[Cosed] Not so much the tragic love story.

[justgaveup]

Who| Perry and Julie.
What| FINALLY they're meeting.
Where| Floor maybe 6? Unsure!
When| Early week 2
Warnings/Notes| Standard Perry warnings apply: suicide, harmful thoughts and/or actions, an extreme amount of dramatic angst. Will update as needed.

The thing that Perry was doing was a simple one. Not stay near people too long, and if you do forge an alliance, both should know that it could be walked away from whenever you wanted. Not broken completely. But walk away from it, and hope that you didn't see them again. It was a lonely life, but then it had been just as lonely his first time around. Not knowing anyone. Struggling to figure out what this was all about.

But instinct had taken over. Museum runs had always been one of his favorites, followed by liquor stores and the best thing they ever found, a medical marijuana store. There were good times, in the past. He was a different person back then. A happy person. A guy in love with a girl, and friends, and family.

Not so much now. He'd come back up to the 6th floor, not because he wanted to be here. There should be plenty of places to escape, and being this high up was not always the safest. But the knife and the crowbar put him more at ease, as he walked around in the dark, looking at the figurines. People. Looking at people.

It's when he hears a sound that he tenses, quickly moving so he had the perfect angle on which to get if Perry needed to start killing.

Comments

[misscabernet]

Julie was on her own again. Hey, it was the way of the Games. Surely she wasn't taking it to heart that her freshly-human quasi-date decided to bail on her all while leaving the equivalent of a third grader's classroom note. She definitely wasn't pissed about it. Because not only was his scrawling handwriting on level with a third grader, but so was R's fucking survival skills.

She tried looking for him. Problem was, the elevator was only the length of a room away. At least she knew better now than go to sleep next to anyone else. (It's not just leaving her. Her Dad's screaming in her head, reminding her that someone who abandons you in your sleep will abandon you when shit gets serious.)

Whatever. She moves on, because R's a liability if he leads someone back to her hiding spot. There's gonna be tons more in this museum, she's just got to venture out there. She keeps the crossbow in her hands and the bag on her back; she's been lucky with the sponsors this time, maybe because she's finally got a real weapon she can use.

The building is huge. Even six floors doesn't seem like enough, but by the time the doors open and she's walking out with her crossbow cocked, she realizes this is the top floor. The sky through the skylights is dark, dots of light that might be stars. She's not sure where these Arenas ever happen, but she would bet a few fingers those're fake.

[justgaveup]

By the footsteps, he can tell that it's someone small and light. He won't make any guesses on gender, since he's seen all kinds since coming in here. Most importantly, he knows that it didn't matter if they were male or female; they were still going to stab you.

The knife stayed in the belt he'd pilfered, the hands on the crowbar tightening even more. If he could get out of here without hurting whoever it was, all the better.

Then he sees the crossbow, and he knows that he has two choices; kill or be killed. Perry took the bag of food he was carrying and threw it in the opposite direction, hoping to distract them with the sound, so he could get them from behind.

Perry jumped out from his hiding spot, crowbar prepared to swing down.

[misscabernet]

It's stupid, but her nerves are tight enough to snap at the smallest bit of pressure. Even if she's trained better, her head and the point of the bow snaps to where the sound of something hitting the floor echoed out.

She would've cursed herself if she had the time. But the shadow and the body attached to it give her a split-second of decision; instinct makes her duck, just missing the swing of something hard and solid. Metal. It whines through the air --

Shit is what she thinks when she pulls the trigger blind; the bolt sails into the darkness but completely misses the tribute. Adrenaline surges and she drops the whole thing, the metal of the crossbow clanging against the ground. Julie rams her shoulder into the closest part of their body she can hit. She doesn't give a shit about killing. This is about running.

[justgaveup]

A bolt flies past him, and even though it was nowhere close, he could still hear it like it was. It's lucky that it wasn't close, because if it had been, then he might be more worried. And then the crossbow was on the ground, and he knew that he had this.

The shoulder right into his solar plexus almost knocked him down, though, and his swing was slightly interrupted. This wasn't about running. This was about killing. But the momentum that he had before couldn't be stopped, as the crowbar connects with an arm. Not as hard as he wanted it, and definitely not the head, which is where he wanted it. But if it threw them off balance, enough that he could get another chance, then that worked as well.

[misscabernet]

It doesn't have to be hard for it to hurt like fucking hell. She cries out in pain and falls back, other arm going around to hold the bone, cursing a mantra of "fuck" over and over as the pain surged up into her shoulder, feeling like it was leaving split bone behind.

The pain dumbs her for a second, long enough for her to lose track of the crossbow and she knows she's not gonna reach in time. The bolts. Where are the other bolts? Julie scrambles, her good arm going behind her to reach for her bag, but with the other crippled with pain (don't be a fucking goddamn broken arm, please) she can't even manage to get it off.

Well. It's not any worse than getting eaten alive.

[justgaveup]

She's scrambling, and Perry knows that it's now or never. He gets up, trying to step on the straps of the bags. It was done so that as son as he was there, and was going to swing down at her back, if she then turned around from the force of the straps, and then he could see her face clearly.

As he went to swing the crowbar down on her head, it was like his vision cleared. All he saw before was a blonde haired girl, someone he had to get out of the way, but definitely didn't know.

And then he saw, but it was too late to stop the swing. He moved it as fast as he could, with the crowbar hitting an inch away from her head. It pulled out some of her hair, and he let go as soon as it hit the ground.

"Julie?"

[misscabernet]

Trying her damnedest to face death head-on didn't go so well. Her eyes still shut of their own volition and she cringed, flinching, sensing the blow coming and coiling all her muscles up in preparation.

But it just passes by, close enough to tangle in her hair and make her gasp in surprise. The pain in her arm is sharp and acute, shocking her all over again when she jolts it the wrong way --

But that was nothing in comparison to that voice. She doesn't need a face to go with it. She'd only had years with it.

"Perry?" Her voice broke. Everything broke, really, just with that one little word. A few hundred memories she'd boxed up and shoved under the bed, and her heart, and the part of her that was always gonna be his little survivor girl. She chokes, half on a would-be sob and her next breath. "It can't --"

[justgaveup]

She couldn't be here. She couldn't be here, and for him to not know she was here, that wasn't possible. That wasn't. She couldn't be here for long and him not know it. But she was here now, and Perry-- he'd almost killed her. Oh god, he almost killed her.

"Oh god, Julie, oh god." He doesn't even wait, practically picking her up off the ground and holding her close. "I'm so sorry, oh god, I'm sorry."

He didn't know what he was apologizing for, then. For almost killing her. For leaving her. For everything. She looked the same, and sounded the same, and maybe didn't smell the same but she felt the same in his arms.

"I didn't know you were here, I'm so sorry, I didn't--"