Youth

#20 - Day Twenty and the Only One Left

    Waking up wasn't always an easy feat; the constant discomfort that had coursed through her body since meeting Kori had eased away thanks to the comfort of the bed she was engulfed by. All her negative thoughts had faded away. She was left with herself, the bed, and the gentle flicking of pages in the background.

    Wait, pages...?

    [Y/n], suddenly alert, shot up from her resting position with the intention of thoroughly checking her room for a second presence. Her action was prevented by a painful ripping sensation in her back as her injuries came to light again, causing her eyes to squeeze shut and an involuntary groan to escape her. Though she hadn't reopened any of her wounds, everything was still sore and tender.

    Her eyes slowly cracked open and scanned the room, finally landing on a certain brunette in the corner. His violet eyes stared into her [e/c] ones worriedly; he closed his book.

    "[Y/n]. Good morning," he began carefully, "are you alright?" he asked, standing up and walking over to her, sitting on the edge of her bed. [Y/n] made herself a little more comfortable before nodding slowly. "You didn't reopen one of your wounds?" She shook her head. "That's good then. I'm... sorry to have startled you. With the boys acting so strange I figured leaving you own your own tonight wouldn't be the best idea imaginable."

    "Thank you," [Y/n] dipped her head gratefully. 

"Oh... and I thought I should tell you..." Nyais began, running a hand through his hair, "the 19th girl was pronounced dead this morning.  I'll have to deal with the paperwork for that," he sighed, "you're the only one left."  A sudden pit formed in [Y/n]'s stomach at his words.  They'd all died?

"That's... terrible," [Y/n] said softly, looking down.  "D-do you mind me asking... how...?"

"One of the vampires they were looking after," Nyais explained shortly.  [Y/n] nodded slowly.

"Is that... the same for all the others...?" she asked.  Nyais paused before shaking his head.

"No," he sighed.  "The first girl died thanks to an asthma attack.  We didn't know she needed an inhaler," he shrugged.  That surprised [Y/n] a little - after all, hadn't he said they'd been watched since the age of three?  "The next two girls had taken their own lives.  One dehydrated herself and the other went delirious from the situation and fed the children on their blood," he hummed.  It looked like he struggled to admit to this - [Y/n] wondered if he considered this a form of defeat.  "At this point it was the kids who started killing the girls.  The kids and Dr Rayne... three girls were taken," he admitted, shivering at the memory of Nari.  "Twelve were killed by the children."

[Y/n] processed this for a while.  Three girls died in the early stages - three girls were taken by Rayne.  12 girls killed by the children.  Three squared makes nine, but only 12 girls were killed by children.  18 girls.  Of course, she was the 20th.  There was one he hadn't told her about.

"That's only 18 girls," [Y/n] said matter-of-factly. 

"Yes, it is," Nyais looked down.

"What—?"

"I killed one," he cut her off, his eyes going dark for a second.  [Y/n] shuffled back a little, her eyes slightly wider than usual.  "It... it was an accident.  She came at me with a kitchen knife so I responded accordingly.  She... she cut herself accidentally and— and I..." he sighed, "it hadn't been my intention but she hadn't been eating.  Her blood pressure dropped and I couldn't resist.  That's... that's why I got so mad at you when your eating habits began to fall apart."  [Y/n] nodded slowly.