Day 59: Sun Room (4th Shift)
After an intercom broadcast like that, Kurogane felt somewhat better about the little information he'd gotten from Harrington the previous night. The man only sounded competent when he needed to but was an idiot otherwise. Unfortunately that was furthered proof of the General not employing the brightest of staff members, making another option for
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For now, anyway. Who knew what was going to happen in the span of time between now and nightfall. Anything, really.
Bella sat herself down on a couch, looking around the empty room. There was another patient there, but so far ... that was it. She wondered if there were any more people in the games room. Honestly, she was not in the mood for games; all she wanted to do was relax until nightfall and then ... see what happened with Edward. She was still ... worried. Scared. He said he wasn't going to leave her, but he had said that before and left her anyway -
Bella shook her head. No. He said he wasn't, and I believe him.
Sighing, the teenager lifted a pillow and pressed it against her face, leaning back against the couch with a groan. Perhaps it was the hunger getting to her. She honestly didn't know.
( venomomomomomom )
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The day was almost over by now. In between his inability to wake until the second shift and the strange conversations that took place afterword, the very notion that the day was coming to a close sounded ridiculous. His mind continued to wrongfully tell him that it was still morning, like that of an irresponsible college student's. You won't fall asleep until at least 7am, said the pulses of energy running behind his eyes. The assassin took to rubbing at his eyelids with the palms of his hands as he entered the Sun Room, suddenly far too used to the back-and-forth dance he'd been doing from this room and the cafeteria.
In the very least, that smell didn't follow him.
When his hands dropped to his sides, the first face (or, more accurately, first head of hair. With the pillow in the way, her face was obscured) in Venom's line of sight was Bella's. The girl was sitting alone, somehow having found a spot on one of the few couches not pulled into that blue-haired woman's fort. Instinct told him to turn around and walk away. Go the library, his overly-wired mind told him. Anything to avoid this woman and her rightful anger. They'd spent enough time together ten hours ago. She was clearly still in a horrible mood. Just leave her alone.
No. His feet took him over to where she was standing, fingers curling into his palms in an effort to keep the rest of his body language neutral. "Bella." His voice was quiet, lacking the commanding tone it held the entirety of their last meeting. "I need to speak to you about Ms. Littleton."
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"Bella.
The sound of her name in Venom's voice caused the teenager to freeze, holding the pillow against her face for a while longer before letting out a sigh, her shoulders dropping as she pulled the pillow away from her face so she could properly look up at the man who had just approached her. Turning her gaze up to him, she watched him with weary brown eyes.
Well, there goes the semi-good mood I was in.
He wanted to talk about Claire. Her heart sank at the sound of her friend's last name, and Bella brushed some hair behind her ear, eyes cast down towards the ground. She couldn't just say no, even though she wanted to, especially considering he wanted to talk to her about it. But really, what did he expect? Her to suddenly realize she was unjustified in her anger and sadness?
"Fine," she said in a soft voice, once again turning her gaze to the silver haired man. "What do you want to say?"
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When Venom spoke again, any emotion in his voice ceased to exist. Every syllable was practiced and without bias--the complete opposite of the near-sobbing that occurred the afternoon last. It was just a progress report. There was no need for either anger or sadness, only the truth. "It's only my intention to explain what took place," he began, head tilted straight toward the girl even as his eyes drifted shut behind his hair. "I am not going to tell you you are wrong in what you feel in regards to the events. However--" The words tapered off, and one of the hands he'd attempted to still found its way to the wound on his side. "However, I would rather you know the entirety of the story before coming to a decision.
"Is that reasonable?"
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"That's fine," she said again, releasing the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. "But," she turned towards him once again, frowning. "Can you just ... you know. Spare me the gory details?"
Bella knew he wasn't going to get into the exact details of what happened, but ... well, she figured she might as well say it, just in case. It was one thing to hear things about someone when she didn't know who they were, but Claire was different.
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No. Emotionless. Stay emotionless.
The hand on his side dropped again, joining the other to lace his fingers together. "The night before last, I overslept. When I stepped out of my room, Ms. Littleton was in the hall; she had given something to my roommate, Dean, and evidently had little else planned. My own plans were to exit the institute and search the forest for Martin Landel's whereabouts, but when she asked what I had been doing, I allowed her to decide our course of action instead." He paused for a moment, that considerate side of himself he was currently trying to bury resurfacing regardless of what he wanted. His head lowered, as if the force of it was pushing it down. Tell her everything. "In the other instances I was in Ms. Littleton's presence, I could see she was... erratic." The word left his throat with a mixture of distaste, his mind rolling back to the reaction Ms. Littleton had held in regards to the phrase. "She appeared frail and unstable and, whether or not that was true, I refused to allow her to endanger herself by following with something so suicidal. When she suggested examining the Medical Wing, I thought it would be more safe for her."
She might have been better off searching for Landel.
It was there that the assassin took another pause, allowing the information to sink in. He'd continue at her command.
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Plus, Venom had saved her life more than once. She owed him everything.
Erratic. Bella frowned at that, thinking back on Claire. The only time she had really seemed out of it was when they first met - but she had good reason to be as such. Otherwise, the girl was ... well, she had cried quite a bit and hugged her often, but she never thought of her as mentally unstable or anything like that. Still, she listened.
When Venom paused, the teenager nodded her head. "Okay. Then what?"
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"I've recently been told by one of the soldiers that the medication there held a variety of effects. Half of them were meant to be helpful, but other half," the words stopped at his tongue again, anger rising in his throat like bile. Aguilar... "They were meant to be weapons.
"Whatever was in it, it made her violent. I tried to calm her down, but it only continued to irritate her until she finally attacked me with her axe. When I knocked it out of her hands, she continued to pursue me with a knife. After a while I thought I'd finally managed to get her to think straight and," another pause. His fingers tightened, determined not to rest a hand on the wound. "She stabbed me. When I shoved her away, she..."
She didn't get back up.
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But it wasn't that simple. Listening to Venom, she could see it in her head. See Claire crazed, with the knife -
And then it was done, and Bella's eyes remained on the ground. That was it.
"And she fell and just .... died?" she whispered, keeping her eyes downcast. "That's it? Just dropped to the floor dead?"
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Damn it. His left hand went to snake under his bangs, briefly pushing them away from his face to breathe. His eyes shut again, avoiding eye-contact. Damn it.
"She fell onto her axe."
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Bella's eyes once again turned away from Venom, picking at the couch pillow now as she thought to herself. So, Claire turned ... turned crazy, and attacked Venom. In his attempt to protect himself, he disarmed her, but she pulled out a knife and stabbed him. After, in another attempt to protect himself, he shoved her, and she fell onto her axe, and ...
After a few more moments of silence, the teenager let out a deep sigh. "Venom," she started, finally turning to look up at him. Her next words were honest. "I know you feel bad for what you have done, but ... but unless you were the one who placed the axe exactly where it had been and pushed her according to where it was, then ... then her dying isn't your fault. Yes, you protected yourself, and she fell onto something that caused her to die because of it, but ..."
She looked down, feeling guilty now. "It's like telling me I should blame someone who was being abused by someone else, and out of self defense the attacker died. Do you think those involved would blame the one who was attacked in the first place? If I ... if I had known what had happened in the first place, I wouldn't have treated you the way I did."
But his admittance isn't going to bring your friend back, she told herself, frowning. It was true, after all.
"Thank you for telling me."
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Instead of vocalizing any of those thoughts, Venom's hands only dropped away from his face and his arms went to folding over his chest, his bangs sliding back into his eyes.
"Are you still upset at him?" The explanation hadn't entirely been to clear the assassin's name.
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