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Maybe it was instinct. Perhaps even paranoia. But after some odd and irritating DMs, Otto was worried about Maebe. As if bound by contract, and unable to fight the desire to be alone and take his mental health vacation; Otto left the safety of Ripley's dorm room.

He knocked on Maebe's door before pushing the door open, so long as it wasn't locked.

He'd stepped into the room, looking around to try and find Maebe. Nothing under her covers, nowhere to be seen. She'd simply left her room unlocked while she was out.

His heart clenched in pain when he heard her voice. Was it because she'd startled him? Caught in her room unannounced? Or did her voice trigger the painful words she'd left him with?

Maybe it was all of that.

He turned to look at her, finding not a beautifully put together lady, but a dishevelled battle worn woman after a spar. "You sent me really weird messages." He answered, fully turning to face her now. His attire was overly casual, comprising of his pyjama bottoms and a loose fitting teeshirt with a heavy metal band pictured on the front.

"I don't like where you were goin' with them. For a lot of reasons."

"You asked me to babysit a ******** adult." He growled, turning to look at her again. "That rings some ******** alarm bells. Either you're tryin' to tell me what to do, force me to do somethin' just cause you can, and tellin' me what to care about? Or you ******** plan on ******** off somewhere."

"So what is it? Cause, no offence, but I heard of suicide notes that requested less. That didn't sound like a ******** favour to me. Just what the ******** is wrong with you right now? You fallin' apart over her? Or me? Cause if it's me, you got ********' problems." He was angry. He hated that she'd fall from grace over the likes of him. He didn't want that attachment. That responsibility. He wanted to cut the red strings that bound him to other people.

A shudder ran through his spine, and adrenaline coursed through his veins in trembling terror. He was scared of her.

Otto turned, and left. He slammed the door closed behind him.

He wanted nothing to do with Maebe Grace Bertrand any longer. Not her problems, her requests, her need for him to chase her when she barked. He was done being scared of her.

It had taken her a while. She'd been so certain of what she had to do. Everything had solidified the moment Otto had walked out on her. She couldn't live with this anymore. So she gave up. She called out for the one person she knew would do the job for her, because there was no way she was strong enough to do it to herself anymore after having seen him. He crushed her. He destroyed her. All she'd asked him was to take care of Cami, and he'd self-destructed on her for it.

Otto had never been farther away from her than he was in that moment.

Maybe she'd always hoped he would come back to her. Maybe she'd been holding on to that thread as a lifeline, until it snapped and let her fall. But that had been the moment, and she'd given up.

Ripley was wrong. She did always look for the easy way out. She couldn't even do it herself.

But with each moment that passed, she realized that she'd just called someone over to her room to murder her. Someone was coming here, to her room, where she'd told them to - and she was shieldless, and defenseless, and alone, and - She was going to die.

It sank in at exactly the moment the knock came at the door, and she screamed, crawling away from it for a moment. Mimsy was on the other side of that door. She was going to end this pain, once and for all. Her pain, and her life, and her future, all gone. All wiped out with a slice of her weapon. And she'd done this. She'd chosen this end, because she couldn't handle the pain anymore.

There was no option left but to open the door, and let it happen. Her heart thudded painfully - and it was the first time she'd felt her heart beating at all, in weeks. It felt so good to be truly scared. Mimsy gave her this one gift, in the end.

She would be thankful.

She opened the door, and closed her eyes.

She screamed again, because the sound of a voice wasn't what she'd expected so much as the pain of a knife embedded somewhere in her body. Her eyes flew open and her hands waved up in the air in defense, until she realized that Mimsy was not at the door at all, and her death had been delayed.

Her death. Had been delayed. She was going to die. She was going to die. She was going to die. It wasn't Mimsy this time but it would be, and nothing was going to stop her this time, not even Dawson -

Dawson, who might have accidentally walked in on a situation much more dangerous than he was prepared for. Because of her. Because of her. She sucked in a breath, and reached out, grabbing his wrist. Her hands shook, but her nails dug into him with a moment of panic, before letting go. She needed him to get away from her. She needed him to get away from this room. She needed - she needed -

She needed to run.

Maebe sped down the hallway, stumbling as she tried to move faster than her body could handle, and made her way as far from her room - and the entrance of the building - as possible.

The sound of her name did nothing to slow her down. She skidded down the hall, turned a corner, and continued to scamper for her life. She fell to her knees, pushed off the floor, and kept running regardless of the scrapes that falling without a shield could suddenly cause. Dawson was following, and that was good, but not good enough. She had to get far away. Far enough that Mimsy wouldn't find them.

She slammed into the stairway door, and started to run up the stairs to the roof. She opened the door and felt the brisk, painfully cold air burn her skin; and only then did she finally pause, the shock of the cold finally traumatizing her just enough to give running a break.

The floor of the roof was gravel, and when she hit it, she felt every tiny rock against her. She felt the scrape of their tiny jagged edges, leaving little white trails against her skin where they touched. Little perfect white scrapes on perfect ivory skin.