DTT: Round Two, Mal vs Pillar

Always told you not to love me
Now look what you made me do
I got poison in my pocket,
told you I was bad news

Chad Chapman is better off this way.

With a prideful huff, Pillar removes her blade from the side of the boy's dissipating head, and she steps right through the cloud of mist that is left behind from his body as it fades from existence once more. She does not have the time or empathy to worry over this, her gaze like a hawk scanning the cavernous coliseum for more enemies to rid herself of. If life was not kind to her, and if all her monsters are still above ground, then she will do what she must to make this her new safe haven.

No more red sand. No more unending agony. No more purgatory.

She'll take her spot by the demons and the witches, and like a wind up ballerina, she will continue on with the dance she has always known. If a crown is made available, it is only natural that Pillar will reach for it. She smiles down at her palm as the lavender light flickers, her knife extending into a sword that feels familiar. The odds were already unfair, but now her foes are surely damned.

Her attention goes back to the boy who killed Chad's lover, regardless of the golden thread that curls around her ankle and leads to his own. She does not glance down, jaw raised with a stare as piercing as her blade. The fates need not intervene, she will not stop until she is finally the sole victor. "It seems you and I butchered two halves of one heart." Her words aren't laced with venom, she is simply stating a fact. "How romantic."

Holding out her sword, sizing up this stranger who has at least proved himself capable of murder, she offers a playful smirk. "I hope killing you is at least a little challenging. C'mon, let's give the devils a show."

When she strikes, she goes for the jugular.

My demeanor made you wait,
but the consequences stayed
I killed everything we were
Baby, murder was a case

song: 27 hours

Always told you not to love me
Now look what you made me do
I got poison in my pocket,
told you I was bad news

With a decisive flick of her wrist, she manages to slam her forearm against the hilt of his sword, causing his strike to go wide. She just smirks and giggles to herself, cat with a second mouse caught in her sharp, selfish paw. Is there such a thing as being too full? If you ask Pillar, she could swallow the goddamn world whole. What she wants, she will have.

And she wants this boy to turn to dust.

"You're swinging too fast. If you don't think your attacks through, I'll just be able to deflect them every time." It's not that she's trying to help him, but where's the fun in slaughtering bunnies and lambs? She wants a foe that actually knows how to put up a fight, and she's disappointed by the idea of having to face another clueless boy. Give her a lion. "But if you want to make this easy for me, I won't stop you."

She glances at the shallow gash across his calf, the trickle of blood running down his leg. "Does that sting?" she almost coos, always the one to sprinkle salt into open wounds. Really, all you have to do is rip a person's confidence out from beneath them, and then it's easy pickings. She has to wonder if he felt afraid during his first death, if she's doubling that fear for him now. Imagine experiencing the worst thing to happen to you after dying.

How pitiful.

"I'll try not to draw this out too long." She aims her sword again, sweeping her pale eyes across his frame just long enough to pick out a weak spot. "It's not like I'm a sadist or anything."

If she has her way, he'll have to deal with a sensation far worse than stinging.

My demeanor made you wait,
but the consequences stayed
I killed everything we were
Baby, murder was a case

song: 27 hours

Always told you not to love me
Now look what you made me do
I got poison in my pocket,
told you I was bad news

"You're right, I don't know you." She's whittled away at his patience enough that when he swings, the edge of his sword tears open her skin. Gasping in pain, she stares down at the gush of blood, the white hot pulse of pain. This is how she knows she's alive. At least in some terrible, fragile, fleeting way. She is alive again.

And if bleeding is the proof, she will bathe in red. "You don't strike me as a boy worth knowing. Do you think anyone is still mourning you?" She circles him like a shark, smiling teeth on display. Hungering for a bite. "Do you think anyone in this whole wide, wicked world is going to flinch when you're ripped away from it again?" She goes to step forward, sword aimed at all his softest parts.

"I lost once." She heaves a breath, channels all her conviction into this next strike. There's a memory of a beautiful girl urging her to die for something. "I'll never lose again."

My demeanor made you wait,
but the consequences stayed
I killed everything we were
Baby, murder was a case

song: 27 hours

Always told you not to love me
Now look what you made me do
I got poison in my pocket,
told you I was bad news

"Who hurt you?" She ponders his question for a moment, the squelch of a wound opening, the hot rush of blood dripping down her body. Everything always seems to blur together in the end; she's experienced this before. It's hard to be scared of a fate you've already endured, but she is not at all fond of the idea of returning to that red beach. Pillar has never wanted to end.

"Everyone and everything," she echoes. This is not a moment of softness, so much as this is her grappling with her mortality a second time over. "But none of that can hurt me here. Not anymore." She moves forward through the pain, even if she is seconds away from turning to ash and dust, she will never go down without a fight. She is a girl, and she is a scar. There will always be proof that she was here.

And it will ache.

"The only thing we have to be afraid of is each other." She goes to drive her sword between his ribs, to cut his heart into pieces.

My demeanor made you wait,
but the consequences stayed
I killed everything we were
Baby, murder was a case

song: 27 hours

Always told you not to love me
Now look what you made me do
I got poison in my pocket,
told you I was bad news

Pillar manages to deflect his hit, the clang of metal clashing, but she knows that she is nearing the end of this adventure. If she does not stab him through the heart, or send his head rolling off his shoulders, then this is all said and done. She hates the finality of it. The book is shut and then sealed under lock and key. But she never got the chance to read the ending.

She is simply gone. It is like she has become almost intangible, save for the way her sword shreds skin. A girl who only knows how to take, and ravage, and say the most terrible things. "And you are so small." She glares down at him, this boy bold enough to challenge her, the reason for the hurt spreading throughout her body. The more she looks at him, the more she realizes just how familiar he is. His mannerisms.

"Are you from Twelve?" she asks before she no longer has the chance to. She scoffs at the idea, venomous mockery fresh on her lips. So long as her heart is beating again, until he puts an end to her, she will not yield. "Someone from your district killed me the last time." She lifts her arm that is wielding the sword, glancing at a jagged line running across the exposed flesh. Like a memory, she can recall lying there in the swaying grass, feeling her resolve pour out of her. Death came quick.

And now it's coming for her again.

"I hope you know when I kill you, it's personal."

My demeanor made you wait,
but the consequences stayed
I killed everything we were
Baby, murder was a case

song: 27 hours