"You'd rather be dead?" Elsie said with an affronted sniff.
"I'd rather have people. You have things. Useful, important things, more important than your sister."
"I didn't say that." She said.
"Didn't you? Huh, I thought you did." Kate said with a sniff. "But if your sister came up to you bleeding out, you'd definitely charge her for a consultation, no discounts."
"What are you even talking about?" She said getting upset.
"Nothing really. It's just how you sound to me. Like I literally hear every word you're saying. Comprehend it fully, in four dimensions and all… but all I hear is: Nothing means anything. Put a gun to your head, pull the trigger. Die in a hole, don't let anyone find the body until even the smell leaves you. Your bones are a better thing than any choice you make. Blah blah blah everything you do is a fuck up, die faster please blah blah."
Kate had just been admiring the ceiling the whole time, not even bothering with Elsie rambling, the words dribbling all over the place like someone had kicked over a bucket of piss.
Until she finally looked to see Elsie completely aghast.
"I'm not saying you're a bad person, or that you think you said that."
"Trying to help you is meaningless." Elsie sniffed, sounding very French.
"You were trying to help me? When? What part? The part where you dismissed my goals in life, dismissed my pain, laid it out in front of me then laughed at it? Like I said before Genevieve showed me Genevieve's scars. You, Elsie showed me Geneveive's, and then Elsie showed me my own as if I'm fucking blind! But it's the other way around. This is the worst day of my fucking life and you can't see shit!" Kate screamed.
That made the girl jump, wide eyed, but then Kate lost sight of her eyes as her head tilted down and away. The turn sliced the ground between them, dragging them miles apart, leaving Kate behind. Kate to wanted to yell at her, beg her to turn back.
She didn't want to be alone!
"I see, I am sorry for wasting your time."
"God, you don't mean any of that! Are you this bad of a big sister?"
That got her attention.
"Okay, now you're just lashing out."
"Yes! Exactly. Why'd you even come here?"
"To talk to you."
"And did you?"
Nothing was said. She simply stood and walked away.
"Wait, come back and stand up for yourself!" Kate yelled, her breath a wheeze.
But Elsie was gone.
Kate wanted to wail. But held herself as something inside of her seemed to hum back into existence.
Systems Check.
Systems error. Implant at minimum functionality. Repair has been ordered and paid for.
Repair process transferred to private systems.
In the meantime we recommend using screen systems.
Kate's breath caught. What did it even mean for an internal implant to break. That meant she was dead right? She hadn't touched a screen in years.
She was in a nightmare.
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She wanted comfort but found judgment.
Her implant failing, her body broken, Kate reached for her friends—
only to hear the words that shattered her:
"Because you did badly."
Tiffany gone, threats rising, hatred spreading.
Kate's anger burned, but the question remained:
what was she missing?
Next time on Zenith:
When even friendship falters, will Kate uncover the truth—or be consumed by it?