Belladonna

4.0 ] Red Tiles

••●••

I DON'T REMEMBER running entirely. I don't remember even correlating the scream with the reason I was running. I just ran in response to everyone around me dropping what they were doing and running themselves. 

The showers are only down the hall from the cafeteria, so we make it there in minutes luckily. That luckily turns sour though. Bitter. Dreadful. Because once we're in, the sight that I'm met with is...it's just...

"What the fuck?" Sasha voices out loud, staring with equally wide eyes as the rest of us. 

In front of us, with a shower head still running, is Margeux and Keagen. Margeux's nose is bleeding, Keagen's face is distraught, and when I step forward to try and put together what's happening - I see it. 

Liam. 

On the ground, unresponsive, and dead. Keagen's expression makes all the more sense. And Margeux's giddy, exhausted smile - doesn't. 

"Keagen, what happened?" Sasha asks him. I think she's the only one that can speak. But her voice breaks. And it hurts to hear her like this. She's usually calm, even when she's losing it from stress, she tries to remain calm. What also hurts is the dead body of one of my friends. 

Liam's body parallels Jeremiah's when I found him. The deja vu hits like an icy pang to my chest. I can't hear myself breathe. 

"She killed him." Keagen says simply, lip trembling as he turns away from Margeux. 

"You what?" Elliot faces her. 

Margeux giggles then. She actually fucking giggles, "Wow, you all look super disappointed."

"Of course we are!" Keagen bites at her, stepping forward again. Nobody stops him. 

"Keagen, step away from her." I say, finding my voice, "Come over here."

He hesitates. Looks at her long enough his glare does the speaking for him. He wants to clock her in the face. And with the evident blood already trickling down her nose, I'm guessing that means again. 

He comes though. He stands next to us. 

And then it's a silent stare-off. Again. Like when she returned all bloodied and battered. 

This is a little different. Before she was acting normal. As normal as she's acted before. Maybe a little too casual - but she's always been like that. 

Now she's manic. 

Smiling. Laughing. Not bothering to clean the blood off her face.

"Jesus Christ." Vika whispers from beside me, clutching my arm tightly and pulling me back a few paces. 

"Margeux..." Sasha sounds pained as she tries to put on a negotiation voice, "Do you have any weapons on you?"

Margeux faces Sasha then, calming down her laughter, "No. I do not."

"Okay. Good. Good, just - just stay there. Right where you are, okay?" Sasha reaches out with her hands to try and cation her away. 

"You fucking killed him." Heather speaks up before she steps forward, "You fucking killed him!" 

"Keagen-" Sasha says his name to try and get him to stop her. But he agrees with her. He's just as angry. He lets her. Lets her run forward and punch Margeux herself. 

Then she's doing it again,

And again, and again, and-

"Calm down!" Reign pushes her away, Margeux's staggering landing her against him and in his arms so he can hold her up right. 

"She's a traitor!" Heather screams, voice raw and passionate, "She fucking killed him!"

Sasha does her best to hold Heather back. Elliot stands where he is, silent and contemplating - Keagen similar. Vika and I stay the furthest away, watching. Observing. Holding onto each other as we watch the scene in front of us. 

"Shit." Reign says when he pulls his sleeve away and realises it's drenched in Margeux's blood already. He completely ignores Heather's screams and her sobs. He checks Margeux's nose, then her jaw. He grabs it in his hands firmly to try and get every single angle. 

"Are you okay?" He asks her.

"Peachy." She smiles a bloody grin. Then she starts laughing again. God what the fuck is wrong with her? When I first met this girl I had some stupid crush on her, and now? Now I don't even think she's my friend. She never was. This is who she really is, isn't it? A cold, heartless, traitor?

"Reign, we have to get your dad." Sasha says, speaking loudly over Heather's cries. 

"I'll take her to him." He agrees, removing Margeux from the showers on his own. Heather's collapsed to the ground now. She's sobbing so uncontrollably no sound comes out. 

Keagen's crying too. More silently. Hidden behind his hands in gasps. I only realise there's a tear streaming down my face when it falls onto my wrist. And Sasha's eyes are overflowing. No tears have dropped, but she's sad. Angry maybe. She stares at everyone in the room - and I think she notices, I think she can see - that her positiveness won't work here. That she's exhausted it all today. 

"Are you okay?" Vika pulls me towards her so that I'm facing her. 

"Mmhm." I say although it comes out as a struggle. I feel numb. Like my emotions are displaced. I don't understand what has happened today. That mere moments ago I was relived of stress when I found out Vika was okay. 

And now it's all tarnished. 

"Fuck." Vika says, frantic, "Can you get everyone out of here? I'll...I'll deal with uh..."

I follow her eyes to Liam's body. All wet and mushy and red. 

"You don't have to." I whisper, voice trembling. 

"It's okay." She shakes her head, "I'm not...I'm not really traumatised by it. Just alarmed. You get everyone out, okay? Can you do that for me baby?"

I nod again, my vocabulary drained. 

This morning Liam was grumbling about random things I wish I listened to whilst he cocked his gun. This evening Liam lays dead on the shower floor.

••●••

Liam was meh to me, but I want to reiterate that he was definitely family to Team X. He did care about them. That care and insecurity got him killed. Also Margeux's a little crazy.

Team X imploding:

- Juana.