Day 59: Sun Room (4th Shift)

[contentincloset]

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

Comments

[anemptydecapo]

"Of course." His eyes opened again, only to narrow at the notion that he'd share that. Did she think he was proud of murdering the woman? That he would gladly stand before someone and cheerfully recount what it was like when that axe drove itself into the back of her neck? What sort of person would--

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.

[vitale]

Bella's eyes once again darted to the ground as she listened to Venom speak about the night when everything went wrong, trying her hardest to keep her face stoic. She had to listen, it was only right. Venom was a good friend of Edward's, and he had always been nothing but kind to the people she befriended (well, that point could be argued on, but really, she wasn't in the mood to fight with herself.) so she owed it to him to at least listen to Venom.

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?"

if this posts twice...

[anemptydecapo]

Inhale. Sigh. Get on with it. "We went together without incident, intending to take the General's offer and test whatever it was he wanted. When we took the offered medication there, it first appeared to have no effect. But over the course of the night, Ms. Littleton began to grow increasingly hostile. At first, I assumed it was a mood-swing and therefore tried to pay no mind to it, but...

"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.

nope! yaaay.

[vitale]

Listening, listening. Bella tried not to imagine the things that had gone on that night. She didn't want her last mental image of Claire to be one of her looking crazed and swinging an axe. She wanted to remember the girl that had been relieved to be suck in an institute. She wanted to remember the girl who had promised to protect her should it come down to it. She wanted to remember the girl smiling and thanking her for telling her they were back in the US. Things like that.

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?"

lol it turns out i posted to the main entry instead of to you the first time. I am smart.

[anemptydecapo]

"No." It was a simple correction, but one that turned his stomach none the less. He didn't want to have to spell it out for the girl. He didn't want to remember Ms. Littleton's body crumpled onto the floor, dead eyes staring at him, blood pooling out from under her...

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."

oh. oopsies?

[vitale]

Oh.

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."

[anemptydecapo]

"You had every right to." Because it was my fault. He shouldn't have encouraged the woman to do as she planned to. He should have taken something alone, not allow her to take something potentially--no, not potentially--to take something that was fatal. He should have been more intelligent, more aware, than to have the naive assumption that it wasn't a trap. He should have acted like a goddamn adult and done literally anything else.

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.