#fialore

Disoriented, Squig trips down the stairway to her mobile home. The world fades from her consciousness, and then, she is no longer numb.

Robin gasps as the gun malfunctions, relief flooding her veins (Thank FUCK!), and she stands up, rushing over to Squig as she faints. Robin looks over Squig's body, seeing if they didn't get any other wounds.

"Jean is… they're not doing good. They need a hospital."

Kalei presses harder on their stomach, and more blood flows up to meet their palms. How in the world they were acting as if their leg wasn't in immense, excruciating pain, Kalei didn't know.

"Like, now. And I think your friend needs a psych ward, ahaha."

The joke wasn't funny, not at all, but Kalei had to say something.

She sniffles.

"No jokes, please."

She shakes her head.

"But I appreciate the effort."

She looks through Squig's bag for any medkits again.

"I- I don't know how to tend to bullet wounds."

“Pressure. Bandage. Call someone who does.”

The words came out chopped, because Kalei didn’t know either. They weren’t a doctor!

Robin touches something box-shaped and takes it out of the backpack. A medkit. She places it on the ground.

"Okay, okay. I'll call 911."

She grabs her phone and dials the number.

Wait, right, Kalei still has Fia on the phone… and that damn camera. It was angled right by where Kalei had fallen, right by Jean… and right where Squig had turned a gun on herself. They want to puke- all that on video…

Robin hadn't noticed, too focused on the call.

"Hello, someone's- Two people have been shot. Yes. Right by, uhm.-"

Two people have been shot. Unable to keep up any bravado, Kalei leans over and pukes, narrowly dodging Jean’s pants with it. They gasp again. It’s too late to run now, isn’t it? They want to go home.

Squig woke up in a cold sweat; painfully, suddenly, and without any warning. But as soon as she did, she bolted upright and screamed,

"THEY TURNED THE KINSTUGI TIMELINE INTO A GENERIC ANALOGUE HORROR."

Kalei screams, head tucking down as if dodging another gunshot.

…they look back up slowly and turn to Squig. Raise an eyebrow. Glance at their bloody leg, Jean’s blood soaked torso. Look back at Squig.

“…what did you just say?”

Robin flinches with a yelp. She was about to say that an ambulance was coming by. She turns around to face Squig and rushes over to her side.

"Are you okay?"

She grabs Robin's shoulders,

"It was terrible!!"

Squig lets out a sob.

"They, they… Umm… I.. I was in the water! And there was a big moon and I saw Xivvy there, and I thought I died and, and,"

Squig's hands shake, making strange movements with her arms as if to recalibrate them and her brain all at once,

"Xivvy said something enigmatic and compared me to Jimbo from Mouthwashing and then she got all Mandella Catalogue-y, with her face getting long and her eyes going all wide and, oh GOD they're making such a good work of art into something so generic!! Why must so many online horror projects try to make their antagonists look like Gabriel, it NEVER looks as good as it did the first time!!!"

“You’re fucking disgusting. Talking about a nightmare right now? I can’t believe you called me ableist, you,., you….”

They close their eyes and bury their face in the backs of their hands, right above where Jean’s blood still leaked. They felt sick, like puking again. Probably from blood loss.

Robin looks at Kalei and back to Squig, then back at Kalei.

"Can we focus first on the fact that the three of you are injured before you get into another fight?"

She says firmly.

"Wait… Injured..?"

Squig's hand reaches her face, swollen and wet with tears and blood. Her nose is still bleeding.

"Oh. THAT'S why everything hurts. Wait…"

She wipes beneath her broken glasses and adjusts them to more clearly see the three other people here. When she can see again, she states,

"OH. OH FUCK. Oh FUCK I DID THIS."

Yes, Kalei wants to scream. It was you. You hurt me. You hurt them. You did this, and you were selfish enough to try to join us.

But they couldn’t. They couldn’t be that much of a hypocrite, could they? Not when they remembered hands that typed out IP addresses and phone numbers, hands that had caressed a frayed jump rope before stopping out of fear just two days after reading the play. If Squig was a psychopathic, malicious coward, so was Kalei.

And that meant they probably need to not make things worse.

“The… help is on the way,”

Kalei groans. They try to curl their toes, but find that it’s hard to get their body to do much of anything. Oh, good, they think. They’re dying.

“…can somebody get my phone?”

Robin redirects Squig's gaze by gently moving her head by touching her cheek.

"Please don't panic. That's not what we need right now. Focus on staying awake."

She looks back towards Kalei.

"I'll get it. Where's it put?"

“…..mm. Ground. Camera. Hang up the call.”

Kalei wasn’t dying, right? Right. But Fia might still be listening, and that was bad. That was very bad. Worse than their cold fingers.

Robin stands up and looks around. She spots the phone a ways away and goes to pick it up. She sees the Caller's ID.

"Sorry. I'll take care of everyone here. Don't worry. And, uhm. Name's Robin."

She hangs up the call.

"Okay, did it."

She notices the camera. …It's still fucking recording.

"…Everything happened got recorded."

She says out loud, eyes wide.

"Do I turn the stupid thing off?"

She asks, a little harshly in tone.

Whoever took the footage from the CCTV cameras in her workplace could be getting footage from this camera.

Squig raises a bandaged hand, the other of which is being used to feel a patch of grass she's sitting next to.

"Uh… You see that button on the top right? Yeah, just push that and hold it dow-"

In all of the time she had owned this gun... Ever since her mother procured it after her uncle’s funeral. Ever since her mother  threatened her own life, time and time again, that if the police or government or doctors or celebrities or whatever else thought were stalking her and her mother as they moved from state to state. Ever since her mom first took that firearm and told her that if anything ever happened, if the government wanted to steal her brain, or the cops, or the neighbors, or the cartoon characters on TV…. She should use the gun. And blow her brains out before anyone could get it. 

She knew it was insane. Even as a child she knew how the world worked, and no one was looking for them. She didn’t have anyone else anymore, no friends, no other family, was rarely in school due to how much they moved. So when she left home, when she knew she could escape and would leave her mother alone with nothing but her own thoughts and the firearm, what else could the poor girl do? She had to take the gun.

And in every place. Every state. Every home she ever had, every area she slept in for longer than ten seconds, if she had the gun, she would count.

Unload the glock. Count how many bullets. Put them back.

Don’t abandon the gun, someone will find it and use it. The bullets too. Just…. Keep it. 

What else could you do with this big mechanical paperweight? Just keep it somewhere safe and pray you never use it.

But she did.

And now. She has two bullets left.

Robin flinches at the sound of the gunshots, eyes wide. She gasps in horror as she sees two of the people in front of her get shot. 

"Holy fuck!" 

Her eyes trail to look at Jean, at Kalei, then to Squig's. 

What does she do? What does she do??

(Okay, okay, assess the situation. You can't panic, goshdammit, everyone already is.) 

Jean's going to bleed out, but the other person's already there. They're also injured. 

Squig's also injured, but relatively better than the other two.

Robin doesn't know jackshit about first aid for bullets. 

A part of her- She shakes her head. Not now. Does she call the cops? No, that'll only cause more problems. 

(Wait, wait. Doesn't Squig have a medkit in her backpack?) 

She quickly unhands the item and rushes over to Jean, kneeling next to both of the people. She searches through the backpack. 

"Squig-"

She pauses and looks up at her friend.

"Does this backpack have a medkit?" 

Two left.

Squig raises the gun with shaky hands. Aims it at the sky. A warning. A way to keep people away.

BANG.

Like thunder, it rang out.

Robin's eyes widened, flinching at the first shot. 

"Squig, don't!-" 

She screams in fear, hands covering her mouth. 

One left.

The tears stream down her face, the glock is wet with them now, her teeth chattering and heavy breathing make it hard to aim. One left. One shot. That’s all it takes. One chance to end this, to make this right, to… To live up to her family legacy.

The head of the gun is aimed towards her heart. (Not her head... They need that. To study. Just like mom always warned me.) It’s pounding, louder than the ringing in her ears from the gunshots that came over and over and over again.

One left. She fires.

And then...

Nothing.

“What?” 

The one word question fell from Squig’s mouth in a gasp. The gun is empty. The GUN is EMPTY. How can the gun be empty..? She had five bullets, she KNEW she had five bullets. She pressed the nozzle into her chest, she fired again. Nothing. And again. Nothing. And by the third time, her frustration boils over and she turns, throws the stupid gun against the side of the trailer and-

...

Continuing where the previous video ended, Squig walks out of the McDonald's into the parking lot. There's a chill to the air. All of Ness Anne has heard of the storm coming for the next few days, so she wonders if this is a preamble to the rain? Regardless, she attempts to keep her breath steady as she walked behind the building and closer to the dirt path that leads to her home.

A parking space is taken up by an old and beaten-up bicycle, while there are cars flanking either side of it. Right next to the bicycle is Jean, wearing a significant amount of yellow. She paces back and forth next to her bicycle, wide and dead eyes focused on the asphalt that she walks on, despite the open book in her shaking hands.

Squig walks by, completely wrapped up in her own thoughts as she moves forward.... Until she stops. The gears in her brain churned. And then she turned back.

"Uh... Excuse me?" 

She says, walking towards the stranger just slightly, enough to catch their attention,

 "The... The bike racks. They're over by the front. Not the back." 

She gestures towards the McDonald's, vaguely indicating where one would typically park a bike before entering this restaurant.

As Squig catches Jean's attention, he looks up, making unsettlingly intense eye contact. Her eyes are empty, but mildly crazed at the same time. After a few moments of silence, Jean speaks.

"I do not have time for that. I must be hasty, and your bike racks are a disgusting affront to that." 

She murmurs.

Squig's stance stiffened. She knows that kind of look anywhere. The fight or flight instincts clashed in her brain. Every gut emotion told her to run or sock this person in their buggy eyes and make a break for it. But unfortunately for everyone involved, fawn won and her bleeding heart made the choice for her. In a now softened voice that contrasts her stiff body, Squig asked softly,

"Hey..? Are you alright?"

"Perfectly.." 

Jean answered. She stays silent for a few deafening moments before she straightens her posture. She looks the same, but there's almost this glint of false kindness in her eyes.

"Do you know why?" 

She smiles softly.

Squig stays silent herself for a moment, trying to find words where there are none, staring at the ground in an attempt to avoid her intense gaze. 

"This... Feels like a trick question." 

But when she looked back up, it clicked. Squig had a hunch, a small one, but one that she needed to confirm. One she already believed in, albeit subconsciously, as her breath had regulated without her even realizing it. She looked into those watchful eyes with her own, now much calmer almost relieved in a twisted way. 

"You, uh... Wouldn't be a part of the ARG, would you? And... If so; are you in or out of character right now? Because if you are in-character, lemme tell ya, you are doing a great job right now!~ I was like, genuinely scared for a second!~”

Jean's eyes narrow slightly at Squig's first words. She was about to speak again before Squig did.

"The ARG..?" 

Jean's head tilts to the side ever so slightly, before her eyes widen as she realizes who she's staring at. Jean takes a sharp step forwards.

"Squig."

She mutters with gritted teeth, her eyes narrowed once more.

Squig steps backwards, but her demeanor is still far more relaxed despite herself. (She forces herself to be. Because... Why shouldn't she be calm right now? It's just a game. Ignore your heart rate, Shelley. It's... It's just a game and this is just an actor. You're not... This isn't anything actually dangerous.)

A nervous chuckle escapes her lips. 

"Oh, uh, yup! Dat's me!~ The Squiggle Anon that now goes by Squig!~ I'm, uh, gonna go off on a limb and ask... You Denim? Err... Jean? Or I guess her actor. Or, uh... Not. Given that look in your eyes."

She swallows again, her mouth drier than it's been all day. 

"You're really good at this! Acting, I mean. You really do look like you want me dead!~ Or, uh... Maybe this is just bringing up too many bad memories for me... Is there, like, a safe word for these LARP portions, or..?"

Jesus, Kalei had a bad migraine. They pushed inside the McDonalds with one hand already caressing their temple. Fia had picked up a weekend shift to try and afford a couch for the apartment, leaving Kalei all alone in an empty apartment. 

After everything that had gone on with Kat, Kalei really needed a slice of normal. Just some peace and quiet. Thus, they found the closest restaurant- this one- and walked over.

Immediately upon opening the door, Kalei realized they had made a grave error. Not only was this McDonald’s not empty, but it was loud. So many fussy children had recently piled in. So much for that quiet…

They hastily checked out for a sprite and some fries before making their way back outside. Some people nearby seemed to be having quite the heated conversation. Kalei tried to ignore it, they had enough to worry about, but-

“Squiggle anon that goes by Squig-“ “Actor” “LARP-“

Kalei stopped dead in their tracks, staring at the fighting pair. They were a good twenty, thirty feet from Kalei, but they could still clearly see the woman backing away with a loose posture yet tight words. That… she…

No. No fucking way, right?

Jean continues to glare at Squig. She felt nothing but hatred. This woman disrespected her King, over and over again, ignoring her attempts to bring her to greatness. To salvage this woman. Perhaps this woman, horrible woman, could not be saved. She was too far gone, idiotic, moronic, blind, deaf to her words.

Jean didn't see Kalei, her eyes purely focused on Squig. Jean takes another sharp step forward, the hand that wasn't holding the book flew up, grabbing the front of Squig's shirt.

"You are still foolish," 

Her voice is cold yet almost humoring Squig, 

"You mock and defile my King, then ask for mercy from his greatest Deacon?"

Squig let out squeak at the sudden contact. She's still smiling, (this isn't REAL she won't ACTUALLY hurt you,) but Squig's heart beats like a jackhammer in her chest. She still seems too calm (or at least she's trying to stay calm, she is trying to), but an instinctual fear seems to crawl on her back, only over taken by her twisted logic surrounding what is happening.

"Uh... Little close there, Denim!~ You, uh... Really like taking this method actor thing seriously, huh?"

She raises the hand that isn't clinging to the camera, a show of surrender before the battle had even begun. 

"I... I don't mean any trouble, pal!~ Just... Can we do this whole 'Jean gets revenge for the ragebaiting' thing another time? I, uh, just finished a LARP portion of the game with Robin, and-"

(Kalei glances between the fight, and the road. They should really leave, shouldn’t they.

……but Squig’s ass was about to get kicked. They kind of wanted to see that.)

The book collides with the asphalt as Jean drops it. Her arm reels back. And her curled up fist collides with Squig's cheekbone.

"You are truly foolish! You still think this is but a mere game? When my King has his way YOU WILL TRULY KNOW HIS POWER. " 

Jean shouts as her arm reels back again, her words laced with sharp venom.

Squig stumbles as she reels back from the blow. Her ears ring louder than any prior internal monologue. The punch hits like a sudden dive into arctic water; it's sharp, bitter cold, and forces every logical thought out of her head in favor of survival. 

She goes to cover her face, realizes she still has the camera (SHIT), and moves the one arm spare arm she has to cover her face. There are no words in her head, only the pure instinct to find an exit as she maneuvers backwards in an attempt to disengage.

Oh, they’re actually fighting. Kalei’s stomach drops- sure, they were egging it on mentally, but they didn’t expect it to actually happen!

It wasn’t a soft punch, either. The other person had put a lot of effort into it. Kalei should stop this, but- wait- would calling the cops be a safe idea?

They pull out their phone and slam in Fia’s number, thankful that they’d remembered to unblock it. She picked up almost immediately. 

“Fia, I was just at the McDonalds- yes, I’m fine, anyway- there’s two people fighting- some tumblr people I’ve spoken to- what do I… do?”

Was Squig hurt? Cautiously, Kalei steps a touch closer.

“Uhhh, I don’t think they’ve seriously hurt each other yet, but the fight doesn’t seem over. I’m not getting closer.”

Fia’s voice rang out from the other side, the sound of a sewing machine slightly drowning out her words. 

“You’re on speaker, by the way. And uh, I don’t know? Maybe wait and see if they stop? Hopefully nobody gets seriously hurt-”

Jean's grip on Squig's shirt grows white-knuckled as Squig stumbles backwards.

"You are disgusting. Aren't you supposed to be smart if you want to 'win' this so-called 'ARG'!? But no! You're too dense—"

Her knuckles strike the tumblr veteran's face again.

"— To see—"

And again.

"— What's right—"

Jean removes her grip from the shirt, one of her legs raising, as she knees Squig in the torso.

"— In front of you!"

By now, the camera had fallen to the pavement. Squig's ears rang loud enough to nearly drown out the yelling, her heartbeat too. Her glasses bore much of the blows, but even as her vision blurred she could tell the lenses were cracked. As soon as she's kneed though, a lightbulb flashes in her mind and she lunges, yanking Jean's leg in an attempt to knock her down.

(Woah, woah, woah. Kalei freezes like a deer in headlights, caught between running to separate the two and getting their own ass to safety.)

Jean was just about to reel her leg back. Before Squig grabs onto it.

Before Jean could process the hands around her ankle, the world blurred past her as she lost her balance.

Sharp pains irradiate throughout the back of her head as she lands against the asphalt. Disoriented. Dissociating. Disoriented. Her palms press against the asphalt underneath her, her knuckles bruised. Jeans squeezes shut eyes peek open, as she slowly props herself up to a sit. Her dazed eyes narrow once more as her gaze flickers to Squig.

By the time Jean props herself up, Squig had already scrambled to her own feet, snatching the camera off the ground and started running. (Wait, why did I grab the camera? I can't hold the camera!? This is stupid! Why did I grab it??? Just abandon it, why the FUCK am I still holding the camera?!?!?)

Squig spots someone.

"Here, take this!"

Kalei yelps as someone- Squig?!- shoves a camera in their hands. Thankfully, they manage to get a steady grip on it, but still- 

“What the hell?”

On instinct, they raise it to point after the running Squig, then also move it back to look at Jean. At this point, this was evidence for the cops.

 “Why did she give me the camera, i- I’m not part of this! I don’t like you!” 

Whatever Fia says in response is drowned out by Kalei’s continuous quiet panicking.

"TRY NOT TO DROP IT!!!" 

Squig calls out, her adrenaline fueled steps rocketing her towards her home. (Just keep moving, the trailer is RIGHT there!!!)

Jean slowly picks herself off the ground, her cold eyes focused on Squig as she runs away. Jean rubs the back of her head before she starts walking.

"You filthy moron! Get back here!" 

She shouts, her walk turning into a jog. Before she starts running after Squig, hate fueling her sprint.

Kalei uses the camera to frame them both. 

“Alright, the other one- Jane? Jeal? Jean- Jean is chasing Squig, I…”

They run after the two, making sure to keep a safe distance. Shitty camera footage didn’t help anyone, after all.

 “I think Squig is just going to try and lock herself in one of those trailers or something?”

Her mobile home isn't far, 50 feet away from the McDonald's at most. A small string of bramble and trees and a pathway separated by a flimsy wire fence is all that stands between where the trailer park ends and the McDonald's parking lot... Also ends. 

A CRTV camera from the trailer's back lot catches Squig rushing through the fence's already open back gate. She doesn't have time to look back, her mind and body focused on a single thought: Get Home NOW.

She gets there, nearly stumbling back down the steps as she catches herself on the railing of the stairs in front of her front door. She reaches for her back before realizing, to her horror, that there's nothing.

There's nothing there.

The backpack is still at the McDonald's. 

She turns checking on Jean, eyes rapidly moving between the person gaining on her and to beneath the welcome mat as she rummages under it.

Jean continues to bound after Squig. Why did she ache so much? Doesn't matter. She needed to teach that filthy wretch to stop underestimating the King.

Jean nearly falls over once she reaches the fence, but she grasps one of the poles holding up the fence, using that as a support before she keeps running. She doesn't notice the CRTV camera as she runs past the gate, a few twigs scratching her arms.

Squig grabs the spare key, shaky hands steady just long enough to unlock the door, get herself inside, and then lock and bolt it behind her.

Then. There's silence. 

If only for a moment amidst the chaos, there is silence. Her heart rate lowers only slightly, her breathing slows just enough, the fire in her veins cools for long enough for her to feel the sting of pain.

But it also gives her time to think. 

Filmed from the corner of her main room, Squig began to pace.

"What the fuck... What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck....." 

A mantra she pants between breaths as reality comes crashing down again.

 "This can't be... This isn't... Jean's actor. Yes... Okay, they're having a mental break!! That... This is FINE, this is NORMAL, she... Just got too into character? I GUESS!?! Now... Now I just gotta... Gotta..... Uh........”

Jean bolts up to the door as it's closed and locked. She stares at the door for a few moments. Before she takes a small step back, and rams her shoulder against the door. The side of her fist pounds against the door.

"You're cowardly, Squig!"

Jean’s shoulder rams against the door once more.

"Come out and face your mistakes! You've done this to yourself!”

Kalei adjusts the camera, walking forwards despite their feeble self preservation instincts kicking in. They… they had the oddest feeling they had to see how this ended.

Fia was shouting in their ear to leave. They didn’t care. They had to know.

Squig flinches at the sound of the door being slammed. Her heartrate spikes again.

"Ya... You don't think I know that..?" 

She mumbles, wiping the wetness off of her swelling face (Is this blood or tears or... FUCK. WHO CARES???), uncertain if she wants to be loud enough for Jean to hear or not. 

She needed to think, and FAST. Where's her crowbar? Backpack. Where's her army knife? Also backpack. Bear spray? Awful idea, it's like pepper spray times ten, and should NEVER be used on a human even in self defense AND it's in her backpack. Aluminum bat? NOT in her backpack, but she left it outside to prop up the makeshift raccoon traps she set for the oncoming storm....

The knocking got louder. 

And unwillingly, Squig knew. Without her bag, she can only think of one thing in her home that could be used to protect her. 

She looks to her left, towards her bedroom. Her breath hitches. Her good hand goes through the natural brown roots of her poorly dyed blonde hair. 

Then she remembers. 

"No.... I can't. I can't get it, I... It's not worth it. It's just... It's not.”

Robin crushes the paper wrap in her palm into a ball as she chews the last remnants of her burger. She was done eating. She was purposefully slow with her bites to make it last ten minutes. 

Yet ten minutes passed and there was no Squig in sight. 

Robin could just be worrying too much and maybe Squig will come right back in and everything's fine. But a part of her tells that something's gone wrong, and for some reason, Robin's inclined to listen. 

She stands up, the chair making a grating noise against the tiled floors. She winces at the sound. She shoves the chair back into the table, moving to the side.

Squig's backpack lies on the other chair. Should she take it? 

... She sees no reason why not. It doesn't seem like they would continue talking about the video because it did nothing but cause Squig to panic. (Maybe Robin, too? But again, can't fucking remember.)

She takes Squig's phone that was left on the table and places it inside the backpack. Robin then shoulders the cotton container, heading outside the restaurant. The first thing the blonde female sees is a man nearby holding a camera that is awfully familiar.

(Wait. Isn't that Squig's camera? Or, uh, 25- no. Quarter's camera?)

She walks over to the person. 

"Uh, hey.”

They yelp, almost dodging before realizing- oh, just a person. Not a weirdo.

 “…hey,” 

Kalei says casually.

Robin smiles, a little uncertain but she pushes on to ask. 

"May I ask where you got that camera?”

“Squig threw it at me,”

They reply. An audible waver is in their tone- clearly, Kalei would rather not be having this conversation.

“So it wouldn’t be damaged in the violent assault.”

Robin's eyes widened. 

"What do you mean violent-" 

She pauses mid-sentence and takes a deep breath. It doesn't do much but just enough to keep the panic at bay. 

"Can you tell me where Squig is?" 

She asks, a little too firm for her liking.

Kalei finches, and gestures with one hand at the trailer. 

“She ran in there. “I- I assume she’s hiding, but this person- Jean? I think?- seems like they’re going to break the door down. They already broke Squig’s nose, I think.”

As much as Kalei was shaking in their boots, they also still felt like they couldn’t leave. God, why? Why couldn’t they leave? They almost hung up on Fia, too, but they couldn’t. She’d be too worried. 

“I don’t know what happened, I just- they were yelling and shoving, and then they were fighting. Jean seems determined to see this to an end.”

Robin's heart drops. She shouldn't have left Squig alone. She knows Squig asked for alone time but she should've insisted on coming along. Fuck! 

"Okay, thank you!" 

She says in a hurry before running off in the direction Kalei had pointed towards.

“Wait- you! Don’t leave me here alone!” 

Kalei, ignoring all sense, ran after her.

Robin didn't care that Kalei was following. She needed to get to Squig, and fast. She doesn't know who this Jean person is, but she needs to stop them. 

She rushes through, twigs and brambles poking her through her clothes but she does not care. She runs straight through the open back gate.

"Squig!" 

She calls out, her feet sliding a little against the ground as she halts to a stop.

Jean's attention flickers towards the voice calling out for Squig. Jean's fist pauses midair, about to pound against the door. Her fist was bruised from nonstop pounding against the front door.

"My King will not be happy... I'm surprised you have acquaintances, Squig... but I will not let them defer me, My King." 

Jean mutters out loud, even though she doubted that Squig could hear her through the door.

The ringing in Squig's ears catches her newest moniker. Someone said Squig. She snuck to the edge of her window, peeking barely behind the curtains for half a second and- 

Robin.

Robin is here. Why the FUCK is Robin here, she in danger. 

And with a bystander too. 

Fuck. FUCK. FUCK.

Squig scrambles to her feet and rushes into her bedroom. A minute passes. And the next thing the hidden camera sees is her stepping out of the room, with a GLOCK gripped tightly in both hands.

Kalei’s breath catches in her lungs. Screw the police, they thought. They need to run.

Their legs did not move. They couldn’t.

Jean takes a short step back, tearing her gaze away from the door. And glances off to where the gate is, her eyes narrowing as she spots the sources of the noise. Jean takes another step backwards, and another, until she's stepped off of the small staircase to the trailer home. Around seven feet away from the door.

"I must be interrupted..?" 

She grumbles, 

"I am doing my King's work—”

Squig's panicked rush towards her front door halted as she was about to turn the doorknob. Robin is outside. That stranger is outside. Jean's actor is in a deluded state and she. Is. Outside. With them. Only feet away, by the sound of it.

In that moment, Squig's reality fades.

The world becomes slow in Squig's vision. Not unlike a slo-mo scene in a movie, but more like the world around her stumbled and began crawling. The ringing in her ears ceased alongside her heartbeat. The sounds of her own breathing became null as well. Everything went numb in her body, in her heart, in her mind. Everything went numb.

She steps forward, unlocks the door and swings it open with a single hit. 

Then, she counts.

Five. 

She fires, misses. It hit something else. A scream is heard but is not lingered on.

Four. 

She fires, hits the leg. Incapacitated. The coward continues counting.

Three. 

She fires again. Hits the stomach.

Standing. Staring. Her mind is silent.

Kalei screams, camera falling to the ground. They crumple as well, arm clamping around their good leg. Blood pours out from between their hands, staining them red. Kalei's ears rang, and they gag, bile dribbling down their chin. Fuck, fuck, fuck, that hurt, that hurt so bad, and it was bleeding. It was bleeding, it just kept fucking bleeding. 

Fia was screaming from their now dropped phone, shouting to know what was going on. By now, the sounds of the sewing machine had long faded.

 “KALEI! KALEI, ANSWER ME, PLEASE! Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh—” 

She sounds close to tears. 

“Where—no, Ms. Aster, please, my friend—something happened, please, I have to go—” 

Faintly from the other side, the voice of an old woman was refusing Fia’s pleas.

The blood wouldn't stop. Somebody else was also screaming, also hitting the ground, but they couldn't even look up at whoever it was. They thought they wanted this, they thought this would hurt less than the king, but it fucking didn't. Kalei was terrified, and they were still able to run.

...they could still run. A sob chokes them again, but with blood stained hands, Kalei tries to make it onto their feet. They weren't involved here, they were just the camera person. They could still feel the leg, they could still move, they needed to run. Before Squig finished the job. 

"They... they shot me. They fucking shot me.”

Jean freezes. At least her brain does. For a second. The gunshots were deafening. Static fills her ears, closely followed by ringing. The pain comes next. First in her leg, then in her gut. Both are sharp at first, unbearable, before it blooms. Her breathing goes unsteady.

Her leg gives out, collapsing onto the grass with a thud. Her hands, no not her hands, her hands, those aren't her hands. Why were they bruised, why did they ache so much? Her hands grip the wounds on her, one palm presses against her thigh and the other presses against her stomach. Blood stains her palms like dye, coating her hands and soaking into her clothing.

Loud. When was her brain so loud? It was distant. She was distant. Was she dying?

Her King would prevent her doom. She wasn't important.  She tried to take steady breaths, but she couldn't. She physically couldn't. The pain was horrendous, and she felt so light.

Kalei made their way to their feet and turned to run, but....

Jean is on the ground, gasping. They are bleeding so, so much worse than Kalei, shit. They might actually die. Something rang in Kalei's ears, and instead of running away, they collapse. Using their arms more than either leg (because they barely worked- one had been shot, the other was still in a cast), they army crawl towards Jean. With shaking arms, they pull themselves up to sit by the stranger, and put both hands and all their weight over the stomach wound. Eldritch knowledge, why couldn't they just know how to fix this? Why did they have to learn addresses instead of surgical skills?

 "You're... fuck. You're going to live, alright? I'm not watching you die. I've got enough going on."

They want to leave. Kalei does not want to be here, no, every cell in their body wants them to run. If they weren't already a dead person walking, they would be long gone. As it was, though, their life was worth nothing. This person's was.

Jean didn't even notice Kalei crawling towards her until they were right next to her. But her eyes can't get any wider than they already were. She lets them put pressure on the bullet hole in their stomach, while her shaking hands move to place pressure onto the wound in her thigh.

Every emotion flickers across Jean's face as she stares down at the blood covering her. Her ringing ears weren't letting up, she could barely hear, her brain wasn't getting any less foggier, she couldn't process much.

"What the fuck, what the fuck... what the fuck... what the fuck..." 

Jean whispers in-between shuddering breaths, her voice trembling.

Squig's blank eyes blink behind her shattered glasses. They blink. And blink. And....

Her dull brown eyes suddenly widened.

She's still numb, still in the first stage of one of her episodes, but her mind isn't still anymore. The instinct of protecting the innocent had already overwritten all else in her mind. But now, the danger was no longer the person beating down her door. It was the one holding the weapon.

It was her.

Heavy breaths take her lungs away. The ringing in her ears is muffled by her brain fog, but present and persistent.

She just shot someone. 

She had just shot someone... And now that person is bleeding. Two people!

She's going... They're both going to... 

They're gonna die, aren't they?

Her lip shivers, teeth chattering.

Two people are going to die. Two innocent people are going to die. An actor going through a mental breakdown and an innocent bystander. They are both going to die.