When Katrina woke up, everyone else was still asleep. She quietly made her bed and went out in search of some food.

"Why are you awake?" Derrick asked, making her jump.

"None of your business," she replied darkly. "Do you know where Dean put the food? I'm hungry."

"He gave it to me. Wait here while I go get it," he said gruffly, walking away.

Katrina sat down on a chair while she waited. Judging by the sun, it was around six a.m., way too early to be awake. Derrick soon came back, handing her a loaf of bread and stifling a yawn.

"Go to sleep, Derrick," she said, struggling not to yell at him to continue their truce. "I'll take watch from now."

"You sure?" he asked. Katrina nodded, so he walked to a nearby bed and sank down, quickly falling asleep.

Katrina picked at the bread he gave her, wondering if he had put poison in it. However, her hunger won, and she took a few bites, waiting to see if anything would happen. When she felt fine, she proceeded to eat the rest of the bread.

For the next few hours, Katrina just explored some of the nearby shops in the mall. She found a collapsible fishing hook and some rope in a hunting store, both of which she stuffed into her backpack, thinking that they may come in handy. Suddenly, the gun counter caught her attention.

Katrina had never been fond of guns, but she had been taught how to fire them safely by her late father. She walked over to the counter and picked out a small pistol along with a can of bullets.

Right before she left the store, she also found a couple of knife sheaths, in which she put some daggers that she found along with the one she had made a couple of days ago.

Looking at the daggers and pistol, she was unsure as to where to put it. She needed them to be somewhere easy to reach, but also difficult for them to fall out accidentally.

Suddenly, she got an idea when she remembered the fabric store where Derrick had gotten the cloth to cover the bodies with. On the way there, she snatched up a belt from the clothing store and then, using a sewing kit from the fabric store, Katrina sewed the sheaths onto the belt.

The belt was tight and secure when she put it on, and it was easy to reach the knives and pistol. If Derrick ever attacked her, she would be armed. Satisfied with her creation, she trotted back to the pharmacy and put some supplies inside, like elastic bandages, wound closing bandages, blood increasing pills, fever pills, iodine, and sunscreen. When she was done, she went back to the furniture store where everyone else was starting to wake up.

"I thought Derrick took watch," Wyne yawned, stretching as he saw Katrina.

"I woke up early, so I took over," she replied. "If Derrick is awake, you can ask him for the food. I don't know where it is."

Wyne nodded and walked away to find Derrick. Katrina, however, opted to visit Blythe. Blythe was awake and Dean was helping her drink some water.

"Blythe, Dean, how are your injuries?" Katrina asked, plopping down on the bed. Blythe still looked pale, but a lot better than before. And despite Dean's serious injuries, he looked normal.

"I'm fine," Blythe said, rubbing her bandage. "It doesn't hurt that much anymore."

"Blythe healed my injury, so I'm good," Dean said when Katrina looked at him, showing her how he had already removed his bandages. All that remained were a couple of scars.

"Those scars should fade over time, too," Blythe added.

Katrina nodded, glad that Dean was fine now. "You sure we shouldn't disinfect your wounds? I found some iodine back at the pharmacy," Katrina said, looking at Blythe.

"Now that I think of it, that would be a good idea," Dean said.

"Yeah," Blythe agreed.

Katrina slowly removed Blythe's bandages, wincing at the blood and the smell of rotting flesh. Even Blythe looked away. Katrina put some iodine on the injuries and wrapped her arm up in a new layer of bandages. When she was finished, she was shaking, horrified by the extent of Blythe's injuries.

"Are you sure you can't heal yourself?" Katrina asked.

"Yeah," Blythe replied. "I've tried before and it didn't work."

"Try harder," Katrina insisted. "When I first developed my ability, I thought that I would only be able to create the illusion of sight. Now, I can also create the illusions of sound and touch."

Blythe scrunched up her face in concentration, presumably trying to heal herself. Her face fell.

"It didn't work," she sighed.

"It never does the first time you try," Katrina said. "It took me months before I could create a decent sound illusion. Keep practicing, but not now. You should rest."

Dean nodded. Just then, Wyne came into the room, followed by Derrick.

"The king of food has arrived!" he announced, sinking into an exaggerated bow in front of Derrick, who looked like he wanted to die. "Long live the king."

Katrina, along with everyone else, couldn't hold in her giggle.

Derrick snorted and swatted him aside, handing out an apple each for Dean and Blythe.

"Eat," he ordered gruffly. "You need the energy."

"How much food do we have left?" Katrina asked while Dean and Blythe gratefully ate their apples.

Derrick frowned. "Not much. It'll only last us a few days even if we ration."

"I say we should go to the ocean, see if we can catch any fish. Maybe we'll even find the others," she said.

"Yeah, catch fish," Derrick mocked. "With what? Our bare hands?"

"Actually," Katrina snapped, "I found a hunting store, where I picked up some supplies." She showed them the fishing pole, along with her daggers, pistol, and rope. Katrina put them on the bed for them to inspect.

"What about bait?" Derrick asked, trying to undermine her. "What are you going to use? Hmm... Let me guess. You forgot about bait."

"Coyote meat," she replied calmly, even though she was boiling with anger inside. "We have a large supply of it, in case you forgot. I wouldn't be surprised if you did, given how small your brain is. You're like a peacock: all show but no brains."

"You little rat!" Derrick exclaimed, throwing himself at her. He started punching her, breaking her bones one by one. She screamed in pain, curling up into a ball to protect herself.

Blythe shrieked and Dean and Wyne tried to pull him off, but to no avail.

Suddenly, she disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the room, uninjured.

"You'd think that one would be able to tell the difference between an illusion and a person," Katrina said. "I guess I was wrong. You're even dumber than I thought you were, which is saying a lot, especially since I didn't think very highly of you before."

Derrick growled and grabbed a dagger from the bed. He threw it at her, and his aim was true. It hit her in the chest. Suddenly, she disappeared again.

"Don't forget that I can also create the illusion of sound," she said, this time lounging around on the couch. Derrick threw another dagger, but both the dagger and the girl disappeared.

Katrina appeared behind him this time, holding the pistol to his head.

"You know those daggers that you threw?" she said into his ear. "They were all fake."

Derrick ducked and punched her in the stomach, but she disappeared again.

"Come out and fight me like a man!" Derrick exclaimed. "I'm tired of playing your little cat and mouse game!"

"Derrick, Katrina, stop," Dean ordered. "Please, you can't do this."

Katrina summoned another illusion.

"You want to know why we hate each other so bad?" her illusion said. She turned to Derrick. "Remember what happened on May 13, 2168?"

Derrick growled. "If you tell them-" he started.

"Yeah, yeah, you've gave me that speech too many times to count," she said. "If I tell them, you'll find me and break all the bones in my body, rip off my limbs one by one, kill my family, etc., etc."

"The thing is, you forgot something," she said, grinning. "The last time you saw me was right before your thirteenth birthday. I had just turned ten then and had had my power for barely more than a year. Do you really think I hadn't improved my ability in four years?"

"You're an illusionist," he hissed. "What's the worst you can do? Hide behind your clones?"

Katrina tutted, displeased that he wasn't catching on.

"Remember when I first discovered my ability?" she asked casually.

Derrick snarled. "If you-"

"Yeah, I know. Just think of that time. Let's just say this: I can do what I did back then and more."

Derrick scoffed. "Says the girl who can barely control her ability."

"Four years," Katrina repeated. "Four years since you last saw me."

"Derrick, Katrina, stop," Wyne said, uneasily eyeing Derrick and Katrina's illusion. "Someone could get hurt."

"Or worse," Dean agreed.

Katrina knew that she should stop. Even though her physical body was watching invisibly from the doorway, Blythe, Wyne, and Dean could still get hurt.

"Before you even think of asking for a truce," Derrick said, "remember how the last one turned out. We had a truce for what, two days?"

"That wasn't what I was going to say," Katrina reassured him. "I was about to offer to have a fight somewhere else, where the others can't get hurt."

"You can't do that!" Wyne protested. "One of you could get hurt!"

"That's the point," Katrina and Derrick said at the same time.

"So how 'bout it?" she asked, facing him once more.

"That's a deal. Let's go to the streets," Derrick replied, cracking his knuckles menacingly one by one.

"I won't let you fight!" Dean said, lunging at him. Derrick shoved him aside as Katrina rendered him invisible, so that he could easily get to the streets.

Katrina's clone disappeared as she grabbed the pistol from the bed and waited out in the streets for Derrick. She put up another illusion of rocks piling up in front of the door of the mall, making Dean, Blythe, and Wyne believe that they were trapped in.

Katrina let go of hers and Derrick's invisibility illusion so that they could see each other.

Suddenly, Wyne teleported outside between them, almost on top of Katrina's invisible body. Katrina stifled a groan. She had forgotten that Wyne could teleport.

"Stay out of this," Katrina hissed, gently pushing him away.

"A fight to the death?" Derrick asked.

Katrina shrugged. "Sure, might as well finish what you started."

"No!" Wyne said. He grabbed her wrist and tried to teleport, but Katrina twisted out of his grasp. She created an illusion of a glass box around him and pushed the box to the side, out of the way.

"Before you try to teleport," Katrina called out, "I put the same thing on that box as the scientists put in this arena. It's impossible for you to teleport."

Even though Katrina was lying, Wyne believed her, and try as he might, he couldn't teleport out.

"So?" Derrick asked. "Ready?"

Katrina nodded. As Derrick lifted up his hands, Katrina made herself invisible and ran away to get out of his range, even though her clone wasn't moving.

Katrina, please, stop, Dean said in her head.

Get out of my head, Katrina thought as hard as she could and imagined an invisible barrier around her, preventing anyone from telepathically communicating with her. She could feel Dean mentally pounding on the barrier, trying to get in, but her barrier held strong.

In the distraction of trying to get Dean out of her head, however, Katrina didn't manage to run far away enough. Derrick slammed down his hands and pain pulsed throughout her body, making her want to scream.

Just like Katrina, Derrick had been practicing and improving his ability. This pain was far worse than anything Katrina had experienced. She realized that in their fight when they had just arrived in the Experiment, Derrick must've been holding back.

The pain was unimaginable. It felt like she was being dipped in molten hot lava and being tore apart from the inside. Her illusions flickered and died, leaving her in full view, writhing on the ground. Black dots danced in her vision as Derrick advanced.

With her last energy, Katrina created a box around Derrick. He growled and increased the pain. Katrina screamed, but she kept her illusion.

Wyne was running over to her, shaking her shoulder, but Katrina's brain didn't register it. All she knew was pain and her need to keep the illusion alive.

He tried to teleport her away, but Katrina managed to shove him away and create a box around him. He helplessly looked at her.

This was her fight, and no one was going to help her. She slammed down more boxes around Dean and Blythe, who were also running to help.

Derrick made the pain intensify, but he was sweating and had fallen to his knees. Despite the pain, Katrina managed to feel victorious. Once Derrick runs out of energy, she would win.

However, she could feel her own energy waning. Even though these small illusions usually wouldn't have drained her at all, combined with the pain, Katrina didn't think she would be able to hold on to her illusions for long.

Katrina pushed herself up, gasping from the effort. She reached into her belt, where she had put her pistol and held it up. She aimed and released the safety.

Sweat streamed down her back and her arm started shaking slightly. She placed her index finger on the trigger. Katrina knew her aim would be true, despite the shaking. The bullet would go straight between his eyes, giving him a quick, merciful death, a death he didn't deserve.

Derrick was not only a bully. He was a murderer and a rapist. On May 13, 2168, when Katrina first discovered her ability, Derrick was attempting to rape her, like he did to countless other helpless girls. However, Katrina kept squirming away and he couldn't get a decent hold on her, so Derrick released his pain.

Katrina remembered being furious at being treated like an animal. So furious, in fact, that her ability had triggered, years before it should've.

Abilities usually trigger when Deviants were ten or eleven. However, in some rare cases, they can trigger during a traumatizing event.

That day, when Katrina discovered her ability, she knew that Derrick could never hurt her or anyone else as long as she had the ability. She warned him not to hurt anyone else and let her go.

The next day, her parents were found dead in their beds. Derrick had left a note for her: "YOU WILL NOT PREVAIL."

Even though the police never figured out who the murderer was, Katrina knew that Derrick had murdered her parents, not only because of the note, but also because of the smug look on his face after she walked out of her new orphanage and into the school courtyard. Katrina was too numb to feel anything back then.

Katrina fell into depression after the death of her parents and tried to take her own life three times. The first by medicine overdose, the second by a knife, and the third by drowning. Each time she was found and saved just before she went through with her mission.

Months after her last suicide attempt, it finally sank in. Her parents were dead. Nothing could bring them back. Derrick was their murderer. The next day at school, Katrina released her illusions on Derrick, causing him to screech in pain and fury. Ever since that day, she and Derrick had been enemies.

However, even with the pistol pointing at Derrick's head, she couldn't pull the trigger, not even in revenge for all the things he had done to her and dozens of other girls. All she saw was a boy who made some poor life choices.

One of the traits that she had inherited from her parents was mercy, and she often wished that she didn't have it. It was what made her give Derrick a second chance when she offered the truce. It was what made her continue the truce, when neither of them obviously didn't want to.

"Have mercy," her parents always said, "even when it seems like they don't deserve it."

The words replayed over and over again in Katrina's mind. The pistol slipped from her hand and clattered to the floor as Derrick fell unconscious because of the energy he had used to induce pain. Katrina curled up in a ball and cried, cried for her dead parents, cried for the girls Derrick had raped, and finally, cried for herself.

...

Yep, this was a pretty dark chapter. 

To lighten the mood, are you more of a cat person or a dog person?