in all chaos there is calculation / liza.

I would be lying if I said I woke up this morning and thought this was how the day was going to go. It still doesn't seem real, even as I stand here watching Bastian walk off in the direction both Nylon and Laurence fled, the bodies of four children at my feet. None of which I actually had a hand in killing. Of all things, that's what is most shocking of all. 

I woke up today ready to take lives. Because I knew it would be asked of me, to keep Laurence and I breathing for at least one more day. But I never expected so many people to make such dangerous decisions. I had thought Iden smarter. Hoped, really, that he was. I didn't ask Arc or Bas or Nylon to keep him safe, but I knew what they were capable of and thought they were up to the task - thought he was.

Turns out they couldn't even protect themselves.

A tear streams down my face, but only one. The only one I'll allow myself to have, one second of mourning for a brother from Two. And then I quickly tie the strap of my pack tightly and toss it toward the rest of the stuff I already parceled out: one of everything for the four of us. And a little something extra for myself, obviously.

I was the only smart one today, after all.

"Do you ever shut up?" Looking across the way at Nylon as she and Bas approach, I strike the bit of extra tar from the wealth that I dipped two arrows in and nock them in my bow as they light. "You're not that far, and I can hear every word you're saying." There's no pause between my words, something of a speech pouring its way out because I'm at my wits end with these children.

"You wanna kill me? Give it your best shot. Hope you can still aim." Smirk pulling at my lips, it falls into a pout as my eyes rove down to her mangled mess of an arm. Then I release my two flaming arrows, soaring through the air like two twin meteors, their destination the remaining clothes doused in tar on the heap of things and bodies I'd made in everyone's absence. 

I want nothing left of this day, no supplies to scavenge and no remnants of who was lost. No memory, no recollection. Just ashes. Which I think Bastian of all people can appreciate. 

"Your things are there," I nod in the direction of two heaping piles. Medicine and ammo and weapons and supplies I laid out for them. Things they'll need to survive when Laurence and I leave them. He just doesn't know that yet, but that's okay. They're a means to an end. I reach out to him as he closes the distance, entangle my fingers within his and look out toward the fire as it catches.

"Take them or don't, I don't really care. But betray me after I helped you," my eyes flick to Bastian's, another silent moment where words aren't needed but meaning is conveyed. I turned on that boy from Nine with you, my look says, eyes narrowed and sharp, like daggers looking to make purchase. I could have let him kill you. "And it'll be the last thing either of you do. Understood?"