( week 4 ) friday night, kaito

[wristbands]

[sometime after the surviving residents of the motel have settled, chie begins to seek out specific people. namely, those who had, ah... helped her out on thursday.

kaito will be receiving a solemn knock on his door about an hour after the trial has concluded.]

Hey. It's Chie. Can I come in?

Comments

[nowyouseeit]

[Chie will find herself knocking on Room 116's door because Kaito has moved rooms, but either way!! there's a pause before he answers, and boy, does he look exhausted]

[but he's pulled up a smile for her, and with a nod, he steps aside to let her in]

Sure thing. Uh. . . how're you feeling, by the way?

[he never got a chance to ask, thanks to all the excitement]

[wristbands]

[ see i intentionally did not say the room number because i honestly didn't know which room he was staying in now.

she quietly enters the room, head still buzzing from everything that had gone on today. if this had happened any other time, any other place, she might be embarrassed to be alone in a boy's room, embracing the idea that she did think about those kinds of things every now and then—but of course, not now. now, she has only tiredness in her eyes, fatigue straining her voice. there's no such thing as innocence left for any of them here.

when he asks the question, she cannot help but to glance down at the lack of a hand sticking out of her right sleeve. after a second, she shakes her head, slightly wincing. ]

Pretty shitty, not gonna lie.

[nowyouseeit]

[A SMART DECISION]

[he can see the exhaustion in her expression and isn't exactly surprised by it. they all feel the same way, probably. so he offers her a seat-- on a chair, on the couch, on the edge of his bed, wherever-- before he glances down at the. . . well]

[lack of hand]

[her bluntness gets a small snort out of him]

Not surprising, honestly. I would've been more shocked if you had said you were doing okay.

. . . I wish there had been a better way for us to help.

[wristbands]

Optimism can only go so far, y'know.

[it comes out as more a sigh than a full statement, and it actually upsets her that she's saying that. her spark of spunkiness had gotten her and her friends through a lot of rough times; to know that yuggoth is finally starting to break her spirit makes the idea that her soul now belongs to this realm a more real and frightening thought.

that she's lost more than her hand is her true fear.

...before she lets the pessimism claim absolute victory, though, she still manages a small, melancholy smile.]

You guys did all you could. I mean, like I was trying to tell all the people who tried to accuse Jay just because he cut it off—we were all freaked out, but the bottom line is that you were trying to help save my life.

[a brief pause, then,]

...Thank you, for that.

[nowyouseeit]

Maybe.

[but optimism is what keeps him afloat, even when shit gets tough. his gaze flickers away for a brief moment, before he shakes his head]

. . . you're welcome.

[he exhales deeply]

I'm glad there was at least one life we could save in this stupid place.

[wristbands]

[she hangs on that last line of his, her frown deepening once again. even though she knows it isn't her fault—she hasn't actually spilled another's blood—she can't help but feel survivor's guilt for still being alive in the place of others who deserved it less than her.]

I just wish there was a way we could save everyone. I hoped that would happen, that we wouldn't actually be finding murderers and victims every week... was I too stupid to realize until things got this bad?