Dying Is The Easy Part

Chapter Nine: January 11th

When Quinn's alarm went off the next morning, the spot next to them was empty. With not a single wrinkle in the sheets he'd lay on, it was hard to believe that Vincent had ever been there, but Quinn could feel it—some part of them felt better now than it had before they'd seen him the night before. Their eyes were still a little bleary from all the crying, but other than that they felt... almost okay. Rested, even.

When they glanced at the time on their phone, they realized that it was past nine—which meant that, for the first time in weeks, they'd gotten a full eight hours of sleep.

Huh.

Shaking their head, Quinn swung their legs over the edge of the bed and stretched, releasing a little yawn. As they got dressed in their usual outfit—dark pants and a soft, dark sweater from their vast collection of soft, dark sweaters—their gaze fell on the tarot cards still scattered on Valerie's bed.

The Eight of Swords glared up at them, bound and blindfolded.

Quinn glared back at it and made a decision.

***

After an extensive search of the campus, a brief questioning round with Josie and Caleb and a following awkward conversation with a professor after he'd spotted Quinn talking to the air outside the art building, Quinn found Joy in an empty classroom in a more secluded part of the art building that was mainly used for pottery.

She was lying flat on her back on one of the workstations when Quinn spotted her, her heavy boots propped up on the desk, her head resting in Jun's lap. The hazy light streaming in through the tall windows painted the pair golden, Joy's features softer than Quinn had ever seen them as she gazed up at Jun, who was toying with one of the spikes on her leather collar.

Quinn paused in the doorway for a few seconds, watching them. Their clothes aside, the two of them could've been mistaken for any regular couple stealing a few moments between classes together. It was only when Quinn neared them that the gentle flickering of their outlines got more obvious.

Jun was the first one to notice them. His eyes widened almost comically as he suddenly sat bolt upright, the shift in his posture abrupt enough to jostle Joy. "Quinn," he said, staring at them as if they were the one who was likely to disappear if he so much as blinked. "What are you doing here?"

Quinn hesitated after a few steps into the room. Nervously pulling their sleeves over their knuckles, they tried their best to make their voice sound firm. "I was looking for you."

"Sorry, who are you and what have you done with Quinn?" Sitting up, Joy shot them a suspicious glance. "You know them? Short, Chinese-American, pees their pants at any tiny noise?"

Jun gave her a not-so-subtle nudge before turning to beam at Quinn. "It's so cool you came! I was worried we scared you off for good last night."

"Oh. No, it's... it's fine," Quinn said, shifting from one foot onto the other as they tried not to make eye contact with Joy, before they stilled. The Eight of Swords flashed in their mind again. "Actually, it's not," they said, this time meeting Joy's glare head-on. "I want to know why you've been going after me these past few days and what I need to do to make you stop."

One of Joy's eyebrows went up in an expression that almost looked a little impressed. "Oh, so you're serious? You want to talk like adults?"

"Yes," Quinn simply said. To prove that they meant it, they finally entered the room for real, Joy tracking their movements like a hawk as they wound their way through the workstations and finally sank down on a desk opposite the one the pair occupied.

"All right." Joy's leather jacket creaked softly as she turned her entire body to face Quinn. "But you have to promise not to freak."

Glancing from her to Jun, who was chewing on his thumb with a look of general discomfort, Quinn said, "I... don't know if I can do that."