#chat: eric

Lydia hadn’t really seen Eric since high school so it took her a moment to recognize him when she saw him by accident in the coffee shop that morning. She was going through the motions of starting her day and that always started with a latte at her favorite little cafe. Her kids were dropped off to school, she would get her coffee, and then head to the theatre to do some prep on the newest show she was directing. She was sure that the day would be as it always was, but instead she was standing there intently staring as someone who was a very welcome ghost from her past. Almost instinctively she walked toward him, lightly tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. “Please tell me you remember me,” she said with a smile. “There’s no way I could have changed that much.”

Not often could you catch Theodore at the gym, sure he had always got the yearly pass because he told himself every New Year that this was the year he got in shape.

Today though, he ended up at the horrid place…why?  A dress, his dress had the audacity to fit tighter than expected. And the scale? The scale had been downright rude.

Now he wandered the place, just passing the machines and the equipment with no intention of using any of it.  At least that was until he he spotted Eric fucking Sanders.  It took several moments to compose himself before he headed near the other man.  Watching carefully, not wanting to be obvious at first, so he waited for his opening.

“Mmm,” he hummed. “Nice pose,” he commented.  Theodore with no shame and unable to be subtle began to look Eric up and down.

“Mind showing me?  I am rather new to the gym scene.”

Yui was panting for breath, hands pressed over the bandaged wound in her side. With Eric's help, the pain had dulled enough for her to run again, but that didn't make it pleasant. At least one of the exit gates was open, but he'd come back anyway to unhook her, and they'd hidden so he could patch her up before they tried to make their escape. Running straight for an exit this late in the trial was almost certainly a death sentence. They would have to stealth it.

"Damn right." She smiled in spite of everything, holding out a fist for him to bump, her characteristic pink hachimaki wrapped around her wrist. She could practically feel the timer ticking down, an innate sense honed over so many nights of running for her life. As if on cue, a gong rang out, signaling another segment marked. She'd lost count while she was on hook of how many were left. She straightened out of her crouch, her jaw set in determination. They were both leaving here alive tonight. "C'mon, let's get the hell out of here."

"Don't worry. Worst case scenario: I die." Yui's smile was quick and grim, but she'd learned a little gallows humor was a good counter to breaking down into screaming hysterics every night. It wasn't that death didn't scare her. If it didn't, she would be useless to the Entity, an empty husk that could no longer feed Her on fear and pain and grief. She was afraid: of death, of pain, of losing her teammates. It was just that the last item on that list made up her biggest fear. She couldn't stand around and let them suffer if she could do something about it, even if they didn't always repay the favor.

She slipped around the corner of the jungle gym where their generator was tucked away and jogged along the edge of the map, eyes sharp for movement. She startled a crow, but with Eric there, she knew they wouldn't be working for the Entity. For some reason, they liked him and Jake, and they wouldn't spy for the killer tonight, a small comfort. She recognized the screams that pierced the air as Feng's and dropped into a crouch, peering around the edge of a rock as the killer stalked away from the hook, their bloodlust temporarily satisfied. It was the best open she was going to get, and she sprinted forward to unhook her friend, Feng's sobs loud in her ears as she lowered her back to the ground.

At the corner of her eye, the tail of a black cloak whipped into and just as quickly out of sight, and a chill slid down her spine. He hadn't gone; he was stalking. "Run." She urged Feng toward the main house where it was safer, Yui running hard in the opposite direction to lead him away from the rest of the survivors.