever did but for some reason her emotions had taken over and she gave in to the uncontrollable ridicule that sparkled in her tone.

“What? Does this mean that I'm next?”

[decoy73]

Victor's eyebrows went up slightly at that. It was ... somewhat expected.

"Karen asked me to kill her. Felt really bad about who she killed. Maya or someone like that. You? I've got no problem with you. Never did. Han was the only one I didn't like."

He left out that he had been upset that Julia believed the lie in the first place, but left that out, along with the fact that Han had been the one to kill Ashlee, not him.

[Carlisle]

So apparently Julia was supposed to believe that Victor, the guy who had been creeping on the girls at night and instead of defending himself when the allegation came out decided to strike out at Karin instead, directly leading to one of his supposed friends getting shot, was asked to kill her. That poor, defenceless Karen who wouldn't hurt a fly had asked to be knocked to oblivion. The worrying part was that it was actually somewhat believable. Karen was a sensitive soul, her retellings of stories of the pressure that her parents had put on her shoulders clearly had done a lot to tarnish her self-confidence. Julia had been stricken with grief herself ever since the Przemek incident and knew just how it felt to be eaten alive by the remorse, by the trauma. It wasn't out of the question that Karen would also be having abstract reactions in the face of murder. She had been surprised to hear Karen's name of the announcement the previous day, she didn't recognise Maya Press's name at all but Karen was one of the last people she ever would've expected to actually shoot and kill somebody. It was completely believable that having Maya's blood on her hands was just too much and she wanted to exit this minefield. If what he was saying was true, in essence he was mercy-killing her just like she had done with Przemek. Did this mean they had more in common than first expected?

But she didn't want to equate the actions of the two. Deep down Julia knew what she had done was wrong, but bubbling up at the surface level were still the delusions that what she did to Przemek was a matter of inevitability. He was bleeding out, the blood was gushing across her hands and the stone flooring. He was on his way out, like an injured animal caught by a car and left stranded on the roadside. No help was going to come, none that would be enough to reverse his eviscerated face or stop him from haemorrhaging out. She didn't know for a fact, but she maintained a blissful ignorance that Karen wasn't injured. If Przemek, healthy and well, had asked her to kill him then she wouldn't have done it. No way. Even if he really wanted to die, she wasn't going to enable his suicide. Julia wiped her brow, a thin layer of sweat forming from the increased temperature inside the building after her marathon walk, and the brewing tensions between them. He said he liked her, that he didn't have a problem with her, that was an interesting take.

Overall she was surprised at his hesitance to start trouble, she expected a level of militancy upon her arrival but instead had been greeted by a deflated boy brooding miserably about how tough life was and how selfless he had been to humbly oblige close the last page of the book on Karen's. Julia sighed, retreating from her own state of combativeness against his moping face of defeat that told an earnest story of honesty.

"S-she asked to die? I missed her. It didn't need to happen like this, w-we got separated after the Ashlee thing and I looked for her. I wanted to find her and tell her again that it was all going to be okay. B... But you found her first."

Julia paused for a moment of silence to mourn her murdered friend, a placid tear forming in the corner of her eye.

Manipulation felt so easy in the game. Julia had gone through life never wanting to assume the worst in people and that was perhaps her biggest flaw when it came to a battle for survival like this. In a life or death situation, she had seen with her own eyes the lengths that people would stray to in order to outlast the other students. The stretches that people would take in order to defy the odds and make it back home to their families. Julia didn't blame them for it either, there was a deep-rooted desire in herself to get home too. She wasn't ready for her average and undramatic life to come to a crashing end. She had always done the right thing, minded her own business, believed others were inherently good people.

If he was lying, she was falling for it hook line and sinker. She shook her head gently, trying to snap out of his summoned illusions and get back to being matter of fact. Asking him a damning question could cause him to slip up, and she needed him to show her he was guilty.

"How did it happen? Why did you agree to it?"

It didn't have to be that way.

[decoy73]

"Met her in the snowfield." He looked at his bottle. "It was just after the announcements. She told me how she'd killed Maya. She got scared and pulled the trigger. She thought she lost everything because her parents would never forgive her for killing. I didn't agree, but she was so sure of it that she put the gun in my hands and put the barrel to her chest. Even after I objected. She was so sure ... that if I'd refused, she'd have probably tried to kill me to die, or just pulled it on herself. But she said she wanted me to do it so I'd have a shot to go home, and I could only do that if I had a kill to my name." He looked at Julia. "So yeah. That's why I did it."

[Carlisle]

It almost sounded too good to be true. A little too much along the lines of Victor being the hero and his hand being forced. No - this wasn't the same as the Przemek situation. He was bleeding out. He was dying. Victor can try and use the excuse that Karen would've tried to kill him to force him all he liked, but the reality from what he said, his storytelling, was that he didn't give Karen a chance to actually show him just how much she wanted to die. Conveniently, he buckled at the first sign of trouble and kindly obliged Karen's request. They were all experiencing highs and lows this week, Julia herself reminisced about being perched beside the bodies in the forest wondering if the easy way out would be better for her. Those intrusive thoughts were making their way round everybody on this hellish island. Yet that's what it was, like a rollercoaster filled with thrilling ups and soul-shattering downs. Maybe if he had been more patient, maybe if he had given Karen two minutes instead of pulling the trigger instantaneously then she would have backed down and she wouldn't have died at his hands. Instead, Victor took his opportunistic moment to get a body count on the scoreboard and pick up a nifty little gun for a weapon in the process.

Karen had served herself up on a platter and Victor didn't hesitate to gorge on the meal laid out beautifully in front of him. He couldn't wait to objectify and dehumanize her.

Ergh. It was all so depressing.

Julia wanted to go home. Now more than ever. She really wanted to go home.

The words of Karin Han had resonated with her. Julia was so quick to jump to the classic fairy tale of heroes and villains, the good and the bad. She naively sought out ways to be the hero in her own story, to challenge the villainous actions of others and occupy some pretentious moral high ground. She'd been doing it all week, and perhaps even longer before then. She cast her mind back to why she broke up with her ex-boyfriend, the excuses she made in her head to reason against his claims of innocence. The paranoia she carried and suspicions she chucked his way were a big song and dance over nothing. There wasn't really a good reason as to why she was like that, why she wasn't trusting of others and always looked to self-destruct when working or buildings relations with others. There would always be a problem statement, something in the story to poke holes in. She naturally sought out the bad in people and looked for reasons to distrust others before they hurt her. It's likely the reason she stuck to herself so much at school, enjoyed the company of a swimming pool over friends in her class. Why she was so dependent on Marina throughout her childhood and had such a hard time adjusting to life at high school and home back in August when she had left for college.

Morally, the right thing to do would be to gentle with him, accept her was in pain too. He was clearly going through a harrowing world of emotions from his expression and body language, the Julia she thought she had always been would've shown empathy for his situation like she had granted Joshua in the past. Yet she knew what she had to do and if she relaxed or started to feel sorry for him then she knew that she wouldn't have the conviction go through with it. Everything that happens between those two flickers of light is Julia's way of manifesting herself as the hero, or perhaps now the anti-hero. Victor had wronged Ashlee, he had wronged Karen. Hell, he had wronged Julia in wronging both of those others. And for that he had to pay. She knew as soon as she had walked in to the bar what needed to be done. He was one of the two people on the list Karin had been excluded from, the list of people she wanted to make pay for ruining things. Salem for his unruly assassination of Timothy, and Victor for killing nearly everybody that Julia had trusted on this trip. A psychologist would've been able to easily diagnose that she was projecting her own emotions, fears and guilt on to Victor in this moment. She didn't do enough to save Ashlee, wasn't able to seek out Karen and keep her safe either. Everybody she trusted, every single person she had built that bond and relationship with in the face of death was taken from her and once again she was left all alone. Her projections were out of necessity, a fear that she wouldn't be able to look at herself in the mirror, or even survive, if she admitted the truth that what happened to them all was her fault. Their blood was on her hands even if she hadn't been directly responsible for pulling the trigger and admitting that was a fact too heavy to bear.

Ultimately, it was easier to blame Victor for both misfortunes.

"Why should I believe you?" Julia volleyed back at his attempts to diminish his accountability, "Between Karin's allegations, leaving Ashlee for dead, and now the announcement calling you out as a murderer... You haven't shown yourself to be the good guy."

[decoy73]

"Why should I believe you? Between Karin's allegations, leaving Ashlee for dead, and now the announcement calling you out as a murderer... You haven't shown yourself to be the good guy."

And there was the question. There hadn't been any other witnesses. The only thing that could even hint at Karen's willingness was the

"Customer service. That's how Danya told it. That's all I have for the announcement. As for Han, she was lying. Through her teeth. Would you be happy if someone lied and told everyone that you were a creep when you weren't? No. You'd be pissed the fuck off. As for Ashlee, blame Han for that, too. Han pulled the trigger ... and I doubt she was aiming for Ashlee. I wasn't going to stand there and give her another shot at me." He looked at Julia, a grim determination in his eyes.

[Carlisle]

It was irritating. Everything Victor shared seemed painfully realistic and actually, in the grand scheme of things she had heard over the past week, quite reasonable. It left a frustrating reaction of bewilderment; that the person you had been building your case against ended up being innocent after all. Julia thanked the gods that she had no intentions of being a lawyer, although she figured that even if she had wanted to be a lawyer that dream would likely be a short-lived failure given there's an explicitly high chance she wasn't going to see another Christmas. Her parents had high expectations but thankfully saying to them she wanted to be a doctor was enough to keep them offer her back and pleased, and keep the disappointed comparisons to her sister at a minimum. Julia wasn't Marina, and she had spent most of her life trying to educate those around her that she couldn't live up to the pressure of those high expectations. In retaliation it had the opposite effect, she tried so hard and did everything she ever could to give herself the best platform and be in the most advantageous position - with her education, with her plans for future careers, with her swimming and fitness. Everything Marina did she tried to emulate, but the darker reality was that it often left her feeling insecure of her own insignificance. Whenever she took a step forward it felt like several steps back, like a pool lap time record that was continually bested by others so your greatest efforts were never good enough.

Negotiations with Victor weren't going too well, he was leaving her reeling and uncertain over how to follow through with him. The more information he shared, the less she felt that killing him was an act of justice. That was behind what had been fuelling her ever since she walked through those doors. The adrenaline of knowledge, the position of power she had piloted knowing she could play the role of interrogator versus Victor's criminality. But maybe, just maybe, he was actually the sane one and Julia had found herself deteriorating to the realms of the insanity.

He made a very solid point, and one that she had battled with herself on for days. Back and forth in her mind, the thought which resonated was over whether Karin had been telling the truth. His reaction wasn't great but defending yourself from outright lies was an arduous task. Karin was the bad guy on paper, after all she was was the one who actually pulled the trigger and watched on as Ashlee slowly drained of blood. The crimson mist radiating through the snow around her until everything had been absorbed by carmine, shackling the snow around her as Julia had watched on, helpless and in horror. Whilst Victor may not have been the one who had pulled the trigger on her, he was the, alleged, creep who was touching himself as the girls slept. As reported by Karin, he was clearly feeling lonely under the realization that this was just the warped inevitability of his final days. She almost partly didn't blame him for being horny, if it were true. it was an affliction that many succumbed to, but that doesn't negate that consent is key and even the idea of the fornication had left all of them feeling sickly.

She continued to repeat the allegations in her mind to reinforce her beliefs, find motive for her actions. The more she did so, the more she wanted to end this. She held all the cards and she was ready to play her hand, but the one thing that had been niggling at her the whole day was still Joshua. She found it hard to believe he was the monster Karin painted him as, comparing him to grotesque serial killers like Ted Bundy, yet the further in to the past her time with him reached the more her eyes awakened to the truth of his emotional manipulation. She had given it significant thought as she wandered the snow-wilted street. Half the time it had felt like an abusive metaphoric trigger constantly against her back ready to be pressed if she didn't prove herself or do what he wanted, being eternally kept on your toes not knowing how he would react or when things would escalate without warning. Meanwhile, the rest of the time was warmth and daisies, he had made her feel so good about herself, put her up on a pedestal and said any combination of words he needed to inject her with confidence or self-assurance. She needed to know. She needed to understand the code to his enigma.

"You played lacrosse, right?"

The drastic change in conversation may have given both of them whiplash, but she didn't want to keep going round in circles about Ashlee or Karen. She already got it, he was guilty but trying to make himself, and her, believe that he wasn't. Or, perhaps more accurately she was stuck in purgatory making her believe without reason that he was extremely guilty and sinful. She broke her piercing eye contact with him for the first time since she had bumped into him, looking down at the floor with a lump in her throat as she prepared herself to ask about him.

"J-Josh... Joshua James. He was on the team too with you? What was he like? Were you close?"

Saying his name out loud sent a shiver down her spine. She hadn't done that since finding him in the snow, not his full name at least.

[decoy73]

Joshua James, Joshua James.

"He was ... okay. Really good partner on midfield. Listened to me when I said something. We were mostly partners on the field, though. I know he killed a few people, but I never talked to him since we landed on the island, so I don't know why he killed anyone." He shrugged.

[Carlisle]

It was probably to be expected, but Victor's answer about Joshua didn't reveal much. She was still struggling to peel back that shiny, slightly handsome exterior to find out who he really was and if she was as weak and spineless as Karin had indicated. Aside from some field action, he really was a ghost. It surprised her how he could be so low key, considering everything she thought she knew was that people who played team sports were close. Julia contemplated asking more questions, to try and get something of use out of Victor to help her ease her concerns, to stop her brain from hyperventilating and doing somersaults in synchronicity. The beating drum of her heart that had stalked the entire interrogation was fluttering towards a climax.

She looked back up, for the first time since mentioning Joshua's name and posing that question to his old teammate. Her face radiated sorrow as she gazed back at Victor, making eye contact with him as he took another swig from the bottle beside him. If anything his answer to her question frustrated her more. Not because she was on a vicious roundabout cycle of complex feelings around her treatment by him, but because he made it clear that his past life, before things changed on the doomed ski trip, was a mere shadow of who he was a person. He wanted to be noticed, even to be valued, and Victor was somebody who should have noticed him. Maybe made more of an effort to bring him in, show him that he was worthwhile. So many things may have been different if that happened. His own story had resonated with her and how she felt when at home, except she had the benefit of a closely-knitted blanket of love shrouding her at all times, almost a little bit too much. Marina would know what to do in this situation, she would probably be clever enough to work out a way off the island, some dramatic escape that thwarted any plans by the terrorist, and here Julia is having to kill for her chance for the return ticket. But now wasn't the time for the counselling session, now was the time to move the queen forward on her visual game of chess and initiate checkmate.

Fate had brought the pair together once again. Of all the people she could've intruded on by paying her visit back to where it all started, the stars had aligned and brought her Victor's head on a silver platter.

No more beating around the bush.

No more putting it off.

Vengeance was a dangerous game, but this one was for Ashlee, for Karen, maybe even for Joshua.

"Thanks for answering my questions, I'm..."

Julia smiled innocently at Victor as she took a pause. A gulp to clear the lump in her throat as she plucked up the courage to do what had to be done.

The rifle in her hand raised, the barrel provocatively aiming directly in Victor's direction as she clasped at the handguard beneath the barrel with her empty hand. The muzzle at the end of her long protruding weapon teased Victor with it's foreshadow of what was about to come next. Her right eye tensed as she squinted down the end of the gun at her soon-to-be victim standing there like a deer in headlights.

"I'm sorry it's come to this."

Her words were honest. She knew what had to be done but that didn't mean she needed to enjoy it, the pain she was about to inflict, the suffering she was going to cause.

"I really am sorry it couldn't have been different."

[decoy73]

Julia raised the rifle. Shit.

"I guess that there's no way that I can get you to back off?" She shook her head. "It's too late for that."

Victor sighed and nodded as he stood up.

"Fine. You're going to try and kill me. I can respect that. But it is my life on the line." He took out the gun Karen had given him. "And if you want to kill me, you're going to have to fight for it."

Victor did cheat a little. He moved and fired at Julia when he said "fight." Paid off too. The pain he felt when he hit the ground was merely from his impact with the ground, and the familiar loud rapport from what happened when one fired a gun. He had to roll over to avoid a second burst of fire, but he was able to get back up relatively quickly and take aim with his gun that, unlike Julia's, almost fit comfortably in his hand. The trigger went back and he fired at Julia ...

Just as his abdomen decided to explode. He just stared at Julia as he dropped to his knees. He'd wanted to win and live, of course, but as the pain kicked in, he could only nod once again to Julia before he dropped to the ground.

Motherfucker.

STUDENT #24: VICTOR GRAIL - ELIMINATED

45 STUDENTS REMAIN

[Carlisle]

The rifle felt overwhelmingly heavy in her callous hands.

This time was different to her chance encounter with Matthew. That was a weak scatter of shots into the abyss, a sharp response to Matthew shooting at her first. Whereas this time, Julia was essentially aiming down an imaginary scope above the military grade assault rifle directly at her target. She had never been a hunter, but despite this whole feeling of but things change and this was what she had to do to avenge those who had fallen directly or indirectly at the hands of this menace.

His final pleas for her to stop, a desperate last attempt to talk her down from the ledge she was standing on, were futile. The effort was commendable, but Julia was too far along for it to make any difference. There were no more chances to back down or reverse things to an alternate timeline where Victor was still alive. She swiped back at his pleas, voiding them with ignorant ruthlessness.

A frost had infiltrated her voice, more out of fear than anything else, "It's too late for that."

Those were the last words she granted him, no words could voice . She could feel her hands trembling as she lined up the shot. From the reverberation that ran through the entire height of Julia's body the first time she had pulled the trigger this time she knew what to expect. But still she hesitated, inadvertently giving Victor enough time to pull his own, or in another life Karin's, weapon from his bag.

It was now or never.

No going back.

Julia dived off the side of the pool she had been lingering on, but unlike the water she was used to being greeted by whenever she swam, this time she plunged straight into the darkness of the unknown as she clung to the spiteful trigger for dear life.

The rapturous spray of bullets came in three waves. Each one sending shockwaves pulsating through her body as every inch shook like she was enduring a high magnitude earthquake. The judder of the rifle as the bullets dispersed vibrated more and more as she struggled to keep in control. Victor dived to try to get out of the way, shattering the wooden stool he had been sat on when she arrived. The bottle of liquor had shattered in to a million tiny pieces, the alcohol left inside emptying out over the bar and down the side towards where Victor had ended up. She gasped indignantly as she made eye contact with him one last time, watching the light leave his eyes as he fell to his knees, desperately trying to say something but couldn't. Instead he just gargled nothings as he fell to the floor in a heap.

Her beastly weapon had ripped most of his chest and lower torso apart, leaving strings of gut, flesh and blood sprayed mercilessly against the bullet-ridden bar.

Overwhelmingly, it was over before she even knew what had happened. There was no test of endurance like having to live out Przemek's final moments in slow motion, a lifetime ironically capturing the final ticks of a life. Three eruptions and about seven seconds was all it took to end a life, and before she even had a chance to think about what she was doing, the hunting lodge bar had collapsed in to silence. Her adrenaline was pumping hard and fast, to the extent she hadn't even felt the searing pain in her left hand, or the blood dripping like a waterfall on to her sneakers.

The first burst was for Ashlee.

The second was for Karen.

The third burst was for herself, a gentle recognition of Joshua's corruption.

She hoped he would be proud of her.

She was strong enough after all.

[S119 - Julia Guercio - continued in To All The Boys I've Killed Before]