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 Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 5:16 pm
Euphemia couldn't help but cringe as the rats swarmed their companion. There was so much blood, and couple with the scream it made, well...that was enough to make anyone shudder. The way the rats jumped on their fallen comrade was unsettling as well. Unsettling in the sense that this was something that could happen to her if she wasn't careful. One thing was for sure - at least the man who had spoken to them was telling the truth. So far, at least.
Purple orbs fell on the grate after the rats started to mill about again. Could that be an escape route? Perhaps, but it probably wasn't that easy. With a few rats still inside there, she couldn't go in yet, anyway, even if she wanted to. The only way to clear out the grate was to flush out the rats somehow, but how? How could she get them all out of there?
An idea struck her as she stood there, and instead of smiling, Euphemia just nodded her head silently. As carefully as she could, while making sure not to step on any rats, she made her way over to the grate. Once she was near it, she hugged the wall off to the side of it so as to not be in direct path to its entrance. Then, raising the gun again, she pointed it off into the far corner that she once stood in - the one furthest from the grate. A few rats had been milling about behind her, and one of them would be a perfect target. If she killed one of them and it screamed, then it would draw the rats again, and probably flush out the rest of them within the grate. Again, time to test her hypothesis.
For a second time, without hesitation, Euphemia pulled the trigger and shot one of the rats to get a reaction from the others.
Two bullets down; two bullets to go.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:42 am
Nothing was happening on Arlet's side of the wall, except for an unspoken countdown as the minutes ticket down to three.
The rats on Euphemia's side of the wall swarmed once again, completely emptying from the grate. Euphemia did not have much time - in less than a minute, they'd scatter again. She could choose the grate safely now, though whether it was a safe choice was far from clear.
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 4:12 pm
Arlet and Euphemia did not move fast enough, it seemed. Had five minutes gone by so quickly?
An alarm, like the kind you'd find better suited to an air raid, went off, loud enough to warrant clamping hands over ears. On both sides of the makeshift diagonal wall, something was happening. Whereas shooting rats one by one sent the rats in a neat swarm to finish off their prey, the alarm was having a messier effect. Hairy black creatures were churning up on the floor in response to the noise, like water made of rats. Several managed to cling to Arlet and Euphemia, and then more, and more. The girls would have heard a tiny shrill noise from the rats who'd got ahold of them - and then they attacked. It wasn't painless, but it was quick. There were too many to fight off, not enough bullets to take them out, not enough time before both girls were parted with all the blood in their systems. What was really cruel was that Arlet and Euphemia were separated even at the end.
The five minutes were up.
(ADMIN NOTE: Arlet Jahar and Euphemia Argyros have died.)
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 5:53 pm
So that was what the alarm had sounded like. Euphemia had wondered what would happen when it went off, and now she knew. The rats, however many countless number there were, descended upon them both like a wave. It was funny, the potter thought. While a few of them crawling up her shoes a few minutes earlier had scared the living daylights out of her, the stream of rodents that was now coming in her direction didn't seem to faze her at all. The girl just stood there and let them come, not even making any attempt to fight back. Effort spent doing that would all be in vain, as there was only one possible outcome in this situation:
Death.
A million things flashed through Euphemia's mind in the moments that followed. The first thing that she thought about was her family. What would they think? Her grandparents would be in disbelief. In her mind she could already picture her grandmother, Ligeia, praying in a fit of uncontrollable sobs within their church. Her parents, too, would be devastated. Her mother would be crying hysterically on her father's shoulder, who would be trying so hard to fight back his own tears. Both Lysander, her elder brother, and Briseis, her younger sister, would be numbed by the situation. She couldn't imagine either of them crying, nor would she want them to.
Lucas and Arlet flashed in the back of her mind, next. Oh, Lucas! He would be so distraught over hearing the news that she didn't know what he would do. She couldn't help but feel bad, though, and the thought of him alone without her caused tears to stream down from her face. There was so much she wanted to tell him! How that, despite how much he had hurt her in the past, she still loved him. She still loved and cared for him, and would stand by his side even if everyone else was against him. What other people thought didn't matter. What counted was what she thought. Then there was Arlet - poor, beautiful Arlet. What Euphemia would give to be by her side right now. The tears fell harder as her friend came into her mind. The belly-dancer had become more than that in the past few days. She had become a girl whom Euphemia had cared and loved as deeply as she cared for her boyfriend. Perhaps, if things would have been different, she would have pursued a relationship with Arlet. No - she knew she would have.
Fate was a cruel thing. Never in her wildest dreams or nightmares did she expect to go out like this. There was so much more she wanted to do with her life; so much more she wanted to see! Euphemia had every intention of graduating from Barren Pines. She was going to go on to college after that, an art school, specifically. She wanted to make a name for herself within the world of pottery - perhaps even become famous. And then there was the family she had wanted to raise. If the girl had any dreams, then that one would have been her biggest. A family of her own was something she had wanted ever since she was a little girl, but all of that was out of reach now. None of that would ever be coming true.
It was surprising how fast the rats worked. Granted, she had seen with her own eyes how they drained their prey of blood, but this was different. This was something she was experiencing for herself. Euphemia wished it could have been painless, but then again, it could have been a whole lot worse. Feeling the blood being drained from her veins didn't hurt all that much, actually. It was the bites that hurt the most. Jagged teeth ripped into her flesh over and over again, and it was all the girl could do to keep from crying out in pain. But no - she wouldn't do that. She was not going to use her final bit of strength to scream out in pain. Euphemia did use her last spurt of energy to speak out, though. Not in pain or in anger, but in quiet acceptance.
"To peprōmenon phygein adynaton."
It is impossible to escape what is destined.
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