Suzanne had finally pulled away from Didi, though it left her feeling dizzy and disoriented. She'd somehow managed to thin that fuzzy layer of shock that had been wrapped around her, plucking at it bit by bit like the threads in a cotton ball. Though Didi still seemed pretty out of it. So that left one more thing. "Hey, Syd?"

"Hm?" Syd blinked, apparently surprised at being addressed.

"Would you slap her for me?"

Syd blinked again, her expression frozen. "Um. What?"

"Slap her. That should finish snapping her out of this 'zombie'-state, or whatever Eddie called it."

Syd considered this silently for a second, then shrugged. She raised her hand and let it fly. The sharp smack drew everyone's attention, so no one missed it when Didi's eyes widened and her jaw dropped open. She put a hand up to her cheek, turning to look at Syd, her face slack with surprise.

"What was that for!?"

Suzanne couldn't help but grin in triumph. "I knew that would do the trick," she said, all the while thinking, I can't believe that actually worked... "You were having fun in La La Land without us, didn't seem fair," she added with a shrug. She opened her mouth again, about to say 'welcome to the land of the living'. But then she reconsidered. With Melody after them, who knew how much longer they'd survive? Her smile dropped, and she swallowed.

By this point, Didi's expression had gone through a few phases. First the shock, then confusion and thought, and finally fear and understanding. It seemed like she'd managed to figure out what all was going on.

"Let's do a head count," Tom said. "Who all do we know is—" he faltered for a second, but then continued, "y'know."

It was Syd who answered, her tone mostly calm, save for the hint of a tremor. Still, she hid it rather well. "I think we're it."

Suzanne did a mental check. Tru. Dan. Cliff and May. And Alan. They were all dead. A tickle at the back of her mind told her that she could find their bodies if she really wanted to, but she didn't. They weren't the only deaths she could... what? Sense? As good a word as any, she s'posed. If she put her mind to it (pun very much intended) she could find the teachers and staff too.

But she wasn't that desperate.

Something tugged her attention away from Tom and Syd as they discussed who was still alive, and what to do now. She was vaguely aware of Fred adding his own thoughts to the stew, but most her attention was on Eddie.

Happy-go-lucky Eddie who at the moment looked incredibly sad and alone, slouched against the wall with his head back and his eyes closed.

The more Suzanne focused on him, the more she could feel the guilt and fear weighing on his chest, the more alone she realized he was.

She made her way over to him, hesitating only briefly before sitting down beside him. She could feel his mood ever so slowly soaking into the floor and the wall behind him, staining them with his thoughts. She pressed her palm to the floor near his hand, but she didn't touch him. Still, it was enough for her to figure out just what exactly he was feeling guilty about.

Alan...

She'd seen it when Melody grabbed him. He'd been heading towards the fridge, and Melody had stepped through it and latched onto his throat faster than the human eye could follow. Suzanne had seen Syd freeze with panic for half a second before making a break for it.

Eddie had been right around the corner when Alan had screamed. And he'd done the first thing that came to mind.

He grabbed Tom and Didi and ran.

And Suzanne couldn't say she blamed him.

On the other hand...

She didn't know for sure what she would've done, if she were him. She didn't know if she would've wasted precious seconds on others. But he had.

"If you didn't care," she said softly, barely above a whisper, "you wouldn't feel guilty."

Eddie didn't react at first, but after a second his eyes opened. Still, he merely stared straight up at the ceiling. "Yay," he said flatly. "I'm a real saint."

Suzanne snorted. "Like hell. But, to be fair, you did save Didi and Tom. You didn't have to grab them."

He shook his head, but he still didn't look at her. "Maybe. But if I'd just been thinking straight, I probably could've saved Alan."

"Hey." She nudged him with her elbow, hard enough that it was almost a shove. He blinked and finally turned, meeting her eyes. "Melody killed Alan," she scolded. "There was nothing anyone could've done about it. Be glad she didn't kill the rest of you as well."

He blew out a sharp breath. "You don't comfort people often, do you?"

"Nope. How'm I doin' so far?"

He rolled his eyes. "I'd give you seven outta ten. Not bad, but definitely could be better."

She snorted again. "Oh sure. Don't thank me or anything." He said she could do better, and that was true. But she could still feel the lightness in his chest, and the warmth he felt at her presence alone.

{ { o } }

Suzie stood, but Eddie couldn't help but watch her. She had made him feel better. But it was so unlike her. She was terse, bitter, and closed off. Yet it was clear that she'd somehow used that power of hers to figure out what exactly was on his mind, and used that information to comfort him.

Something about her had definitely changed. But what could cause such a big change in such a short amount of time?

Change...

Was a change that drastic even possible? Was she faking it? It wouldn't be the first time someone pretended to have changed, just to get what they wanted.

But this is Suzie... Suzanne... She's not the type.

Then again, he'd never thought his closest friend would actually sell him out for money. But his parents waved a nice thick paycheck in his face and he was outta there.

Eddie had, of course, gotten back at them by failing each and every class that last year. He'd started hanging out with 'bad kids', throwing his allowance around (what he hadn't set aside, anyway) until they cut him off. He threw wild parties when they were out of town, he borrowed the car without permission. Really, compared to a lot of things, this was kiddy stuff. Still, he'd never spent a single night in a jail cell, nothing ever made it to the papers. He was the rich, spoiled little kid trying to get his parents attention.

And so what?

So what if he was trying to see just how far he could push them? So what if he wanted them to give him an actual punishment, instead of just taking away the game system that they bought him, but he never played? So what if he wanted them to look at him and say, "I love you, and support you in whatever you choose to do"?

So what?

His best friend, whom he'd shared all his secrets with, had abandoned him for money.

Then come back 'a changed man', wanting to start over.

He'd never seen it coming.

But...

That was just it. He wanted to trust these people, wanted to be able to rely on them. Wanted them to be able to rely on him.

Right then they were huddled in something of a semicircle, firing ideas back and forth, though mostly just arguing by the looks of it. Didi was suggesting they hide until someone came for them, an idea which Tom and Fred both shot down without a second's hesitation. Syd demanded to know who would even look for them, but also how they would even get out at all. Suzie joined the group, pointing out that the roof wasn't an option.

The fire escape had long ago rusted and fallen off the building. They'd all seen the pieces of it when they'd still been allowed outside. That, and the building was three stories tall, not exactly a safe jumping distance.

Or is it?

Eddie leapt to his feet, pausing just long enough to sling Alan's backpack onto his back, and jumped into the semicircle, making it a full one. The others jumped at the sudden movement.

"Was there a lot of snow on the roof?" He asked.

{ { o } }

Syd shivered in the sudden cold. In all honesty, she hadn't expected the door to the roof to open at all, but it had. The roof was a little icy, but for the most part was clear. Down below was an endless realm of white and grey, and up above the sun was already ducking down behind the mountains. What time is it? There's no way we've already been here all day... Is there?

Eddie pushed through to the front of the group, going directly to the edge and looking down at the ground, Alan's backpack still slung over his shoulders. He didn't seem aware of the cold at all. Off to the side, Syd saw Fred and Suzanne's backpacks lying on the ground. Likely from when they'd come up here earlier this morning.

Eddie shook his head, then moved to another edge of the roof and looking down again. He repeated this a couple more times before finally coming to a halt. "Here!" He shouted.

Syd and the others approached him with caution. They all lined up along the edge and looked over the side down at the ground. She swallowed down her dizzying sense of vertigo just long enough to get a good look at what had him so excited.

It was a giant pile of snow.

Likely from when whoever had cleared off the roof.

It was tall enough to reach the bottom edge of the second floor windows.

Barely.

"So what?" She asked. "You want us to jump?"

Eddie shrugged. "Got any better ideas?"

Before anyone else could say anything more, Didi sat down, feet hanging over the edge, and slid off.

Time seemed to slow as Didi fell, Syd thought she shouted out of pure reaction, though she couldn't remember what she'd shouted, if it was anything at all. She heard the crunch as Didi broke through the snow crust, her legs sinking into the powdery white beneath.

She started to struggle, wriggling her way steadily free. After her legs were out of the snow, she tumbled gracelessly to the foot of the small hill, then turned to wave up at them from the ground.

It was then that Melody came up behind her and tore her arm off.

Syd couldn't think, couldn't breathe. Her ears were ringing and her heart was pounding. Her stomach twisted and churned in her gut as she helplessly watched Melody literally tear Didi to disgusting gory pieces.

Hot blood soaked into the snow, melting it, sending up a fine mist of steam. Not enough to block the view, unfortunately. Just enough to know it was there.

To say Syd felt sick would've been an understatement.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she grabbed the hands of the people next to her, and pulled them with her as she backed up away from the edge.

"I don't—" she cleared her throat, swallowed. "I don't think we can go that way." Her voice sounded very, very far away. Too distant to really have come from her mouth, even though she knew it had.

It was one thing to see the aftermath, Syd realized. But seeing it happen... Right before their eyes...

"We are so screwed."