Seren hung back on the staircase, letting the others go past her, which most of them did without a second thought. The exception, of course, was Ena, who paused and said:

"Well, goodnight, Nishiya-san."

Seren nodded in response, hoping Ena wouldn't think to try and say anything else to her. She knew that Ena was trying to help, that she did help. But Seren didn't want help anymore. Not here, when she was beyond help.

Thankfully, Ena seemed to realise that Seren wasn't in the mood for gently reassuring words or the offer of a conversation to talk out her anxieties, and she slipped into her room quietly. Seren waited for the others to disappear into their cells before she climbed down the stairs, stopping a few down from the bottom. There, she sat, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands, staring at the dreary grey corridor with all its cell doors, at the heavy door at the other end of the corridor, at the cameras in all the high corners. But no matter how hard she stared, how long she stared, she knew that it was never going to make sense.

The fact her cell door had opened at all didn't make any sense to her. How could any of this make sense after that?

"Seren-chan?"

Seren flinched, then turned to stare at Kagura, hesitantly coming down one step at a time. Oh. I hadn't realised you were still upstairs, she thought but didn't say.

"There's a lot of random stuff up there, have you had a look?" Kagura asked, impressively chipper.

"Not really, why should I?"

"Well, Setsushi-chan's nabbed a notebook and pen, something about keeping a diary, and Ono-kun's got one too, he's hoping to come up with a plan-"

Seren snorted at that. A plan? To get out of here? What ridiculousness. Except, they were entitled to that ridiculousness, were they not? Kagura and Naruhito and Ena and all the rest of them could be as ridiculous as they liked, because none of them were even meant to be here. She wasn't meant to have been part of a pattern, to have people come before and after her. It was meant to only be her. She was meant to be the only one he was obsessed with, the only thing he desired.

The only person to get hurt in all of this.

Kagura faltered at her contempt, but then plopped down to sit on the step with her.

"Not going to bed?" she asked, still trying for chipper.

"Aren't you?"

"Well, we've been unconscious for…well, who knows how long? You've been drugged up to your eyeballs longer than I have, presumably? Anyway, I feel a bit too awake to be going to bed."

Seren did not respond to that, and instead stared straight ahead pointedly. Kagura was unusually silent for a while, but that silence was punctured not by more attempts at cheerful chatter but odd sniffly sounds. Seren tried to be resolute, but found she could not, and turned to see Kagura's face screwed up, eyes red-rimmed and wet, nose running.

"Sere…Seren-chan…Seren-chan, I'm so sorry about what I said."

"Said? 'bout what?"

"Y..you know. I…"

Kagura got up, throwing her hands up in an exasperated gesture.

"Seren-chan! Just, come on, please! If you don't want to go back to school, then we can stay out doing karaoke together. We can get a hotel and get room service, have a girly sleepover or something."

"No, you run off back to school now. Wouldn't want to miss curfew."

"But you don't know what will happen-"

"Yes, I do!" Seren yelled back. "I know exactly what's going to happen, and I don't know what it's going to take to get it through to you that it's going to happen one way or another! Stop being such a coward about it! I've accepted it, why can't you?"

Kagura eyes widened, and then she seemed to shrink into herself. When she spoke again, it was the quietest that she'd ever heard Kagura speak and yet, somehow, they were the loudest words she had ever said:

"I can't do this anymore, Seren-chan."

Kagura sniffled, then wiped her face on the sleeve of her school blazer, which she pulled a face at.

"Ugh, I hate that I got kidnapped in my school uniform. But that doesn't matter. Seren-chan, I'm sorry. When I said that, I didn't mean I didn't still want to be your friend and that I didn't want to help you. I just didn't know how to deal with it anymore."

"You weren't s'posed to know how to deal with it, anyway." Seren said. "Why'd I blame you for that?"

Though, it had stung when Kagura had said that. She could take the sneers, the people turning away from her, the whispers of slut and whore and good-for-nothing in the corridors, all the rumours. She could take all of that, because it hadn't really mattered. It was nothing compared to what she knew would be coming. But those last few days in the fallout of Kagura's words, when they'd barely exchanged more than stilted words and loaded looks, those had hurt. More than she'd expected it to.

And then the day had come when she'd been kicked out of the bar when it had closed in the early hours, and a hand had clamped over her mouth and just like everything else, it had stopped mattering.

"B-but, hey, this is still good anyway, right?" Kagura asked, a desperation in her brightness.

"Huh?"

"I mean, being held like this. This…killing game thing. If none of us play, then none of us will die, right?"

"I'm going to die." Seren snapped.

"But-"

"I'm going to die," Seren said. "I don't know what he's playing at, with all this. I don't know why he's dragged everybody else into it. But it's me he wants, and he's got me now, hasn't he?"

"But The Creator said-"

"Bullshit. No idea what sorta bullshit, but it's bullshit all the same, Kagura. "

"Well, I mean, if you stick with me and some of the others, then it should be fine. Sticking together in a group reduces the chances-"

Seren shook her head, hard, surprised when that made Kagura flinch and then look down at her lap. Something clenched inside Seren, made her think of the exhaustion on her parents' faces, of arguing with them and then glancing at the door to see her siblings peering worriedly around it.

"Seren-chan, all this…isn't it so different to what you described to me? Don't you think that means that this isn't it, that there's a chance?"

Seren opened her mouth and then closed it again, because she just didn't know how to answer that. She didn't understand anything. When she'd woken up properly, although her body had felt achy and sluggish, she hadn't really hurt anywhere. There had been no sense of violation on her body, and she wouldn't have expected him to wait for her consciousness to begin that. To amp it up, sure, since she knew he wanted to drink in her pain and fear. But she knew he wouldn't have waited. He wouldn't have been able to resist.

And yet, here she was, intact. Unbroken. Here she was, still underground and locked away, but not in a single cell, not in chains, not stripped naked. Here she was, and she didn't know why. What game was he playing? Was this another way to draw out her torment, to make it all the sweeter for him when he did finally turn up? That was the only thing that could explain this. She couldn't believe anything else, especially not something as hopeful as what Kagura was suggesting.

The truth is, she admitted to herself. I don't know how to hope anymore, do I?

"Fine, whatever. I'll stick around with you and whoever, but for your sake."

"Seren-chan-"

"The rest of you weren't supposed to be here. I didn't believe that any of you were being kidnapped, at least not like this. So- "

Whatever Seren had been going to say, she forgot when Kagura flung her arms around her. Seren stiffened, and then leant into the clumsy hug, though she did not return it. She wanted to, but suddenly, it felt like she didn't know how to use her arms.

After a couple of moments, Kagura let go of her, but stared almost furiously at her, eyes still wet. She blinked rapidly and then said:

"God, you're all blurry. I may as well not be wearing my contacts for how well I can see. Let me…"

Kagura wiped her eyes, then leant forward and squinted before huffing and puffing and sitting back, wiping her eyes again and blinking. Almost apropos of nothing, Seren found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss her. It wasn't as if there was that much else to do here, after all, was there? And hadn't she been eyeing up Hayami, wondering if now was the time she could flirt her way past the enigmatic gymnast's barriers? Or considering the possibility of manipulating Inori into telling her who he was, since surely she'd know, given that he seemed to work for her parents? And Luca was a catch, given how almost everyone seemed to like him. There weren't that many options here apart from them sadly, though Silas seemed interesting. The type of quiet and thoughtful that surely had many hidden depths.

But Kagura…it could be nice. Since they were friends and all. But-

"Do you think Nazuna will be okay?"

Seren blinked rapidly, drawing back and hoping her thoughts hadn't been clear on her face.

"Well, she's not here, is she?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Of course she will," Seren said decisively. "I don't think she is, yet, but once you get back to her, she'll be fine."

Kagura bit her lip but didn't say anything. Seren rolled her eyes, and said:

"Fine, whatever. I'll follow your little plan of sticking together, if you think it will help. But not for me. No, don't fucking try it. Not for me. You know it won't work for me. But you…if it'll protect you and some other people, then fine, whatever. I can't complain about it if it's for you."

And that's also why I won't kiss you, no matter how bored I get or how nice it could be. It wasn't just because Kagura was committed to Nazuna. Normally, she didn't really care if the people she pursued were already in relationships or not. Sure, she was pursuing them, but she didn't force them to reciprocate, after all. And it wasn't just because Kagura being a friend would make such an action even worse than it would be otherwise, although that was a part of it too.

No, it was because it was another way to make sure Kagura got home.

Kagura had to get home. She had a future out there waiting for her and sure, that future wasn't solely Nazuna. But Nazuna was a part of Kagura's future, one way or another. Kagura needed to get back to her in order to have that future. Seren had destroyed so much in her life, but that was fine, because there was no future for her to go back to. She would not destroy Kagura's future alongside it. Maybe she'd fool around with one of the others, maybe she wouldn't. But she'd refrain from anything like that with Kagura, keep that future intact for her, so it'd be waiting there for her when she returned.

That's the only damn thing I can do, the one non-selfish act I'll commit before I die.

Seren squawked as suddenly; Kagura squeezed her in another bone-crushing hug. This time, though, she was able to lift one of her hands to tentatively pat Kagura's back. Even that felt like a monumentally difficult task, and it was a relief when Kagura let go of her.

"Alright, you know what? I'm going to go and like, lie down. Maybe sleep, maybe not. But you should, too."

"Sure." Seren shrugged.

"So….uh, remind me, how do you say 'Good night' in Welsh."

Kagura grinned, and Seren rolled her eyes as she answered:

"You're only going to mangle it again, but it's nos da."

Kagura nodded, and then carefully said:

"Nos da."

Her grin widened as she jumped up and asked:

"How was that?"

Seren's lips twitched.

"Not too bad. Nos da, yourself."

Kagura nodded, then went down to her cell, and went inside. Seren watched her disappear, and then also stood up. She didn't go to her own cell, however. Instead, she climbed up the stairs just enough to face the camera that Naruhito had been fiddling with earlier on in the day.

"Are you looking at me, now?" she asked.

No response, which she expected. Still, she carried on:

"You must be. Well, I'm here. So…when you're ready, come for me. Not Kagura, not any of them. It's meant to be about me, after all, isn't it? I don't really understand why you'd capture all of them as well when you've been so damn obsessed with me but…regardless. I'll be waiting for you. I'm waiting, and I'm ready. Not that I'm not going down without a fucking fight, though I know you'd like that anyway, you freak…but that's not the point. "

She leaned into the camera, glared:

"Tch. Forget them. I'm the one you want. So I'll be ready for you when you come."

I'm ready now. I'm ready to die, for all of this to be over. I'm so tired of all of this. So, fucking tired. She wanted the threat that had been hanging over her head since she was teen to finally come into fruition, so that Kagura and everyone else would go home. She knew Kagura would be sad, she knew her parents and siblings would mourn. She hoped that Keiji Matsumoto would at least feel a faint twinge of something. She didn't expect him to mourn her as if he'd loved her or anything, but there was a part of her that knew that the happiness she'd had in that short space of time had not been a one-sided happiness. She'd be carrying that with her, when she died, that much she knew. Still, though she didn't expect him to mourn her as if he'd loved her, she hoped he would remember that much. But what she hoped for more than that was that when she did die, they'd all see. Her mum, her dad, Ianto, Nia, Ceri. Kagura, Keiji. Her Welsh friends. The others trapped here. Who else? Clio. The teachers. Ottillie-

-though, after that night, Ottillie Nylund should have started believing me. She knew, didn't she? She must have realised what it would mean…

-all the people she could think of, all the people she'd tried to tell and who hadn't believed her. When she was gone, they'd believe her at last. And more than that, wouldn't they be relieved too? Wouldn't they be able to breathe easy at last, once it was all over? Seren knew that, even though technically she wouldn't be breathing the way they would, she, too, would breathe easy.

I'm so tired. I want this nightmare to be over.

"So, "she concluded in a vicious hiss. "Hurry the fuck up, alright?"

There was still no response, not even when she walked away. Not his voice, not that ridiculous cartoony voice from earlier. It didn't matter though, She knew he'd heard her.

And so, she'd wait.