Survival Of The Fittest

Liya drew in a breath. If only Kitty knew how non-altruistic her motivations for "scouting ahead" were. It was true back in the suburbs, and it would be true out on this road. Someone who truly wanted to keep their companions safe would pray that their job would be easy, that there would be no harm in need of intercepting. Instead, Liya prayed for the exact opposite. A leviathan to slay. An excuse she could live with. A selfish prize.

She couldn't feel much warmth from it, but the dying red light of the sun shone on the side of her face. It was a somewhat painful reminder of how much time had passed, in addition to the body's own various clocks and meters ticking - Liya had eaten at noon but opted to go for one meal a day, make things last while she waited things out. It wasn't like she was completely depriving herself of food, so how hard could it be, right? Well, ever since they'd left the houses it felt like her empty stomach wouldn't stop pinging her brain, like a device that incessantly went warning: low battery! warning: low battery! warning: low ba... one got the picture. At the very least Liya had a newfound respect for people who fasted. And a newfound anger at what her bitch of an aunt put Anna through.

Liya couldn't forget what she was fighting for. And despite how much Kitty sniffled and looked small and hurt, and no matter how much Liya forced herself to keep looking in her direction to not lose sight of her humanity, she had to make peace with the fact that Kitty was a murderer, obviously so. One of the first murderers, in fact - if not the first. Liya was almost in her place and couldn't go through with it, and she'd agonized over what it said about her. So what did that say about Kitty?

"Shit, me and my group's been looking all day for exactly that," Liya told her, glancing towards the remnants of the red sun. "They're expecting me back soon. Not sure if we could - or should - stay together. But you've got friends around school too, right? They've gotta be looking for you."

Liya would be forced to choose between any and all of her classmates and Anna, and Anna had to win. She'd promised too much for the answer to be anything else, no matter how much Liya would agonize over it. And right now, if Liya was forced to choose between any of her current companions and Kitty? Kitty would not win that one, no matter how much Liya would agonize over it. This was for the best, Liya told herself.

"R-Right."

Katelyn wasn't going to agonize over being rejected. She had gotten used to that much, in her life. Barely anyone wanted to interact with the weird, depressed cat girl. How could she blame them? After all, it wasn't like she was anything but a burden to be around, with all her whining and problems. Much less the trouble she could cause by being coated in Robin's blood on murder island.

She glanced out into the treeline, briefly wondering where her friends had gone. She knew where California had been, but she had run away from her and the cabin that very easily could have sheltered her for the night in a moment of weakness. That decision was already something she was coming to regret, but she couldn't go back. Not now, not yet.

"I guess I'll just g-go, then," she mumbled, looking away from Iliya. "Good luck, and-"

Katelyn took another step backward, and her foot caught on a tree root, sending her tumbling to the ground, a cloud of snow dispersing into the air on impact. She dropped the knife in the snow next to her as pain shot through her tailbone and back.

"Ow, ow ow ow!"

She hissed, turning and grabbing onto her lower back and massaging it to make the ache go away. After a moment, she flipped herself over, hands pressing into the snow to try and push herself up, pinpricks running through her fingers as the heat rushed out of them.

"S-Sorry..."

And like that, the connection was severed. Liya blinked, as Kitty turned away from her, struggled to get to her feet.

Anna's favourite movie was Labyrinth. Liya had never watched it, but she promised to. Anna didn't know how to cook for herself, didn't even know how to use a can opener or hold a kitchen knife correctly until Liya showed her. Anna's mom kept promising to teach her and never did, and probably never intended to. Liya promised to teach her instead. Liya got her driver's license shortly after pandemic restrictions started lifting, and she promised Anna that when she got her own car they'd go for a drive. Maybe they'd even drive off into the sunset and Anna would never see her mom ever again. That was how it was supposed to be.

Liya's grip on the billhook tightened.

This was her leviathan. Kitty was hiding and ready to stab her, so soon after taking someone else's life. If she went back to her companions and told them that much, she wouldn't be lying - and they would fill in the blanks. Adrenaline took over, and a fight ran on instincts, not reason, anyway. Who's to say Kitty wouldn't keep killing, after her name showed up on the announcements, when she was so sure everyone already hated her? Who's to say Liya tried but just couldn't talk her down? Only Liya would ever know.

She grasped the billhook with both hands as she raised it.

Only Liya would ever know and she wasn't lying - not about the adrenaline, or the instincts. Her heart thumped and the circuitry of her body pulsed, so fast she could hear the roar of the engine in her skull, and she hoped it would drown out anything else she could hear, and she hoped the red light of the end of sunset would overwhelm her vision before she could truly register what she did.

She had to go home, and she could go home. She could get it over with, live, and learn to live with herself, wash away the blood on her hands by saving the world entire of someone else. As she held the billhook up, quivering, ready to swing down on the neck, she thought of all this and how it would be quick - those were the excuses her mind generated.

The flesh was willing.

Katelyn pushed herself off the ground, lifting her leg and hissing again as she stood up and scooped the knife out of the snow. She breathed in and out, unsteady, letting the pain coursing through her back slowly subside. Her body was weak, frail, and inadequate, but she was going to be alright, for now.

She swallowed, the sudden realization dawning on her that this entire time, Iliya had said nothing. Done nothing, indicated by the lack of any noise besides the ones Katelyn herself had made. She could forgive not offering a helping hand, as it wasn't like she deserved one anyway, but why not say goodbye, or just turn around and leave, if that was what Iliya thought was best?

Katelyn turned her head, and her heart sank the instant she saw the reddish glint reflecting off the blade now looming over her like an executioner's axe preparing to fall. Her eyes went wide, and met Iliya's own for what must have been a single instant, but to Katelyn felt like it stretched out into eternity.

When the spell finally wore off, and Katelyn realized what was happening, it didn't take long for her body to react. Iliya had started to say something, started to lower the blade, but it was too late. Sheer panic had already gripped Katelyn's heart like a vice, and her arms were already in motion.

She yelped, claws out, and thrust the knife forward, instinct and experience guiding the edge straight into Iliya's throat.

But the spirit was weak.

Weak for hesitating before the final blow, but also weak for lifting the damned billhook in the first place. There was something deeply hypocritical about killing a troubled little sister to save a troubled little sister, and realizing that felt crushing, heavier than the billhook was, and it gave Kitty all the time she needed.

She drew the blade away, raised her left hand, and opened her mouth, "Wait-"

But the words I'm sorry were skewered in her throat.

In the moments before total system failure, the machinery of the body still worked quickly, so quickly, even as metal tore through wires of vessels and nerves. Blood still pumped and spilled in spurts from the wound as it did, the lungs grasped for air resulting in a final gasp, and neurons still fired, more imperfectly than usual. For an instant, she heard Anna crying.

The next instant, the circuit broke.

S051 - DECEASED

[Iliya "Liya" Polaris was weak. 129 students remain.]

Katelyn let out a few slow, raggedy breaths in the aftermath of the stabbing. Iliya went stiff as the blade struck her, and Katelyn's face was hit with a spurt of blood. Then the body went limp, like a puppet with its strings cut, and began collapsing. Katelyn took a few steps back, her knife tearing its way out of her victim's throat as the corpse crumpled to the ground.

She stood, staring at the body, slack-jawed and bleary-eyed. Once again the forest was dead silent, no more sound greeting Katelyn save for her own breathing and her heartbeat in her ears. Tears ran down her face, mixing with Iliya's blood, and staining her cheeks red. Her legs wobbled, and she fell to her knees in front of the body, the snow kissing her calves and sucking out the warmth within.

Her voice broke, warm tears hit the snow and froze.

"W-Why did you do that?"

Iliya could not answer.

"Why did you d-do that?"

Katelyn could not answer.

She dropped the knife into the snow and curled up into herself, covering her neck with her hands. She squeezed, digging in with her claws, until the pain in her back felt like nothing in comparison. She sobbed into her legs, squealing "why me?" over and over again.

There was a lot wrong with her, and not just what everyone knew about. She felt bad for Iliya, but she knew that it wasn't how bad she should really feel after killing someone. She had felt far worse for Robin, because she knew him, and in a twisted way still cared about him. She only knew Iliya in passing, and never cared about her. If all this hadn't happened, Katelyn would have graduated and then completely forgotten Iliya existed. While she deeply regretted her actions and wished that she had held back or hesitated, she felt worse about her lack of guilt than the fact that Iliya was dead. She agonized over the coming consequences more than the wretched fate she had just inflicted.

Those consequences were going to be swift and brutal. Tomorrow morning, they were going to tell everyone else what she had done. Her classmates, her friends, and Ashlyn would hear all about how she had killed two people right at the word "go", as if she had been itching for the chance her entire life. Of course she'd snap immediately, they would think, she was always kind of creepy, they would say, their preconceived notions of her inner world cemented in their minds. They wouldn't let her explain what happened, and even if they did, they wouldn't believe her. Anyone who loved Robin or Iliya would be out for her blood.

Her breathing picked up. She was doomed. She had always been doomed, but now her fate had been sealed. She would be hunted down like a rabid cat on the loose. They were going to hate her, and were going to beat her and stab her and shoot her and blow her up, and she would die, hated by all. "Weird emo cat girl snaps, kills 2 and dies" would be her entire story.

She sat up, seeing the dim light reflecting off the discarded billhook. Despite her hopeless situation, she wasn't going to let the world kill her. She needed a better story to leave behind, and would fight every second on the way to the inevitable to make it happen. Iliya's knife was bigger than her own, and having it would mean she could have a blade in either hand. All the better for keeping her would-be killers at bay.

Gingerly, she pillaged the billhook out of the snow, and plucked her knife from where it had fallen. It had grown dark, and the air was starting to prickle her skin. She needed to find shelter, but maybe she could come back later to bury Iliya.

So Katelyn ran away, her footprints racing off into the dark.

((She couldn't bring herself to look back at the body.))