Redglare entered the room, and stopped when she saw Kanaya, still passed out on the couch.
"What happened to her?"
"Mindfang left her out in the sun, I think." Redglare nodded and looked serious.
"Well that won't be a problem for much longer."
"Yeah, thank you for doing this by the way."
"No problem," she smirked. "I know Mindfang very well." She crossed the room and settled herself on the couch.
"Is that your real name?" John asked, curious. She laughed.
"Redglare? No, it's a stage name. Kind of stupid, actually, but now I can't shake it. Sounds intimidating though. My real name is Vriska."
"I'm John. Nice to meet you." He walked over and joined her on the couch, sinking down slightly.
"You're new right? How long ago did you get here?"
"Just a few days ago." Had he really only been here a few days? Time seemed to pass so much slower than before. Or at least more things had been happening.
"Wow, well you seem to be adjusting quickly. And you won't look weird for long, trust me."
"Yeah, Karkat told me."
"I bet he did! He loves it, to talk your damn ear off."
"Yeah..." John replied, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. The tone of voice she was taking didn't sound kind or joking at all.
"You seem quieter, though. I like you." She stared intently at him.
"Um, thanks?" John shifted, trying to think of a way that he could ask her to leave without being rude.
"I was going to kill you, you know. But now I don't think I will." She smiled, her eyes glinting dangerously.
"Wait, what?" John said, sure he hadn't heard her clearly.
"I said, I don't think I'll kill you after all, you're cute." John rose from the couch, his eyes wide.
"Wh..." He started backing away, but Vriska rose to a standing position. She was quite a bit taller than him, looking down and examining her nails, which had been filed to sharp points.
"You might have guessed," she said, looking up and baring her fangs again. "But I'm not Redglare."
She moved faster than John could react, advancing on him and sliding her leg around the back of his knees, causing him to topple helplessly forward. She pushed him back and kneeled, her knee planted on his chest and pressing his chest down into the hard floor. He flailed and tried to arch his back up, but her hands moved like bullets, catching his wrists and planting them into the floor.
"Good," she smiled. "I'm not going to hurt you."
"Are you...Mindfang?" John said, struggling for breath.
"Wow," she said mockingly, "Nothing gets past you, does it? You're lucky you're pretty." The pressure on his chest decreased as she sat back on his abdomen and let his wrists go. John didn't make an attempt to free himself, he already knew it was futile. Vriska didn't speak for a moment, just sort of stared into space.
John supposed she was beautiful, in a strange, deadly kind of way. When she didn't have that creepy smile on.
She turned back to him, about to say something else when they heard Kanaya's cough from the couch. Vriska's eyes went wide and she turned to her left to see Kanaya's stirring form. Seemingly forgetting about John, she stood up and walked slowly over, kneeling by Kanaya's head.
John scrambled backward, behind the second couch. From around the side, he could see that Kanaya's eyes were now open, the girls' faces were only a few inches apart. They were holding a whispered conversation, John couldn't pick up any of it, but after a few more seconds, Vriska stood up and abruptly left, leaving the door of the bunker swinging and not giving John a second glance.
After a good two minutes of being frozen in place, John finally stood up on shaky legs and checked on Kanaya, whose eyes were closed again. Just then Sollux came walking through the door, soaking wet and shaking rain out of his hair.
"Sup Egbert, why's the door open?"
John only stared, trying to find his voice. Sollux removed his glasses and wiped the raindrops off, looking up again.
"M-mindfang."
"What?"
"She was here."
Sollux stared at him, looking skeptical. "Yeah, she killed Tavros."
"No I mean like ten minutes ago."
"What? How come you're still alive then?"
"She said she...liked me. And that she was going to kill me but then she decided not to but then Kanaya woke up and she went over and started talking to her and she had pinned me down and then-"
"Whoa there Egbert, calm down." Sollux held his hands out. "Ok what happened, slowly."
"She came in, said she was Redglare, sat on me, talked to Kanaya and then left."
"She said she was Redglare? And you believed her?"
"Hey, I don't know what she looks like." Sollux exhaled.
"Well, when you see her the name will make sense. We should wait for Karkat to get back and then decide what to do. You hungry?"
"Yeah," John replied, settling down on the couch while Sollux wandered towards the oven. "Where were you, by the way?" He asked, turning around. Sollux shook his head.
"Doesn't matter."
He returned a few minutes later with steaming noodles that John figured came from the dark blue ramen flavor. They ate in silence, aside from slurping occasionally.
"Why are your eyes like that?" John finally asked, seeing that Solux still hadn't put his glasses back on. The question, among numerous others, had been bugging him for a while.
"I don't know. It just kind of happened."
"You can see though, right?"
"Not very well. And hardly in the dark, I never got the whole glowing eyes thing."
"So you can't see outside?"
"Sort of, I guess. But I can still get around easily enough, I've been here a long enough time to know all the routes."
"How old were you? When you were diagnosed, I mean."
"Eleven. It was the first time anyone had really paid attention to me, I guess. No one liked me before because of the way I talked or whatever, but as soon as the light flashed red it was all like 'oh no' and 'I'm so sorry'. Total bullshit. They got me at school, and then kept me in a locked room for two days."
"They didn't do that to me."
"Yeah, I guess it was different a few years ago. They were still trying to figure out more stuff about it, so they took all these samples and tests and shit. I didn't see my parents or anyone again. And then after all that, they just dumped me on the truck and left me here."
"Were you mad?"
"You kidding? Yeah, I was mad. I spent the best part of two years trying to make this place less shitty for everyone who lived here, getting electricity and running water and getting that fucking ancient oven to work, but by the time I finally got everything working, everyone but Karkat was dead. We're all fucking time bombs, ticking away, and then dropping right in order. Except if you just get killed outright. I sometimes think it would almost be better to just-" He broke off, looking down at his food again.
John wondered what the whole 'right in order' part meant, but he didn't inquire further, Sollux looked like he was done talking for now.
They finished in silence, Sollux taking the bowls and stacking them by the oven, to be washed in the shower later. He said he was working on trying to make a sink, but it was a long project and he kept getting interrupted with shit like this. John assumed he was talking about Mindfang.
Another half hour had passed before Karkat strode inside, soaking wet.
"Who left the fucking door open?"
