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Suitcase was sitting on the cold bathroom floor of the Calm Down Cabin. She wasn’t sure how she ended up there, where she even was, or why there was a bathroom there since objects don’t need to use bathrooms. She just. Found this room, locked herself in it, and just sat there. Couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a Sunday morning.
She had a reason to find a room though. It’s hard seeing all those things, and she was being chased by one. Not an unusual sight, but a scary one nonetheless.
So well, she just sat there, hyperventilating on the floor, mumbling some utter nonsense under her breath. She tried to hug her knees, but that just resulted in her digging her nails too deep, drawing some blood to the surface. The sudden feeling of the sticky liquid snapped Suitcase back to reality.
She pulled her palms to her face, to take a closer look. The tips of her nails were slightly red, and on some there were even small droplets of blood. She then looked at her legs. There wasn’t much blood, sure, it wasn’t even spilling down! But it was enough to get her heart racing. What would the others think? Would they think she relapsed? She promised to stop cutting herself she couldn’t have-
And then. It caught her eye. A small razor blade. It must’ve belonged to a contestant that actually shaved. She thought fur a second on who it might’ve been, but honestly objects don’t really grow hair so what was it there fur? Was someone struggling with the same things as her? Well, there isn’t any blood residue on the blade so surely not. Come to think of it, it looks REALLY sharp. Almost unused.
She took the small object between her thumb and index finger. It made a little metal “Pshhch” sound when she picked it up. Not an unfamiliar one. She held it up to her face. Yep. It was brand new. Not a single scratch in sight either!
She placed the razor blade back, and started contemplating on everything. Should she actually cut? I mean, she promised she’ll try her best not to do it anymore.
Suddenly she heard a thump, and a loud sound of opening doors. It was in the Calm Down Cabin. And it was after her. She started hyperventilating again, so she tried to stand up to hide in the bathtub. Her shaky panicked self could not bright itself to even make that attempt though, resulting in her falling back onto the floor.
She locked eye contact with the blade again. The creature was wandering around the cabin. Shit. Shit. Shit. If there was anything that always helped her calm down, it was to focus on one sense at a time, but with the sounds of footsteps right outside the bathroom floor it was hard to.
She suddenly felt a sting on her little wounds. Seems a little dust particle got into one of them. The creature got quieter. Ah. Of course.
The sense she always focused on was pain.
As edgy, or corny, it may sound, pain is truly the best escape isn’t it? When you were a kid i bet when you fell off your little bike, you pinched your ears to ease off the pain.
When it comes to.. existential pain, or even the pain of an unknown creature crawling through the night to get you specifically, a simple pinch would not work.
She frantically grabbed the blade and made some sloppy cuts on her forearm. It was not enough. She pressed the blade as hard as she let herself. It was probably only 20% of her strength, but with a razor blade (especially a brand new one) it was always better to stay careful. We would not want to accidentally cut to muscle would we?
With that amount of strength she got to deep styros. It was not enough. She needed more. She needed to go deeper. She pressed harder, and swiped. It made a silent short skin rip noise. She looked down to see bean-like fat which quickly got covered with blood.
The creature seemed to calm down a bit, everytime she went deeper and deeper. It was not enough. She then decided to multiswipe. God, nothing felt better than multiswiping through most skin layers. Cat scratches, styro, beans. Still careful not to hit muscle, or god forbid bone, she fully finished both of her arms, forearms to shoulders on all sides. It was not enough.
She pulled up her skirt just enough to reveal her thighs. She stared down at them. They were full of disgusting old scars. It was time to open them back up.
She clenched the blade harder and swiped as hard as she could. Shit. Shit. Shit. Luckily, it wasn’t muscle, but this wound in particular ended up being longer than she expected. It probably wouldn’t be able to heal without getting stitches.
Suddenly a droplet fell into the wound, making Suitcase hiss in discomfort. It was a small tear. Was she.. crying..? She looked down upon herself. There was blood running down her body, and there were gigantic blood splatters on the floor. She leaned her head back onto the wall behind her, and just let all of the tears out.
The creature was getting closer and closer to the door, and there was nothing she could do about it. She was too weak to even move, so the blade sat in her unmoving arm, as she stared up at the ceiling. She heard the creature creep up to the bathroom door. And then she heard a knock.
“Hello? Anyone there?” Suitcase heard a familiar voice. She couldn’t make it out who it was though. She tried to mutter a reply, but nothing came out except fur a silent, but hopefully loud enough, whine.
“..Suitcase..?” With the last bits of her strength she looked up at the door, as the familiar voiced person twiddled with the door handle.
“Are you okay Suitcase? I can hear you’re crying.” She figured it out. It was Knife. Of fucking course it was Knife! Who else could it be, during the hardest night of her life?! The ONE person that she hoped wouldn’t see her in a state like this.
“I’m coming in you’re worrying me.” Knife said with a demanding tone.
“N..Noooo…” Suitcase whined back. She closed her eyes to not even see how Knife would react. She did not close the door. What an idiot.
Suitcase heard the door open, and some footsteps before a loud stop.
“Suitcase what the fuck?” Knife asked, her voice shaky. She kneeled before Suitcase before taking her forearm into her own hands to examine them. At least that’s what Suitcase thought happened since she still had her fucking eyes closed.
“I- I got to get you a first aid kit, Suitcase do you realise how much you’re bleeding? I don’t think some of these I will be even able to patch up, jesus christ.” She then proceeded to gently place Suitcase’s arm back on the ground. She took three towels from the towel rack, not even giving a shit who they belonged to, and wrapped each one around Suitcase’s body parts. Two fur two forearms, and one fur her thigh.
“I’ll be right back, I need help. You.. You need help.” Knife then stood up leaving the door open, rushing to get someone- anyone to help. Suitcase opened her eyes, with a struggle yes, and looked down on herself. The thick towels were already slightly soaking through with the red thick liquid and she could not think about anything except how filthy she is.
So selfish. How could she let Knife see her like this? Just because she has problems doesn’t mean the rest of the contestants, especially Knife, had to endure it.
She heard footsteps, this time of multiple people. There were three of them. Knife, in a beautiful sundress. Suitcase couldn’t help but blush a little, even in her current state. Test Tube, holding a first aid kit, and Life Ring who was frantically taking assumably necessary things to patch up Suitcase.
Test Tube kneeled before Suitcase and started speaking to her, but she could not hear anything. She wasn’t even able to respond properly so what was even the point of listening. She just closed her eyes and drifted off.
…
She woke up in a shady room. It looked like what people described Test Tube’s lab to look like, so assumably, it was the lab. The first thing she noticed were the bandages on her wounds. They were steadily wrapped around her limbs, making it hard fur her to move. Then she saw Test Tube, messing with something on the other side of the room, supposedly chit chatting with Life Ring. And lastly she felt touch. Someone was holding her hand.
Suitcase looked to the side with the little strength she had and saw Knife. She had dark eye bags, and it looked like she was crying just now. When they caught eye contact, Knife squeezed Suitcase’s hand harder, but not hard enough to make it hurt.
“Are you okay? Actually no- Scratch that you’re obviously not. How are you holding up? You passed out when I got help. Maybe that’s good because you didn’t feel Test Tube stitching some of your wounds. But yeah, how’s it hanging..?” Knife asked awkwardly. Suitcase giggled. It hurt to even make noise, but anything she did fur Knife was worth it.
“I. Don’t know. I’m sorry.” Suitcase replied.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about, I’m just glad you’re.. ‘okay’” Knife smiled, and placed a soft kiss on Suitcase’s palm. As much as Suitcase appreciated the gesture, it also hurt like hell since well.. She had like 20 cuts on her arm what can I say dude.
“I like your dress.” Suitcase smiled softly.
“Yeah? That’s nice to hear.” Knife gave back the warm smile, and this time instead of putting Suitcase through more pain she just started squeezing her hand a bit harder.
Then Test Tube walked up to them so the fun was over.
“So.. Suitcase! We will not ask about what happened (fur now.). But just so you know, we’re always here to talk. You’re our friend after all.” She then glanced at Knife. “Maybe even more than that. Golly Gee that was corny whatever. Just.. Talk to someone if you’re feeling like that again, okay?” Test Tube tried her best to smile, but it was hard given the situation.
“Alright I guess.” Suitcase replied. She knew that it would not be as easy as that. How could she know if she hallucinated AGAIN, and that was the only way out? Empty Promises are something she hated probably more than she hated Nickel and that’s a LOT let me tell ya!
But I guess she’ll have to live with that.