THE DEAD ZONE ~ Marhinki

.17

"How is she?" Sohinki questioned as Lasercorn exited the room. Lasercorn didn't respond, only walked towards one of the many cabinets, pulling out a glass and filling it with water from the sink. He then turned away from Sohinki, pretending that he didn't say a word. 

"Lasercorn," Sohinki was on the verge of pleading. "Please tell me if she's okay." 

"She will be." Came the short reply, and once again Sohinki was left alone with his thoughts.

~*~

Lasercorn swung open the door to the bedroom Mari was sleeping in. He slowly placed the glass of water next to her. He slowly pulled away strands of sweaty hair from her face. She was dreaming again. Damien had triggered something deep down inside of her, something she had managed to oppress for years. This was the first time in years that Lasercorn saw her breaking. 

He gently shook her awake, holding her tenderly as she failed awake. She looked around widely for a bit before her eyes rested on Lasercorn. He smiled at her and handed her the glass of water. She took it, but didn't move to drink it, only stared at it with unfocused eyes. 

"It was only a dream," Lasercorn said quietly, rubbing circles onto the hurting girl's back. Mari shook her head, her hands shaking as she tightened her grip on the glass of water.

"I should have been there," She murmured, her eyes still not looking up from the cup she held in her hands. "I should have been there, maybe I... maybe I would have been able to stop it." 

"Mari," Lasercorn's voice was slowly losing its tenderness. "You have to listen to me. You weren't there, because you were forced away. None of this is your fault. Listen to me, Mari. None of this is your fault. You have to move on. Just like I did." He shook his head. "You already grieved for him Mari. Learning that he's dead doesn't make you have to grieve again." He sighed, before grabbing the woman's chin and forcing her to look at him. "In the nicest way possible, you have to get it together. There are people out there counting on you. You have your own revenge to get, and if you spend all of your time wallowing in grief, you're never going to get it. It is time for action. You can grieve later." 

~*~

"Let's go."

Sohinki leapt to his feet, but couldn't seem to get any words out. He only stared at the woman in front of him, who's eyes were still red from crying, but held the harshest expression. 

"Go where?" Wes questioned, reaching subconsciously for a gun that wasn't there. It wasn't that Damien took their weapons, it was simply that the single gun he did have was lost in the mad scramble to get Mari help. In fact, it was only thanks to Damien's key card that any of them were still alive. 

"Go where?" Damien snapped.  "Where are you going to go? You are unarmed, and everyone is looking for you." He stalked over to the window, ripping back the curtain and showing the projection that covered a side of a building. It was a projection of each of their faces, scrolling slowly through showing the reward for each of them. It lingered on Mari's face, her reward was significantly the largest, with Sohinki a few thousand behind and the rest one thousand behind him. 

"How do they know we aren't in the Dead Zone anymore?" Sohinki asked. Damien glanced back at him, pulling the curtain back sharply. 

"You have a traitor on you hands, Matt," Damien said. "Some snitched to the king, and I bet you that they had been keeping tabs on dear Mari here the whole time." 

"Well then the snitch can tell the king that I'm going to kill him." Mari started towards the door, only to be grabbed by Lasercorn and pulled back into the room.

"Are you crazy?" FLitz snapped. "Are you trying to get us all killed? We can't just parade into the fucking castle and challenge the fucking king to a duel! We need to be smart about this Mari!" 

"I don't have time for this!" Mari snapped. "All we've done since we've got here is sit around. Now is the time for action! I refuse to sit still any longer!" 

"And whose fault is that?" FLitz was practically yelling now. "You're the one who went and got herself stabbed!" 

"I was protecting all of you!" Mari was screaming back at him, nobody dared to try and stop the argument. Either it would defuse on its own, or someone would end up dead.

"Wes had a gun!" FLitz screamed right back. "We could have just shot him! We could have avoided all of this! We could have just won!"

"You're the man who goes on and on about honor! You didn't want to kill anyone! You kept telling me that it wasn't honorable! And when I try to end this as honorable as possible, following what you've told me this entire time, you criticize me! What do you want FLitz?" 

"I want to make it out of this mess alive!" They had moved closer together in their argument, now standing chest to chest. "I want to make it out of the mess that you made alive!" 

"That I made?" Mari shrieked. "How many times did I give you the option to walk away? How many times did you refuse? This is your mess too FLitz! You got yourself into this! Why didn't you leave?" 

The room fell dead silent, as FLitz made no move to respond to this wave of Mari's accusations. It was Wes who finally spoke, looking towards the man he had happily called a friend. 

"It's you isn't it," Wes said quietly. 

"I don't know what you're talking about," FLitz stated, not meeting Wes' eyes. 

"You're the snitch... aren't you?"