The bottom of the cinema auditorium was almost serene. The soft light from the candles spread through the space, mingling with the rare sense of calm, to give a welcome sense of homeliness. It was rare that Matthew was able to sleep. Without his interjections of pain, it was easier for the others to relax just a little. The dripping of the water clock kept a soothing reminder that the situation would be over soon.

Violet made her way gently through the row of seats in the corner of the back of the cinema. She sat silently beside Victor, waiting for him to budge or tell her to leave. He simply continued to read The Bible in what little light made it's way up the slanted aisle.

"How do you remain so calm?" she asked. "How do you do it?"

He looked up from his book and gazed at the scene below. "I have faith that the situation is under control."

"By you?"

He closed The Bible and held it up. "There has been a battle raging since the dawn of time. The strongest always win," he said confidently.

Skin from around the corners of Violet's nails fell to the floor as she picked nervously. "How do you know who's the strongest? Whatever is coming after us made Gideon evaporate into the air."

He shook his head, letting a rare laugh escape his thin lips. "It's not about the ability to move mountains." There was a sense of joy beginning to simmer under his deep set eyes.

Violet had thought that Victor looked a little bit like a rat. Now that he'd smiled, even gently, she thought said rat could even be considered handsome. She always had a soft-spot for the interesting looking guys. It made her work somewhat easier, so she never really questioned why.

"For me," he began, "consider the amount of grief I got for trying to save people."

There was a brief silence.

"Victor... You stabbed Matthew."

"Yes, but it was proved to be a means to an end when..." He wiggled his fingers and raised his hands to simulate the burned, flaking skin rising off of Gideon. "Afterwards, they still treated me badly." The light flickered against his eyes, making them appear like a bottomless chasm that Violet could find herself easily falling into. "Don't you agree?"

She stuttered, "I suppose. Don't you understand why, though?"

"Empathy is grace, but it is still something that could draw one away from wanting to help." He placed the bible on the floor and moved his full attention to Violet. "Take you for example. I assume that in your line of work, you've seen the worst of men."

"There are many parts of my life that have shown me what men are capable of. Yes."

"Yet you want to be a doctor. You want to help people."

"I want money. You know? To live."

"Then why not stay in your current profession if it's just about money? I assume from your nails and your eyelashes that it pays well. If you're wanting money and posterity, why not a lawyer? If you're wanting money and the ability to show how smart you are, why not programming?" He cocked his head to the side. "No. You chose medicine. You chose a profession that would still leave you helping people. A lawyer will always have another party losing, a programmer can work for corrupt companies, but a doctor? Well, there are malicious doctors in the news, but you don't seem like a person with ill intentions."

The eyelashes that Victor had previously pointed out began to flutter. Violet had never felt this seen before. "I'm not." She worried that she sounded like a bitch. "I mean, I don't think I am." She began moving her wrists in circles, trying to find the right words.

A thin hand was held up, as Victor invited her to calm down. "I understand." He gently grasped one of her hands, stopping it and placing it on the arm rest.

Together, they took a moment to survey the scene below. Donovan had begun to stir beside Matthew. He stood up to check on the water clock. An additional tally was added to the current 5 tally marks. Water glugged carefully back into the top cup. He wandered carefully back over to Matthew, Masina, and Tanda. The child sat up as Donovan swooped over to comfort her.

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Victor could feel Violet tensing back up. He placed his other hand over the hand that was entwined with hers. Leaning toward her ear, he kindly said, "I hope one day you understand just how important you were to the end of the world."

Over time, more tally marks were added to the paper. Nine were added before the rest of the group stirred awake. Paper plates were distributed as chips and biscuits were dumped in the center of the circle for everyone to pick at.

Emilio broke the silence. He looked toward the marks on the wall. "So how many notches do you think we'll have until we can expect this whole thing to be over? 48?"

The group murmured in agreement between crunching of beige-coloured snack foods.

Gowan pulled his phone from his pocket and shook it gently. "I'd imagine we'd know from the phones coming back."

Elizabeth pointed upwards to the screen. "Or the projector." Her eyes wandered across the roof and over to the projection booth. "Hey. We haven't gone up there yet."

"Why would we?" Amy's voice remained monotone. Her exhaustion seemed to steep into her every word, "There'd be nothing in there. It's not worth the energy."

"She's right," Donovan spoke up, "we weren't even allowed snacks up there. All you'd find up there is a projector and homophobic graffiti about me." He scoffed. "Forget about it. It's where dreams go to die."

"What's hone-a-phobic?" a small voice piped up.

A look of panic struck Donovan's face. He looked to Matthew, who was propped up as to not choke on his food.

Gowan made a nervous sound in the back of his throat. "Well, you know how Donovan and Matthew are good friends?"

"Are they boyfriends?" Tanda asked matter-of-factly.

Donovan was still looking over to Matthew. "Yeah," he said tenderly, "we're boyfriends."

"And some people don't like that," Gowan explained.

"Why?"

"It's ..." Gowan searched for the words, "just not what they expected." He looked up to Victor to make sure he was staying silent. "And people can be mean about it. That meanness is homophobia."

"Donovan, will you have babies with Matthew?"

Sensing that nobody really knew how to answer that one, Gowan scanned the plates for a way to divert the thinking little mind. "Isn't it cool that we get to eat cookies! Would you like me to get you one?"

"Yeah!"

The tally count continued to progress.

At twelve marks, Violet found herself getting restless again. She spent as many moments as she could avoiding the little girl. She didn't know what she would unleash if the girl found out who she was. Even if it was coincidence, it's not something she wanted to announce to the world. The only person who seemed to truly understand the potential danger was Victor. She shuddered to think what would happen if she let slip why she was so worried about the child.

Victor said it himself. She was important to how this would play out. He was also correct that all she wanted to do was help people. A sense of guilt washed over her as she thought of what would happen when the small girl caught her.

She took a bottle of water and made her way back to the auditorium again. Victor went to follow her but she shook her head. From the second back row, she slowly pulled the collection of combination paracetamol and codeine tablets from her pockets and popped three in her mouth. She swigged from the bottle.

Calm began to slowly rush over her as she felt the warm embrace kicking in. She had never abused tablets before, she took her position in med school very seriously. None of her hard work mattered now. There wouldn't be a school to go back to.

If a demon was only here for her, then she'd rather go out on her own terms. She popped another two tablets. Sickness rumbled in her stomach and nausea crept in through the feelings of euphoria that began to sparkle through her brain in the early stages.

Thirteen tally marks were on the chart as she opened her eyes. In class she knew that she was not consuming the pills fast enough to ensure an overdose. She knew that if she went too slow she'd simply sleep it off and wake up very unglamorously, likely covered in her own vomit. As quickly and quietly as she could, she took all of the silver packets out of the boxes she collected and put the loose tablets into a single box for easy access.

To test her ability to move quickly, she stood up. The room was spinning and her chest felt heavy. Filling her mouth with water, she dropped a number of pills in as she briskly walked to the door of the cinema. If she was going to go out of the world, she did not want to be a burden.

The clunk of the door gave away her position.

"Don't follow me!" she yelled from the top of the stairs.

Violet stumbled into the door and rammed her entire body into it. She did not care who, or what, would be waiting for her on the other side. Whatever was there couldn't be worse than the embodiment of her abortion.

Holding herself up on the wall outside the cinema, beside a garbage bin, she began alternating between putting the medication in her mouth and taking gulps of water. Violet could hear the arguing from the cinema below. She knew that once the sounds of arguing hushed, she wouldn't have much time.

Victor flung open the doors. "We've got to get her inside, quick!" he yelled.

"No, no, no, no!" Elizabeth rolled her to her side while Masina helped move her legs.

"Look at the pills." Amy's voice was filled with a burst of adrenaline, "Do you have Naloxone? Shit. I'll try to get her to vomit."

Violet could feel the breath leaving her lungs. She couldn't open her eyes, but the voices let her know how many people came to help. Her full lips curled into a smile, feeling accomplished, even if they'd never know the sacrifice she made for them. With one last breath, she let the words "you're welcome" linger in the universe, waiting for the day her friends were ready to say thank you.