Chapter 54: Sarah
Morgan sat motionless on the crate, blankly staring into the lights above.
Ryan remained where he stood, still looking at the man, as though waiting for something.
"He’s dead."
Miles spoke first, his voice a bit dull as he looked at the man that had guided them all here. He didn’t feel sadness, rage, or anything of the sort. Just pity.
Morgan had been a good person after all, much better than he could ever claim to be. He’d been the light, the flag they’d rallied around and stuck to.
Things were only going to get much harder without him.
Miles turned to Ryan. The boy nodded, then blinked, letting out some of the tears that had gathered in his eyes. It wasn’t enough, so he forcefully rubbed his face with his sleeve.
"You’re right."
His voice came off a little shaky, so he cleared his throat before removing his hand from his face.
"We can’t just stand around like this. It’s not safe yet."
The pain was still visible along the tightened lines of his face. But Ryan did his best to portray a strong front, just like a certain someone.
Miles didn’t really know much about Ryan’s relationship with Morgan. He just knew that the man placed a lot of trust in him, and to his credit, Ryan had never once let him down.
He had no idea they’d grown so close.
Standing beside Ryan, Mia patted his back softly. She alternated between that and shooting Miles looks that weren’t exactly glares but weren’t all too friendly either.
Like he’d said something insensitive.
’What else was I supposed to say?’
The man was dead, and nothing would change that.
Ryan stepped forward, leaving Mia behind, then gently closed the man’s eyes, giving him a peaceful look, even in death.
Well, peaceful if Miles could ignore all the blood on his face.
With that, Ryan turned to face them, his eyes looking a bit reddened and lost.
"We... we still have to deal with the corpses."
That much was true. The room was a mess, with corpses of those they’d killed littered the floor. Shattered wood pieces and burst food cans cluttered the already bloodied ground.
Miles suddenly realized an irregularity. There were only six of them here. He hadn’t seen Sarah or her friends since waking up.
If anyone among them had died, it would have been Sarah. He didn’t remember [Bloody Mary] attacking her friends though; if anything, she’d been the one to drag them down as they fell.
"Did Sarah make it?"
Ryan shot Morgan one last look before shaking his head.
"We haven’t checked it, but..."
He was interrupted by the sound of something moving near the door, where Miles had last seen Sarah. It instantly set them all on guard. Those still holding weapons raised them immediately.
A few crates blocked whatever was moving there from direct view, making Ryan shoot Miles a knowing glance before carefully walking towards one side of the crate, bat in hand.
Naturally, Miles understood what he meant by that, so he walked towards the other side. He didn’t go as close though, since his bat was still on the floor.
The rest followed behind, splitting between him and Ryan.
Behind the crates lay the bodies of three girls; their clothes were soaked by a growing pool of blood beneath them.
Dead. They all looked dead. At least at first glance.
The body in the middle was still moving subtly, shifting its fingers here and squeezing its face there. It looked almost uncomfortable lying in a pool of blood.
Then, as though sensing the people around it now, it shot up to a sitting position.
It took Ryan all he had to not swing at it right then and there. Miles even felt heat from his back as Brandon’s flames ignited once again.
Luckily, none of them had taken the shot, because that clearly wasn’t a ghoul, but a person. Freckled face, brown-haired, and light-skinned.
She lacked any traces of frostbite.
’Sarah...’
It could only be her.
A mix of guilt and crushing sadness lurked in her eyes as she opened them, staring at Miles for a moment before lowering her head.
’But how?’
It was the first thought that came to Miles’s mind. How was she alive? He was certain that she’d looked into a mirror; he had even heard the sound of flesh being cut by [Bloody Mary].
His eyes slid off her and onto the corpses of her friends still lying on the floor. On the exact same location on their necks was a slash wound. Not too deep, but deep enough that it cut through their main arteries.
The blood on the ground was entirely from those wounds. Sarah looked spotless in comparison, entirely uninjured.
Then a strange thought came to him. A little detail from yesterday that he’d overlooked.
’Damage sharing...’
That was her ability. He had no idea how it worked exactly.
[Bloody Mary]’s slashes were much deeper than what appeared on both corpses’ necks. He’d seen it on Mrs. Kathy’s body after all.
But if the damage from a single slash was somehow taken and spread between two bodies, then it would certainly make sense.
He apparently wasn’t the only one considering the possibility, as Brandon suddenly spoke from behind him.
"You killed them, didn’t you?"
The girl only lowered her head further in response, like she wanted to bury it in her blood-stained skirt.
Silence in this case was effectively an admission of guilt.
’Friendships. They don’t seem to be worth all that much in the end.’
Miles narrowed his eyes at the thought. Then Brandon walked past him, eyes laser focused on Sarah.
"So you were never injured, were you? You just lay there while the rest of us were busting our asses to save you. You couldn’t even give Morgan a..."
Ryan stepped between them, stopping Brandon from pressing her any further. Behind him, the girl clenched her skirt silently.
He scratched his head in frustration.
"Are you seriously starting a fight now? Did you hear nothing that Morgan said!?"
The last part came off with more force than he’d likely intended, as his face softened a bit afterwards. He glanced to the girl behind him before facing Brandon again. Then he rubbed his face.
"Look, we can question her later. Right now, we need to deal with the bodies."