Survival Of The Fittest

Ellis continued to search through his bag while locker girl continued her inane rambling about a meaningless election and her stupid escapism. His breathing was starting to get frantic as he continued to dig through the bag.

Finally, Ellis dumped the bag open and let the contents spill out onto the floor. There wasn't much of note that was left behind that the terrorists didn't confiscate. A black beanie, a few bags of peanut M&Ms, two tubes of chapstick in case he lost one. All came spilling out onto the floor. Ellis finally chucked the bag to the floor and collapsed to his knees.

"Where is he? Where is he?" Ellis muttered to himself.

Ellis uselessly pushed the items around, even grabbing the bag again to try and turn it inside out. But it was empty. It wasn't that Ellis was upset to lose his phone charger or the Switch he had in his bag. It wasn't that his notebook that he wrote jokes in was gone. It was much worse than all of that.

When the bag once again proved useless at providing what he needed, he chucked the thing at a locker.

"THEY TOOK HIM! THEY FUCKING TOOK ARMAND!"

And now he was back to crying on the floor again.

Oh, yikes.

Eden was not good with people crying. Especially if it was over anything that they cared deeply about. But on wherever-the-heck-they-were, she had to try to not say the wrong thing. Not like she would know what words that would be out of her mouth.

"Hey, hey." She was trying to sound more gentler and quieter. It felt weird for a loud girl like her to be quieter though! "I'm sorry that happened, my dude. Uh..."

She crouched down in front of Ellis, feeling awkward about being the one trying her best to comfort someone else.

"Was Armand for emotional support?" She asked calmly, hoping to stop him crying.

She reached out to his shoulder slowly and she patted it lightly.

Marian was rolling her eyes at the panic, waiting for it to quell, only to find it bubble up more until it popped into a wave of crying.

"Ugh!" She stomped her foot, turning around. She tried to look annoyed, but instead, she only looked upset. Her eyes were wide when she saw him on the ground, and Marian wanted to say something like:

"Loss is part of life. This is a reality we must all grow accustomed to, or else we will be forced to live and relive our worst moments until we are lost ourselves. That darkness we find at the end of life isn't anything to fear; if anything it's something to strive for. It's an ending, a finality, a moment where you can finally find peace and calm.

"Armand would have wanted to think about that, the darkness claiming him was an ending. It wasn't him going missing, being lost to the era and to the years, growing weak and old and broken and rusted and withered. No, he was claimed by the terrorist who had taken your life alongside of yours. It was an ending worthy of its name.

"He was loved, and he is loved. The darkness cannot replace that.

Marian sighed instead, coming close to Ellis and put her knee to the ground.

"I'm sorry about your marionette, Ellis," she pulled him into a hug, trying to avoid kneeling in the broken shards of the toy. She looked at Eden like she was like 'come on bitch, say something too the fuck' while petting his back. "We can make sock marionette later."

Ellis slammed his fist into the tiles on the floor and continued to grit and cry. It wasn't fair. Why did they take Armand from him? Did they think a puppet would somehow help him from winning? It wasn't like there was much of an advantage considering Armand would mean Ellis would have one less hand to use. No, they were fucking with him. Just like his brothers did when they continued to hide Armand after he first got him, or how they destroyed one of his puppets when he was 13 by ripping his head off and hiding him under Armand's blanket. RIP Dale Clyde the Horse. Ellis cried for days, despite his dad telling him to toughen up and deal with it.

Blue girl asked if Armand was for emotional support, apparently not knowing what that was about. Ellis wouldn't say that Armand was for emotional support, but Armand made him happy, and he figured that could count. But then locker girl had to continue her wild mood swings and suddenly gave a fuck about him after she apparently disowned him for having the flu on Election Day.

Suddenly he was pulled into an embrace and comforted by her. Ellis should have been happy to be hugged by a girl. That certainly hadn't happened before, with only his mom hugging him as far as he could remember.

But then the girl decided to speak in a way that just absolutely pissed him off.

"He wasn't a marionette," he grunted into her chest. "He wasn't a marionette at all."

He finally broke out of the hug and stared at her.

"A marionette is a puppet controlled by strings connecting to all major limbs and attached to a rod manipulated by the puppeteer. Armand was a modified hand puppet with rods for arms used for ventriloquism! I know it's not as important to you as whoever we voted for in a fucking school election, but if you're gonna patronize me by suggesting that fucking socks can replace my friend, then at least get your fucking terminology right!"

Ellis had never yelled at a girl. He would have died back home had he done such a thing. But when his possessions were fucked with, that was when he lost all reason.

Marian slaps the shit out of Ellis.

Eden could only let out one sound as a slap echoed through the air.

"Oh."

Ellis had been hit plenty in his life. Mostly from his shitty brothers, a few times from his dad during "play time," occasionally by bullies at school. But getting slapped by an unstable girl in a moldy locker room on some random island as part of a death game was a new low for him. He felt the sharp sting of her palm and the sudden jerk of his head and suddenly the world went silent.

Ellis remained frozen in place as the blue haired girl muttered a simple "oh." He didn't know what to say there. He could apologize. He could yell at her. But somehow, none of those options felt right to him.

Instead, Ellis just continued to cry. It was bad enough he was sad about his incoming death and the loss of his prized puppet, but getting slapped really fucking sucked at this moment and he just wanted to continue crying right there.

However, he did have enough thought to at least start grabbing his stuff. He began to stuff all of his dumped items back into his backpack. He was definitely not going to leave any M&Ms and chapstick for this crazy girl to take. Blue haired girl could have some if she went with him.

"I gotta find Armand. I gotta find Armand," he muttered.

Without even zipping his bag up, Ellis quickly got off the floor and pocketed the knife locker girl gave him.

"I gotta go!" he shouted before running out of the room.

Ellis pushed open the door and was immediately hit by the cold. He was still wearing his puffer jacket so it wasn't so bad, but he quickly hurried away. He wasn't sure where he was going or if he'd find Armand, but he didn't care. He just had to try.

((Ellis Wheaton continued in My Hand is Cold Without You))

"Hey, Ellis! Wait!"

Eden didn't want him to go out there in such a vulnerable condition. She had a better weapon...! Maybe...? She didn't really know!

She glanced back at Marian who had slapped him, and she shook her head in disappointment.

"That was pretty messed up, locker girl. I'm gonna go after him."

She moved over to the locker room doorway, and she glanced back at the other girl.

"Good luck to surviving all of this." She simply said and she went to make her way outside, making sure to see if she could catch up to Ellis.

((Eden Glass continued elsewhere))

"Bro, he was fucking talking shit and-"

And they were already gone, before even Marian got to yell about how they probably took Armand and had him do a little sketch back at their base.

Marian looked around dejectedly, still on her knees.

Whatever.

She had work to do, and looking at the camera, she knew what was cutout.

Marian wanted to act out all grown and sexy, but instead she was 18 and feeling real mean.

Her eyes narrowed, this was all she had the time to do, her friends were all faraway. She could have traveled the world and let the world us her, but instead, she was stuck here and needed to do stupid games to earn stupid prizes. Her mother couldn't even pay the bill back home, and she had afforded to send her here.

Marian shook her head.

"Maybe I'll look back to this and it'll crack me up."