Dystopia: Revival- PRIVATE ROLEPLAY

Chapter 4 iii- Unlit Fires- Short Story

*Unedited. There might be a lot of mistakes in here but I will edit soon*

Being two girls of reserved nature, conversation was not easy to conjure.

Cam had instantly gotten awkward and passive when she had met with her new partner at the main gate, replying to her greeting in a small "hey, Everly" before standing at her post silently.

Everly, who was planning to acquaint herself with Cam-- a girl she only ever seen at the Masked Guard sessions, and whose dry expressions and attitudes deterred Everly from making any further inquiry with-- had stopped short at her passiveness.

Pursing her lips, she remained likewise silent at her post at the parallel end of the gate. She understood that the other girl perhaps did not want to indulge in conversation-- she knew what it was like to no trust easily... maybe it was the same for Cam.

Despite having had combatted or fenced each other multiple times over the past couple of weeks, they hardly seemed to know anything about each other. Everly knew, though it was based off observation rather than having been told so (she acts on instinct and curiosity), that Cam had her own dorm and always seemed to let her guard down in front of her two friends-- Elites Jay and Declan.

After mere minutes of awkward tension in the air, they managed to break into simple conversation; starting first at simple questions then beginning to converse more casually. Though neither felt as comfortable as they would with their own closer friends, they got along rather well.

"Where is your next shift at?" Cam asked, as they began walking back towards the last five minutes of their shift. They'd almost forgotten they had to switch over until they noticed neither Ross or Declan had walked passed in quite some time-- they were the ones who were in the gardens during this time. Everly often felt invisible when Declan showed up randomly, had a small sarcastic conversation with Cam and then claimed "he had to be guarding" and was off.

"School gate. You?"

"West Wing. With Ash."

Everly hesitated before asking: "Why is there beef between you and Cleo?"

Cam went silent, her expression passive.

"You don't have to answer that," Everly added, looking ahead.

Cam laughed, though there was barely any humour in it. It was more of a spiteful scoff. "It's pretty obvious, huh?"

"I wouldn't say obvious. It wasn't noticeable until a couple of Masked Guard lessons went by."

"I guess you're just really observant?"

Everly bit the inside of her cheek. "Sorry. I was just curious."

"It's alright, I'm not interrogating you. And yeah, Cleo and I have just had some... Holy sh*t."

Everly furrowed her brows at Cam's change in tone, opening her mouth to ask, when she stopped short, her eyes landing on what was lying on the ground a couple meters ahead.

She froze in place, her eyes wide and her hands fallen by her sides.

Cam put up both arms-- one in front of Everly, almost like she was guarding her from oncoming danger, and the other over her shoulder to her sword. After unsheathing it, she looked around, assessing the area for whoever may be behind the death of the person who now lay on the ground in the middle of the school's gardens. Then she dashed, stopped beside the body, hands shaking, and let her sword clatter to the ground. Everly heard her muttering to herself; there was a lot of cursing in between.

Everly slowly followed suit, blinking repeatedly as though she were hallucinating, taking cautious steps. She tried to say something, but her voice caught in her throat and she suddenly felt sick.