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Fire burned and that was something everyone understood, even from a young age. You learned to draw back away from most heat because burns were the worst pain but there'd been no escaping this. Stripping down had actually ended up working against the caramel-skinned woman in that when the fire hit her body it had had nothing to burn through but a pair of underwear (gone) and one of her favorite shirts (also entirely gone). Her pants had been safe, and her coat, but where they were...well.

That was the least of her worries.

Gone as well was a healthy amount of her skin. Bandages wrapped her entire body from the waist down, both of her arms, and chunks of her torso. Thankfully the shirt she'd been wearing had been nylon and thus fairly flame-retardant. Otherwise breathing would have been triply the agony that it already was. Suffice to say that Camille did not do anything but lie in her hospital bed with the low drone of her own pathetic whimpering as company.

Kidana had tried, briefly, to console her charge but had given up almost immediately. Oh in her mind the magenta-haired trainee could feel the companionship and comfort of the revenant but there was no talking. Nothing could stop her from moaning in the Creole of her homeland except perhaps three people in all of Deus.

One of them, thankfully, was the first to visit. It didn't take long for Peyton Creedy to have a lasting impression on her; she'd been one of the first to reach out and be friendly. After everything that had happened, how she'd stayed with them even though she didn't have to, it was easier to have her cracked lips stretch in a pain-filled skeleton of a smile. "Hi." Eyes flicked around. "Water?" Every now and then someone would come by to give her water to keep her mouth from drying out but with as many people as were in the infirmary at the moment it was hard to keep up.

Cami would have really appreciated that umbrella. It would have reminded her of happier places, happier times, when she wasn't aching from every inch of her entire body with a searing pain that never let her be. Still, she appreciated the bright straw, deeply was grateful for the water that trickled down her parched throat and allowed her to speak without too much trouble. Holding things was impossible for the nerve-endings in her body had all been damaged, especially her bare arms and legs, but it wasn't too terribly hard to sip from a cup placed at head-level.

What it was, however, was goddamn soul-crushing in how pathetic it looked.

Despite the morbid topic it did make the redhead feel better somewhat. She hadn't been the only one to suffer. She hadn't been the only one who knew what this felt like. Never mind there were at least a dozen others in the infirmary alongside her. Yet at the same time she wondered if this was just a taste of more to come. Or was she initiated? Had she survived and could now be safe? Time would tell and until then all she could do was lie there and pray.

"I jumped down after you, you know. I thought I would be brave and sacrificial. I was going to be your hero!" She would have laughed, if it hadn't hurt, if it hadn't really been not that funny. She wanted to ask what Peyton had gone through and, after mulling it over for awhile, decided what the hell! "What was your pain?"

Smiling as much she was able, which really wasn't a whole lot considering most of her face looked like she'd lain out on a beach that was perpetually noon, Cami gave up some of her heroism for the truth. It was one of the many things that sometimes exasperated the young woman about herself -- she didn't much like building herself up if she didn't really deserve it. Not to someone she liked and, because it was a gut feeling she couldn't help but trust, she liked Peyton. "Well you were trying to save me when you fell in. I was slipping further and further and falling...less control. If I was going to go in I wanted to go in a way that would be helpful." She sighed.

"I was also trying to prevent anyone else from coming after me. I didn't think we'd all end up inside." If she had known that she wouldn't have wasted so much energy fighting it, wouldn't have perhaps drawn the bugs to herself, or maybe it didn't matter. Maybe nothing mattered and Peyton had gotten lucky whereas others hadn't. So many of them had been new to Deus. How many of them still wanted to be there? Still wanted to stay?

It was awful that the magenta-haired trainee was thinking that the blonde had gotten off easy. A sword to the chest was a knife wound. Pain? Absolutely. But she'd woken up with nothing more than a hole in her chest and a memory of pain. Not this endless agony that dogged Camille's every waking moment. Yet she couldn't blame Peyton. Everyone had their own pain, their own reasons for hurting, and perhaps knowing it hadn't been real but could still hurt was worse.

Wonderland.

Just thinking the word had a shudder running down her spine which, in turn, had her burned body screaming in pain. But all that came out of her mouth was a hoarse sound of pain, fingers wanting to clench the blankets with only infinite control keeping them straight. Curling fingers was more pain, more agony, hurt more than it helped. "******** me that hurts." She took a breath. "Your friend was okay though?"

Peyton's compliment warmed Cami also causing her to grin as much as she was able in the wake of the pain that wracked her entire body at every moment. "You did do the same, basically. Kidana thought I was utterly insane for jumping but she hasn't been harping on it. Thankfully." Laying around with her skin all but burned off her body hearing that this could have been avoided if she'd perhaps been a little less reckless would have had her tearing the rest of said skin off in her depression and self-hatred.

Steering away from that incredibly morbid road the tattered redhead agreed wholeheartedly with Pey's last suggestion. "Yes. I'd be up for anything, honestly, I'm thinking even a spar would be more fun than sitting here all day with nothing to do." Eyes shifted towards where she knew her phone lied next to the bed. "I was hoping that I could maybe use my Audible app to listen to books or something but headphones would just be..." Her head shook lightly. "Worst idea."

Willing to be distracted she kept smiling. "What did you have in mind?"

Cosmo?! Cami's eyes lit up at the name of the trashy magazine that was nine thousand percent filler. Once she and a girlfriend had scientifically tried one of their articles on several of their hookups with mixed results. Somehow, though, she didn't think Peyton was reading them for practical advice. Nail polish had her brightening even more. It would be some time before she could handle the rigors of a serious manipedi but in the meantime. "It sounds like heaven. Nail polish and trashrag magazines? The best parts of high school all over again."

It hit her, then, that Peyton was barely old enough to be out of high school herself. It made Cami feel impossibly old for a moment. Thankfully Pey was a welcome distraction, a long sigh slipping out at the mention of her hair. "Is it tragic? My mom used to scream if I threatened to cut it. Said it was unfeminine. No one would want a short-haired girl." Cami tried to sound as if she didn't believe this, as if it were utter bullshit, but the way her fingers lightly curled into the blankets despite the pain spoke to the contrary. "I'd love a cleanup though, when you have the time. Purple again when I'm feeling better but...I dunno. Might be nice to stay clean and natural for awhile." A soft smile.

"I didn't know you did hair though, that's pretty useful. I keep thinking I should have some sort of asset or skill to bring to things but...I dunno. Maybe just being me will be enough." It wouldn't. It never was. But it was nice to think so wasn't it?

Get out of here quicker.

Yes. Even her basement room seemed preferable to this place with all the sounds and smells of people being sick, groaning in pain, going through everything she was going through. Wrong place, wrong time. Letting her eyes fall shut, a long sigh, she assented. "Anything to get out of here as soon as possible." For a moment it seemed as if Cami had indeed gone to sleep, had drifted away, but she lifted her head one more time. "Thank you for coming to see me." It didn't have to be said that no one else had. Cami was so new that there wasn't really anyone else to come see her except Peyton but even that gesture meant a lot.

Now she really was drifting, morphine in her system making the pain tolerable if not making it vanish entirely, dreaming of fire. Of bugs. Of being home back on the beach laughing and having a good time but covered in skin that had never recovered. Nightmare after nightmare she wanted to come screaming out of but could only pathetically whimper as Kidana shocked her mind awake but helped keep her body immobile.

This was hell, utter hell, and all she had to do was survive it. Pey seemed to think she could..so she would.