Welcome to demon school Kai

6

All night kai sat and listened to the sound of the flowing creek, to the last insects before winter, and the occasional call of eerie nocturnal animals.
From the small gap between the overhang and the wall of rocks I rested behind I could just see the stars. This part of the forest was beautiful and secluded, and as much as I wished it would it brought no consolation.
I didn't sleep at all, couldn't bring myself to. Through the whole night I sat wide eyed almost unblinking, Just expecting to hear the crunch of boots over rocks any moment. I had no clue when anyone would even go back to the cave and find it robbed.
I couldn't even try to return what I stole at this point. Too dangerous. I couldn't make it back tonight and doing it tomorrow would be just as risky as walking into a bears den not knowing if it were home.

I could at least puzzle out whatd happened to the 2 gangsters in the cave since I had some time, though the image was still eating at me.

It sounded to me like the killer was a rival gang member and that maybe the meeting had been a collaboration in crime, or a "truce"... that didn't really explain the location, but even if they seemed to know each other a little the blood collection was an obvious sign any truce made was one sided.
Would the gang fighting in town get any worse because of this? Who could say.
At the least, it sounded like this whole deal-collaboration whatever involved lots of killing.
roughly I could assume it was for blood- but hopefully that didn't happen to be related to the bright -blood red- magic gemstones I was now carrying...
...
...
Ok it was a pretty high chance.
I wasn't gonna throw them away even if they were human sourced, but I could still hope they were normal rocks.
All I knew for sure was that if anyone figured out id nabbed from a gang it probably wouldn't end at lights out.
The worst part to me though was that I was almost certain whatever was going on with the portal was bound to be fatal.
I must not have been thinking in the moment. There was no way I'd find anything worth having where ever the store brought me. I'd already grown quite distant from the thought of using a gem to cross -even though I had all the pieces I needed now-

That whole night Kai wondered and argued internally,
morally it was incorrect to use the stones and ethically they were probably a mess, but realistically she'd only picked them up at all to try and make sure she'd see the end of this winter.
It was hard to win an argument against yourself when it meant you could be doomed for it.
even as the sun had risen Kai failed notice. being so trapped in her mind It was probably some time around 7am before Kai finally realized the time.

When I finally decided I was jumping to too many conclusions to solving anything I could hardly believe the time. The sun had already made it past the horizon.
I may not have slept but I rested and I could leave whenever I wanted now.
In the end the only thing I'd actually decided to do that night was hide the gems and the cloak in the abandoned house by the portal.
It was close to its place of use, and Surely nobody would look for it unattended there.
it couldn't be stolen or lost like that and if for some reason someone did find them they shouldn't be able to associate to me.
I would have to carry them with me until I next stopped by the place but upon standing to leave the rocky hideaway realized it would probably not be very soon.
Everything hurt. A lot-

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Author here, I know my way of phrasing can be pretty roundabout so if you don't understand anything, or feel like i miswrote a line and it's breaking the flow, feel free to say so. Hope you enjoy-