Content Warning: Mentions of suicide are in this chapter, it is at the very end, please read cautiously if this could potentially hurt your mental health.

Tuesday: 9:11 AM

Lucy Hope chewed on the tip of her pen as she read over the files of her patients for today: Scott Stevens, Sunny Cheong and Valerie St. George. Certainly a good variety. Her mind was rather distracted with the conversation she had with Dr. Norman last night. She sipped her coffee and attempted to wipe away the sleep from her eyes.

"You seem tired today Lucy, is everything alright?"

Lucy could only nod to herself as she attempted to reassure Quentin Badger. The man in question accepted her non-verbal answer. In truth she felt rather ill, but she knew rescheduling her patients was simply unacceptable. Plus, despite her feelings towards Norman, she made a commitment and she wasn't going to give up just because she wasn't feeling up to her usual.

"Whose first?"

Quentin looked over his register and handed Lucy the appropriate file.

"Scott Stevens should be here shortly."

Lucy skimmed over his file. Similarly to Mr. Farran, Mr. Stevens suffered from intense nightmares that are enhanced with his drinking problem. Further research discovered that he is a single father to an eight year old girl who was born before his fiancé's untimely death in the same year.

Compared to previous entries this was fairly mild. Lucy asked Quentin a question.

"Is this everything?"

Quentin shrugged.

"It's everything Miss Hart believes to be relevant."

Lucy pursed her lips at the name of her former receptionist. She still held bitterness towards the woman and her incoming migraine was doing nothing to help matters.

Useless

Helpless

Meaningless

Lucy tried to calm her breathing, gulping as she allowed the coffee to scold her throat.

"No behavioural documentations?"

"Just a good man grieving I imagine."

Lucy decided not to look a gift in a horse's mouth. She imagined that he had a very close relationship with his lover and hasn't really been able to move past it. Particularly because she was interested in the relationship between him and his daughter, she couldn't help thinking that with alcoholism came a distant relationship.

Or so she thought.

A very young girl marched into the reception, took one look at Lucy, puffed her cheeks and turned around.

"Daddy no! This place surely isn't suitable for you, I only agreed to let you come because you said your doctor was a man! But she's a woman! Liar!"

Lucy had never met a more sexist little girl in her life.

However, when her father did enter through the reception doors, she was slightly amused about why this little girl didn't want her dad around other women.

Scott was a fairly built man with a strong chin and a grizzled look to him, from his extremely tanned skin to the five o'clock shadow that never leaves his face. Add that onto his short messy brown hair and deep-set hazel eyes.

Scott wears a simple outfit of a wrinkled khaki button up that's worn over a white t-shirt, the button up has about the first 4 buttons left unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up to his shoulders. The button up also seems to be a size too small as it sort of clings to his chest and arms making them more defined, as well as various permanent dirt stains are spotted along the button up.

Dad, or more commonly known to Lucy, Scott, smirked as he ruffled his daughter's head much to her chagrin. Looking at Lucy, he decided to tease his daughter.

"How about this, once we introduce ourselves, I'll let you interrogate her?"

The little girl didn't miss a beat.

"Interesting proposal. Here's my counterargument: No."

Scott laughed as he grabbed his daughter by the waist and put her squirming body on his shoulders.

"Interesting response. Here's my counterargument: You can't stop me."

"Daddyyyyyyyyy!"

Lucy smiled at the display. She was very surprised at how happy this father/daughter duo looked, she couldn't help feeling jealous, recalling her own relationship with her father. It wasn't necessarily hostile, but it was not this affectionate. She decided to jump out of the peanut gallery as she stepped forwards.

"Welcome Mr. Stevens, who might this little firecracker be?"

Scott grinned as he felt the boop of his daughter's nose on the top of his head.

"This little dingo is my favourite daughter, Hailey."

"I'm your only daughter!"

"And you're still my favourite!"

After placing Hailey on the ground, said girl marched up to Lucy, crossed her arms, and glared.

"Why aren't you a man?"

Lucy was slightly puzzled by the question, biting her lower lip awkwardly.

Scott laughed, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

"She means to ask why Dr. Norman isn't here? We've seen his face on the advertisement and he certainly isn't him."

Scott pointed at Quentin with the later half of his comment. Said man shrugged.

"I'm the receptionist, Quentin Badger."

"Dr. Norman's on vacation, however we felt that shutting down the facility would be unnecessary."

Lucy briefly explained, trying to distract from Quentin's standoffish introduction. She wasn't sure why he wasn't engaging with the patients, but she wouldn't let it deter her from making an impression. And the most effective way into this man's heart was to get through the little missus. She leaned down to Hailey's height, got close to her ear and whispered.

"Don't worry about me falling in love with your daddy, I have a very special boyfriend in my life, but that's our secret okay?"

Lucy was of course trying to imagine herself in a relationship with Dr. Norman, ignoring his less than desirable traits and attempting to focus on what had attracted her to him in the first place.

Hailey's eyes shone brightly, the tips of her ears turning slightly pink as she nodded her head innocently. An interesting array of emotions flashed through her face at once, but Lucy wasn't sure what she was feeling. She then turned towards her dad and said:

"She's okay. But if you EVER begin to fall in love with her we're finding you a new doctor!"

Scott seemed genuinely surprised at how quickly Hailey warmed up to the woman. Lucy walked up to the man and held out her hand as professionally as possible to make a point.

"I'm Dr. Lucy Hope, I'll be your confidante for the day."

Lucy winked in Scott's direction, signalling for him to go along with it. Scott grinned while nodding.

"Well Dr. Hope, if you have my dingus' approval you have mine."

Lucy led Scott into her office as Hailey got comfortable in one of the receptionist chairs. For his aloofness, Quentin was considerate enough to get her a table and a variety of activities for her to do in her free time. Shutting the door behind her, she approached her miniature fridge and opened it.

"Water?"

She passed Scott a water bottle after confirming his thanks. She then pointed for him to sit in the patient's seat as she sat in her own chair. Her session with Scott Stevens has officially begun.

"So is there anything you wanted to talk about in particular?"

Scott rubbed his face, his joyful façade quickly fading away from earlier. Lucy was slightly alarmed at how quick the switch was, but she maintained a passive look on her face.

"I think my dreams are trying to kill me."

Lucy quirked her brow at this declaration. She'd certainly heard of sleep deprivation being the cause of stress, but she had never heard of dreams attempting to kill a patient before. She wasn't sure if she was misinterpreting his statement so she asked for clarification.

"Metaphorically or literally?"

"Literally."

Lucy's lips pursed slightly as she tried to think of her next question.

"What makes you think your dreams are trying to… Harm you?"

Scott gave a shaky breath, gulping as he kept himself composed. Lucy didn't take him for a silly man so this must have been ongoing for a while.

"Whenever I try to close my eyes… My fiancé is by my bedside, but she's not her, she's some horribly di-disfigured monster trying to remind me that I f-failed her. Some nights are tolerable, she just stares at me and sometimes I can handle that. Other nights sh-she tells me that… I should have been the one to di-die."

Scott's taking a few deep breaths, his voice shaky as he tries to calm himself down. Lucy handed him his water bottle which he took gratefully.

"We can slow down, we don't have to untangle this in one session."

Lucy tried to reassure him, but Scott shook his head.

"No, I need to give you context so you can treat me. Hailey hears me when I wake up from a nightmare and I need this to stop."

Lucy sighed, nodding her head in understanding. She knew what it was like to feel like a permanent burden, when her self-esteem was at an all time low. While this doesn't compare to her circumstance, she can weirdly relate to him in that regard.

"I'll warn you then, we cannot work through this in one session. This is going to take multiple sessions, however I can recommend some medication and try to prescribe you something from the pharmacist. I'll have to talk about it with Dr. Norman before committing to anything."

Scott nodded, continuing on with his story.

"That's only one phase of the night. The real torture happens within my dreams, I'm constantly being chased by these m-monsters…"

He paused, looking conflicted with himself, although he quickly steeled himself and continued.

"These monsters look like my parents, and every time they catch me, it feels like they're taking years of my life span to drag me into a grave… I don't sound sane, I know, but this isn't me being p-psychotically paranoid! I just know!."

Lucy nodded her head, not wanting to aggravate her patient.

"How do you deal with all of this? Are you on some medication right now?"

Scott shook his head regretfully, shame crossing his face.

"I drink. I'm not proud of it, especially not when Hailey has to clean my worthless ass by herself. But it helps make the monsters go away."

Lucy tried to hide it, but she couldn't help feeling disappointed in him. She couldn't help imagining how Hailey felt about her father's drinking and whether he relied too much on the little girl to keep him stable. Regardless of her personal feelings, she remained professional and decided to get into the heart of things.

"This isn't going to be easy. It's going to take a lot of work and you're going to have to cooperate with me if you want the fastest recovery possible. Time heals above all else, so while I understand your desire to quicken the progress, you'll have to pace yourself."

Scott breathed through his nose, the first sign of impatience being met.

Lucy spent the rest of the session highlighting Scott's plan to recovery. The first step was a rehabilitation centre for his alcoholism. Next would be for Lucy to reconvene with Norman to discuss possible medication to help him sleep peacefully. She decided not to address the unhealthy undertones of his relationship with Hailey, not yet, anyways. After establishing a plan she got to know Scott a little better, like how he was an archaeologist and that he was a bit of a daredevil with cave diving being a common habit before stopping for his own safety. The rest of the session was about Hailey. How she was a bright student, praised at almost every parent conference, though he did bring up his own annoyances with how often teachers and parents looked at him as a single father. He hated how it made Hailey feel whenever she was confronted about not having a mother. Overall it was a fairly wholesome and revealing session that Lucy promised she would look more into.

Tuesday: 12:15 PM

Valerie St. George was a dangerous woman.

She was an accomplice to the murder of Desiree Lawrence. As she was a minor by the time the crime was committed her name was never made public. Despite that her parents were very quick to lay out the details of their daughter's crime, much to Lucy's appreciation, and offered to pay triple the usual pay if she would have sessions with their daughter. Regardless of whether Lucy actually cared or not was irrelevant, she was noted by Dr. Norman that she was one of the patients and would have to talk to her. For her own safety and legal reasons, Valerie was not privy to having a one to one conversation with Lucy, but rather, would be accompanied by a probation officer who would have to sign a contract not to breach any information from Valerie's right to confidentiality.

"Do you think I'll be safe?"

"Probably not."

Lucy glared at Quentin's offhand remark. She couldn't help missing Jane in this instance who would surely be a much more comforting presence, or at the very least, not be nearly as bleak as her current receptionist was.

"How do you think I should go about this?"

"I recommend just treating her like a normal patient. She has a few oddities, like the fact that she's an accomplice to a murder, but you can always be given a derogatory title if you're at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Lucy was slightly disturbed at how casual Quentin was approaching this. There was an unusual amount of disattachment to his voice than usual, which was a stark contrast to his joyous voice just a few days ago. Had something happened? And if so, what? She hadn't much time to ponder that line of thought as a young woman walked through the reception doors with a stoic faced man behind her closely behind.

Valerie was an objectively pretty young girl: with shiny dark brown hair tied into a neat ponytail, and green eyes that bore a glint of sweetness. Her mouth was upturned into a slight smirk, and her cheeks seem to be blushing. Her skin is olive and was caked with makeup: eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara, lip gloss, possibly more. Her nails were painted a deep blue. Her body was lean and noticeably muscular.

Valerie dons a green long sleeve polo shirt with a famous designer's emblem on the left breast, tucking it into a black plaid skirt that's way too short. She wears white leggings and black flats with sequins. If Lucy didn't know any better she would think she was wearing a student's uniform.

The woman in question took a deep breath, moving forwards as the man behind her gently pushed her back. She strode forwards with confidence, making a sudden stop in front of Lucy and Quentin and she clasped her hands behind her back, tilted her head, and moved her legs into a curtsy position.

"I'm here for my appointment; Valerie St. George as I'm sure I'm documented, although I would greatly appreciate it if you could call me Val."

She pointed to the man behind her.

"That's Tracy, my probation officer, he's good about not interfering in my daily life as long as I'm not doing anything illegal."

Tracy grunted in confirmation.

Lucy nodded in understanding, albeit reluctantly. She had not been ecstatic at the idea of taking on Fawn as a client due to her unknown involvement in a school girl's death. Val however had been an accomplice to such a crime and her display of sanity was of no assurance to her.

"I'm your confidante for today, Dr. Lucy Hope and this here is Quentin Badger, the receptionist."

Quentin waved lazily. He seemed particularly interested about Val compared to the other clients he had met before.

Val stood around, licking her lips awkwardly. Lucy took it as Val just did not want to dilly-dally any longer. She led Val and Tracy in her office, leaving the patient's seat for Val as Tracy took the liberty of standing a slight distance away.

Val cleared her throat as she got straight to the point.

"My parents have paid you because they think there's something wrong with me. Personally I find this insulting since I consider myself perfectly functioning. I've done some things I'm not proud of but I don't think reasserting my moral compass is the way to go about it, not that my parents would listen to me anyways, gosh they can be such a pain sometimes. I can't get over the fact that I have parents in the first place, they just seem to be nothing but an inconvenience despite the false advertisements that parents are our nurturers or whatever nonsense it was spouting on about."

The woman blinked, slightly confused.

"Sorry, I seem to have lost my train of thought, haha I can be so silly sometimes. I happen to like trains, you know? They're an underrated form of transportation in today's society and I'm a bit sad about that. But anyways, how are you?"

Lucy ignored how slow her brain was processing everything that was said in that tangent.

"I'm doing well. As for your parents, I don't think they enrolled you here with the intent of being fixed, but rather checking up on your mental health. You have been through a lot of trauma and your parents only want what's best for you."

Lucy had to bite her tongue. She regretted her choice of words, not wanting to bring up Val's crime so quickly lest she let her distaste for her patient slip. Luckily the girl in question was completely unfazed and waved her hand dismissively.

"Oh I know my parents, they're definitely trying to fix me. As I'm sure you're aware I come from a prestigious family, and currently, I am nothing but a tea stain to the family reputation. I'm aware that I've done some…. Deplorable misdeeds, but I have faced the consequences of my actions and am ready to reside in my family as the perfect daughter they've envisioned since my birth. But my foolish parents are paranoid about me being 'unhinged' or whatever, like if I could smack some common sense into them I would. If I was unhinged do you really think I would have been let out of juvie earlier than intended? Of course not! Regardless of the money we had, the judge for my trial was determined to make sure I paid for my sins, which I have accomplished. My parents as you know have failed to see my accomplishment, which is why I'm here along with my adoringly dedicated probation officer."

Admittedly, Lucy was rather impressed with Val's articulate explanation. Through her explanation it was clear that Val didn't have a full understanding of how dire her involvement was in the murder of Desiree Lawrence, she seemed to see it as nothing more than a petty crime she got caught for. She had to wonder if that was a defence mechanism, to downplay her involvement, or whether she was being as authentic as possible towards her own feelings.

Nevertheless, Lucy cleared her throat and attempted to move the topic to something less hostile.

"Perhaps it would be worth giving me a chance? I know it bothers you, but I promise that this isn't me trying to fix you or anything of the likes, your needs are my priority, not your parents."

Val's lips twitched, quickly garnering a steely look and crossing her legs as she sighed indignantly.

"To be frank with you… I have no intention of entertaining this farce that you have any genuine intrigue towards my wellbeing. I know my own mind better than anyone else; let us mutually benefit from these mandatory visits. I will indulge myself with any activity within reason and you can catch up on some paperwork before your pernicious efforts begin to grate on my perfectly functioning brain."

Despite her smile being pleasant, her eyes were predatory as the words she spewed were nothing but distrusting, suspicious and passive-aggressive.

All Lucy could do was comply, not necessarily sure how to help a patient with an immediate hostile opinion towards her. It seems she might have been better off speaking with her probation officer, but Tracy didn't seem fazed by Val's behaviour and just wrote in his tiny notebook.

Lucy for the first time felt defeated on how to help a patient.

Tuesday: 3:19 PM

Lucy, in a somewhat gloomy mood, skimmed the file of her next patient: Sunny Cheong.

Documented similarly to Jules and Scott; Sunny suffers from intensive nightmares. What made his situation unique however was the fact that the poor school boy was forcing himself to stay awake on multiple occasions with many detentions under his belt despite being a gifted student. It seemed he had no desire to fall asleep if he could help it.

Lucy sighed out of relief. Valerie's tone had definitely affected Lucy's mood, so having a patient with symptoms she was familiar with gave her some slight comfort. She didn't have to wait much further as two teenage boys walked through the receptionist doors followed along by an adult woman. The older boy held the younger boy in a protective side hug, despite the latter seemingly embarrassed about it. The older woman quickly walked past the boys and addressed Lucy.

"Hello. We're here for Sunny Cheong's appointment? I am sorry about being late, you can blame my son for that."

She pointedly raised a brow at the older boy, causing him to grin sheepishly.

"... I was hungry."

After ushering for the older boy to stop babying the younger one, she clasped the younger one by the shoulders, who seemed to tense under the touch, though the woman noticeably ignored this.

"This is Sunny, my nephew. I'm Annabelle Liu, his aunt and guardian. He shouldn't be any trouble at all, he's a very well behaved boy."

The younger boy, Sunny, seemed a little surprised and skeptical at the praise. Lucy tried to keep her introductions short and sweet, preferably to keep Sunny's judgement from clouding with his continued discomfort being painstakingly obvious.

"I'm Dr. Lucy Hope, and the gentleman next to me is Quentin Badger."

The older boy couldn't help making himself known as he gave the peace sign and puckered his lips.

"I'm Blaise by the way!"

"Nobody cares."

Blaise, the older boy, clutched his chest dramatically at Annabelle's deadpan rebuttal.

"Mother you're ever so cruel, wounding me in this manner."

Annabelle could only smirk as she glanced at her son, looking away quickly as she innocently remarked:

"I'll wound you even further, you can do the dishes when we get home."

"MOM!"

As the mother and son continued to banter with each other, Lucy took the moment to take in her client's appearance and demeanour.

Sunny appeared underweight. His very pale skin tone doesn't help either with his sickly looking appearance. His almond shaped eyes are chocolate brown with black bags underneath, probably due to the lack of sleep. His short and fluffy black hair is messy despite the clear attempt made to tame it.

Sunny wore a grey hoodie with black hoodie strings. The black outlines of a sleeping cat cartoon are placed on the middle part of the hoodie (with the zzz's included, a very important detail). The hood has what looks to be cat ears. Sunny also wears light blue jeans. Brown canvas shoes and white ankle socks.

Lucy couldn't help noticing Sunny's expression: he seemed very lost, as if he had entered a labyrinth and had no guidance on how to escape. His brows were scrunched together and he seemed to be struggling on whether he should be paying attention to his guardian and cousin, or whether he should be exploring his new environment.

Annabelle forcefully shushed her son and turned towards Lucy.

"Sorry again about being late, I promise to be here early when picking little ray of sunshine up."

She then turned towards Sunny and crouched to his height, pinching his cheeks in a motherly manner; though Sunny did not seem to appreciate this gesture.

"You'll tell me if this helps you or not, won't you?"

Sunny nodded apathetically, not really caring to hide his lack of interest. Annabelle pointedly ignored this, though Blaise wore an uncomfortable look on his face, quickly putting on a reassuring smile as he forced Sunny into an overly affectionate hug much to the latter's blubbering embarrassment.

"Therapy's like sorting through your feelings, whatever you can't tell us, tell her okay?"

Blaise then gave Sunny a sloppy kiss on the cheek, causing the smaller boy to squirm out of his hold in disgust.

"Did it have to be so sloppy? Gross…"

The older boy gave an impish grin as he followed his mother, who had impatiently called for her son to stop wasting Sunny's session.

Lucy ushered her client into her office, giving Quentin a concerned look, not letting it slip by her that he hadn't even bothered to speak during that entire thing. What was happening to him?

"Take a seat… Mr Cheong?"

"Sunny's fine…"

Lucy noted that.

"Well you can call me Lucy then, now, what seems to be troubling you?"

Sunny seemed mildly confused by the question, uncertainness crossing his face as he scratched his face lightly, fidgeting nervously.

"I… Umm, what am I supposed to say… This is a bit overwhelming?"

Lucy internally kicked herself. She had to remind herself that Sunny so far has been her youngest patient and would respond better to leading questions.

"Well for example, you've been prescribed to this facility due to nightmares? Would you like to expand on that or would you rather start slower?"

She tried her best to maintain a kind tone. In reality she rather hoped Sunny didn't jump into his issue immediately because she wasn't sure he could handle his own clear turmoil. Sunny himself seemed reluctant to open up and his face couldn't hide that fact.

"I don't really want to talk about that… At all, really."

Sunny's eyes widened and he laughed nervously, scratching behind his head.

"I-it isn't like I d-don't trust you o-or anything! It's just… not easy, I g-guess."

He seemed embarrassed as he chewed on his lower lip, averting his gaze towards the floor. Before Lucy could properly ask another question he said something in a jittery tone:

"Your aura feels like a mix of yellow and green. Happy, well intentioned and… Envy?"

Lucy blinked, feeling a nerve being hit by the last remark. Sunny also seemed to realise what he just said as he clammed up. She decided to ignore her annoyance and spoke gently to him.

"So what's this about auras?"

Sunny shyly opened his eyes, shoulders loosening as he rubbed his arm in a self-soothing manner.

"I umm, it's a bit dumb, but… I feel auras."

Lucy quirked a brow, leaning forwards.

"What kind of auras? And how does it work?"

Sunny fidgeted in place as he twiddled his thumbs, avoiding eye contact altogether.

"Well… I can sense… Something. I can see these colours surrounding a person and it helps me… Interpret their emotions. Right now you're showcasing a vague orange aura, which from my interpretation is… Curiosity."

Lucy smiled lightly, an amusing thought entering her mind as she saw no harm in her next comment.

"So… You're a human mood ring?"

Sunny blushes, tugging at the rim of his shirt as he mumbles under his breath:

"Kind of…"

He twiddled his thumbs, an audible breath escaping him as his mind raced for another thing to say. Lucy could see the loss of focus in his face, the sort of face you might make when you're so far in your head that you lose all control of your facial expression. She decided if she was going to make any progress she might have to start doing her own bit of guessing to see what engages him in conversation.

Lucy's eyes widened as she realised an essential detail. Where were Sunny's parents? Why were they not documented in his file? She dared not ask Sunny about it; she would need to ask either Jane, who had failed to mention any parents or Annabelle, who had also failed to mention any unforeseen circumstances.

"I'm sorry, I feel like a bad patient for being unprepared."

Sunny said depressively, a sad look crossing his face. Lucy replied to that instinctively.

"There's no such thing as a bad patient, we all have our needs and wants, we'll figure yours out at whatever pace makes you comfortable."

Though the ad-libbing made Lucy slightly uncomfortable, she recognised that it would take Sunny multiple sessions to help him understand himself. Through her observations she recognised that Sunny had a difficult time understanding how he himself was feeling; he had a vague understanding of what he was feeling but failed to understand why he felt a certain way and struggled to understand the mental blocks he had surrounded himself in. And those mental blocks weren't going away as Sunny refused to speak of topics that faintly referenced any feelings of anxiety.

Though she learned about Sunny's close relationship with his cousin Blaise, his auras of emotion and a stuffed toy he had been carrying around with him called "Roboppi". She had attempted to pry into his relationship with his aunt Annabelle and his educational situation; but he clammed up and cried on multiple occasions though he refused to tell Lucy why.

Though Sunny was proving difficult to help, she saw a brimming hope inside him that wanted to open up.

Tuesday: 1:13 AM

"What was Lindsay talking about?"

Lucy bit her nail nervously, anxious to hear Norman's reply. With how often he originally ghosted her, she was surprised when she heard that Norman would willingly have a conversation with her.

"Though it pains me to break confidentiality, I encouraged Enid to speak with her dead father."

"Bu- I mean, why!?"

Lucy pinched the bridge of her nose in stress, confused as to how Norman could speak of this so easily.

"Because Enid trusts me. Fathers do not haunt their daughters without a reason, all I'm asking Enid to do is reason with him. "

Bile catching in her throat, Lucy struggled to force it down as she fought back against this method.

"But this isn't professional! Lindsay was right, this isn't helping Enid, this is hurting her, how do you not see this!?"

She couldn't understand how Norman was justifying his advice to the very impressionable little girl. He crossed a boundary yet he's acting like he hasn't at all!

"Lucy dear, I really don't understand why you're upset with me. Enid is being tormented by her father, is it not within reason to figure out why she's psychologically torturing herself?"

"Excuse me!?"

Lucy replied brusquely, not at all believing what she was hearing as her face morphed into an ugly scowl.

"Enid's real father obviously has no ill will against her, however, her cognitive conscience has created a version of her father that she believes to be reality. So to find an answer to her problem, we have to play by Enid's cognitive rules and-"

Lucy couldn't listen anymore. She angrily hung up on him and threw her phone against her bed, making sure it bounced off her mattress so that it wouldn't actually break. She just couldn't believe what she was hearing! How could he say that so nonchalantly!?

She wanted to punch him.

She wanted to scream in his face.

She wanted to grab him by the scruff of his shirt and shake his head back and forth.

How the fuck did he not understand what he was doing?

How?

How?

How.?

How..?

How…?

Wednesday: 6:02 AM

Quentin appeared on the news this morning.

His face was in full display, the headline?

"Man believed to have committed suicide in his home through overdosing."

Quentin left behind a dying message.

"The infection got to me."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Quentin Badger had died.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I had an unfortunate burst of writer's block as I messed around with certain characters. Throughout this period I roughly had to figure out what kind of characters were necessary and were there any characters I needed to cut? The answer to that ended up being yes. So I spent this period brainstorming ideas and outlining roughly how the story needed to progress.

Regardless I do want to thank oddlyillregular, Michimango and Other Senpai for submitting Scott, Sunny and Val respectively! I had a fun time messing around with the concept of their characters and how I wanted to experiment with them; I'm aware that they probably aren't entirely in character so if they need to be immediately rewritten just let me know!

I don't really have much else to comment on this chapter! I think I've said everything I wanted to say that's spoiler free. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

Roster:

Males:

1. Jules Farran - Abitat Eco

2. Arash Jalil Madan - TheRoseShadow21

3. Hal Thompson - Orlando Butler

4. Scott Stevens - oddlyillregular

5. Sunny Cheong - Michimango

6. ?

7. ?

Females:

1. Grace O'Hanlon - Singular Scissor

2. Kailyn Moore - Ahn Jihlo

3. Fawn Clarke - Candied Stars

4. Val St. George - Other Senpai

5. ?

6. ?

7. ?

Have an awesome day!

With love - Quillegy