Blame

The Eyes

"Man, just come with us."

It had been a few days since Laura had been allowed to leave the hospital.

A slight paranoia still hung in the air, but nothing particularly interesting had been happening.

Really, the only thing of note was that Mister Afton had actually let Laura skip out on their most recent shows. 

"No, I'd prefer to not be around rowdy people for another three hours, thank you."

At the current moment, Elizabeth, Jesse,  Arlen, and Yenn were sitting on the train's dining car, and Jesse was trying to convince her brother to join her and like, ten other people from the troupe in going to some restaurant in town.

"Going out with other people is smarter than going out by yourself."

"My desire to go out is fueled by a need to be by myself, so going out with you guys kinda defeats the purpose."

"If you want to be by yourself, then just stay on the train," Yenn suggested. "After we leave it'll just be you and Elizabeth."

Arlen laughed, "Oh, like that's any better."

"Give that a rest already, will you?" Jesse rolled her eyes. "Listen, if you decide to go take a walk and get yourself hurt, then I'm gonna hurt you even further."

"I'm not gonna get hurt," Arlen assured, "because if someone gets near me, then they're gonna be on the business end of this."

He produced a small flick knife from his jacket, popping the blade out.

Jesse frowned, "Hey, isn't that mine?"

"Yep," her brother replied, popping the 'p'.

"I still w-wouldn't take a w-walk outside by y-yourself if I w-were y-y-you..." Elizabeth mumbled.

Arlen raised one of his thin eyebrows, moving to point the end of the blade at her face. "Is that some kind of veiled threat?"

Elizabeth, for whatever reason, wasn't fazed or all that surprised, so she just continued to drum her fingers on the tabletop in front of her and stare at the many scratches that decorated it.

Yenn groaned and stood up. "I can't be bothered to be a part of another one of these conversations. I'm gonna wait in my room until we leave."

And with that, he walked off.

Jesse pushed Arlen's arm down. "Don't do that. What's wrong with you? Didn't they teach you in kindergarten to not point sharp objects at people?"

He rolled his eyes in response. "Oh brother, it's not that big of a deal. A lot of people here get paid to do far more dangerous stuff with sharp objects. Hell, she used to be one of them." He pointed the knife at Elizabeth again.

"Arlen. Cut it out." Jesse pushed his arm down once more. "And you can't seriously think that my dinky ass flick knife will protect you from anything. Laura said that whoever the hell attacked her was way bigger than she was, and she's like, six foot two or something. There is absolutely no way that you can fend off somebody like that with a two-inch blade."

"Yes, I can. I'm tough," Arlen said indignantly.

Jesse snorted, "Sure, alright."

"I am!"

"Liz, how tall are you?"

"Six foot eight," Elizabeth said without looking up.

"Stand up."

The redhead slowly rose to her feet, standing in the middle of the aisle.

"Go on, Arlen." Jesse gestured at her friend. "Prove to me that you're tough enough to take down someone bigger than Laura."