Killing Game Quarter

Chapter 6: The Sleepless and The Broken Part 7

Surprisingly, there was another person who looked worried about the topic of memories.

Risa was over at her own table, shaking and staring blankly at her food. She looked worried, and scared. I wanted to go over and talk to her, but Poppy chimed in for the conversation topic.

“I’ll start then! My favorite memory as a lil’ kiddy was probably when me and Oscar, my dog, were outside hangin’ out, and then a butterfly landed on his nose!”

“Aww, that’s cute.” Urkstin complimented.

“Yeah, it was adorbs, up until Oscar ate the butterfly.” Poppy ended, speaking coldly. She looked up to everyone else, who had a wide eyed look. After a silent moment, Poppy burst into laughter

“Y’all should look at your faces!” She cried out, laughing harder than she ever has.

“THAT is your favorite memory?” Liam asked, sounding uncharacteristically confused.

“Yessir! Ya can’t tell me that that’s not funny.” She replied, trying to see if anyone else was laughing.

“Can’t say that I find it as funny as you do.” Mia coldly responded, shaking her head slightly. I used the downtime to drag myself up, throwing out my food, and slyly sitting down next to Risa as the rest continued to talk.

“Hey, are you alright?” I questioned, quietly and dry from the lack of sleep. Risa slowly looked up to me, without losing her fearful look.

“I… I’m fine.” She responded.

“You sure? You can tell me if something’s wrong.” I retorted, getting a slight idea as to what might be going on here.

“Well...it’s just, I don't know how to explain this…” She started, looking away, “And you wouldn’t believe me if I told you anyway…” A moment of potential realization led me to drink another cup of coffee to wake myself up.

“Does it have anything to do with dreams?” I continued, remembering how well Poppy took my own talk about my nightmares. Risa’s shocked expression led me to believe that I was right.

“How do you-” She stammered, not able to find the words.

“I’ve been having odd dreams too. Memories of my family, eventually always leading to some kind of demented mirror of the scenario, and also always leading to some kind of figure finding me.” I explained, cautiously recalling my nightmares.

“Oh, I see…” Risa mumbled, sounding upset.

“Is that not what you’re going through?” I shot back, trying to learn about what she’s experiencing.

“Not really…” She started, holding her head in her hands, “Whenever I sleep, I get these… jumbled messes of memories, that I can’t remember fully. They never fully play out, and I’m never able to fully remember what they are.”

“What kinds of fragments of memories do you remember?” I asked, feeling more and more intrigued by her situation.

“I… I don’t know,” Risa replied, her voice shaking, “It hurts my head, and I keep feeling worse and worse every time I have to go through it.”

“I’m… so sorry.” I said, trying to comfort her, as she started to shake harder, “Have you talked to Mia about this?”

“No… she’s always so cold and always sounds like she doesn’t care,” Risa explained, tearing up, “I don’t have anyone else to talk about this who would actually care.”

“What about Urkstin?” I questioned.

“He’s too much of a pure person, I don’t want to burden him… I don’t want to burden anyone but-” Risa choked, tears streaming down her face. I had no words for her as she wept, and I felt bad for her. However, I had enough to worry about myself, and I don’t think I could’ve helped her even if I wasn’t dealing with my own problems.

All I could do was leave her to her own devices, as everyone else started to disperse from the cafeteria, keying me in on the fact that breakfast was over. I stood up, and started to think of my usual question, with a lot less energy behind it. Who did I want to spend a couple hours with today?

. . .

After a couple seconds of brain frying thought, I decided to grab another cup of coffee, and go to hang out with Liam, who was just leaving the cafeteria. I picked up my pace to catch up with him, and started a conversation with him.

“Hey Liam, where were you heading?” I asked, trying to sound as upbeat as possible.

“I am making my way towards the infirmary. Would you like to join me?” He responded, looking back at me.

“Sure, I’ve got nothing better to do.” I responded, groggily dragging myself behind Liam. We quietly made our way to the infirmary, passing by a few people, but surprisingly not even Liam gave them a passing hello. He was focused on reaching the infirmary, and hurried in once we did.

“So, why are we here?” I asked, taking a sip from my coffee. Liam opened the cabinet and grabbed some ointments and bandages, before sitting down on one of the beds.

“I required medical assistance due to an accident that occurred between myself and Ms. Akira.” He explained, carefully showing me his hand, which had the healing wound of a large gash across the length of it. The sight drew my brain out of it’s hibernation.

“Jesus, what happened?” I asked, going over and sitting down next to him.

“Nothing that requires much explanation, the majority is my fault. I had cut myself accidentally.” He responded, glancing lightly at the Loudspeaker. Must not be something he wanted the person on them to hear.

“Ah, well, do you need any help with that?” I offered, leading to Liam looking up at me.

“Do you expect yourself to be able to handle the potential bloody outcome of assisting?” He questioned, as I sloppily nodded. With that, Liam nodded gently, and reached around to hand me the bandages. “Be ready to wrap them around my palm.”

With that, he whipped out a small knife, and carefully began to cut along the top layer of skin protecting his wound.

“What are you-” I asked, before Liam powered through the rest of the layer, with a quick grunt. He removed the small portion of skin, and quickly opened up the tube of ointment.

“I am helping this pain reduce itself for the coming days,” He explained, hissing in pain as he rubbed the ointment along the wound, “As well as making sure that it does not become infected.”

“I see.” I replied, feeling a bit queasy at the sight of the wound, lightly letting out some blood, as Liam applied the rest of the ointment. After a short while of catching his breath, Liam wiped some sweat from his forehead, before looking over to me.

“I am prepared to have the bandages now.” He spoke, bringing his hand over to me, as I lightly held it, unwrapping the bandaging. As I slowly began applying the bandaging, I tried to distract Liam from the conversation.

“Hey Liam, how much do you remember about your time before waking up here?” I asked, trying to avoid talking about parents as much as possible. Unfortunately Liam did not share the same sentiment.

“The most I recall was growing up with my parents, and growing into a talented person, according to those videos.” He explained, looking happy to remember better times. I forced myself to continue the talk, to try and make him happier and open his confusing shell up more.

“How were your parents like with you as a kid?” I asked, trying to get a hold of his family life.

“Well, they were both very competent parents, and even more competent women.” He started to explain, before my shock interrupted him.

"Women? As in, multiple?" I asked, sounding much more of an i***t then I had wanted to, as Liam turned towards me to respond, as I worried that I had upset him.