ONE Human

Part 4: Apathetic?

(Pearl's POV)

I quickly swam over, trying to see what happened and I saw Lava Bucket passed out. What was even worse was her lava was spilled out of her, and that's when I freaked out. A bit later It was after the challenge, they managed to get Backpack out of the water, and Lava Bucket's team was UFE again. But I was still there trying to make sure Lava Bucket was okay. I heard Airy say as I was checking her "Don't worry, she'll be fine." They then generated more lava and placed it inside her. I wanted to be sure she was fine and started to shake her. "Lava Bucket! Say something! LAVA BUCKET!!!"

(Lava Bucket's POV)

As I started waking up, while also feeling better, everything was dark around me. I was so confused as to whether or not the experience I had was a dream. I looked at myself and I realized I looked human again, I saw my hands and legs this time. This made me feel even more confused as I got up looking around which was nothing but pitch black. "Um..Hello?" I didn't know if I was alone since I had a feeling that wasn't the case. Then some light shined onto something. It looked like a bunch of shapes mashed together. I stepped closer to it and that's when it started shifting which startled me and I stepped back. After a bit they transformed into what looked like myself made out of a bunch of shapes, which then said "Hi, my name's Summer. I'm a slow APATHETIC jerk. I don't care about others around me and only care about myself and my feelings." This broke my mind and all I could say in that moment was "W-what?!" I felt like my life was starting to shatter and I didn't want to believe them. Another light shined and a message started slowly appearing as it said "You could've saved them. You're not worthy of going home." This was making me more and more in denial as more messages started to appear, like "You're a disgrace," "Does your family care you're gone at this point?" And the word "Apathetic" was being echoed to me over and over again. I couldn't take any of this as I sat down and put my knees to my chest hoping this pain would end.

"LAVA BUCKET!!!" That's when I woke up to Pearl who looked panicked out of his mind. I was on adrenaline as I looked at my body, I was still a Bucket. Pearl looked at me and said "Are you okay?! You hit your head kinda hard." I didn't know how to respond still thinking about what just happened, so I stood up and walked off muttering "Can I trust you?" I didn't take a second to look back as my mind realized what had happened, the word I was supposed to hear was "Apathetic." Since I don't remember much of what I did in my past before I went to college, was I actually a jerk and didn't realize? I do remember being strict and sassy a lot during high school and never helped out my friends with their problems at first since I didn't want to lose time. As I was wondering all of this, I heard sniffles. I looked around and saw Scenty looking off in the distance. I remember feeling terrible, wanting to help her after the elimination today, and at that moment I knew I had to do something to help. So I walked over and sat next to her.

Scenty looked over at me a bit surprised but still very upset. Still unsure about myself, I decided to ignore it and ask her what was wrong. She sighed and said "I just never wanted to be here. I hate this place, I wanna go home." I knew where she was coming from and patted her back. The thing that happened next surprised me, she hugged me and burst into tears. I still knew what she was going through and hugged back, starting to even well up tears myself. I said "I may not know what your life was like, but I totally get it. I wanna go home too, and I never wanted to be turned into an object. I promise I'm gonna do all I can to get you home, I'm with you till the end." A voice in my head then said "No you won't, you're just gonna revolve it around yourself again." But I ignored it as best as I could.

After things settled down a bit and I left Scenty be, I noticed my other two teammates talking and that's when I realized something else. I won't be able to help them out with our mission since we were UFE again. I went over to sit with them trying to do the best I could to help before one of us left. "What's going on?" I asked. They looked at me with concern and Soda Bottle said "Something happened with Backpack, we probably didn't see you during the challenge, but he had a dream from what I've heard from him." I didn't want to tell them what happened to me since I wanted to not be what the voices in my head were telling me I was. So I said "O-okay...now that we're about to be split apart, what should we do now?" Backpack then said "We just make the most out of what time we have left as a trio." I wanted to look at the ground since I didn't want to talk too much, but he then said "By the way, we heard about what happened to you from Pearl, are you okay?" I still didn't wanna talk about the dream I had so I just said "Yeah..I'm fine." I just looked down not wanting to say anything else. And the echoes built up again repeating "Apathetic" in my head and I ignored it again, but I felt more on the edge.

(Pearl's POV)

I was arguing with my team about what I did during the challenge since they apparently didn't want me helping my friend. I jumped out of of the tub during the challenge to try and help her as best as I could. Moldy said "What were you thinking trying to help the other team?! That decreases our chances of actually not being UFE." I replied with "This is ridiculous! She was knocked over and could've died with her lava all over the place. I just wanted her to be okay!" Moldy said "Why do you care so much about her? She's one, not on our team and two, might just abandon you anyway!" I got mad and replied "Look, I may have been alive for a day but she clearly is going through a tough time, plus we haven't been here as much as you, I'm trying to adjust with her! No matter what you say, I'm gonna stay by her side! Maybe you should learn something about loyalty!"

That's when Moldy snapped and said "Just get out! You and I are gonna discuss this later!! We never should've gotten you on our team!" And she pushed me. I didn't know what to think since I just wanted to be as loyal as I can be. I looked over at Lava Bucket's team wondering not only what was going on with her since I could definitely tell she wasn't right, but also think if things would've been better if we were on the same team. Then suddenly the elimination happened in a snap, not even an "It's time for the elimination" from Airy. After 2 seconds, Soda Bottle disappeared.

To be continued