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Tatta was laying on a surprisingly soft bed. It was the only thing that has made him feel comfortable in the last two weeks or so at The Beach.
He just finished almost dying in a game because Ann wanted to test Arisu. Surely she would’ve jumped in if anything happened right? She wouldn’t let them drown?
That’s what he wanted to continue thinking to ease himself.
He hated this place. He felt as if he was going to get lasered in the head or shot every two minutes. Maybe being sent here was a punishment.
He took a deep breath, “It’s fine…death games. This is normal, all will be fine—“
“Hey!” Someone shouted, storming into his room. It was against The Beaches rules for any room being occupied by someone to be locked. Tatta quickly jolted up, only to be met with Niragi.
“I heard the necropheliac and the new guy almost got you killed.” Niragi smirks, his rifle present. He always has it with him, and he moved it around while talking, or pointed it at people as if it was nothing.
“She’s not a ne—what are you doing here?” Tatta asks, confused. He looks at Niragi's rifle, then back at him—which Niragi took note of and laughed slightly.
“You think I’m gonna shoot you?” He pointed the gun at Tatta, and Tatta tensed up. “Nah, I wouldn’t waste my bullets on you. It’s a limited supply.”
Tatta knew for a fact that supply wasn’t very limited, but he wasn’t going to comment on it for his own sake.
“I’m bored. Extremely. The climbing girl actually knew what she was doing, and only one person actually died,” he scoffed. “Very uneventful.”
Someone died and he was calling it “uneventful”? He didn’t have a care in the world. He truly wondered how Niragi ended up this way.
Why was he coming to Tatta if he was bored? Tatta was the most boring person ever. He was scared of everything and was on the verge of a panic attack every ten minutes.
“Why did you come to me if you were bored?” He asked, even more confused. Surely he wanted to use Tatta for some sort of masochistic entertainment.
That question seemed to make Niragi pause. Why did he come to Tatta? The guy was an anxious mess! Although, he wasn’t a mess towards him. Tatta was done with whining and freaking out at the sight of Niragi after a couple of their encounters together. Encounters that happened more than they should have.
“No clue. I don’t even like you,” Niragi lied. He didn’t hate Tatta, he hated that he reminded himself of the old him.
Niragi plopped onto Tattas bed, the bed having a new divot from his weight. Of course, his gun rested at his side, but at least he wasn’t actively holding it.
“So, what do you do for fun?” He asks, fiddling with the trigger on his rifle. Normally, Tatta would be terrified, but his anxiety wasn’t too high at the moment. At least Niragi knew how to use his gun enough to play with the trigger without activating it.
“I stay in my room or go fix cars in the garage.” Tatta replies calmly.
Niragi immediately stands up, grabbing his rifle. “Well then, let’s go do that.”
Tatta squints his eyes confused. “Why?”
“Well,” Niragi quickly says, resurfacing himself to hide his genuine interest in the life of Tatta. “I want to see what those lesser than me do for fun.”
“You were so close to being sweet,” Tatta murmurs.
The two made it down to the garage of the beach. Multiple shelves filled with boxes of car parts or tools, stretched around the room.
“Damn. It’s depressing down here. No wonder you’re scared of every moving thing up there.” Niragi scoffs. Though he was actually surprised at how lonely it was down here.
“I like it. Nobody to worry about, plus I know how to use everything here. The only person that comes down here is Ann when she needs me for something," explains Tatta. “Solitary can be peaceful sometimes.”
“Yeah but solitary can also suck, and knowing you, you don’t like it, you’ve just gotten used to it.” Niragi replies to him.
“I can’t just scare people into listening to me though,” Tatta says. “I’m a wallflower up there.”
The two stand in silence for a second, a deafening one that was slowly killing Niragi. What should he say? Tatta basically just said he was scary.
He was. Niragi wasn’t a nice guy, but something about Tatta saying it; the nicest man he knows, felt wrong.
Looking at Tatta, his heart clenched. He was a ray of sunshine confined to a dingy garage.
"You know, you would've loved the old Niragi," Niragi chuckles. "He was just like you." Though the old him still quietly lingered in this new version of him--a rendition he couldn't quite get rid of. It seeped into his brain when he saw Tatta.
"Well," Tatta begins. "When you're not on a killing spree, you're not as bad. Maybe the old Niragi is still kicking around in there, because I'd love to meet him."