The Girls of Virtue

[07] Expressing the Wounds Within

Avoidance's deathly pale face breaks into a sadistic, delighted grin.

"Fine! You get your trivial nonsense out of the way, then I'll talk about the important stuff until your ears fall of. And if you run away, I'll hunt you down and choke you myself!" Avoidance threatens, still grinning.

Beginning wants to slam her face into her hand. This is ridiculous. She doesn't think she's met anyone quite so selfishly dense before... and that's considering the only other people she's ever known. Even so, she wanted to at least try to get something through to Avoidance, regardless of how difficult it's clearly going to be. She kind of saw the 'difficult' part coming from the start, after all. She shouldn't really have been surprised. Beginning collects her words, trying to think of how to say what she's aiming for.

"You're... being reckless, I think. I keep hearing things about how you're getting yourself in trouble, and I don't know exactly what you're doing, but I think it would be wise for you to stop. I'm not trying to tell you what to do or anything, I'm just warning you that things are going around." Beginning hopes, hopes that that sounded at least somewhat considerate.

"Hah!" Avoidance shouts. "Who cares what those idiots think of me! I'll do whatever I want, and no one can stop me. Everyone else can mind their own stupid business, understood? I don't care what fools think."

Then, without a single pause for Beginning to respond, she launches into her rant... which once again appears to be an endless stream of complaints. Beginning feels her eye twitch. That got her absolutely nowhere. Possibly negative nowhere. It was like she didn't even talk.

After a bit, Avoidance gets to the part of her rant that makes Beginning's heart almost stop. As in, her complaints turn to the plan. They're all carefully worded as to not insult Judgement herself, but the sheer stupidity of it all has Beginning clenching her teeth. She can see now why Avoidance is in such deep trouble with Judgement and the others.

As in, she's a complete idiot.

. . .

Beginning spends a bit of time hiding after that. She's feeling on edge; Avoidance's stupidity was shocking, a fact certainly not helped by how Judgement seems to be tiring of it. Beginning shivers just thinking about it. She knows it won't be able to be avoided, but she never, never wants to see that terrifying girl ever again. She never wants to be caught in that gaze.

She's getting more and more worried about Judgement's... everything. It's impossible to relax with the church towering just behind the fog. It's impossible to feel safe when she knows that that person is so close by. Beginning knows she's being paranoid, but Judgement seems worth that.

So she holes up in one of the seemingly-endless abandoned houses, slipping between debris in an attempt to finally get some time to herself.

Of course, Beginning is never so lucky. Not long after she gets settled-- and once again tries to sleep-- she hears a distinct ruckus getting closer outside. Resisting the urge to whack her face into the wall in front of her out of sheer frustration, Beginning shifts, getting ready to run away if she needs to. She's too tired for this right now. She's too on edge.

Against her clearer thinking, she peers out the nearest window.

But the people who arrive don't seem to have anything to do with her. Jealousy, Vanity, Secrecy, and Manipulation trail into the street outside, talking amongst themselves in low, hushed voices. Jealousy, shorter than the rest of them by a good measure, leads the group, her many eyes twisting in their sockets to keep watch on everyone. Manipulation is whispering furiously to Vanity, who appears to be beyond irritated, and Secrecy is following behind with her eyes softly, serenely closed.