Chapter Text
Knock, knock!
Gem banged on the door; She could hear the thumping sound of music through the walls so she knew that no one would hear her if she just knocked.
Bright lights flashed through the windows, blinking yellow and blue.
Why was she doing this? She hadn’t even gone in yet and she already wanted to leave. She could just turn around right now and never come back. Nobody would notice ; she barely even knew any of these people so she could just not show up right? She could-
Her swarming thoughts were cut off by the door slamming open, the sound and smell from inside hitting her like a strong gush of wind.
She looked up at the person hanging sloppily on the doorframe holding a cup of presumably some sort of alcohol. She recognized the face as someone she saw once in the library.
They stood in an awkward silence for a few moments, Gem waiting to be let in and the guy at the door too drunk to realize she wasn’t about to talk to him and just wanted to walk by.
He really wasn’t catching on so she just squeezed by him, not bothering to be let in.
Upon entering she looked around, it was a big house so it wasn’t that crowded. She had only come here because Cleo convinced her to go. She said: “Pearl and Impulse will be there too” gosh she was so easy to convince.
She spotted Cleo and Impulse sitting in the living room with a group of other people, no pearl in sight…that was weird. Pearl hated new people even more than gem did, why would she not be with Cleo and impulse.
She shrugged it off, Pearl was probably just going to the bathroom or garbing a drink, gem was just overthinking everything (like she always does). She went over and sat down beside Cleo and figured she’d ask just in case.
“So, where’s Pearl? I didn’t see her in the main room”
“Oh yeah, I think she said she was just going to the loo real’ quick”
That eased gem anxiety, now she didn’t have a single reason to be worried...…right?
Then Impulse turned to her and said “we’re playing ‘never have I ever’ want to join?” he sounded so enthusiastic like a kid on Christmas morning.
She sighed and said “okay” feeling defeated by a kid when in reality Impulse was older than her by a long shot, she was going to regret saying yes, she just knew it.
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“Never have I ever…uh.…jumped off a bridge as a dare” an annoying voice exclaimed from the other side of the living room.
Gem sat starring at the blank wall. She hated this, she was trying to zone out to leave this god-awful party without leaving it, and surprisingly it worked. The loud chattering around her turning into muffled sound as her thought began to wander, but they weren’t all good thoughts.
Pearl still hadn’t come back yet; gem didn’t know how long she’d been at this party but she hadn’t seen Pearl once. Was she even here or was that just a lie Cleo and Impulse told her so she would go?
Maybe she went home and just didn’t tell any of them, maybe she has a perfectly valid reason to why she isn’t here right now. But that’s not like Pearl, is it? Did she even know Pearl-NO that was stupid, Pearl was her best friend, but her best friend wouldn’t just leave without saying anything…...right?
The sound of an ear deafening scream coming from the kitchen brought her out of her thoughts.
She turned to look but there were just a bunch of people running in the hall, blocking her view.
More screams of: “A MONSTER!” “IT TRIED TO KILL ME!” and “HELP!” echoed through the house.
But through all the screams there was one that stood out, she recognised that specific scream as Pearl’s.
All of her thought’s went flying out the window and she leapt over the couch, pushed her way through the swarm of people in the hall and ran into the kitchen.
There was indeed a monster there, standing on top of the kitchen island. It was tall with long lanky limbs, lilac skin with shimmery blue scales? But it didn’t look like a fish kind of monster, it looked more bug or bird-like, maybe those were feathers.
The monster growled, gritting its razor-sharp teeth, its pitch-black eye’s looking directly into her soul.
She had gotten side tracked, she needed to find Pearl not have a stare-down with literal death.
Gem ran around shouting Pearl’s name but no reply came. Where was she, why wouldn’t she respond? Was she unconscious? Had she gotten out side, oh please say she-
She felt a sting on her back and froze, the monster’s long claws digging into her back, dragging, creating a huge open flesh wound running along her spine, it burned. The monster pulled out its bloody daggers taking an alarming amount of flesh with it as she let out a hoarse yell.
The pain was unbearable, making her want to rip her own spine out. Her legs giving out, she turned to look at the monster.
It was even more menacing when she was so small, it towering above her. She stared directly in its eyes again and for a millisecond she could’ve sworn it flashed to a pair of heterochromatic eyes: yellow and blue.
It clicked in her brain just then, the monster-the monster was………Pearl.
A bolt of pain struck down on her chest, the pain shooting through every part of her body. She looked down with blurred vision to see Pearl the monster’s whole hand forearm-deep into her chest.
It pulled its hand out as Gem let out another pained scream. She felt herself becoming dizzier and dizzier. She could vaguely hear Cleo’s voice through the screams and…sirens? Were the police here?
“Gem” “Gem” “Gem” Cleo’s voice was frantic as she shook gem’s shoulder “Gem please”
She tried to focus on Cleo, but the flashing red and blue sirens in the background, the franticly running people, all the noise, was too much. She couldn’t focus.
She managed to say one last thing: “Pearl sh…moser” she could see Cleo’s lips move but she couldn’t hear the words, she could feel Cleo’s hands cupping her face as her vision faded fully to black.