The Disappearance of an Internet Angel

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Tenshi sat up in the cot. Her arm was feeling... honestly, it wasn't feeling all that much, below the elbow. Except itchy. Broken bones, right? A noise, barely audible to anyone who wasn't a dog, sailed out from outside.

"Why're you playing that...?" The words were mushy in her mouth. "Nobody can hear it."

[ViolentMedic]

Fitz kept his ears blocked when the shrieking rang out, lowering his fingers in time to hear Tenshi mutter.

"Just because you don't listen..." he muttered, before raising his head a little.

There were multiple footsteps coming. He stood up from the desk chair, picking up the rifle and making sure his grip was right, fingers away from the trigger and barrel pointing away from the door or the cell.

He didn't move from there, waiting to hear any further noise.

[DerArknight]

After blowing the whistle, there were a terrifying ten seconds in which no one one came. Dawn almost blew a second time when she saw two girls ascending from the stairs leading underground.

Both of which Dawn knew would at least be willing to listen her out. Cassie was a friend and Maddy was known to often help others in need.

Both of which wielded objects that looked helpful for their undertaking.

"Cassie! Maddy! I am glad too see you!" She screamed out, waving them to come closer. "Tenshi is hurt, so I was whistling for someone to come. Fitz and me need-" Remembering that Fitz might not be the most popular person on the island, she halted for a moment. "I know Fitz was on the announcement, but I was there and can vouch that it was an accident. Alex attacked our group and Tully wrestled with him. Fitz missed and shot Tully while Alex... he stabbed Cedar and ran off. And Tenshi got hurt during the chaos as well, so now she is struggling."

All of this came out in maybe half the time she would have normally taken to say it.

"Please help us!"

[Applesintime]

OK. OK, this was a lot to take in!

Tenshi was hurt, maybe by the Alex dude that had popped up on the announcements. Fitz had shot Tully while Alex tried to kill people and that's why he'd appeared on the announcements, and then, uh, Cedar got stabbed by Alex and died, and Madeleine also had to parse this while Dawn was speaking like one of those video lectures that she'd always stuck on 1.5 speed and sped through in half of the time.

Wow! Wow! Alright.

Whew.

Madeleine took a deep breath. She didn't know first aid very well, only the basics in case she got hurt while hiking, and she vaguely recalled someone mentioning to her that Dawn had done first aid classes or something at some point, so why did she need Madeleine's help in the first place?

She glanced over at Cassie, who did seem familiar with Dawn. That kinda eased Madeleine's worries a bit. Besides, uh, she had a sword. Dawn had a fucked up whistle. If this was a trap, Madeleine felt confident that she could... drive Dawn off at best. The worst case scenario, she didn't want to think about.

"Alright. What do you need us to do? What happened to Tenshi?" Whether it be a positive trait or a fatal flaw that'd get her killed on this island, Madeleine found it easy to trust people unless they were giving off blatant bad vibes.

[Fiori]

"Tenshi? Hurt? Fitz? Shot? Wh-What?!?"

It was a lot for Cassie to take in and process all at once, not really knowing who half those names were referring to, or what exactly was going on. All she was able to piece together was that someone - Tenshi - was hurt and Dawn needed their help.

She glanced back at Madeleine, the two sharing a look before watching as she agreed to help. Bolstered by her friend's resolve, Cassie nodded her head in agreement. If someone was in trouble, and she could maybe do something to help, then she couldn't afford to freeze up now right? She could actually save someone, actually be useful for a change.

When Dawn showed them into the building, she was quick to follow behind her. Dawn was one of the few people from school she could really call a friend, ever since she checked in on her when Cassie found herself having lunch all on her own. Whenever she couldn't call her mom about some health concern, she would always message Dawn about it instead. Always prefer her advice first before inevitably scrolling through all the horrible possibilities online.

Once they were inside, the first thing she noticed was the large gun held by a boy wearing a skirt. Was that Fritz? She hadn't really been paying attention to that morning's announcement, but she vaguely recalled his name being brought up. Had he really hurt someone with that? Was she really standing in the same room as someone who had...

She tried to blot that thought out as she turned to Tenshi, taking a cautious step closer before stopping, her eyes widening in horror. She had seen pictures of injuries like that online, back when she was trying to figure out if her stubbed toe was infected when it started swelling bright red a week later. Turns out she had an ingrown toenail, but that didn't stop her from begging her mom to order her some antibiotics just in case.

Well, that was definitely not an ingrown toenail, and last she checked (and she checked thoroughly) they didn't have any antibiotics on them. Which means...

"D-D-Dawn..." she asked, shaking and clinging tightly onto her shoe. "Y-you realise what that is, right?" she continued, gulping. She had a horrible feeling that she knew where Dawn was going with this, hoping against all hope she was wrong. She always did jump to the worst case scenario, so it wasn't as bad as she thought it was? Maybe she was just blowing it out of precautions, that it just needed to be cleaned with some antiseptic wipes or something?

Because if that was exactly what she thought it was...

"Wh-what are you planning to do?"

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Dawn came back with some more girls in tow, Madeleine and Cassie. The three of them were the kinds of classmates that her mom called "nice, smart girls". College-bound, could easily imagine them flying to some foreign country as a volunteer to some cause or another. Her mom wasn't always the best judge of character, but Tenshi could believe it. But then again, Tenshi didn't know them that well either.

And maybe her mom was right. Maybe they, like Dawn, were medical-school bound. Yeah, they had to be. They looked over her arm which was admittedly beginning to feel... just sore. It wasn't hurting that much, it was just... a little sore. Just because it looked bad, doesn't mean it was so bad. She went to the hospital. Everything would be alright.

Maybe it was sore because she helped with cleanup after the concert - with a cast on? No way. Then before...? Yeah, probably before. A few days before, even. Or something. It must have been what she was doing before she fell down the stairs and broke her arm, actually.

...Tenshi really shouldn't have drunk so much at the after-concert party. Not only was she woozy and nauseous and thirsty to the point where she could only nod once in acknowledgement of Cassie and Madeleine's presence, she was having trouble recollecting the past week or so. The story just refused to be set straight in her head.

Cedar being away from her side for so long was an anomaly. She had to have been there when Tenshi fell, during the party. Once Cedar got back, she could explain everything, right?

[ViolentMedic]

“Can’t believe that actually worked,” Fitz said, once the newcomers were inside. “I’d say you had some kind of luck if you weren’t… here.”

He glanced over the two of them, then back down at his gun, before he lowered the gun entirely, holding the end gingerly in one hand and briefly holding the other hand up to indicate an intent to peace. The effect was somewhat ruined by the blood staining his clothes and the puffy red eyes.

“Okay. No time to dance around this.”

Fitz used his free hand to point at Madeleine.

“Answer. She got shot in the arm. We need something sharp.”

Then he gestured at Cassie.

“Answer. Yes, Dawn knows what it is. Probably. She wants to amputate, hence something sharp. I don't know what Tenshi wants, because she's either out of it or just ignoring the whole situation. And yes, it’s insane, so on, so forth--we know, alright?! So if we could just jump to… I don’t know. One of you either doing the job or lending Dawn what she needs.”

The words were cavalier, but the tone was exhausted, cranky, cracking at weird times and raising in volume the more she spoke. He inhaled, then raised his hand again.

“Not it, by the way,” he added, voice calm again.

[DerArknight]

Thankfully, Fitz explained everything Dawn had been unable to articulate outside. Maybe a bit hectic, but more coherent than she might have done.

"Yeah, that's the gist of it," she confirmed incase Cassie or Maddy weren't trusting Fitz. "We need to borrow your sword-thing, Maddy."

Technically, the ice skaters in Cassie's hand could could also work, but would require more than the force of a swing. Maybe the force of a drop. The idea of someone climbing on top of the building, donning the skates and then jumping down on Tenshi lying in the snow would already have been morbid in any other situation. Here it was less than funny, and Dawn berated her subconsciousness for conjuring this image.

That left the question of who would do the cutting.

Dawn looked around and saw unwilling faces. It seemed logical. Fitz said right of the bat that he wasn't up to it and the two girls had just arrived less than a minute ago. But time was ticking, and someone had to step up.

"I will do it," Dawn declared. "The cutting, I mean. However, there are things I need your help with." Quickly, she scanned the room for what she had seen earlier. It was still there.

After picking up the empty beer can, Dawn brought out her first aid kit and took out the lighter. She presented both objects to the others.

"Someone needs to heat up the can. Once the arm is severed, we will use the hot can to cauterize the wound. I also need a third person to hold the arm still while I cut.

"... Any questions?"

[Applesintime]

An amputation didn't seem like a good idea, seeing as they didn't have anyone who'd done anything more than a basic first aid class, but Madeleine wasn't gonna say anything. Fitz had already pointed out that it was a shitty idea, but they had no other options. Morbidly, it was a choice between Tenshi maybe living and Tenshi definitely dying. She's just glad she's not the one making the decision. Nodding wordlessly, Madeleine set down the sword, leaning it against the wall and moved towards Tenshi, grimacing as she finally took in the wound. It looked like someone had shot her.

"I, uh, I'll hold her. Her arm. Just tell me what to do."

[Fiori]

Cassie didn't say a word as Fitz and Dawn explained the situation, remaining surprisingly calm despite this being the exact kind of nightmare scenario she dreaded above all else.

Maybe it was because the anticipation of bad news was always far worse than actually receiving it. She remembered how distraught she was when she found out what could happen if her toe got infected and wasn't seen to properly, the idea of losing a part of herself horrifying her to her very core. And that was over a toe, let alone something as important as an entire leg.

She looked down at her shoe, eyes drifting over the blade. She doubted it would do the job, they weren't really designed for actually cutting things, not unless it was sharpened beforehand anyway. But was Madeleine's sword-club thing really any better? They were just sharp bits of obsidian stuck to a plank of wood, hardly the kind of sterile implement designed for careful amputation.

Continuing to remain quiet when they tried to figure out who would do the deed, she felt an intense pang of guilt as Dawn put herself forward. A deep shame for forcing her to be the one to take that burden, with Madeleine next offering to hold Tenshi cher down. In that moment, she finally broke her silence, blurting out something she almost instantly regretted.

"I-I-I'll heat the... The can..." she stuttered, putting the shoe down and hesitantly reaching out for it. 

Truth be told, she didn't want to. She really, really, really, really didn't want to have any part of this. The thought of being responsible for Tenshi's life scared her, much like she dreaded the idea of getting infected during lockdown and spreading it to her vulnerable grandmother. She wasn't sure if she could even bear the thought of her incompetence leading to someone else dying, indirectly or otherwise.

But she also couldn't just stand idly by. Couldn't live with the shame of being useless and passive, sitting quietly as everyone else chipped in to save Tenshi's life. She had to prove she could help. That she wasn't just some parasite, that she could contribute in a real meaningful way, even if that was just holding a metal can and heating it up with a lighter.

She shook her head when Dawn asked if there were any further questions, which was a blatant lie. Was there anything they could do to sterilise the obsidian blades? Did they have anything to clean the wound afterwards? Did they have any aesthetic? Did they have a safe means of making Tenshi unconscious, or would she have to be awake throughout the whole procedure? Did they really not have any other option than to mutilate one of their classmates?

In the end, she said none of those. All she did was pull her arm back into her sleeve, making sure there was a thick layer of fabric between her hand and the aluminium can as she reached out for it, taking that lighter into her shaky grip to light it up and get to work.

[ViolentMedic]

“Okay. ...Okay. Guess this is happening.”

He tilted his head up and closed his eyes for a brief moment, breathing sharply through his nose, before he walked over to one corner of the room and put his rifle down. Making sure still that he stayed between the rifle and the girls, he grabbed his first-aid kit as well as the one he’d taken from Cedar’s pack when splitting supplies.

“Anything that anyone needs, just… yell, and I’ll get it to you.”

He crouched outside the bars, out of the way but close enough to get items to people as they needed them. His eyes flickered to Tenshi for a moment, then back down to the kits. A hand slipping into his pocket to clench around the choker once more before it let go, and hovered instead over the supplies.

“Let’s get it done.”

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

This felt familiar, being surrounded by people. Hopefully Tenshi wouldn't do anything embarrassing like throw up on one of them or something. Madeleine took her broken (and sore, just sore...) arm and she seemed concerned - this made her a doctor like Dawn, right? Her mom was probably right in her assessment of her, then. Actually, everyone seemed concerned. That was a doctor's job, though.

Tenshi wasn't... that worried. Maybe seeing everyone else act like that was slowly making her worried. Cedar had to get back right this instant so that she could hold her hand through the whatever-it-was that was going to happen. What was going to happen? It wasn't like she could just be told, she was terrible at lip reading.

So for now, Tenshi's eyes landed on Dawn.

[DerArknight]

Before Dawn knew it, everything fell into place. Maddy would do the holding while Cassie started to heat the can. Fitz was somewhere in the background.

Dawn herself took the sword-thing and examined it. The design reminded her of the whistle she had just blown, so maybe the two items came from the same origin? It didn't matter. She used some sterile dressings from her first aid kit to clean the obsidian blades of the side she would use for cutting. Then she put on the face shield and the gloves.

Dr Montogomery was ready for her first day at work.

Tenshi looked up to her while wrapped a new tourniquet around the arm. More for her own sake, Dawn gave the patient a weak smile.

"Let's begin."

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

(Why was the sword there? It was a prop from last night's concert probably. For which song, though? She couldn't remember. But who'd bring an actual sword onto the stage and swing it around? Not her, she wasn't stupid.)

But, Tenshi smiled back. Everything was going to be alright.

[DerArknight]

An ugly feeling of hesitation reared its head.

Was this really the right thing to do?

Dawn considered their alternatives.

They did nothing = Tenshi died from the infection.

They tried to escape = Even if they were successful, Tenshi would most likely die before they reached a hospital. Not to mention that Tenshi would slow them down, making the escape much more difficult.

No, this was the least terrible way.

After taking a breath, Dawn raised her oversized scalpel above her head.

Two seconds later, she brought it down on Tenshi's arm.