Survival Of The Fittest

Kimiko was just standing there. The fucking murderer was just standing there shocked, and if Caedyn's gun was loaded she could shoot her too. If she was thinking more clearly reloading might have been an option, or whacking her in the back of the head, or any plan of action to put this psycho out of commission.

That wasn't on the table right now though. Caedyn was off the ground running before the thought could even fully form. She shoved Kimiko out of the way as she ran with her eyes locked on Jasmine's slumped form.

It all came in blinks. Kimiko falling away, Jazzy getting closer, her body in her arms, the blood spilling over her arms that was so hot, too hot, that had to be good right, that had to mean she was still alive? "J-Jazzy," she croaked out and brought her in tighter. "It's okay little bird, it's okay, w-we're gonna..." What? Caedyn didn't know anything about first aid, let alone how to handle a fucking bullet wound. But maybe it was just worse than it looked. Any second now Jazzy would perk up a little and give her a hug and it would turn out she was just being dramatic. Jasmine couldn't die here.

She loved her. Yet she couldn't say anything more.

(Gming approved.)

When Jasmine was just a squirt in elementary school, she always preferred to sit at the front of the bus. No particular reason behind it or, well, her bus driver was nice but that wasn't exactly a convincing selling point. She didn't have any friends to sit with, well, corporeally speaking.  In fact, nobody ever sat with her. Thinking back on it, she could not remember a single time where someone chose to sit with her. That was fine with Jazzy. It meant she always had a place to put her bag.

The bus driver was old, like, he had to be retired. His eyes were blood-flecked and  had this long, unkempt galway that Jasmine thought was kind of gross. He always had the radio tuned to the same station, 97.9 THE KLUK. And there was this one song that always came on in the afternoons, when Jazz was riding the bus home and it was empty save for her and the driver, like magic or something.

For the life of her Jasmine can't remember the name of it, or the band, but you've heard it. Everyone's heard it.

"Oh I.

I just died in your arms tonight.

It must have been something you said.

I just died in your arms tonight."

Yeah. That song.

Jasmine always hated the 80's. Nothing but stupid perms and that new wave crap. (She kind of liked The Goonies though.) That song was no exception. he pumping synth (or did they use real pipe organs?) at the beginning drilled into her temples, it made her grind her teeth. It's just, like, so cliche and dumb. Why would anyone actively listen to this.

"I keep looking for something I can't get.

Broken hearts lie all around me

And I don't see an easy way to get out of this."

Ugh. Of all the songs to hear when you're bleeding out.

It wasn't the song's fault, if we're being honest. It was just the fact that, once she first heard it, she kept hearing it. She started hearing it ALL the time. At the grocery store, at school dances, at the convenience store where she worked for, like, two weeks over the summer. Maybe it was a joke. Maybe the DJ had some weird case of OCD where he had to play that dumb song every chance he got. But regardless she heard it. She couldn't get away from it.

It was a damned earworm, and not the fun kind. It was so melancholy too, like she even now could practically taste the bitter tears on her tongue.

Oh. Wait. Those were her tears. Nevermind.

"Her diary, it sits by the bedside table.

The curtains are closed, the cat's in the cradle.

Who would've thought that a boy like me could come to this?"

Do you know how many people made amvs for this song? You'd need more than your fingers and toes to count them, Jazz can guarantee. People actually put this stupid song over their '10 SADDEST ANIME DEATHS EVER' lists. Bet they would be shocked to learn that the song is about having sex with a girl.

Yeah. Caedyn told her that. Because eighties, Jasmine supposes.

"Oh I.

I just died in your arms tonight."

UGH. Seriously. And it was very strange too. The two of them were in Caedyn's car, sitting outside an In-N-Out Burger. Kay always struck her as the type to love rap, reggae, that sort of thing. So Jasmine was stunned when Kay told her she L-O-V-E-D LOVED this song. Jasmine laughed, like, a bitter laugh. She told Caedyn that they couldn't be friends anymore. She meant it as a joke, of course, but Caedyn pouted at her and it made Jasmine cringe and mumble an apology.

"The heck are you sorry about?" Caedyn asked.

Jasmine shrugged her shoulder, staring at the mysterious stain in the floor mat. "It's just sad! Super sad! Dying in somebody's arms, like, who wants to listen to a song like that?"

Kay snorted. "You do know it's about sex, right?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. Every song from the 80's is about sex."

Jasmine squinted at Caedyn. Was she just pulling her leg? "Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I read it online once. It ain't about literally dying. 'Dying in your arms' is a metaphor." She paused, for emphasis. "For when a dude busts a nut."

And then she waggled her brows and flashed a dumb, toothy grin.

This was before they started dating, like, seriously dating, but it's the moment she realized she loved Kay. Jazzy was pretty sure Caedyn was high though. Or she was acting like some stupid idiot who was high.

... Caedyn was looking down at her, all the color drained from her face. Jeez. And to think, Jasmine thought she was going to ditch her too. It was... comforting. That was the one thing Jasmine never understood; Caedyn was always so nice to her. She told her she had her 'downer' moments, sure, but when the hell did she ever    

She never regretted dating Caedyn, It alienated away some of Jasmine's friends sure. Caedyn could be a real sweetheart but she could be a real cunt to people too. Maybe that kind of attitude was what Jasmine needed in her life. To set herself apart, to get herself out there. To stop playing so safe.

"I just died in your arms tonight.

It must've been some kind of kiss."

Jasmine wasn't sure why she started laughing. Something about the music in her head and the look in Caedyn's face and it just happened and there was no way to stop it. She held her stomach and kept laughing until she started coughing up a lung and she spat bloody flem onto the floor.  She sobbed, like, ugly, snot drooling sobbing, but despite that Jazz managed to look up at Kay and force a smile.

"I should've walked away."

"C... Caedyn. I..." She shivered violently. "I really screwed up big time, didn't I?"

Kimiko felt Caedyn slam into her from behind sending her crashing into the doorframe with a dull thud. A sharp pain emanated from just above her eyebrow where it had hit. Behind her she could hear Caedyn sobbing and repeating a name.

Jazzy

Short for Jasmine.

The name of the girl whose life she had probably ended.

She raised a hand to feel where the pain radiated from above her eyebrow. It felt wet.

Turning Kimiko took one last look at the scene she had caused before slinking around the doorway and heading down the corridor, leaving the sobbing behind.

((Kimiko Kao continued elsewhere...))

Stupid. Stupid stupid fucking stupid. Jazzy should have run away. There was nothing she was gonna accomplish here and Caedyn had thrown it all on the line for her before. It would have been okay.

That was a lie. It wouldn't have been okay. If Jasmine had left her Caedyn would have spent every last one of her last conscious moments screaming every terrible thing she could think of about her. But she forced that out of her mind along with any other doubt she might have had about Jasmine, because the truth didn't matter.

Caedyn loved her.

She was dying.

Fingers came down to stroke her hair as Caedyn caught the fading light in her eyes. "No, honey. You were perfect. You were always perfect..."

The truth didn't matter.

Oh...

Caedyn. Just shut up. Please?

What Kay was saying did not make Jasmine feel any better. Actually, it was becoming difficult for her to feel much of anything. She wanted to stay, she knew that, but there was very little emotion put behind that. Jasmine was always pretty shitty at putting her thoughts into words, much less emoting.

"Kay. You're... Y-You're amazing. I love you."

"Oh please."

Jasmine looked up. Caitlyn stood over prone corpse with her hands on her hips. She tapped the end of her foot against the tiled floor. Caitlyn looked over her shoulder, into an open doorway. It was pitch black in the room beyond its threshold.

"You should have listened to me, "  Caitlyn  said, "but you didn't. You refused, you went with your heart instead of your head and look at where you're at now. Getting all sentimental. Now come on; you've got no choices, where you're going."  

Hey, was that door even there when Jasmine first rounded the corner? Ugh. Jazz could not care less. She drooped in Caedyn's arms, tears soiling down the sides of her face.

"If you go home, could you... give my parents a hug?"

Was that a joke? The serious look that crossed Jasmine's face as she said it gave the impression that, no, it wasn't a joke. She meant it.

It is uncertain whether Jasmine Reed was alive long enough to hear Caedyn's response. Only Caedyn Miller would know the answer to that.

Nobody Caedyn cared about had ever died before. Sure, some distant relatives, a grandmother when she was young, friends here on the island, but as callous as it was she couldn't pretend she cared about any of those people. She hadn't lost a moment of sleep over them, or thought about any of them unless someone else made her. The list of people Caedyn honestly cared about suddenly felt terrifyingly small.

No, that wasn't quite right. It wasn't small. It was empty. Jazzy was it. Despite all her fear and selfishness there was one person here that she never, ever would have intentionally hurt, and she was gone. Nobody else mattered.

A more reasonable mind might have questioned these conclusions. Perhaps considered that her emotions might be reading more into their relationship than ever existed in reality, and that she shouldn't make any rash decisions in her current state. It might have taken time to mourn, or said a few words for Jasmine and her parents, or at least been cautious as she moved on.

Caedyn and reason rarely intersected. With tears streaming down her scowling face she shouldered her bag, gripped her gun and Jazzy's sword until her knuckles went white, and stalked out of the room.

The Cassowary was going to hunt.

((Caedyn Miller Continued In IT'S NOT A PERSON WHO DIES, BUT WORLDS DIE INSIDE US ))