Don't Let Me Go

What Needs To Be Done

Cry knocks on the bathroom door, "Minx..? Come out, you've been in there all night.."

"Leave me alone.." she replies, sitting against the door, staring at the floor.

Cry sighs, "You can't stay in there forever."

He chuckles, trying to make a joke, "Other people need to use the bathroom, you know."

"There's one upstairs.." she states.

Cry frowns, sitting down with his back to the door, "You can't hide in there forever. Minx, please.. I know you're scared, but she needs you.. You need to get over your own fear and be there for her. You need to be strong for her. What would you want if you were in her place? Wouldn't you want her to be there for you..?"

"I'm a horrible person.." Minx whimpers.

"No, no, you're just scared. It'll be okay. Just go to her now, she'll be glad to see you." Cry says softly, "She isn't mad at you, Michelle.."

"I am," Minx sighs, covering her face with her hands. She shivers, "I am.."

Cry stands and turns to the door. He tries to open it again, but it's still locked. He places his hand against the door, "Minx, please open the door."

Minx gets up slowly and turns to the door. Her hand hovers over the doorknob, she bites her bottom lip as she dwells on if she should open the door. She sighs, running her fingers through her hair before unlocking and opening the door. Cry is standing in front of her and he smiles softly, "You should go to her."

Minx nods slowly, "I know.."

He puts his hand on her shoulder, "It's going to be okay."

"How do you know that?" she asks, looking up at him.

"I know some stuff about medicine, I'm sure I can at least try to stall the infection until we can get her to a doctor." he replies.

She shakes her head, "I don't think anyone knows anything about curing this illness, if they did, the government wouldn't have been freaking out enough to put us on isolation alert. She could die, Cry, and there's nothing we can do about it."

"Well, you can't just avoid it." he frowns.

She shakes her head again and moves past him. He follows her up the stairs and into the bedroom. Minx enters the bedroom and scrunches up her nose. The room smells like death. As soon as they entered the room, Ohm stood up from where he was sitting by the wall in the corner, and Krism looks towards them from her spot on the bed. Minx walks over to the bed and sits on the floor beside Krism. She takes her wife's hand, smiling softly at her. Tears come to her eyes as she actually looks at Krism for the first time since tending to the wound almost a week earlier.

Krism's hair is slightly grayed, her skin is the color of ash, her eyes are sunken and black, her actual eye color is a dull, pale gray, and there are protruding, black veins all over her body. There's blood seeping from her ears and her nose and there's blood on her shirt, but Minx can't tell if Krism's been coughing blood, or if the stain's from the bite wound. Krism smiles softly at her, slow tears falling down her face. She wheezes, "I didn't.. Think I'd.. See you b-before.."

She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes as a coughing fit overcomes her. Minx winces, her smile fading and pure anguish filling her. Krism coughs up blood on herself and Ohm hands Minx a damp rag, motioning towards Krism. Minx takes the cloth and gently wipes the blood from Krism's skin. She tries to smile again, but it looks broken. Krism opens her eyes again, locking eyes with Minx, but she doesn't say anything else. Minx continues to wipe at the blood slowly, gently with one hand, and the other gently squeezes Krism's hand.

The only sound in the bedroom is Krism's wheezing breaths. Once the blood is cleaned from Krism's skin, Minx puts the cloth down and strokes Krism's hair gently. She whispers, "I'm sorry."

Krism smiles weakly, wheezing her reply, "I.. Know.."

Every time Krism speaks, Minx's smile breaks down a little more. She's trying to be strong, like Cry told her to, but seeing the love of her life like this is destroying her. It just hurts to much, knowing there's nothing she can do to help her. Krism sees Minx is losing her resolve and she smiles a little brighter, "Hey.. Don't look at.. Me like.. That. I'm not.. Dead yet."

Minx shakes her head, fighting back tears, "D-don't talk like that."

Krism squeezes Minx's hand, still smiling at her. Tears fall down Minx's face and she shudders, trying to keep herself from breaking down in front of her wife. She leans down and whispers to her. Ohm exchanges a glance with Cry and Cry shrugs lightly. Ohm crosses the room and takes Cry out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. Cry raises an eyebrow and Ohm groans softly, whispering, "She's not going to last much longer."

Cry frowns, whispering back, "What should we do? It's not like we can just take her to a hospital."

"What if she becomes like that little girl that bit her? She'd be a danger to keep around." Ohm groans softly.

Cry crosses his arms, "That is a serious worry. If the illness is spread through bites from the infected.. Krism could become one of them.."

"What should we do?" Ohm asks.

Cry looks at Ohm, "You saw Minx stabbing the infected girl, that child didn't die until I smashed her head."

Ohm's eyes widen, "You're not saying.."

Cry runs a hand through his hair, wincing, "Yeah.. Krism will most likely turn, and when she does.. We'll have to kill her. Stab or shoot her through the head."

Ohm shakes his head, "Minx will never let us do that."

Cry sighs, "She'll have to, or we'll all be at risk of infection. As much as it pains me to say, we can't keep Krism around once she becomes like them."

Ohm raises his hands, "Well, you'll be the one telling Minx that, she's already mad at me for yelling at her yesterday."

"Telling me what?" Minx asks, standing in the now open doorway.