Honey-Comb [A Dead by Daylight Fic]

Chapter 29

It was quite strange, silly even, the two women running circles around eachother like some dangerous game of ring-around-the-rosie. Eventually Honey would catch up, and eventually Claudette would end up on a hook, but before that they could pretend - for just a moment - that they were friends.

And nothing more.

"Who are you with tonight?" Claudette asked over her shoulder.

"The Trapper. You?"

"Nea, Ace, and David."

"Oh," Honey exaggerated the word with a grimace. It would have been a lie to say she hadn't thought about David, because she did, even as she drifted off to sleep against the Trapper's chest, she thought about him.

It was a strange feeling to put words to, but she knew what it looked like - it was ugly and unrefined, something a child might draw on the walls.

Ultimately, it meant trouble.
No matter the pride she took in it.
Not that she'd call it that either.

"Is he ok?"

"He's fine," Claudette said, "pissed, but fine. That's David for you though. He's always pissed about something. And if he isn't - give him time."

"Should I apologize?"

"If you want," Claudette said, "it won't change anything. He's not exactly the forgiving type, especially with uh ... with what you did."

Honey winced.

"It's not even a matter of being hurt," Claudette said, "David just doesn't like to lose. Dying means losing - I mean, it's not even REALLY dying."

"That's what E- the Trapper said."

"Yeah, it took a long time to figure out... She recreates it all you know - everything, these places, the trees, bushes, buildings - even us. We die, we come back. But we're not the us we should be, we're the us we WERE. Before the trials, before the hooks. Because if we knew the outcome, it would change the whole game."

"So what's the point?"

"Fear," Claudette said curtly, "it's the only thing that makes sense. We're these ... tiny little flies in this invisible web - and it all looks so familiar, so we think we're home, we think we're fine - but we're not. We're stuck. And she feeds on us while we struggle to survive a life that's not even real."

"That's terrible. How'd you ... figure it out?"

"I didn't," Claudette said, "it was Tal, he was - he was a survivor like me before -"

"Before?"

"Before he became one of you," she said with a pointed look back, "he figured it out and She punished him for it. Not all the Killers are bad people you know. Some are, but not all."

"Like Tal?"

"Yes, like Tal," she repeated with a nod, "he was nice to me. Like you. For a little while at least."

Their playful chase had relaxed into a friendly saunter, as if the game didn't exist at all and they'd only been walking home from work, enjoying one another's company to the sounds of summer crickets and cicadas.

"Over time you just kind of ... give in to it. People become different," there was a touch of sorrow to her voice, "in the end it didn't even matter if we knew."

Claudette paused.

"Hey, Honey."

"Yeah?"

She turned to face her, her brow knit together with a deep and fearful sorrow, "Promise you won't change. I don't care if you kill me every trial - just - do you think we could keep talking like this?"