18:00

63 : Last Breath

The morning was fresh, and the room was active. Or, as active as usual. It wasn't pure, dreadful silence either, which Lightbulb considered a win. She didn't know how much longer she could take just sitting in the atmosphere.

Soap still sat in the blanket pile, patiently waiting for Bow to wake up. Knife was casually flipping through the journal, and Trophy just... kinda sat there. Uneventful, but not tense.

Lightbulb wasn't quite paying attention to what the others were doing though. Mic sat with her in their own little section of the room, talking about whatever they could think of. Which, as of now, happened to be pets.

"I mean, I'm sure he's doing okay. He's still with Paintbrush, so as long as they're okay, he should be fine," Lightbulb mumbled, poking at the floor.

"Well... I'm sure Paintbrush is taking good care of him?" Mic tried, awkwardly smiling at her. Lightbulb gave her best smile back, before looking back down at the floor. Mic nervously spoke up again, "You know what pet I've always wanted?"

Lightbulb paused, before shaking her head. "I don't think so. What is it?"

"A corn snake," Mic grinned.

"Oh?" Lightbulb perked up, staring up at her in curiosity.

"Yeah! They're constrictors, so they're non-venomous. Plus, they come in really pretty colors! And apparently they're great climbers too. Not the worst to train either!" Mic happily rambled, fingers tapping on the box on her chest.

Lightbulb nodded along, listening intently as Mic spoke. It had been like this the past hour or so- the both of them talking about whatever came to mind. Nothing special, but then again, nothing was exactly what Lightbulb needed.

She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised when, once again, everything went wrong.

"...which is honestly really cute! I don't get why people find them so scary, when a more traditional house pet like a dog could-" Mic continued for a moment, before abruptly stopping, staring just past Lightbulb's shoulder.

Slowly, Lightbulb turned around to see what it was. From what she could see, Bow had woken up, with Soap holding the smaller one steady. That in itself wasn't concerning.

Rather, it was the sound of choking and hacking that caught Lightbulb off-guard.

"Soapy? Bow?" She called out quietly, staring in concern. She tried to keep her cool, slowly standing up to get a better view of the situation. All it took was seeing the red speckled over the blanket for her to accept something was wrong.

"Not right now!" Soap shouted, a little more force behind her words than necessary. She kept an arm over Bow, trying to keep the coughing object from falling over. The red bleeding onto the pink fabric of the object's body wasn't a pretty sight, only worsening the situation. "I-i know it hurts, Bow, just hang on..."

Lightbulb stared in shock for a second. She didn't know why she was surprised- nothing good was allowed to happen down here. She had been content, of course it would end up going wrong eventually. It always did.

"M-mic," she managed to stammer out, "can you call for help?"

"Sure? But why-" Mic paused, before realizing exactly what Lightbulb meant. With a nod, she walked over to the door, adjusting her gain.

Despite covering her ears, Lightbulb still heard the following scream ring in her ears. She winced, though she supposed that meant the call was impossible to ignore.

The silence that followed after was deafening. Lightbulb wished she knew what else she could do to help, but her legs wouldn't move. So she stared at the door, counting the seconds it took for it to open.