The Girls of Virtue

[01] Dead and Dying, Fog and Breathing

With a squeak, the many-eyed one is back to hiding, and the red-eyed one heaves a sigh. "You're pathetic, Cowardly," she says. "No wonder we can never get anything done. All you do is whine. We're going to fail for sure because you won't shut up." The tone of her voice is low and cruel, and it draws a whine from the girl behind her. For people that appear to be allies, the grey girl thinks, they certainly don't seem to get along with each other.

"We only fail because you're the one who won't shut up," Selfishness snaps, baring her teeth and putting another rough grip on the grey girl's shoulder. "So quit griping and deal with this. I'm in charge, remember?"

"Ugh, gross. I don't want to follow your stupid orders," the red-eyed one says. "You're not the leader, and you're bad at taking charge anyway."

"Um, Negativity?" Cowardly asks, with a note of panic in her voice. "W-We do, um, need to figure this out, though... Or, or sh-she's gonna be real mad." She raises one clawed hand to her mouth and bites down.

At once, something cold washes across the three of them. At that last sentence, they all go silent, looking at each other like there's something even these monsters dread. The grey girl bites her lip. Her head still hurts, and all of this is becoming painfully confusing. Three people appearing out of the fog, dragging her around, and arguing with each other about things that she doesn't understand, all talking over her head like she's not even there.

"Shit, fine," Selfishness mumbles, at last, breaking the silence. "You, with the horns, who are you? Why are you here?" Her features scrunch up into a nasty look, glaring unhappily in an ugly look that seems to suit her.

"You're asking the wrong person," the grey girl says, and her voice doesn't seem her own. "I don't know. I opened my eyes, and I was here, and I know nothing else. I'm probably more confused than you are." Sounding braver than she feels, the grey girl meets Selfishness's eyes, then Negativity's, trying to predict if any of them are going to lash out.

"That's normal," Negativity mumbles. "You aren't special. No one knows much when they first get here." She stares with piercing red eyes, and the grey girl notices that more thorns slide out of her mouth with every word, winding around her throat and staining her mouth with red.

"Do you, uh, know your name?" Cowardly asks softly, all of her eyes flickering over to look at the grey girl. It's unnerving, unnatural.

But the grey girl thinks. No word immediately comes to her, but nothing has so far. She thinks that she probably has a name, that she just can't think of it, and shakes her head. Her headache is worsening, and it's hard to think of anything, much less something as abstract as what she could be named. The other girls look at her with annoyance, like it's some big hassle that she can't remember what she should be called.

"...we all knew our names," Negativity mutters again. "Who doesn't? Are you stupid or something? Maybe your head's broken?" The grey girl frowns. By this point, she's not expecting anything good from these girls, but that line still felt downright uncalled for. Pessimistic, just like her name.

"Shut up," Selfishness chimes in, abruptly giving the grey girl another shove. She stumbles forward, back towards the path, and looks around in confusion. "We have a job to do, and just 'cause this one's weird doesn't mean we get to stop. You two, quit whining and let's get going. You all can talk to her while I get some peace!" The last part is a laugh, and the other two scowl. Apparently, having to speak to the grey girl is some kind of terrible burden. She doesn't think she likes being thought of in that way.

Instead of complaining, though, the grey girl bites her lip and starts walking. She already has a decent guess that these girls won't just let her walk away. She has little choice but to follow them, and at this point, it's probably the best thing she can do. Maybe she'll remember something soon.