5 tensed once more. She wanted to pull her hair out, why couldn't
she have just stayed in the tent? She glared at both of them. "No,
I don't know where 11 is. As for you," she jabbed a finger at 8, "I
was trying to keep your little meeting a secret for you." She
looked up in alarm. "Grapes, it's the guards. My tent, unless you
want to know what my life is like the hard way." She scrambled back
to her tent.
“Oh, well my spirit friends are digging a hole to help us escape.
Also some dogs that got the message... and cats... and birds...
okay, Mouse, stop calling animals we can’t call too much
attention.” She said sighing, before sitting down and watching. “Is
my ability actually helpful?” She asked, sighing. She watched her
spirits dig, with the help of other animals. She followed Mora.
He let out a sigh and rocked back on his heels, closing his eyes
and touching his hand to his temple. "Whether or not I am is
inconsequential and ought to make no difference to you. I don't
really care what you're doing, it doesn't affect me. You all appear
terrible at sneaking around, and therefore are likely to be caught.
I wish you luck in your endeavors, but this has nothing to do with
me." There were now at least five people out after curfew, and he
was anxious to not be associated with the other four. He'd seen
what happened when people tried to escape. It wasn't worth it.
Panic coursed through him once more at 5's alert. Guards? This was
just splendid. Seeing that he could choose to either be
caught or go along with them, he reluctantly ran after the girl.
Murasaki looked around for Natasha or her spirit. She couldn’t
really tell the difference between a real human or the ghost of a
human. She didn’t usually see human ghosts. She could tell the
difference between an animal ghost and a real animal, but just not
humans.
11 had been hiding in the shadows all along. She only asked
Murasaki to come, no one else. She left a tear in Murasaki’s
bedsheet, hopefully she would understand that she didn’t trust the
others. She had escaped successfully before, yes. But she was too
hesitant and didn’t have a plan after that, so she was caught and
placed back in. The masked man kept this escape a secret, so as to
not encourage the others, but she had a permanent scar on her back,
from a knife carving.
Murasaki looked around, and saw her mouse. She nodded, and it
exited and floated over. She told it to look in her tent and check
to see if something was there. She had a nagging suspicion that
there was. The mouse came back and told her that her sheet was
ripped. She looked around and saw Natasha’s soul there, she quietly
exited the tent and snuck back to her own. “What do you need?” She
asked, ducking inside.
“Why were there....others? Do you want to get caught? Do you not
know how serious the punishments would be?” She asked. “Shh, there
are Guards. Quick, hide!”
7 was wide awake and sitting on her bed. Her nap earlier now made
it impossible to fall asleep. Instead she instead listened to the
sounds of the night. Bugs chirping, frogs croaking.. and of course
her peers' interactions.
7 figured she ought to ask the sky spirits if they saw anything in
the morning. It was too risky to go out there on her own, besides,
she didn't actually side with anyone (yet) so going out just to spy
would just get them suspicious.
She stared and stroked her mouse, because it was in the mouse body
once more. She realized this, and smiled, happy that she had at
least one friend who was with her throughout this whole thing.
5 sat down on the bed, wincing at the resulting creak. She was
still breathing hard from the hurried scramble, but she knew she
wouldn't have a chance at getting away with sneaking out if they
heard her panting like she'd run around the Community twice. She
calmed down, and whispered as quietly as possible, "Hold still."
There was the sound of feet, and the guards moving past the tent.
When the sound had completley faded away, 5 exhaled. "Thank
goodness." She paused for a minute. "And I will say that I wasn't
planning on any of them coming to us. Honestly, sometimes I wish
that the Masked Man would just kill me already, but maybe getting
caught with them would do it." She leaned back, her head hitting
the pillow. "This exsistence is a fate worse than death." She was
still speaking a low tone, but the anger in her voice showed
clearly.
Standing off to the side of the entrance to the tent, 19 held his
left hand over his chest, closing his eyes and taking in a ragged
breath. Goodness, he hated this. He hated running, he hated the
weakness it brought. There had been a name for it in the Outside,
he was fairly certain, but he couldn't recall for the life of him
what it was. He only hoped 5 didn't notice. As he gradually reigned
in his breathing and composure, he felt a slight smile tug at his
mouth; if he recalled correctly, "a fate worse than death" was a
comical expression from Outside, and while he understood the
sentiment and didn't want to make fun of her frustration, it amused
him slightly. He quickly sobered, though. "If they had cameras
watching that, they'd assume we all meant to meet up. They'd assume
you were creating a- what's the word, rebellion? Rebellion."
Upon hearing the Guards leave and return to their usual spots,
Natasha decided that it would be safe to talk to Murasaki. Not
physically though, the same way she did, carrying her soul through
her shadow. “You wanted to talk? Now’s the time, but quickly”