#so i kinda drifted out but kept the chars alive in my imagination

[recordmcqueen]

Mmkay i know very few of my followers are here for bbb and lets face it thats not what ur getting around here anyway lmao but yeah im done with that now so if thats why ur here ig u can feel free to leave or stay but im not touching that hornets nest again

[tcstu]

April’s Honorable Mentions

This was definitely a hard month to judge. Each of the entries below took a totally different perspective and it is very difficult to hold them to any kind of comparison. I hope you will take the time to read each of these stories and make sure to let the writers know if you liked one. I’m sure they would love to hear from you!

As a reminder, the piece for this month’s contest is an untitled work created by @beewithagun. If you like this picture as much as I do, make sure to check out Beewithagun’s page to see more original artwork!

(The Honorable Mentions below are listed in the order they were received and do not reflect a system of ranking.)

Title: The Fay

Written by: @daalseth​

Deep in the forest lived a fay. Older than time, but as young as spring she had known every tree since it was a seed. She was the soul of the forest. When she was sad, the forest mourned, when she was happy the forest was bright, and when she was angry, well you didn’t want to be in the forest when the fay was angry.

The fay came across a fallen tree. It was lying on the ground, but it hadn’t blown down. It was cut off square at the base. Then she saw another. There was a clearing, a whole section of her forest that was dead and many of the fallen were missing. As the fay passed over she was horrified. What could have caused this?

Soon she came upon the camp of men where they were feeding the dying trees into grinders. The fay could hear the trees, still alive scream as they were shredded into wood chips. The fay’s horror grew deeper and she went to the men to plead for them to stop. Beg them to not kill the trees, her brothers and sisters. But as soon as she appeared the men grew angry at her interference. They yelled at her, threw things at her, they even tried to shoot at her.

The fay fled into the depths of the forest. She was heartbroken and began to cry. When she cried the rain began to fall. So deep was her sorrow that the rain came down in torrents and began to flood the blasted land. The fay went back to the camp. She saw that the men had stopped shredding trees. Now they were battling the waters. They had used machines to push earth up to block the water. The fay noticed that some metal barrels had been broken by the machine and were spilling their poison into the water. The water flowed across the clearing into the forest. Wherever the poison flowed, everything died. Fish, mouse, moss, and tree all died in agony.

The fay grew angry. The men could see fire in her eyes, and sparks illuminated her hair. The rain turned to thunder and bolts of lightning rained down upon the camp. They struck the shredder, and the building, and the piles of shredded trees, and the lightning struck the men, it ESPECIALLY struck the men. Electric hands reached into even the deepest hiding place to grab the terrified men.

Soon it was done. The fay came out and passed among the charred remains. She smiled a grim smile. The rain stopped and the sun came out. She was pleased. Though the fay mourned her lost friends, she knew the forest would heal with time.

At last she came to one man still alive. With his last breath he pleaded for help. She looked at him with cold eyes and turned away.

She was the fay of the forest and men were not her concern.

Title: “About Danny’s First Time”

Written by: @evanthenerd83

It was wonderful.

It was also kinda, sorta, a little gross.

There were a few glaring issues. Primarily the question of how Danny would get into the appropriate position, and how she would get into hers.

The swamp wasn’t all that big. It wasn’t even a swamp. The girl sat in a rather small pool.

Said pool was, of course, filled with water. And said water contained muck, yuck, and other things generally considered unpleasantly…  sticky. Twigs and fallen leaves floated along the surface—

No. Not floated, exactly. They were stuck on the surface, a skin not unlike jellied jam.

Which meant the girl could only sit on her knees, or lay on her stomach with her head propped up in her arms.

Danny particularly liked that position. Her skin was green, lighter splotches running down her neck and her arms and her spine. Her hair spilled over bare shoulders.

And it also made certain things much more… pronounced. Danny felt his blood rushing down.

The girl tried to explain why she couldn’t leave the pool. Something about an ancient curse and her mother. A woman who, as she so elegantly put it, hated her guts.

“All of my sisters are much more, you know. Beautiful. Human… er? More human? Humanoid?”

Danny didn’t care if her sisters were literal goddesses. They’d never compare to her. He pulled off his shirt, then threw it over his shoulder. The skull-and-crossbones printed on the front disappeared.

The girl blushed. An even darker shade of green filled her cheeks.

“Anyway, you’d be better off going to them. I don’t have, like, much experience with… you know… uh… physical stuff.”

Danny plunged into the pool. The water wasn’t cold. It wasn’t warm, either. It was nothingness.

The girl shifted in place, while Danny took her hand. It was only slightly warmer than the water, which surprised him.

He kissed it. “Neither do I.”

The girl stared, eyes wide. Then, she glanced down, at his bare chest. Then, up to his face. Then, down to his chest, again, and then—

“Oh, what the hell?”

Soggy lips met lips.

She laid back.

He leaned forward.

Calm hands clasped behind his neck.

Awkward hands panicked.

He grabbed the straps of her swamp-weed dress, the not-actually-fabric tearing apart, as easily as paper. Certain things were suddenly freed.

“Oh. Crap. Sorry—”

“Don’t be.”

Legs thin as twigs wrapped around his waist.

She undid the zipper to his jeans, yanking them down, discarding his underwear at the exact same time. Something else was suddenly freed.

“Now, let’s just… a little to the—”

“L-like that?”

“Oh! U-uh. Y-yeah.”

What happened next was kinda, sorta, a little gross.

But also… wonderful.

Title: “Sing Me Out a Storm”

Written by: @winterrose42

She couldn’t remember the last time it had rained this much.

Though she could only imagine the chaos that must be raging above the pond underwater it was as calm and serene as it had ever been. Idly, she swung her feet through the loose sand and reeds, blurring her vision with the silt she kicked up. That was just fine with her, there had never been much to see in her small abode to begin with. Sand and rocks worn smooth and sparkly lined to bottom, with the sides sloping up gently until they met the shore. She could swim from one end to another in about three minutes if she went slowly, and it was just deep enough that casual swimmers wandering in wouldn’t see her unless they knew to look. It was perfect.

Closing her eyes she sighed contently and stood her ears up just a little bit more to catch more of the soft pattering of rain that was still filling up her home at a slow and steady rate. The frogs had long stopped their evening croaking and she knew the few fish that lived here wouldn’t have a care that it was storming above their home. The pond hardly ever changed and when it did it simply meant there was a meal to be had, which was always fine with her.

Perking up she strained her ears as something new invaded her serenity. A low, mournful note drifted down to her slowly, draping itself around her shoulders and weighing them down with the burden it carried. Tears pricked her eyes as she pushed off from where she’d been sitting, intent on seeing what could make such heart jerking noises. Their voice picked up again, another long, drawn out note that was almost more moan than song. Curious and slightly concerned she drifted closer to the hunched figure. The song wrapped around her so slowly she hardly noticed it, pulling her along as gently as a suggestion with little intention beyond calling for aid. Closer and closer she came, reeds fanning out with her hair as she kept as low as she could with her eyes still above water, squinting through the storm to see clearer.

Quickly, so quickly even her natural instincts were too slow, the comforting net turned to one full of malice, her limbs cinched so close she could hardly breathe as she finally caught sight of the face of her entrancement. Cold eyes devoid of the emotion their owner had been singing peered at her viciously from under soaked bangs. The notes heightened in pitch, rocking up to a scream as her own voice stuck fast in her throat. Deep in her bones she knew a siren was not meant to be trapped this way; enchanting one wasn’t something she had ever heard of, but feeling the last tendrils of the song fade away into a cold nothing she knew it didn’t matter.

She couldn’t remember the last time it had rained this much.

Untitled

Written by: Felix @that-dumb-space-kid

We’d been traveling for little over two days when we found her. Cass had insisted on taking breaks over our journey, and, with some persistence, I was able to convince Sage to go along with her idea. The lake she’d found was far enough from the path that no one would notice us but close enough that we wouldn’t get lost. Those were Sage’s requirements, our quest would remain as secret as possible. They said word would travel fast about three teenagers going off to battle an evil force. Of course, they were probably right. It was raining when we finally reached the lake. Sage set about surveying the area, making sure nobody was around, and Cass began digging through a basket for some food, leaving me with nothing to do. I decided to go down to the lake to get some water. I couldn’t hear quite right over the rain, but I could’ve sworn I heard crying as I walked up to the water.

When I reached the shore, I was certain I that’s what I was hearing. I looked out over the lake, and that’s when I saw her. She didn’t look like the monsters Sage warned us about, but she didn’t look human either. I was so entranced by who she was or what she could be that I didn’t hear Cass and Sage approach me. Cass opened her mouth to speak, when the creature in the lake snapped her head to us.

“Who are you?” She sounded almost human. If I hadn’t been looking at her, I would have assumed she was. Sage and Cass immediately started arguing over whether or not we could trust her. Not that that was surprising. They argued over everything. The creature and I held eye contact, unnoticed by the others. Eventually I spoke, silencing my friends’ argument. “I’m Oliver. Who are you?”

“Nimue.” For a second her tears stopped, and it seemed as though a venom overtook her. “They destroyed my village.” The moment passed and she was crying again.

“Who?” Sage glared at Cass as she asked.

“I don’t know. Darkness started pouring down into the water, and I heard voices and then nothing. When I woke up, I was the only survivor.”

“Sound exactly like what we’re after,” Sage muttered. “It’s too much of a coincidence.”

Cass slapped them. “No, it’s not.”

I stepped into the lake and offered my hand to Nimue. “If I’m right, we’re already looking for the thing that destroyed your village. How would you like to join us in stopping it?”

Before Sage could yell at me, Nimue nodded and grabbed my hand. She climbed out of the water and became the fourth member of our quest.

[seasonofthegeek]

Drift Away, Chapter 1

It is a known fact that I am vampire trash so I decided to play in the My Hero Academia universe since I’ve already got some Miraculous vampire trash fanfics, haha. 

___

“You’re quite beautiful, you know.”

Eijiro Kirishima blinked wearily, hoping the voice in his head would fade away like everything else around him. His eyes were so dry that his lids may as well be made out of sandpaper for how painful the action was. Worse, the little bit of energy it took seemed to make the voice louder.

“The color red suits you. Let’s make your hair match those pretty eyes, shall we?”

A low keening sound filled the dark room and it took him a moment to realize he was the one making it.

“You’re boring me, Eijiro. It’s no fun if you don’t kill them. Rip his throat out or I’m afraid I’ll have to punish you.”

Everything hurt but his fangs ached the worst. He was almost glad he couldn’t leave the small cottage. There would be no controlling his appetite out in the world now. Small mercies for a starved vampire who didn’t enjoy killing. Maybe he should consider himself lucky.

“I’m going out. You’re to stay here until I return.”

With a thrumming ache that travelled up his spine, he remembered the fake smile she gave him as she spoke, the cold eyes that showed her words for the lie they were.

“You won’t leave the cottage. You won’t feed. You won’t use your power. You won’t disobey me.”

And then she was gone, her sire command settling him in place, trapping him at the tiny dining room table in the small cabin in the middle of a secluded forest until her return.

He tried to swallow, and fire scorched his throat. Why was he awake? He’d drifted in and out of consciousness for years, but his mind was so fuzzy that he knew this last time had probably been longer than ever before.

A small thought filled him with hope and dread. Was she back? Had his sire finally returned to free him from this prison?

His mind provided the memory of a rarely seen furious face, fangs glistening and eyes hard. His sire’s real face when she let her loving façade slip.

“You belong to me, Eijiro Kirishima. You will never see them again. I’ll kill them if you ever go back. I may kill them anyway just so you’ll stop thinking about them. You’re mine. Mine. Tell me you understand. Tell me you love me. Now! Do it now!”

The sensation of crying without tears was odd but not unfamiliar. He took in a shaky breath and could hear and feel the air rattling around in his sunken chest. He’d been dead for centuries and it was a habit he’d never been able to let go of. His sire had detested it which could’ve caused his involuntary need to keep breathing even though it wasn’t necessary to his survival any longer. He’d always had a slight rebellious streak. That’s how he got into this mess in the first place.

How was he still even here? How had he not withered away to nothing after all this time? He was barely a husk of what he once was, but yet…

But yet he still existed.

Kirishima was so tired. So very tired. Everything hurt and he could sense the sun beginning to peek over the horizon. He didn’t waste the energy to look up at the loose board in the ceiling that had given way after a bad storm years ago and let a thin sliver of sunlight through when the fiery ball was high in the sky. He attempted to move his fingers, but the charred digits stayed in place on the table, once again waiting for the sun to burn them. It was the same every day.

He wanted to go to sleep again. He needed to clear his mind. He needed to think of nothing, of no one…

Especially not her. ___

“You look smug for someone who’s about to get his head and heart removed,” a guard scoffed, yanking on the chain attached to Katsuki Bakugo’s bound hands.

The other vampire smirked in reply. “And you look like little more than a snack to someone who just finished eating his sire and is still standing.” He flashed a grotesque grin, fangs on display and saliva dripping, and was pleased to see a flicker of fear in the guard’s expression before he roughly pulled him forward to keep moving down the hall.

Bakugo let his grin fall and glared down at his restraints as he was shuffled along by a caravan of guards. His hands were locked into metal coverings and while he could use his power of explosive fire to melt them, he wasn’t sure his skin would stay intact with that much heat trapped against it. His bravado was mostly show at this point because he was relatively certain he was taking his final steps as he was forced closer to the council room.

He should’ve run when he had the chance.

But no, he’d stayed around to check for survivors of his sire’s line. He hadn’t meant to kill them all when he’d killed her. He’d only wanted to rid himself and the world of her, but…

But that wasn’t how it worked.

Truth be told, he wasn’t even sure how he was still around. It wasn’t just rumor that killing the head of a line would result in the death of every vampire they’d sired; it was proven fact. He wasn’t the first fledgling to rise up and murder his sire in a fit of rage; he was just the only one who’d survived it.

Survived it only to be killed now by a group of stuffy ancients who only cared about upkeeping laws that should’ve changed centuries before.

His thoughts were interrupted as he was stopped before a pair of large, delicately carved wooden doors. There was no telling how old the doors were, and he could feel how deep underground they’d come. It was suffocating to him, but the elders hadn’t been to the surface in lifetimes.

Some sign was given and then he was being moved forward again as the doors swung inward. The room was empty save for a single chair in the center and a large table with the heads of the vampire council seated behind it on the other side.

Bakugo was chained to the chair without the loss of any of his other restraints and the guards moved to stand behind him. He ground his teeth together. “Bunch of show for a guy you’re just gonna kill. You really so scared of me?”

One of the elders made a sound that landed somewhere between a laugh and a cough and Bakugo caught the edge of his lips upturn into the smallest sign of a smile before one of the others spoke.

“You will be executed for your crime, make no mistake, fledgling.”

Fear rushed through his system, but he tried to keep his expression bored. He’d practiced it for decades now. “Then stop boring me and get it over with, you old bat.”

There was definitely a laugh now and Bakugo looked to the first elder again. “You have to admit he’s fun, Wyrmen. Come on.” He ignored the murmurs of his fellow leaders and focused his attention on the younger vampire set before them. “You have a chance to save your life, if you’re interested. Something tells me you will be. You seem the type to have a zest for life. Wish these old coots felt the same.”

Bakugo saw the glares and flashes of anger from the other elders but none spoke up against the first. “I’m listening,” he said slowly.

“As you know, The Countess, your late sire, was a collector of individuals with peculiar abilities.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” Bakugo snorted. “Wanted all the power she could get her grubby hands on.”

“Which is why she turned you, of course.”

He clenched his jaw and didn’t speak.

The elder’s smile grew a bit wider. “Yes, we know, young one. Those hand casings aren’t only for show.”

“Yeah, didn’t figure they were.”

“Your little stunt has been quite the talk around here. You could’ve burnt your sire to a crisp with that spectacular power of yours, but you chose to drain her like a human.”

Bakugo shrugged the best he could in his restraints but found he couldn’t quite meet the old vampire’s eyes anymore.

“Well, to the meat of it then. Quite a long time ago, the Countess came in contact with a human with hardening skin. She thought he would be a good bodyguard, so she changed him. Imagine everyone’s surprise when his hardened skin worked to keep him safe from the sun as well.”

Bakugo knew he was letting his shock show, but he couldn’t help it. There was always talk of some magic that would allow vampires to walk in the sun, but for all he could tell, it was mostly myth. Was he really to believe that his sire had someone who could walk in the sun?

And that he’d probably killed him when he killed her.

“What makes you think he’s even still alive? Every fledgling of hers I found was nothing but ash when I got to them.”

“He was one of her firsts and much older than any of the playthings she kept around here,” the elder answered, amusement clear in his voice. “Much more powerful than you, surely.”

The younger vampire bristled at that but held his tongue.

“Our proposition,” the elder continued, “is that you find the whereabouts of this vampire and bring him to us. Once you’ve done that, you’re free to live out the rest of your existence however you see fit, aligning with our laws, of course.”

“Of course,” Bakugo muttered. “And how the hell am I supposed to find some old guy that may or may not be a pile of ash now?”

“I suppose you’ll find a way if you value your life, which I believe you do.” The elder held his gaze steadily, smile never slipping even as his eyes grew cold. “And you have a time constraint so perhaps that will help your motivation along.”

The look in the ancient’s eyes told Bakugo that he didn’t have a chance in hell of finding the vampire they wanted, but there was also the smallest spark of hope there. He’d worked with less.

“Fine,” he huffed. “It’s a deal.”

___

“So, it’s a suicide mission then?” Denki Kaminari dropped to the couch with a frown. “I don’t know if I’m so much into that, man. I kinda like living and all.”

“Didn’t ask you to come,” Bakugo replied in irritation as he rifled through a stack of papers on his desk. “Why the hell are you here anyway?”

“Wasn’t sure if you were coming back or not so I decided to hang out in case someone needed to claim your stuff.” The younger vampire grinned. “Figured you’d want it to go to family.”

“You’re not my fucking family.”

“Am so.”

“No, you’re not.”

“We’re like cousins. Our sires share the same sire.”

“I hate you.”

Kaminari laughed. “You don’t though. I think you might even kinda like me sometimes.”

Bakugo ignored him when he found what he was looking for and slipped his passport into the bag on his desk.

“You really think you can find this guy alone?”

“Don’t have much of a choice,” he answered gruffly. He needed to start packing his clothes; his flight was leaving soon and if he missed it, he’d have to wait another day to fly out to his first lead and time wasn’t exactly on his side.

“Hey, uh, kidding aside, do you want help?”

Bakugo turned around to see Kaminari standing now and awkwardly scratching at the back of his neck. “What?”

“Momo wants us to help you if you’ll take it.”

“Who’s us?”

The younger vampire shrugged. “Anybody you want to come along, I guess. She pleaded with the council before they brought you in, ya know. She tried to get them to allow her to claim you in her line, so you’d be under her protection and all.”

Bakugo returned his attention to his packing at that to hide his face. “Wouldn’t have done that.”

“She wouldn’t have made you; at least I don’t think she would. More like an on paper kinda thing.” Kaminari reached out hesitantly and put his hand on the other man’s shoulder. “She wants to protect you.”

The rest of the words were left unspoken. Bakugo was very familiar with what Momo Yaoyorozu wanted. She was everything his sire hadn’t been, kind and warm and caring. It would’ve been a wonder how she managed to survive so long in such a cruel world, but Bakugo knew she had the same penchant for gathering powerful beings around herself just like his sire had.

And she’d wanted to protect all the poor little fledglings he’d inadvertently killed when he drained his sire.

He wasn’t sure he could trust Momo.

He wasn’t sure he could trust anyone.

“I’ll be fine. Now, get out. I gotta get the rest of my shit together.”

Kaminari sighed loudly and flipped his hand up in a careless wave. “Fine. I tried. Don’t get yourself killed, I guess.”

“Denki.”

The other man turned around; surprise evident on his face. “Thanks for the offer.” Bakugo dropped his gaze as he muttered. “And if I’m not back in a year or so, you can have my stuff.”

“Love you too, man. Be careful.”

Buy me a cherry coke?

[wooolfies]

Space Odyssey

Verse: Trekverse 

Prompt: Sacrifice

Warnings: angst, death

Characters/Parties:  Joan Weiss, Logan Wolf

Word Count: 1353

One moment she was fully focused on the blue glowing tablet in her hands, the next she lied on the floor under the desk. A quiet curse left her mouth as she stood up.  Something must have stopped the ship’s drive.

“Logan?”, she called her friend via the intercom. He was the only other person on board.

“I'm sorry, Doc. We just performed a full stop. I’ll figure out the reason why. Give me a second,”.  He sounded stressed.

“I'll grab my gear and come forward, if you need a hand.”

“Well, if you must.”

The doctor let go of the button and grabbed the tablet and her bag. She left the room and turned into the narrow hallway, walking forward towards the bridge.

She pressed the key to open the door to the bridge, and entered the brightly lit room.

The grabbed an earpiece to contact Logan again, who was at stern, where the engineering was located.  

“Okay mate, what do you need to know?” she asked.

“First tell me, is something flashing red?”

“The main engine.”

“No shit Sherlock. That's what I'm trying to fix right now, but there must be a problem somewhere else. Joan, check the circuits.”

“Copied that.”

“Remember the time we had to save this man from the station on Moxa IV?” Joan asked after quite a long pause.

“Yeah, we had the real McCoy with us and I was just the guy to open the door,” the young engineer chuckled.

“And then a seal of my suit just broke; fatigue. You saved my arse,” her smile was transmitted too.

“Or this time where we went camping at the Elliot Lake and in the morning a grizzly was eating our food.”

“Good old times. You still were a cadet at this time.”

“Well after all that we have another story to tell.”

She came back to the problem they had. “I can't spot something that's wrong, wait,  there is too little power flowing through the temp regulation.”

“Okay I might have an idea. Can you help me down here. In person I mean.”

Joan turned around and started moving towards the door.

“I'll do this the old fa--,” with a bright flash she was wrapped into darkness.

She couldn’t hear her friend anymore.

Instinctively she reached in front of her, where she felt the cold material of the door. She heard a quiet murmuring.

“Logan?! Are you alright?”

No answer, the connection probably broke off.

She opened  her bag and tried to find the torch.

The door had opened, but just a  few centimeters. She tried to look though the gap.

“Logan?”

She heard steps approaching. She did not like the dark, this situation was starting to get weird already.

“We have no power,” explained Logan. “I will try to fix it. Are you alright?”

“I am. Are you?”

“I kinda tore my arm, it's bleeding a bit.”

“Okay.” Joan exhaled. “Let's try to open this door.”

“Aye. There should be paddles to manually open.”

Joan opened the small cabinet but it was empty.

“No, sir.”

“Fuck. Look, I need to talk to you about something,” he said, the ‘about’ carrying his Canadian accent. “Now you are trapped…” he added more softly. Logan and Joan had started out as people with similar interest but they had grown together in course of the years. At first working at separated places later on the same ship.

“Yes, mate.”

“I think I know why this is not working.”

“Our favourite Scotsman told me to replace the paddles. But I forgot to put the new ones in there.”

“So?”

“That's not the only thing. I think I made a mistake when rewiring the drive's temperature-regulation systems. The reason why we are now drifting in a powerless tin can. I fucked up.”

“You feel guilty?”

“Yeah, I do. By the way that's not all bad news. We don't have auxiliary power means--”

“-- no life support”, the medical officer finished his sentence.

“We are screwed.”

“Nah. We just wait. Our rendezvous point with our parent ship is a few parsecs away. They will find us”, Joan felt that it was her duty to keep him calm. That was quite of a challenge because it was hard to focus for her and she noticed that she was getting nervous as well.

“Logan, could you go and get my medical kit, please?”

“Yes.”

She could hear him leave. She sat down and turned on her tablet again. Her mind wrapped around the math she just did on it.

Logan returned and sat down.

“Can you pass it through the gap?” she asked.

“Let me try.” Thankfully it was a fit.

“Let's make a deal,” she said and tried to sound as optimistic as possible.

“I fix you and you fix the ship.”

Logan chuckled. “Okay.”

He put the hurt arm though the gap. Really no big deal, Joan thought.

It was really just a big scratch and she fixed it petty fast.

After that Logan left to take a look at the electronics again.

She never liked the dark ever since she was a child. “There is just Logan with you, there are no monsters,“ she whispered to herself. She began to humm the Largo from Dvorak's New World Symphony.

She already imagined all the worst case scenarios. She had to stop it, she was a professional, but being anxious was not really professional.

Logan in the meantime was at the end of the hallway, the torch in his mouth and trying to switch the charred cables and burned relais for new ones. If he could repair the auxiliary  power, they would have back the life support and communications.

He felt a drop of sweat running down his temple.

It was just a mess, nothing really looked like it looked before. His mistake had lead to a chain reaction that fried every neighbouring system. He would need hours to repair it needless to say that he lagged spare parts and he only had the basic tools onboard.

The situation had a dark feel to it and he felt kind of desperate. What if they suffocated until the others found them?

He cursed and went forward again to update Joan on their situation.

“Yes, I kind of knew that would happen”, Joan said. “I did the maths. We have 90 minutes left before the carbon dioxide level is too high and we pass out.”

“That's not a lot of time.” He observed her picking up the torch that was lying on the ground. She opened the medical kit again. He noticed that she was crying.

“What are you doing?”, he asked softly.

“I'll grab an injector and load it with vecuronium.”

“I'm not in pain,” Logan stated.

“It is not for you.”

“Wait what?”

“It's for me”, she sniffed and disappeared from his sight.

She sat down with her back facing the door.

“Vecuronium bromide relaxes your muscles. It's a fast working anesthetic. It will relax my diaphragm too. This will buy you time.”

“It will kill you. You can't do it. It's my fault. I could never forgive myself. Give it to me.”

“This is what I mustn't do. Logan, I swore an oath, to protect life and do no harm.”

“Even if this life is guilty of causing this situation?”

“Yes, even then. The truth is I love you. I couldn't live without you.”

“Same goes for me.” He replied, his voice was cracking.

“I am so sorry, Johanna. Please just don't, let us die together if we have to.” He put his hand through the gap and grabbed hers, feeling her warmth.

“I’m sorry as well.” She squeezed his hand. With the other one she lifted the injector to her neck and released  the content into the vein.

Her grip loosened up but he kept holding. With a weary sigh she fell over. He felt her pulse at her wrist and how it got weaker and weaker.  Unable to do something he watched her die. He felt like he was falling apart, all this guilt. But he had to stay alive, for her.