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“What are you doing?”
Damon let go of the doorknob he had just wrapped his hand around, turning to face the influencer, who was nervously wringing his hands.
“What does it look like? I’m going to bed.”
“But that’s not my room.”
Damon pursed his lips, looking away from Kai.
“I’m not sleeping over anymore. If Desmond or Diana or anyone asks, tell them I—“
“Wait, wait.” Kai said, holding a hand up as he shook his head. “You— you can’t just leave me alone!”
Damon scoffed. “Weren’t you the one that made me sleep on the sofa?”
“But— but what if someone comes in!? You saw what happened to—“
A body unnaturally contorted against a platform. A face with the ghost of terror still glazed over it. A pair of eyes, a wild look in them, still open even in death—
“...If you’re really worried, go to Diana’s room. Since Ev—“
A declaration of trust. A beautiful smile.
A contemptful glare. A scream of utter agony. A sound of bones cracking and flesh breaking—
“—Since she doesn’t have a partner anymore, anyway. It works out.”
“But— but I—“ Kai groaned. “What if she tries something?”
Damon let out a bitter laugh. “You seriously think she would try to murder someone after all that shit she said at the trial?”
“I— I don’t know?! I— no… I don’t…” Kai harshly squeezed a hand over his temple, screwing his eyes shut.
“I know, that Diana wouldn’t do that, but— I want… what about you?”
“Huh?”
“What if someone tries to hurt you?”
“I— no one’s gonna try to murder someone right after—“
“You don’t know that! And what about later, huh? What if someone freaks out over that blackmail, a—and tries to hurt someone? Or what if Tozu does something else to try and get us to— I…”
Damon’s eyes met Kai’s.
Just a couple of days ago, he watched Kai’s eyes sparkle in a way that made Damon forget, if only for the briefest of moments, that he was in a killing game.
But now, he could only see fear and desperation in them.
“Damon, please.” Kai said, his voice cracking.
“…Fine. I’ll sleep in your room.”
Kai relaxed, his tensed shoulders dropping, a sigh escaping his mouth.
“Okay… come on.”
Kai put a hand on Damon’s shoulder as they started over to Kai’s dorm. He flinched away, and they walked on in silence.
Kai opened the door. Kicking off his shoes and taking his blazer off, Damon slipped under the bed’s covers and curled up on one side of the mattress. When Damon felt the other side dip, he scooted closer to the edge.
“…Goodnight, Damon.”
“…Night.“
__
Leaning forward, Damon rested his head on his hand as he watched Eva playing with her console across the table, her tongue sticking out through her teeth in concentration. Content, he listened to her occasionally make grunts of frustration or hums of celebration.
Abruptly, she put her console down, and stared up at Damon.
“Gave up already?” Damon asked, letting a teasing lilt into his voice.
“...Damon.”
“Yeah?”
“Are… are we friends?”
Damon blinked. “...What?”
“We’re friends, right?”
Damon didn’t say anything, searching for an answer. Eva continued.
“I… I never had a lot of friends. Or… any, really. At least no one that stuck around. But… you… we spent so much time together. I trusted you. And you told me you trusted me. You… we’re…”
“Y–yeah.” Damon said, his voice a little shaky, even with the smile on his face. “We’re friends. I– I didn’t think I’d make any friends in a place like this. Hell, I didn’t even want to. But… but you…” Damon looked up at Eva, expecting her to return his smile, but instead, she just nodded, staring down at the table with a contemplative look in her eyes.
“Then… why’d you kill me?”
The words were like a brick of ice against Damon’s face.
“...What? What are you–”
Damon blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw a fire engulfing Eva. Her skin was melting away, exposing muscle, then bone.
Damon screamed, recoiling hard enough that he fell out of his chair. He scrambled to get up, to help Eva, to do something, but the fire was already gone, leaving only a charred corpse in the chair where Eva was playing games just a few minutes ago.
As Damon wailed, tears bursting out of his eyes, Eva’s voice rang through his head.
“You did this.”
All Damon could do was shake his head as he continued to cry.
“You did this.”
Damon’s legs gave out from under him.
“You–
“DAMON!”
__
Damon shot up with a gasp. A pair of hands were gripping him tight, and Damon immediately pushed them off of him.
“Damon–”
“GET AWAY!” He screamed, screwing his eyes shut and trapping his tears.
“No! Damon– y–you just had a bad dream, everything’s okay– I mean, it’s not, but–”
“DON’T TOUCH ME! PLEASE–”
Damon stilled. The hands had returned to him, but they weren’t gripping him anymore. They gently cupped his shoulders, the pads of their thumbs rubbing circles into him.
Somehow, they gave him the courage to open his eyes.
In the dark, the first thing he saw was a pair of amber eyes, filled with concern and a bit of fear.
Damon blinked a couple of times, and then he saw Kai in his entirety. His hair was messed up, his clothes were rumpled, and his lips were parted.
The sight of the influencer brought Damon back down to reality, his heart and breath slowing down to a comfortable beat.
“You… you good now?” Kai asked, hesitantly.
Remembering himself, Damon jerked away from Kai. “...Yeah.”
As Kai was visibly searching for his words, Damon felt increasingly humiliated.
“Uh… no judgement, you know. That trial, everything that happened, it was fucked up. I would ha—“
“Please stop.” Damon groaned. It was amazing, how Kai’s condescension was frustrating enough that it overrid everything else in that moment.
“Do you wanna talk—“
“No.”
Damon fell back into the mattress, shutting his eyes, though he knew full well that sleep wouldn’t come again that night.
“Damon, come on. I know you’re awake.”
Damon furrowed his brow, eyes still shut.
“If you really don’t want to talk about it, fine. But I know Eva was your friend–”
Damon froze, his eyes fluttering open. “She wasn’t—“ Kai stared down at him expectantly, and Damon closed his mouth with a click. “…Forget it.”
“C’mon, Damon, don’t be like that. You two spent all that time together. I know you cared about her—“
“Stop reading into it.” Damon said with a sneer. “We weren’t making friendship bracelets or coming up with handshakes or any of that crap. She was just the only person here that didn’t treat me like I was some psychopath— that didn’t just blindly follow whatever that lawyer said—“
“That lawyer?” Kai scoffed. “Screw you, Damon.”
Damon laughed bitterly. “Oh, fuck off, Kai. You’re no better. I saw how you looked at me when we were put together. You fucking screamed.“
Damon looked pointedly at the tape still marking the floor.
“I thought that Eva was the only one out of all you that had a head on your shoulders. That— that I could trust. And she just went and— just— shut up, Kai.”
Damon laid back down in the bed, and all was quiet for a blissful moment.
“At the end of the trial– even before what Tozu did– I felt bad for Eva.”
“Oh my fucking God, Kai.”
“I mean it. Y–yeah, what she did was horrible, to Wolfgang, and Diana– but– when she talked about being forced to do all that math stuff– being picked on, never getting to be normal– I– a part of me wanted to say sorry to her. I guess. For all those times I laughed at her, left her out… Because– I know how… how that feels.”
Kai looked down, meeting Damon’s eyes, which were now wide open.
“Even before all of that… I wanted to talk to her. Because you liked her.”
Damon wanted to curse Kai out and get back to his sleepless rest, but the increasingly dense lump in his throat rendered him silent.
“I don’t know why. But… I like you, Damon. You’re– you’re a complete asshole, yeah. But you’re also always so… sure of yourself. I really wish I could be like that. And– and I know you really care. At least, some part of you does. And–”
“Kai.” Damon grumbled, finally finding the strength to speak. “I’m not. In the fucking. Mood. Either stop talking, or I’m going to sleep in my dorm.”
Kai flinched, before letting out a dramatic sigh. “Okay. Fine. Goodnight, Damon.”
Kai flopped back into bed, and within a few minutes, the bedroom was filled with his quiet, but palpable snores.
Fuck you, Kai.
How did he, the most self-centered, histrionic moron that Damon ever met, have the audacity to act like he knew him, like he knew what he felt?
And worst of all, the disgust Damon felt intertwined with an unexplainable warmth. A weak warmth, but one just strong enough that it allowed Damon a few hours of sleep.