The grumbling ceased for now. The storm had passed and the moonlight shined down onto the murky lake…

The monster was gone and Pearl could finally catch her breath.

Lapis was sitting beside her on a dusty old couch, she looked cold despite wearing a jacket, the previous scarf that Pearl wore was now wrapped around her stomach tightly, covering her wound and replacing the bandages.

The room looked like an abandoned outpost of sorts, but Pearl deduced that it wasn't owned by a forest ranger. More like a geologist if anything, there where rock samples and dirt littered messily around the room. It looked like whoever stayed here left in a hurry at some point in time as there was countless papers coated in a dried brown substance coating the floor.

She shivered at the thought of it being dried blood.

"How are you?" Pearl asked Lapis, who was grunting slightly,

"I… Ugh… I think that I opened the cut up again…" Lapis hissed, "It's okay… I'm fine now." Pearl nodded her head absently, it was still strange to her that Lapis was being so friendly and open to her. Almost as strange as her confessing that she had a crush on her, "What about you?"

Pearl shuddered, no point lying to her, "my chest hurts… and I'm still out of breath."

"B-but you'll be okay? Yes?" Lapis looked at her with concern, she was almost pleading for her to say that she'll be fine. Pearl didn't know that for sure though.

"Yeah." She forced herself to smile, "I'll be okay, it's nothing…" She lied.

Lapis still looked at her with the deep blue eyes filled with concern. Pearl thought it obvious that the girl never believed her.

Eventually, Pearl stood up and walked to a desk with the most papers scattered around, she picked up one of the sheets randomly and looked at it. Complicated chemical reactions were scribbled all over the page, debating theories and discussing strange gas compounds. It made her head hurt looking at it.

"What did you find?" Pearl heard Lapis ask from behind her,

"Nothing important," Pearl put the paper down and returned to the couch. Her chest was hurting her now more than ever, she groaned and leaned back.

Lapis watched her curiously, when Pearl looked back at her she blushed and looked away. She had a frown on her face like usual.

'Something must be bothering her…' The tall girl coughed, yet again there's that mysterious metal taste in her mouth, it was enough for Lapis to look back at her again in worry.

"Pearl?"

"Yes?" Pearl sighed softly, trying her best to relax.

"I want to tell you what happened back then... My side of the story." She scratched her neck nervously but winced slightly.

"Sure..." Pearl breathed out.

"So... What happened with Jasper..."

Lapis was finally alone. The sea was a refreshing change to the cramped apartment she stayed with Jasper, there was ocean and water where her eyes could see and a sunny, blue sky up above. Unlike the closed doors and locks of her room. She wondered why on earth she stayed with Jasper, she was mean and scary, constantly irritating her. Then when she tries to leave and break up the other girl apologises and gets onto her knees at times.

Lapis was sick of it.

There was something her life lacked and that was freedom. She grinned as she ran up to the water and began her routine, wondering why she was slightly happier today. Out of the corner of her eye she seen her, a tall blonde girl that constantly waited by the cafe. She was pretty, but what Lapis liked more was her determination to keep going in hopes that something will change. The woman was like her in a way, waiting for change.

Today wasn't going to be one of those days however, she was going to finish swimming and catch her just before she left.
"Hi! My name's Lapis Lazuli!" She cringed, that's too generic,
"Sup? Name's Lazuli." Lapis submerged into the water, that was even worse than before.

She felt like a creeper at times, constantly glancing at her to make sure she was there and then trying not to get caught.

When the girl finally frowned into her phone and began walking, all the alarms went off in Lapis's head. She swam to the shore but something suddenly grabbed her arm, in a powerful motion she was thrown into a rock and cut her back badly on the broken glass bottles.
There was Jasper, once again on her knees pleading for her to come back.

Lapis glanced to the girl, she had noticed and looked like she was prepared to do something. She tried to convey to her not to risk her safety, there was countless glass shards that Jasper will, and once did, use. She watched her turn away and then she ran. Lapis had a mixture of emotions, she was angry and irritated at herself for not going sooner but then she was sad again. It was a cycle that she hated.

When she finally got away from Jasper. She couldn't bear to look at Pearl again once they were introduced, she was just a big reminder, after all, of how lowly she thought of herself.

Pearl let out a small breath as she took it all in. She wondered why they never spoke about this before, but understood that Lapis had to go through a lot everyday. Too much to even compare.

"I don't want to regret again, or think like that ever again." Lapis stated, "So... Do you think… That after this is all over…" Lapis frowned and grumbled again, "would you like to go to the Beach?"

Pearl just blinked, "I thought that the reason we were going to Beach City was to go to the Beach."

"N-no, I mean…" Lapis blushed, "Together… Alone?"

"Are you… Are you asking me out?" Pearl blushed slightly, and Lapis nodded shyly.

"So?"

The tall girl wanted to say yes, but she hesitated. 'It's ridiculous…' she sighed, 'it'll never work out.' But the look Lapis gave her said otherwise. Pearl had been strangely charmed her again by the girl in blue, it was as if she was meeting her for the first time… Without the bitterness and apparent hatred.
She swallowed her dread and tried not to think about the future, it was time her heart started beating for someone again.

"Yes." Pearl smiled, "Yes… I would love that." Lapis smiled in relief and chuckled slightly.

Pearl found it cute, she laughed a little. 'Lapis was adorable?' When did that cross her mind?

She took Lapis's hand and they shyly managed to interlace their fingers.

Pearl was happy again despite it all, and she was happy with Lapis despite it all.

They stayed like that for a while until Pearl finally had enough of the silence and began looking around again. Lapis silently protested by holding onto her hand longer, but she let Pearl go eventually.

She walked back to the desk and pulled out some more papers. Pearl impatiently scanned through them, not really paying any attention to the pages as her head started to pound again. The tall girl grumbled and abandoned the notes, she could just read them later.

A glint of something shiny caught Pearl's eye and she turned slowly, discovering a broken safe in the corner that was held only by some chains. She walked up to it and crouched down, the door was open slightly and she could see that Inside there was some sort of box. The space in the door was unfortunately not large enough to reach in and pull the box out.

There was some movement behind her and Pearl turned around to see Lapis look through the notes she left out on the desk.

"Pearl?" Lapis called her name, "you might want to read this…" Pearl watched her face grow pale and her hands shake.

The tall girl stumbled over and looked at the notes with her, focusing on the points where Lapis pointed at.

Pearl could now understand why Lapis was so scared…

It described in detail the hallucinogenic properties of the poisonous gas that came out the lake, it described a white-smoke appearance and the strong earthy smell. Pearl gasped when she read the shocking stories of the gas and concluded with her chest full of dread that being exposed for too long led to certain death.

It wasn't fog…

It was poison.

And they already were exposed for too long…

The thudding sound of the beast returned, it was their deaths approaching yet again. Pearl could feel her tears well up in her throat and she whimpered.

They sat back down onto the couch, trying to make sense of it all and resting their shaking knees.

"Pearl?" Pearl looked up to the face of the voice. Lapis looked like she was going to cry, "a-are we still up for that date?" Pearl whimpered out a yes, "a-and we're going to go to the beach right?" Pearl nodded her head, her chest just kept hurting, she swore that she could see blood on their bodies. Blood that they couldn't see due to their hallucinations.

"Everyone's going to be there," Lapis continued, "Peridot and Amethyst will probably leave and go to an ice cream stall… They've always sorta liked each other." she finally sobbed. The grave realisation death was too much…

Pearl pulled her into a hug.

"We're going to die… Oh my god… We're going to die…" Lapis cried,

"Lapis…" Pearl put her hand onto the back of her head, she was going dizzy again. She couldn't lie to her anymore, she couldn't tell her to calm down or that 'everything will be fine' anymore. So she closed her eyes slowly…

"What will we do at the beach?" she smiled slightly as she imagined it. The cool waves, the hot sand and the salty breeze.

"Well…" Lapis began.

Garnet will be playing a game of volleyball, partnered with no one other than Alexandrite against Sugilite and Sardonyx. Another one of their friends, Opal, would be meditating on the beach with Bismuth nearby, digging for coins and messing about with the others.

Amethyst and Peridot are in the distance and are enjoying each others company, she always knew that they would go out eventually.

Pearl herself is in the water; Not swimming, just standing. Lapis is beside her, holding her hand. She always looked nice in the water… Then…

"Then what?" Pearl hummed, opening her eyes and looking down at Lapis, her cheeks were covered in tears and her lips quivering.

"And then…" Pearl finds herself coming closer, staring at the others lips,

"Then?" Pearl whispered, her lips just inches away. She put her hand onto Lapis's cheek.

"If you're okay with it… we…"

Their lips touch and Pearl never wanted to pull away. Lapis's hands dug into her hair, pulling her closer and earned a surprised sound from Pearl. They opened their mouth a little wider, eager and desperate for comfort. Pearl done her best to forget her chest-pains, the shortage of breath and the taste of metal…

But then Lapis pulled away.

Pearl felt abandoned for a moment until she seen the look on Lapis's face. She slowly looked down at her lips, blood was dripped down her chin and her mouth was full of blood. Pearl's heart lurched when she thought that she had hurt her in some way.

"Pearl…" Lapis gasped.

But the taller girl couldn't say anything, her mouth was now full of blood and her chest made her wheeze. They looked down in horror.

A sharp shard of wood with barbed wire wrapped around it was lodged into her chest.

Pearl collapsed backwards, it wasn't a large shard of wood…

But it was enough…