high_seas | Sitting on the edge of the fountain...

Entry tags:

Sitting on the edge of the fountain...

Who: Clementine...join her!
Where: She is sitting on the edge of the fountain.
When: The afternoon of October 6th
What: Clementine has arrived.
Warnings: Possible talk of death/zombies/blood...
Style: Going with the flow
Status: Open . Very open.

Clementine was sitting on the edge of the fountain, her journal resting on her lap. She'd woken up in this strange place near a fountain not too long ago and since then, she has been sitting on the edge, reading the journal with fascination. Well as much as she could read. Some people used bigger, more complex words than she knew, like the welcome page. She couldn't read where she was, but she was pretty sure it didn't say Georgia.

She was, in a word, filthy. Her dress was covered from head to toe in what looked like caked, dried blood. She smelled like someone who was a lot less than alive. Thrown on top of it was a red hoodie, one that had seen better days and had quite a few bloodstains itself, just not as bad as the others.

She had currency in one pocket and her gun in the other. She looked out at the people, watching them. They hadn't been friendly, not at all, but they still moved like they were alive. Where was she? What would Lee do in her situation?

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She set her things down on an open surface, figuring he wouldn't mind too much. She kept her clothes separate from her other items and turned to face him again.

"I'm nine. I just had my birthday."

Nine. A nine-year-old girl. Kyouya swallowed a little and nodded toward her things.

"You know how to use a gun?"

"Oh, yep!" She grinned. "Lee taught me how to use it."

Her smile faded though and she looked at the floor at the mention of that. "He said I'm real good at it."

A sensitive topic, but... one he needed to satisfy himself on. So, Kyouya patted the bed near him in silent invitation for her to sit with him.

"Who's Lee?"

Clementine crossed the distance between them and sat down on the bed. She was distracted momentarily by how soft the bed was underneath her. It was really awesome.

She poked at the comforter a few times, maybe avoiding the topic just a little bit.

"Lee is...Lee was..." Clementine wasn't sure how to say it. What was he really? "My friend."

A friend. That... really didn't tell him a lot. Especially not thinking about what a child might consider a "friend." So. Deep breath. He had to keep pushing on, and he knew it.

"Why did he teach you how to use a gun?" He kept his voice quiet, as gentle as possible. He didn't want to upset her, no, but... he wanted to know. Maybe even felt like he needed to know.

Edited 2013-10-07 08:11 (UTC)

Surprisingly, that part was a lot less upsetting. "He showed me how because the walkers are really dangerous." She paused for only a moment. No one else seemed to know what she was talking about.

"Walkers are dead people who don't die, they get up and walk around and try and eat you. But Lee said I have to protect myself too, in case he..."

Clementine trailed off there. That was the problem, wasn't it?

Dead people who don't die. Get up, walk around, try to eat you. It sounded like every horror film. And every zombie movie. But those weren't--

Then again, they'd all been kidnapped and brought to a set of islands by a ghost pirate and told to find a lost treasure. What was real was actually quite different than he'd always assumed, wasn't it?

But it was so hard to imagine. To rationalize. To be anything other than a scared little girl justifying what she saw. But he couldn't bring himself to actually dismiss it. So, instead, he focused on something else.

"Do you... think he might be here, too? Just somewhere a little different? We can look tomorrow, if he might be."

He'd looked at his friends, tried to find them.

"No..." Clementine said softly. She sniffled a bit and a tear slid down her cheek, despite herself.

"Lee can't come back again."

...Ah. He ought to hug her, he considered. He knew it, actually. But, instead, Kyouya just laid a hand on her back, near her shoulder. His voice was very quiet.

"I'm sorry, Clementine."

"It's better that way." She whispered, reaching up to wipe her cheek. "It's better he's not walking around like mom and dad."

Better when someone was at peace instead of still suffering. But hearing that... No parents, it sounded like. And this Lee gone. And now she was here. He couldn't just leave her and hope for the best.

"We'll... we'll look around tomorrow. See if there are any boats you like or people you want to go with." His voice caught a bit in his throat. He didn't know how to handle this situation. So... better to just stick with this. "If... if we don't find anyone you like better... You can stay with me."

"Okay." Clementine nodded. She wiped her eyes one more time and gave him a little smile.

"That sounds good."

Kyouya managed a small smile in return. "Let's get some sleep, okay? Today's been a pretty long day, and tomorrow's not going to be an easy one either."

He wouldn't actually be asleep for awhile himself, but it was easy enough to light a candle and look over the journal that way while the girl slept.

"Okay." Clementine could agree with that, with the nice soft bed beneath her. She scurried into a good position and settled in. It wasn't like she took up a lot of room, she was pretty small.

She'd slept through a lot worse than a little light. She wasn't really ready to sleep though and after a few moments, she asked a question. "Do you think I made the right decision?"

Kyouya looked at her, settling into a spot on the bed where he was comfortable but also gave her space. The question made him pause, tilting his head a bit.

"The right decision? What do you mean?"

"Lee was dead. He asked me to shoot him, to stop him from becoming one of them. Do you think I was right?"

Clementine glanced over her shoulder at him, curious.

Kyouya didn't know Lee. He accepted that. But everything in his mind rebelled at the idea of asking a little girl to shoot someone. Someone she cared about especially. The idea of it threatened to make him sick.

But years of concealing his thoughts and feelings from others kept his desire from becoming action. Kept him from retching at the thought. Silenced all criticisms about this 'friend' of hers. It took him a little while to answer. To keep himself calm enough to answer.

"I do." That was what she needed to hear. Not that he couldn't even begin to think about what that choice meant. About what she'd had to do. His stomach churned as he tried to think of any comparable situation and couldn't. "You... kept him from suffering. Like you said. It was the right thing to do."

But so, so wrong. So wrong she'd ever had to do it. God. He couldn't believe it. Couldn't begin to imagine it.

The circumstances maybe weren't as great as Kyouya could imagine. It was full of conflicting emotions and choices. Clementine didn't have too much of a choice.

"Things are really different now. Do you think it's okay to shoot someone if they're bad?"

Edited 2013-10-07 08:58 (UTC)

"No," Kyouya replied, shaking his head. "Not if that's the only reason."

He'd considered that sort of question before, but he'd never been asked it. Especially not by a nine-year-old girl who had, apparently, had t shoot one of her friends.

"I think it's... okay... to shoot someone if they're going to hurt you. Or someone you care about. And you can't get away otherwise. But not... just because they're bad."

"Oh. That's good then. He was going to kill Lee." She nodded and curled back up again. Maybe her day had been worse than most, but at least it was over now.

She'd shot someone else, to, then. Kyouya wasn't sure what to make of that. How to react. It was... surprising, to say the least.

"Then I think that sounds like the right thing to do."

"He was a bad man. He took me from Lee and locked me in a hotel room. It was really mean, and when Lee came to get me, he was gonna kill him. That was...yesterday morning I think, that Lee came. I'm not sure."

"You did the right thing," Kyouya murmured. It seemed incredible. Unbelievable. But, then, all this did. "We'll be careful tomorrow. Make sure you don't end up on a ship with anyone like that."

"Okay. That sounds good." She smiled at him and curled up again, closing her eyes. Sleep wouldn't be too far off.

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hostclubshadowking - 2013-10-07 17:14 (UTC) - Expand

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