[week five - friday]

[ceded]

[ She's frustrated when she doesn't find him the first time.

But she doesn't give up.

After searching the town - and there is just so much blood, everywhere - she turns up empty handed, and with reluctance returns to the hotel. There are other people she has to speak to, anyway.

It's after midnight that she comes back. Largely confident that no one will hear her now, she'll even start softly calling his name. ]

Felix? Felix!

[ She can't give up. She can't. He has to be around here somewhere.

All she really has to navigate is the ambient light of the moon, and it makes her slow and cautious. When she arrives at the Railroad Station, she pauses to take a break. ]

Where could he be...?

Comments

[ceded]

A...

[ Somehow, seeing Elizabeth's charred corpse hadn't really fazed her. Even the initial news of all the other deaths, she'd ... been able to stay calm, to internalize and keep going for the people who needed her.

But hearing how Chane was killed makes her see it in her mind's eye, as vividly as if she saw it happen herself, and she ends up pressing a hand over her mouth with a soft, sick sound that isn't quite a whine.

She remembers a blanket around her shoulders, and arms tentatively circling her back while she cried.

Another sound escapes her, short and choked, and she leans forward, bowing her head and shutting her eyes. One deep breath in, slowly back out. A second. A third. Then she stands straight. ]

... what will you do, Felix?

[generously]

[ Honestly, it's the image of Chane suffering that's breaking his heart the most... and this is someone who never had his heart broken despite the years of being turned down by others before Chane. The woman he married grew up isolated, and slowly started to open her heart up to him and everyone else. To die like this... well, it only reminds him what he needs to do. What Chane would want him to do. ]

I'll find the one responsible and leave them in a pool of blood. There's nowhere to run now.

Chane, Yuna, Russell, Granny Ana... I won't let them down.

[ceded]

.... good luck.

[ Not "don't do it" or "wait for the trial." Just ... good luck. ]

If I can help, somehow... just tell me, okay?

[ what does an offer like that even mean in this kind of situation? ]

Will you still come to the trial?

[generously]

...

[ A grateful, but cold and firm hand on her shoulder before he starts to step back into the darkness. ]

I'll be around. The Rail Tracer is always watching.

[ Whatever that means?! Also, Chane won't be around to bring food for the sheriff. ]

[ceded]

[ She has absolutely no idea what that means.

But she'll startle, taking a step forward, though she has no real intent to chase him. ]

Please just remember to vote! I don't ...

[ ... ]

Be careful, Felix. Please.