Celty waited for the inevitable joke that someone had run off with his real head while he was sleeping and the mask was just a replacement, but it never came. Shingen just stared at her from behind the mask, breathing loudly. Celty waited, staring into the empty black eyes of the gas mask. She felt her hands clam up a little. [Never mind,] she wrote. [Forget I said anything.]

Her mouth tastes like ash. She's surprised the heat isn't liquefying the metal staircase. Everything is so hot. She sees flames whenever she closes her eyes. Why can she feel it now, she wonders. She is already dead– or would be– or should be– isn't, is, can be, won't be. She wonders what she could have possibly done as a child to doom herself to this purgatory as an adult.

Short drabbles for the various Zeroes of Zero Escape. Not sure if I'm done with this or not! VLR Zeroes might have to join in. Spoilers all the way through. 1: "I dreamed of a hilltop, a ship, and dead rabbits. But mostly, I dreamt of fire."

"Will you walk with me, Tenmyouji?" she asked, and offered me her elbow. I scowled, not daring to look her in the eye. Just being this close to Akane again made my head throb with memories that never happened, and of years and years following blindly in her footsteps. I took her arm in mine.

Between his back and the mattress was an elbow. A body, and an unpleasantly sharp elbow that he marveled he'd ever been able to sleep through lying on earlier.

"We just wanted a friendly game of cards, but noooooo. As soon as Trucy goes to bed, you're all 'let's make this more interesting,' and now it looks like you can dish it out, but you can't take it." "I can 'take it' fine, Detective. I am perfectly at ease with paying my dues, if only everyone at the table were earning them legally."