Knowing You

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

[Daniel Ozanne continued from You're At The Party]

The first thing Daniel noticed was the smell. Even now, he couldn't name the scent of rotting corpses without actually seeing them. To be fair, from the scattered fish and weed, there was ample evidence that it wasn't just the bodies. The bodies were not helping, though.

He recognized them both. Not immediately, but quickly enough that he didn't embarrass himself in the security of his own memories. One was obvious. The other was Tully, local meathead, a bit of a troublemaker but never struck Daniel as a bad guy (unlike...?). Died the same day Cedar did, just before her.

Speaking of Cedar. He stepped over broken glass to be with her, did his best to not dwell on the spilled blood and guts to kneel by her side, which was probably more than he'd ever done for her in life. He caught a glimpse of her in passing on the day of the trip, as they all loaded into the buses, she had a choker necklace on - a bit of a trend in this class. It was gone now, or maybe he'd only ever imagined it that day. Human memory was notoriously fallible.

(Daniel was part of a trend. He was one of a long list of boyfriends whom Cedar was too good for. That wasn't why they broke up, they broke up out of boredom. Boredom. With a reason like that, he could never say he was better than anyone else.)

He breathed in. Indistinct words danced in his head, on the tip of his tongue.

(Taylor's company let him speak about nothing at all. How he took that for granted. How he took it all for granted.)

"Cedar-" He began, not knowing where he'd end up.

[ViolentMedic]

((Russell "Fitz" Fitzroy continued from Squirrel Puppet Method.))

Fitz’s feet carried him back to the scene of the first crime. Rifle still in hand, but kept down. Loaded. He’d spent a long time loading and unloading the rifle before he’d made the decision.

He walked, huddled in on himself. One hand holding the rifle, carefully, around the hole in the wooden handle. Far away from the trigger. The other hand stayed in his pocket for warmth, fingering the teeth there lightly.

Little sleep. Little food despite the abundance of it in his bag. It didn’t help his usual gangly, tired appearance any. Tully’s blood staining his jacket, splattered across when he tried to shoot Alex, and Mildred’s blood staining his skirt and leggings, from sitting with her in the snow as she died. Red seeping across the galaxy patterns. There was still shards of broken glass in his stockings, too – sometimes he felt them scrape at him.

His nose twitched as the smell hit it first. Fish, smoke and rot. He took a few steps towards where Tully and Cedar were, at the other end of the room.

He didn’t register the shape kneeling beside Cedar until it spoke, too focused on the smell and the bodies. He heard the shape speak Cedar’s name. Moments before his foot came down on broken glass with the tiniest crack. One that nonetheless carried through the laboratory.

Fitz froze where he was.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Daniel looked up. He narrowed his eyes but this time, he bit his tongue before he could snark at Cedar's current (well, not current anymore) boyfriend. His name was Fitz. He was one of the notable handful of boys at school who wore skirts. He was also part of the notable handful of students with conspiratorial leanings. Daniel was in a good peripheral position to learn these things even without seeking them out.

(Did he really not seek any of it out?)

And now, Fitz was one of the class' killers. Twice now, if the announcements were to be believed (he might only trust Danya as far as he could throw him, but it seemed like he more twisted the truth than outright lied - in the broad strokes, Fitz was still a killer), one of the victims in this very room. One could be written off as an accident, potentially. Two started to look suspicious.

(Was that really why he tightened his hold around the gun?)

It wasn't like he was inclined to trust Fitz anyway. "Why are you here?" he questioned, slowly raising the shotgun up.

[ViolentMedic]

“I...”

His mouth was dry. Fitz swallowed before trying to speak again.

“...I don’t know? Couldn’t stay last time.”

At the raised gun, Fitz took a couple of slow steps back, feet crunching across the glass once more as he did.

“Cedar’s your… friend, right? Look, lower the gun, man. I’m not looking for a fight.”

Still, the hand in his pocket left it and sought out the rifle, even though he didn’t lift it yet.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Daniel's eyes landed on Fitz's neck. He'd seen that choker somewhere before - guess he didn't imagine it after all. For that reason, he didn't lower the gun. His mind filled with wild accusations, even ones that could not have happened, but he kept a lid on it.

Most of it. He kept a straight face, but try as he might to keep his voice level, it dropped a bit when he asked, "...were you there?"

He didn't mean to sound accusing, really. It was just that the announcements only gave him a bare-bones description of how Cedar died, only concerned with the actions of her murderer, who wasn't here to be... questioned, in the same manner. Only questions, Daniel.

(It felt so easy to stay calm back home. It felt easy to distance himself from it all, care a little less, keep a steady hand and and a cool head. He was losing his edge.)

[ViolentMedic]

“Lower the gun, Daniel.” There was panic on the edge of his voice, spilling through gritted teeth.

Both his hands were on the rifle now.

His eyes darted around the room quickly – pausing on Cedar, Daniel, Tully – before they came to rest on a nearby counter that looked decently sturdy. Then they moved back onto Daniel.

He took one slow step towards the counter. One slow crunch of glass under his feet.

Then he bolted for it.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

Daniel had to remind himself, moment-to-moment, to keep his finger off the trigger. Keep his finger off the trigger. One moment, he forgot to remind himself.

And Fitz had to choose that moment to bolt.

The gun fired, the bullet traveled, and the terrible excuse of a support punched into his shoulder. The regret was immediate, but-

[ViolentMedic]

Behind him, something exploded. Fitz scrambled behind the counter, sliding on his knees before pressing his back against it. He looked to his left to see the remnants of a cloud of debris where the shotgun blast had hit, around where he’d been standing a minute ago.

“Ohgod. Ohgodohgod,” he mumbled, breaths coming out short and fast in between.

He looked upwards, then raised the rifle so it was pointing in the air and fired. Some plaster from the roof tumbled down a dozen feet to his right, a sizeable hole in the roof now.

“Quit it!” Fitz yelled after, voice cracking as he drew his legs closer to his chest, trying to make himself smaller. “Ceasefire! Ceasefire!”

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

But, that regret was drowned out by another gunshot.

Sure, if Daniel had taken a moment and realized Fitz was running away, he might have come down from that brief adrenaline spike before anything happened. A bit too late for that, though, and now Fitz was determined to enforce peace at the end of a rifle, which honestly didn't help his case. (A case Daniel had probably been building against him long before the island, if only at the back of his mind - and for what, hm?) But seriously, who responds to a question-

Well, Daniel probably could have asked in a... nicer way. Again though, a bit too late for that. A clumsy determination to just keep putting one foot in front of the other, lay down rail tracks with no thought to where they might go, had brought him to Cedar's corpse. It would get him through this confrontation. It didn't matter what or for what nominal purpose, he just needed to define a goal and chase it.

He slipped another bullet into the chamber, and stepped towards Fitz's cover, finger over the trigger.

[ViolentMedic]

There wasn’t a second gunshot. Fitz stared upwards, then to the side, then curled inwards a bit when he heard footsteps moving towards him.

Crunch. Crunch. Fitz slid away from the noise, until he was on the edge of cover.

“Goddammit. Goddammit,” he hissed under his breath before he shouted, “Go away! I got a gun! I don’t want to, I don’t want to, but you…”

His voice was tailing off, getting quieter. Then he fired the gun, still keeping it aimed far away from the noise… but closer than before. Something left on one of the other tables shattered, now only broken glass mingled in with the rest.

He shouted over the aftermath, unable to hear anything but the ringing in his ears and a hint of his own voice. “You keep coming at me… I’ll shoot! I’ve done it before, it’s… it’s easy, way too easy, don’t you fucking…” Voice tailing again. “Don’t you realise that?”

He sounded more like he was begging than being threatening. As he spoke, he shifted onto his knees, one hand leaving the rifle to touch the floor.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

When he carried this gun under his arm through the woods, he had Taylor to worry about. When he pointed this gun at Kitty, he had Taylor to worry about.

When he pointed this gun at Fitz, there was no one else to worry about, no other goal to chase. He needed something, anything to focus on. It lapped at the back of his mind, it gnawed - that sense of hopelessness he pushed back there, the sense of pointlessness to everything he did. Just acknowledging it was dangerous. Let's not linger. Whatever he did, he could not linger, especially not on what he might do, even as Fitz warned him of exactly that, from the other side of the muzzle.

He didn't linger on how he kept walking, taking just a step to peer around Fitz' cover, he didn't linger on the rush to his head from his heart. Fuck it, maybe this was too easy for him. Maybe the hero shit would have never succeeded.

"I asked. A fucking. Question."

[ViolentMedic]

“Yes! Yes, I was there! I didn’t kill her, lower the gun!” Fitz bellowed, as he tried to bolt once again.

He heard a click behind him and bunched up as he ran, like that would protect him against a spray of hot metal, but nothing else followed the click.

Fitz tried one more warning shot. Aimed closer to Daniel than before, for all that Fitz couldn’t aim very well while scrambling away on his knees.

Click.

He ducked behind another counter, closer to the exit, before he looked down at his gun. Out of bullets. The rest were in his supply pack… which in his hurry to get away from Daniel, he’d left over there.

“...Shit,” he muttered.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

He pulled the trigger, but this time nothing happened. Fitz was free to run, and Daniel ran after him - lowering the gun only to keep it from getting in the way. He could try again, he rounded the counter again, pointed the gun at Fitz again, and Fitz... didn't seem eager to shoot back this time. Something happened.

Daniel paused. In the heat of the moment, all this happened as easily and thoughtlessly as breathing. The gun remained pointed at Fitz. The ache in his shoulder hummed louder now that he paid attention to it.

Was this where he was headed? Decided there just wasn't enough of a reward for being a good person, decided to do the exact opposite instead? Not even decided, just. Defaulted. What did he even intend to do once he got to this point? Who was he kidding, he knew full well what he anticipated on some level, but now he was actually here, and- could he, if he thought and didn't just feel? He already knew Fitz didn't kill her. All he knew about Fitz, really, was...

[ViolentMedic]

Fitz stared down a barrel, for the first time since Alex had stolen his own gun.

For three seconds, he froze. So did Daniel.

Then he gripped the empty rifle by the barrel, and swung.

[BlizzardeyeWonder]

It swung directly into Daniel's face. His grip on the shotgun, and his own breath, wavered as he stumbled to the side, ears ringing, head ringing.

(What, exactly, did he expect?)