Chereads / The Big Bang System / Chapter 8 - Venting

Chapter 8 - Venting

With the trap in place Angela finally has some time to take a breather, she still avoids looking at the scene of her last fight. Given that she feels nauseous just thinking about it, it seems it was the correct choice.

With the remaining time left Angela inspects herself, though she quickly regrets it, her dainty hands which she was so protective of are caked in blood and dirt. Her white, one piece dress is stained and torn. Her appearance is completely ruined. The one saving grace is that her hair was still tied up and so it should still be rather clean; though she was too afraid of ruining it to touch it and make sure.

The depressing inspection was interrupted at that moment by the ding accompanying the hourly notice.

[+0.5 anima, total anima:9.8/100, hp + 11, total hp:93/100]

Angela picks up the knife for hopefully the second last time and readies herself. the mouse's snout pokes through the hole, sniffing hesitantly at the artificial construct. Sensing no immediate danger the mouse puts one foot through the hole, then two. The board underneath creaks, startling the mouse but, after seeing that nothing happened the mouse relaxes.

Seeing this Angela crosses her fingers, if the weight of the mouse was too far off what she estimated then all she had done would be for nought. Finally the mouse puts all of its weight onto the plank. Angela tenses up, even forgetting to breathe but thankfully, after a second or two, a loud crack sounds out and the board splits in two, shocking the mouse as it drops into the pit.

Angela rushes forward but slows down as she nears the pit. Peering over the edge Angela goes pale at the scene in front of her. The trap had worked like Angela expected and pierced the mouse as it fell, what she hadn't expected, though, was the mess that it made.

The mouse had somehow flipped itself midair and had hit the stake backwards. The spike had burst out of the underside of the mouse like that scene from Alien. Guts spilling out of the wound the mouse, which was still alive, thrashes frantically in an attempt to escape.

Angela wants to ignore the scene, putting it off until later like she did with the first corpse. Shaking her head Angela focused herself. Unlike the first mouse this one had to be moved; she still had one last mouse to fight before she could assimilate the island.

Approaching the mouse, Angela's hands start to shake. She had killed the first two mice but that was different; that was in a life or death situation. This time the kill would be premeditated, in cold blood. Convincing herself that it was simply putting the mouse out of its misery Angela kneels down in front of the pit, her hands still trembling.

She grips the knife firmly and, closing her eyes, stabs towards the mouse with both hands, finally ending its struggle. Angela gags as she feels the blade sink into the mouse but she has nothing left to bring up. Slowly opening her eyes Angela blinks back her tears and goes to remove the body from the stake. Lifting it up at arms length in disgust Angela shrieks - she had wrongly estimated how much damage the stake had done and guts spilled out, splattering onto her dress.

Angela had an overwhelming urge to tear her dress off there and then but she held back, she only had one dress after all. After dropping the corpse into the void Angela rushes into her shed, grabs a piece of wood and starts scraping at her clothes with an intense fervour.

After twenty minutes of her frantic effort most of the blood has either been scraped off or rubbed in too deep to get out by hand. Coming out of the frenzied state she was in, Angela started to cry. She missed her home, her family - she wanted to go back.

Since she had woken up here it had been nothing but pain, suffering and loneliness. She had tried to hold it in, to be strong like her brother told her to but she just couldn't anymore. Sobbing, Angela dropped to her knees, her palms red and bleeding from rubbing against the wood for so long.

Crying wasn't enough for Angela to vent her emotions and after a long cry her grief and loneliness had been changed to anger and indignation. Snarling, Angela stomps outside and throws the wood in her hand as hard as she can into the void. With puffy eyes Angela screams into the void "Why have you done this to me! I was happy! you've taken everything from me and yet you keep me here, for what purpose, your amusement? you're not a god, you are merely a twisted bastard!

With her anger dissipated Angela picks up the knife and begins preparing for the final mouse. She had thought about giving up and just letting herself die but if she did then it meant that whoever caused all this has won; she can't let that happen.

With the trap prepared and a new glimmer of determination in her eyes, Angela tightens her grip on her knife and prepares herself to face the demon mouse once more.