Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

[Yoki]

"Mph." Daryl had picked a few people out and immediately headed towards the stairs, not wanting to risk the elevator, he knew they'd have to be careful... Those girls were still around, and he didn't want to get into any more shit with them...too many people had died to their hands already... There didn't need to be any more causalities. 


"What? Talk to the creep?" Lorn raised an eyebrow as everyone started to move out, he still hadn't gone anywhere...and that man was still standing there, and Claire's mother, and the old lady, and...that annoying little kid. Was he really afraid of this? Damn. "Yeah, okay... Sounds like a great idea." With a grin, he took a step forwards and looked up at the man. "Yo." 


"Hey." The other replied, staring down at the child who had approached him, "What's up?"


"Eh." Lorn shrugged, tapping his foot on the ground, "Diana's pretty mad at you."
 


"You know her?" He asked, furrowing his brow. 


"Not particularly well, just know her name." 


"Ah." 


"So," The boy crossed his arms, changing the subject rather quickly, that question was just awkward. "Your accent's off. Where's it from?" 


"Originally?" 


"Yeah originally." 


"I was born in New Zealand, so it probably has something to do with that." 


"Mhm." Out of the two males Lorn actually looked like the more confident, his stance was different to the man's, his speech, his gestures, and whilst the other didn't seem extremely nervous or anything, there was something about him that was a lot more...mellow than the younger. 


"You all came here to break...ghouls out?" The blond looked up to the ground still left behind, "A bit risky, isn't it?" 


"Go fight Aaron." Lorn turned around, gaining the attention of the blue-eyed male as he ordered an adult around, "See if you can find Dane, that's what the want right? The guy's crippled or something." 

 

[yaint]

"Oh, you must be joking." The tut rolled off the old woman's tongue before she could even uncross her arms from the thin cotton robe strewn across her chest. She watched the exchange between Lorn and the stranger with a glint in her eyes that could have been discontent, or maybe even disdain, and took her own first steps to join them when she could not hold off on intervening any longer. 


By now, Aaron had already trotted away to tag along at the back of the last search party. The red hue of his trident slipped out of view just as the old lady split the ground between Lorn and his new acquaintance.


"You call this talking?" she asked Lorn after a knife-sharp look, and her hand came back to smack him lightly on the head for the second time. Afterwards, she pushed the boy forwards in Daryl's direction to prompt him to follow the little group beginning to trail along after the man with the green hair. "This is pathetic. Where are you from? Pah! There are better things to ask - walk and talk now, chop-chop - names! Age!" She stopped talking for a moment and elbowed Lorn in the ribs. "-Why you were watching each other like a pair of hungry lions. Come now, boys. Walk with me."

 

[Yoki]

"Oh." The adult man, who was at least twice Lorn's age uttered something, but quickly followed after the party everyone else had decided to join. This was still a breakout, and they still had things to do, treating it as time to just dawdle and talk could be potentially fatal. 


Lorn couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this strange woman, was she getting annoyed because he and someone else weren't talking to each other? She wasn't even really involved in the conversation but... Hm. How strange... Or...maybe she was just trying to be irritating. With a snort and a shake of her his head, he followed along, walking as he normally did. 


"Alright, calm down there grandma, you might break your hand on the back of my head. Y'know, you're awfully frail and all." He teased, immediately turning to look at the blond man heading off in the same direction, "Dunno why it's important, but it's Lorn, and I'm thirteen, not that it matters much." 



"Thirteen?" Was the reply he received, followed by two raised eyebrows, "Aren't...you a little young to be participating in a breakout of this scale?"


"Aren't you a little ignorant to be questioning my ability?" A grin spread across the boy's face and he turned to look forwards again, "You do know nothing about me after all." 


"That's...true. Heh." The adult male put a hand to the back of his neck again and nodded, "I'm...Harrison, by the way, people usually just call me Harry or something. And, whilst it's definitely not a question you get asked every day at this age, I'm thirty-two." 


The two males seemed to turn their heads away from one another after that, like there was nothing left to talk about... After all, it wasn't like they were in the right situation to get to know each other...no one there was. It was just awkward to even attempt it. 

 

[yaint]

Though she feigned disinterest, the lady with the grey hair and tanned skin kept one eye trained on the conversation happening to her side. This level of detail was of little use in all fairness, but watching man and boy try to stir up a topic of interest on a stranger's instruction did make her smirk. The cheek of Lorn's retort was particularly amusing. "Better, but still quite terrible," she said.


Behind them all, the female ghoul who had introduced herself as Claire's mother worked to keep up with the group. Ankles still in chains, she had to leap with both feet up every step, and her daughter's lifeless form was a heavy weight on her weak arms.


The old woman was quick to notice when a member of their party had lagged behind. "One second," she told Lorn and the man named Harrison, and froze on the spot to fall behind with the struggling mother.


"My girl," the woman said.


"Yes, I know." The older of the two females pursed her lips, tutted in apology and then snatched the other's hand out from beneath Claire's knees. A sudden flick of the wrist split the first chain apart, and a well-aimed kick broke the metal binding her feet. "There."


Claire's mother could barely keep her lower lip from trembling. She nodded weakly in thanks and disappeared up ahead just as a tall figure emerged in their wake.


Aaron's bulky form stood tall beneath the weight of another familiar face, but he was not just standing for long. In a second he was on his tip-toes again, sprinting as if weightless to re-join Lorn at the back of Daryl's group. "Lorn. We found him," the man said. He carried Dane on his back, the ghoul's legs raised forwards at the knees by the handle of his trident. The investigator was barely winded.

 

[Yoki]

Both males looked to the woman when she gave her approval to their conversation, despite neither of them asking for it. However, once she'd moved to talk to the woman behind them they hadn't really bothered to look back at one another. Well...at least Lorn hadn't... Harrison kept glancing over to the boy every now and again. 


The group continued to climb the stairs, the people at the front moving at a much quicker pace, with Lorn practically walking behind, he could have kept up but he just didn't feel like it. Yes, they were in the middle of a break out, yes he should be taking this seriously, but it was difficult to when there was so much entertainment around. 


"Huh?" Upon hearing a familiar voice the teenager looked back, meeting eyes with the inhuman investigator known as Aaron. He grinned and nodded once, putting his hands in his pockets, "Nice. S'pose you just carry him now. We'll get out eventually." He hopped up two steps, looking forwards again, "You're not tired?" 


"Fucking finally." Daryl muttered, coming to the last step and turning into the hallway of the next floor, his hard gaze turned back to the group following him for a moment, "Just find the goddamn vent." He told them, "I wanna get the fuck outta here before someone else dies." With a sigh, he propped Adrian's head up and disappeared into the hallway just to be met with another group of investigators, "Fucking great. More of you guys." His gaze went from green to red in an instant and he'd lashed out angrily, "Get out of my fucking way!" 

 

[yaint]

Although Daryl was the only other person here who knew how it felt to bear Dane's full weight, it was not difficult to guess that the man would be heavy - moreso than the other dead or disabled fighters like young Claire or Jackson, who was little more than skin and bones. Still, Aaron shouldered the man with ease. If anything, the look he gave Lorn in response to the question was closer to hurt than it was to exhausted. "No, not yet," he said quietly with a quick twitch as he adjusted his hold.


He had barely finished speaking when someone called, "We got your radio!" It was one of the other search parties. Some of their members were noticeably more bloodied than they had been when they left, and there were a few missing from their numbers. Jackson was alive when he was carried in, although one of his knees had been twisted around at an impossible angle. Nobody had been left untouched.


Several impressive leaps up the stairs joined all of the groups together. The old woman observed the arrivals from the corners of her vision; her interest had been piqued, but she wasn't smiling anymore. She asked, "Is this everybody?"


Jackson took a moment. He stretched around, swept his gaze over his allies. Daryl was here. They had Dane, Caleb, Lorn... Most people were here, but one particular absence struck him. The blooming redness of Bella's hair was missing. Where was she?


"No," the man said eventually. "We're.... Wh-where's Bella?"


"Heads up!"


Another yelp of warning distracted Jackson from his initial concerns. Everyone groaned and quivered in unison. They were too exhausted for another encounter now, too vulnerable. There were not enough gas masks to go around, and with more investigators coming up, hope was hard to find.


The old woman tutted, "Oh, bothersome pests." She paused, rolled up the sleeves of her robes and then patted Daryl's shoulder. "Do give me a moment."


The chaos was instantaneous. Those kagune made their reappearance, and in a flash of red the berserker was back. With one great leap the old woman flew past her rescuers. Investigators were thrown against walls with enormous crashes, heads crushed with sickening crunches. Blood dribbled down the edges of the staircase.


Nobody could see what was happening, but in a short while the old woman came back at the top step. She clapped her hands together to brush off the dust and announced, "All clear, let's go."


Several ghouls exchanged bemused glances, but unwilling to take any chances they obliged. Jackson opened and closed his mouth a few times before he remembered.


Oh, right.


The others.


With a hand, he reached out and grabbed at Dane's shoulder. "Dane!" he yelled, "Dane, you awake? We - what happened, where's everyone else?"

 

[Yoki]

Again Lorn whistled as the old lady went about breaking necks and pulling spines from backs, there probably shouldn't have been a smile on his face, but he couldn't help it. He found it entertaining that she was able to end them so quickly without so much as a second thought. At least it reminded him that there were people out there who weren't weaklings willing to do nothing in the face of adversary. 


"Apparently she wasn't joking when she called them 'pests'..." He muttered to himself, shifting his hands in his pockets and looking around. Everyone was simply waiting for the path to be cleared now, they'd all appeared and he was sure that they all wanted to leave, just like Daryl did. 


Speaking of that man... He didn't seem impressed by the display, in fact he seemed to have ignored it, retracted his kagune, and headed forwards. What a shame... Just because he was in a bad mood didn't mean he had to be in a bad mood with everyone, take it out on the doves, not their own team. Yeesh. 


Without saying a word to anyone else, Lorn headed forwards once more, eyes glancing around every now and again. They were on the right floor, so they were probably coming to the end of this adventure. What a shame, it could have been so much more in fascinating. 


*


"Huh?" Dane looked up to Jackson, furrowing his brow, "Well...Diana had them, that's...really all I know." He shook his head, "Why? Who isn't here?" Of course, the male started to try to look around in order to see who was missing from their group. Although the group was made of too many, were they missing someone? "Hey! Jackson! Who're we missing?" 

 

[yaint]

Five tiny crescents were left in each of the old woman's shoulders from where she had grabbed at her own skin in impatience. She knew that caution was advisable in any environment. Anyone would be a fool to think otherwise. However, not even knowing the dangers that her allies were so sensible to avoid could make her temper - or fingernails - any less sharp.


Thinking that he was speaking too quietly to reach an ageing ghoul's ears, Callum made a quick snide comment, "She's absolutely mental." He did not expect to look up and see those hard, dark eyes glaring knowingly at him. The boy crossed his arms and slouched over, pretending never to have opened his mouth.


One of the old woman's eyebrows twitched and briefly disappeared beneath a swathe of her silver-grey hair. Again, her curious gaze briefly fell upon Harrison, then Lorn, and then swept across to where Jackson was still tugging anxiously at Dane's clothing. "I don't know!" he kept saying, "Th-there were more people in your group than this, Dane - what about Leo's guys, what about Bella? You were all m-meant to be sticking together, but... She's not here, is she?"

 

[Yoki]

"Ha!" Lorn couldn't help but laugh after he heard Callum's comment, of course, he was the first to turn around and reply, grinning as he looked at the other. "Jealous?" He asked, obviously teasing him, "Old lady's got more balls than you," Again he turned away, crossing his arms, eyes dancing as he spoke again, "at least she can throw a decent punch." The jab was made without so much as a stutter of a letter, he was quite undoubtably criticising the boy's punch back at the station before all of this, saying he didn't hit hard enough. 


Honeslty, Lorn had nothing against Callum, he just found it hilarious to mess with the boy's fragile ego and hot temper. If he could work him up over nothing then why wouldn't he? It was amusing to watch him squirm. 


"Well, yeah." Dane replied, "But Diana had some of them, finishing them off downstairs, I don't know where everyone else is!" Bella...Bella of all people was missing... Not her. They were meant to take good care of her whilst here, not leave her on her own, and...they hadn't done that... Shit. 


"I swear to fucking Jesus Christ himself if she's hurt." Daryl growled from in front of them, "I'm gonna fucking find her, take." With Adrian passed out, it was easy to transfer the boy to another member of their party as Daryl started to storm off in search of his friend. 


"Daryl...Daryl come back...I'm here." 

 

[yaint]

Some potent mixture of instinct and habit made Jackson want to reach out and rest his white, clammy palm upon the sleeping Adrian's shoulder. A straitjacket... Now was hardly the time for moments of realisation, but this was the closest the two had been for a while - and every glance Jackson took towards his friend inspired another twisting pang of sorrow. Adrian must have been so afraid. He must have been so alone, trapped here, knowing not if he would ever leave.


That's enough, Jackson thought. He had to be stern with himself today; the emotions could wait until after they were out, and they were far from the light at the end of the tunnel yet. People were still missing, he recalled, the beats of his heart intensifying all of a sudden. 


Yes, that was right. Bella... He thought that he had heard the woman's voice, and then brushed it off as another hopeful hallucination. But when other people followed each other's gazes to the source of the sound, Jackson had second thoughts. 


Those words.


They were real?


"Daryl!" The word came blurted from Jackson's mouth, and he didn't care about what little control he had kept over his voice. "Wait, Daryl, wait - wait! W-we heard..."


"Was that her?" Callum said, his voice quivering. 


"S-sounded like it. Bella? B-Bella! You here?" Shit. He couldn't see... With someone's head taking up the majority of his sight and people fidgeting in every visible position, Jackson could not crane his neck to search for the woman even when he struggled. She was here. Somewhere, the last person that mattered, the only one left to collect before they could all turn tail and flee... Bella was somewhere behind everyone else, but where?

 

[Yoki]

"G-...A little...help here..." The woman spoke again, falling into the open from her rather elaborate hiding place behind some of the lesser noticed bodies. Daryl had immediately turned around upon hearing her voice, as had everyone else, but no one liked what they saw. 


Bella's red hair fell over her face as she lowered her head and fell to her knees, trying her best to stay still... There...seemed to be something around her abdomen...blood dripped onto the ground, her hands her covered in the stuff, which smeared along the floor as she moved them. What...what the hell had happened to her? 


"Fucking-..." In seconds, Daryl had moved from his position to fall to his knees in front of his friend, "Hey, hey hey, look at me, what the fuck happened? It's fine, you'll be fine. What the hell..." Immediately, he'd started to fuss over her, getting her to sit up slightly and lean on him so that he could see what was causing the girl so much pain... Something...unpleasant was sticking out of Bella's middle, like it had been shoved in but never removed, she must have killed the person or run away before they could pull it back out. "Holy fuck...holy fuck..." Daryl muttered to himself, she was a ghoul...she was less likely to die than a human from the attack, but that didn't mean she didn't need her organs. If they kept that in...well...she may just die there depending on what it hit, but he didn't know what would happen if he pulled it out.


"Daryl." Bella started, putting a bloodied hand on the man's shoulder, "Shut up for once would you?" Once she'd forced out her words, she sighed and laid her head on her friend's shoulder, "Well shit...I never thought this would be a thing. I understand the kind of pain you were talking about now... Sorry." 


"Fuck off." Daryl growled, "Don't apologise to me like you're going anywhere." 


"I don't know... It just hurts...a lot. Be nice to me for once..." Shifting her head slightly, Bella managed a hiccup of a laugh, before wincing as the pain from her abdomen hit again. 


"I'll be nice to you when you're actually dead." Green eyes locked onto the back of Bella's head, "Not for years." 


"For a pessimist, you sure are being optimistic." 

 

[yaint]

Silence was to be found in a place far away from Bella's breathless talk, but Jackson heard none of her frail wheezing or of Daryl's anguished cries. He saw her suddenly. Somewhere, in the centre of the eye-watering white lights and the blackness of the ghouls' tall shadows, that colour he had been struggling to find. But the striking redness of her hair carried on too far down. It wound around her stomach, streams of the evil liquid trickling down her front and sides. There was too much of it.


Nobody else dropped to their knees for the woman on the ground. Daryl, kneeling before her with his shoulder beneath her head, might as well have been alone in his fear. Jackson could not do anything. "This isn't good," he said, his entire body stiff as a wax sculpture, "Oh no, this... Th-this is not good, B-Bella... Oh, God."


Hundreds of people, human and inhuman, had lost their lives today. Some of them were killers - investigators, people who earned their pay by stealing the blood of others. Others were prisoners driven mad by time spent isolated, for whom death would be the only true liberty. But not Bella. Bella had walked into this building an innocent woman, and she of all people could not be lost to someone else's battle.


Not for the first time, Jackson inhaled sharply between his teeth to try and trap his breath before he could lose it again. Then he called out, "Daryl, that - that thing, you've g-got to take it out, you have to get it out of her."


"Foolish." Several people jumped at the sting of a familiar voice. The old woman clapped her hands together for added effect, or perhaps just to watch Callum recoil again, and then strode through the crowd to meet Jackson from behind. The look on her face was close to thunderous. "Do you want to kill the girl even more quickly? You there, young man-" She clicked her fingers at Daryl. "-Stand up and go. Don't waste your time. She will not survive."


"Don't!" Jackson objected without even thinking. Suddenly unfrozen, his arm swung out of place, and he was hanging in the air by one hand of hooked, trembling fingers, which he was quite sure were strangling the person who was supposed to be carrying him. Somehow, though, he didn't care about that at the moment. He searched through the countless faces in his field of view, and when his eyes fell upon the old woman's tanned face, he locked gazes with her - and she paused.


It was barely for a moment. She shrugged it off after a second or so, but something about Jackson, or the way he had looked at her, had made her stop. It had made the corners of her mouth turn up in a tiny, restrained smile. "No? Why not?" she challenged him. The way she watched him with those hawk-like eyes made the hairs on his neck rise. "You cannot afford to make a fuss here. More people will die than one girl, and she is running out of time any-"


"So hurry up about it!" Jackson wasn't looking at her anymore. He was staring at one person, then the next, trying to maintain eye contact when everyone kept nervously averting their gaze. By the time his carrier had pulled him back up into a better position, a path had cleared around the man. He clawed desperately at the ghoul's shoulders beneath his arms. "S-someone has to do something. We - Daryl, you can't just leave her, you can't just leave that thing in her."

 

[Yoki]

"Daryl..." 


"Don't listen Bella." Although Daryl could hear the talk behind him, he was refusing to answer any of it, or even acknowledge anyone. He wouldn't listen to them telling him to leave Bella, like fuck he'd leave her, he'd die there with her if he had to. As long as he was around, he wasn't going anywhere, he wouldn't allow it.


"Daryl, just listen to her." Bella's weary voice whispered to the male, she sighed, closing her eyes, "You and I both know it's not worth more lives... Just...if you have to...just go..." 


"Don't fucking say that." He snapped, his hand gripped onto the back of the girl's shirt, "I'm not gonna leave you, not ever, you're coming with us. Fuck, you shouldn't even be here." 


"We knew what we were walking into..-"


"Yeah, well it won't fucking end like this. Stop using up your energy." He'd always been so careful, never got Bella or the others involved in his shit...and now this... Some guy walks into their lives and suddenly they're in a detention centre for him, losing people left and right. Why did they do this? Was it really worth it? Was it worth all those deaths? Would it be worth Bella's life? Dane's? Not at fucking all.


That woman was talking again...that annoying ass woman who seemed to care about nothing but killing investigators, he wasn't going to get up and go...she couldn't make him, no one could. It seemed that Jackson wasn't about to abandon Bella either, but his voice nagging at Daryl only bothered the man more. 


"Jackson." He snapped, "Do you think I'm really gonna fucking do that, you're more likely to leave than I am." How dare he even suggest Daryl would leave Bella there... Never. "I can't just pull it out, I don't know how to deal with that kinda thing, so if you're not gonna suggest something fucking useful then just shut the fuck up and stop flailing, it ain't helping anyone." Was he annoyed? Yes. Was he taking it out on Jackson a little? Yes. But who could blame him? His friend was dying in front of him and he had no idea how to help her. 


The male's green eyes drifted to the older ghoul who had told him to leave not too long ago, they didn't let up, they looked more pissed off than upset...but that was just how his emotions showed. He was extremely worried. "Do you know anything about this? Can you do anything?" He didn't want to leave Bella, and earlier he'd heard her say something about checking Adrian out... So maybe she did, maybe she could help... 

 

[yaint]

Whatever trance Jackson might have lulled himself into to ease the rising panic in his throat, Daryl's words had shaken him alive. His eyes widened, pupils contracted, grip tightened. Suddenly he could hear his own heartbeat again. Had he been the same person that he had a month ago, he would have wanted to punch Daryl in the face. But the anger that boiled his blood today only made his resolve to save Bella all the more fierce.


The man had been about to speak out, to blurt another useless suggestion without first unscrambling the words in his mind. But at the mention of Jackson's name, he and Daryl were both interrupted again - not by words, but by full, hearty laughter from the stomach.


"Wh- what... What the hell is wrong with you?" Jackson spat towards the sound, but he immediately regretted it when he realised who he was addressing. It was the monster masquerading as a little old lady. 


The old woman coughed out another laugh and then waved her hand. "Quite a lot, actually. Would you like a list?"


"No!"


"Fine, fine. Keep your hair on, Jackson." Something about the way she said the man's name made him shudder again. It was so precise, so elegantly spoken and yet sharp all at once. She seemed amused by the sound of it, because the smirk behind her tight lips suggested that she was swallowing another chuckle. 


Those bare feet were silent on the floor as the old woman approached Daryl. She looked tall compared to his folded up form, and Bella was merely a bloody smudge on the tiles. "Stand up," she ordered for the second time. "Get everybody away from here. You are still wasting your time with the girl. Although..." Another glance was shared with Jackson, and this time he really did want to punch somebody. "If she is so important to you, then I will look and see what I can do for her. But not here."


A pair of thin, bony arms somehow had the strength to shove Daryl aside. The old woman easily pried his arms from Bella's broken body, muttered something about being too weak for this, and then gently lifted the red-haired woman from the ground. She did not seem to care that this was the first blood to touch her robes - the look on her face was stone-hard.


Face-up like an infant in its mother's arms, Bella was carried towards the crowd, the object in her abdomen untouched. "Come on!" the old woman said. "We should find a smaller space on the way. Let's get moving."

 

[Yoki]

Daryl was less than pleased about being pushed away from his own best friend by a woman who just seemed to want to kill her, he'd tried to grapple onto the girl again, but already the old lady had grabbed her and picked her up off of the floor. The scowl on his face said it all. He could have done that, they didn't need her. She was just going to hurt Bella. A second ago she'd been wanting to leave her! She still thought she was a waste of time. What did that say? 


But...she was their best shot. 


Reluctantly, Daryl got to his feet, eyes locked on the bony figure of a woman walking away. With a sigh, he put his hands in his pockets, grumbled to himself, and then followed along behind. Bella was family, he wouldn't let that woman hurt her any more than necessary, and she definitely wouldn't let her take the easy way out and kill her. They were going to fix Bella, and then they were all going to get out of there. This hell hole was bad enough to visit, he didn't feel like getting trapped. 


There was another laugh from the back of the group as Lorn shook his head, a grin on his face, "Sheesh." He muttered to himself, watching as the others walked off, "She sure is straight to the punch." Turning on his heel, he casually made after everyone moving, however, not before poking Callum in the side with something, it wouldn't cut him or really do any damage, it was just a tease. Once he'd stepped in front of the older male, he flipped the item he'd poked him with in his left hand, the blade of a knife glittered in the new light. "Hey Aaron, c'mon, we're going places." 


*


No one knew why they'd been allowed to move around the floor without a single disturbance, but they had. The group had manouvered through corridors and hallways, looking for anywhere they could put Bella for awhile, they had to find their way back anyway, which they were doing whilst looking for somewhere. 


Soon enough the group had approached a smaller medical room, which seemed to be the only appropriate place to deal with the woman. People had been put on guard outside, in case any investigators, with them was Daryl and Diana, and Lorn had decided to go and stand outside to twirl a knife whilst Diana threw him dirty looks. 


Being inside a smaller room, someone had put Adrian down on bed and there had been talk of trying to remove the straitjacket he was in, but no one had tried as of yet...they were waiting for Jackson's approval. It had become quite obvious that the one thing Jackson wanted back was the boy, and so no one was really going to do anything that was going to piss the guy off, they had a situation already without that.

 

[yaint]

With precious lifeblood counting away Bella's time drip by drop, none was to be wasted on needless conversation or selectivity. The moment that somebody had pointed out an open room, the old woman had carried her younger peer inside. They were lucky to have stumbled upon clean beds here. Now Bella had been laid across a too-soft mattress, with a number of curious faces crowding nervously by her side as their make-shift doctor slammed open every cupboard door in sight.


"Rubbish, still rubbish," the old woman scolded the cupboards. They seemed to contain nothing but substandard first aid kits and light-weight painkillers made for human consumption. There were already several blocks of ice from an electrified cooler lined up on a shelf, but on their own they would not be enough. No time for surgery. What Bella needed was salt, and lots of it...


Eventually, those long-fingered hands felt the bulge of a plastic container. "Aha, beautiful." There it was - if only in condiment form, it would have to do for now. She slid the tall shaker across the counter above the cupboard in which it had been found and called out to nobody in particular, "Someone get me a bottle of water."


People stared upwards in bewilderment. They did not have time to remove themselves peacefully from Bella's side, because the old woman came swooping in with both arms and swept them all away. The back of her hand went to brush against the red-haired woman's forehead. "You are a lucky girl," she said, her dark eyes rolling to the side to meet Bella's face. "Lots of friends who care. You might even survive."


"Can you just hurry it up already?" Jackson pleaded tiredly from the other side of the room.


"Oh, you close your mouth. I know what I am doing." The man shot Daryl a questioning glance as the old woman turned around to grab hold of the ice packs she had lined up by the wall, but she was not about to stop to answer someone's interrogation. Not when she had a job to do. "Bella? This will hurt quite badly, so try your best not to scream."


*


Jackson rubbed his hands together. Trying to talk to that lady was like sending a letter to the man in the moon - it just wasn't happening. She was over there now, lining up wrapped ice along the sides of the object wedged through Bella's middle. But it wasn't like anybody else had a better idea, so they all just had to trust her. And right now... Adrian was here, and he needed help, too.


Every time he looked at Adrian, the man felt like he would break - like suddenly his entire image would splinter, crack and fall to pieces like the reflection in a shattered mirror. This was it. This was him. It still felt so surreal to see the little black-haired fighter in the flesh, and at times it took some thinking to remember that he wasn't just a doll or a mirage. 


He was real...


"Adrian," Jackson tried. He put the palm of his hand against his friend's back to feel for the rhythm of his breaths. It was hard to tell whether or not he was awake. "Y-you asleep? Hey, you listen to me - we're g-getting you out of that thing, hear? Just wait a minute or two, I'll... Look for a knife."


"Lorn has one," said Aaron, who had followed his master to the room and was now waiting somewhere in its centre. Someone else had re-assembled Jackson's wheelchair, despite a few sharp dents, and Dane had been dropped off in its seat. Now with trident still in hand, the man was battle-ready again. But still his voice was quiet, almost worried. "A knife, I mean."


*


The old woman had finished with the ice. It was to sit there for a few minutes, letting its biting coldness seep into Bella's bleeding flesh, and although it was not ideal, it was their best shot. However, the old woman was not yet satisfied with her work and she refused to sit around and wait. Those bandages in the first aid kits and Jackson's little bag were for little babies of wounds - to save this woman, they would need something larger.


"You there," she called out to Daryl with a little waggle of her index finger. "Take off your shirt."

 

[Yoki]

"Yeah..." Bella managed to laugh slightly as the older woman mentioned that she had good friends, "They're a little idiotic though." She didn't want to think about possibly dying, but she knew what she'd gotten herself into, she was willing to take the responsibility for it. What if they got ambushed and more people died for her? She couldn't have that... She couldn't have that at all. 


Something else she could have gone without was knowing that it was going to be extremely painful to save her, okay...so she'd known that without having to be told...but she didn't need to be reminded. "Yeah." The girl gritted her teeth and sighed, "I'll try." This was her only chance right? This...strange woman was her only hope of living and she was aware of it, so she had to take it, whether it hurt or not... 


"Huh?" At the door of the room, Daryl was standing, facing outwards to make sure they didn't get suddenly swarmed with doves...but...then he heard that woman talk again, to someone who wasn't Bella. When he turned around, he realised that she was pointing at him. If it had been for any other reason then Daryl would have declined taking his shirt off and probably shouted profanities about how he liked his clothing and wanted to keep it, but this was to save Bella... Here he didn't have a choice. "Fine."


After pushing himself off of the wall, the man pulled his shirt over his head and threw it towards the old lady. He put his hands in his pockets, sighing, "You better fucking save her then. That's a good shirt." The fact that he had no shirt on didn't bother him much, not yet at least... It'd probably come back to bite him when they got outside. 


"Oh thanks Daryl." Bella snorted, "'That's a good shirt'... Why don't you just kill me yourself and keep your shirt then." She laughed, rolling her eyes, Daryl just grunted in reply, kicking his foot at the floor and waving her off. 


"Just don't let her die." He muttered as he made his way back outside. 


*


"Mmng..." Adrian groaned, moving his head to the side, his hair falling over his face, obscuring it. He tried to move his arms, but, of course, he was unable to whilst strapped in that jacket. The boy's breathing had changed slightly, becoming a little bit faster, but he still seemed very drowsy. 


Again, he small individual moved his head, his hair moving again to reveal his tired, half open, grey eyes. "Ga...-" He attempted to speak, but at first it just didn't work, for awhile he was only able to make noises in an attempt to communicate....which...seemed to scare him by the way his eyes kept widening every now and again. 


"Ja-acks..on..." Finally, the boy was able to mutter a word, he had a little bit of strength, enough to struggle for around ten seconds in his straitjacket and make a whining noise when he still couldn't get out. "H-..." He swallowed, throwing his head down, hair falling over his face once more, "I-I-I...nnmm..." It was obvious he was uncomfortable, and was acting like a five year old, but there was fear in his voice too... He was afraid...he didn't understand what was going on, why they were moving... He didn't understand any of it. 

 

[yaint]

"Oho... Yes, darling. I know the feeling well - most of the people I have met are complete knuckle-heads. It gets infuriating, does it not? Oh! Now, give me just a moment." Though her hands should have been trembling, the old woman laid her fingers delicately on Bella's side, feeling with a light brush of the skin how her patient's temperature had risen or fallen. Her own touch was frosty, almost biting, but she was quick to remove it and herself from the bed.


With one quick snap of her forearm, the woman snatched Daryl's shirt out of the air. A few stray locks of grey hair caught the same light that illuminated her quick, gnarled grin. She tutted, "Let her die. What do you take me for?"


The shirt was let to fall into an untidy heap by Bella's feet whilst those skeletal, tanned hands worked their way back to the woman's middle. Again there was a pause, just a fraction of a second spent feeling for temperature. The ice was still pleasantly cold; that was a good sign.


"Back again. You might want to brace yourself, by the way - this will be total agony," the old woman said finally without so much as wincing. Arguably the bluntness of the warning was more useful than sugar-coating would have made it, but that would be if Bella had even had the time to process the words. Immediately, those frail-looking hands became tense. They wrapped themselves around the object embedded in the young lady's gut and started to pull it out.


Despite the strength with which the old lady was gripping the object, it moved out slowly, carefully. The first inch was almost invisible beneath the little flecks of unmentionable red-pink froth that came up on the surface. Then the second inch, the third... 'Agony' was probably even less than an understatement, the old woman now realised. The fourth inch came up, and then, finally, the rest.


She cast the item aside without even bothering to look at it. It clattered to the floor somewhere close to Dane's feet.


"There," the woman said, her lips upturned at one corner in a smug half-smirk. "How was that?"


*


He struggled to stop his lower lip from twitching and trembling. His teeth kept chattering almost comically whenever he spoke. But somehow, Jackson managed to murmur to his carrier, "Let - let me sit with him."


The ghoul who had borne his weight for so long now gratefully slid the man down to the end of the bed on which Adrian had been lain. Luckily, the boy was so small that he took up very little space. Jackson did not have to worry about his lop-sided posture for once, and he used what little balance he had to lean over and cradle Adrian in his weak, heavy arms. It was a small gesture, but it meant a lot - even to him, if not his friend.


"Hey, listen to me. You're okay, g-got it? Just sit still for a moment, Adrian, we - I'll cut the jacket off. Uh, you, over there!"


Aaron blinked several timed and jammed a thumb towards his own chest. "Me?"


"Yeah. C-can you get us a knife?"


The man with the trident and the bright, green eyes nodded. "Yes, Sir," he said as he was supposed to, and then disappeared through the door to meet Lorn. A heavy finger tapped on the young ghoul's shoulder several times. "Lorn," he began reluctantly whilst ignoring the dagger-sharp glares crossing the space from Diana's direction, "I'm sorry, but... Please may I take your knife?"

 

[Yoki]

"Mhm." Bella nodded, "Try living with a house full of them." Whilst she was joking, it was only half a joke really, sometimes the boys really did like to do the stupidest things...but she loved them, and she always would. Who was going to keep them all in line if she was to die here? Daryl wouldn't be able to handle it, Dane was their best option, but he had enough responsibility... She had to be there for them all. She had it. 


There was no reply to the older woman's question from Daryl, he'd just continued on out, probably didn't want to see Bella in pain...or possibly dead. Which...was fair enough, he'd come back if he needed to, right now he was needed out there to defend them all. 


Bella couldn't think much more about her makeshift family before she was being spoken to again. Her eyes turned upwards and she gave an unsure smile, "Well...you certainly don't sugar coat anything." The woman laughed, although it was forced and just to hide her worried, was she afraid? Well...who wouldn't be? This was going to hurt more than anything she'd ever experienced before. 


Gripping onto her own clothing, Bella gritted her teeth and waited...that's all she could do. She didn't know when it was going to happen, or what was-


"Ah FUCK!" She shrieked as she felt the item in her abdomen wrenched upwards, it didn't move all that much, but it hurt a hell of a lot. Trying to contain screams of agony was a thing of the past, Bella had done her best, but it was almost impossible with how slowly that thing was moving. It felt like her gut was being torn through all over again...only this time someone was moving as slowly as they possibly could.  


After what felt like an eternity, she was finally able to let out that breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Still in pain, Bella groaned and turned her head to the side, "Horrendous." She muttered, breathing a little heavier than before, "Can we...all promise never to have to do that again?" 


*


"Hm?" Hearing Aaron's voice, Lorn moved his eyes to barely look at the man, "My knife huh?" He looked back towards the object he was flipping in his hand with a grin. For a few moments he did nothing at all, just kept flipping it, ignoring Aaron, but then finally he shrugged, turned, and threw the item to the man's hands. "If you bring it back after, yeah." With that, he'd turned back to his position. 


It seemed like he was done talking, well...until he called Aaron back again and furrowed his brow, "What for?" He asked, "You're not going to get it all bloody right? I mean I just cleaned that thing, so gotta keep it clean. Just don't stick it in someone's intestines." 

 

[yaint]

"Good gracious, woman, your intestines look like cranberry sauce. Imagine if your boyfriend saw that..." With little to no restraint, the old lady dipped an index finger in the warm, velvety purée of what used to be Bella's abdomen. The agony of the gentle swirling would have paled in comparison to taking the object out, but still the make-shift nurse showed her compassion by tutting and pursing her lips. "Hm. Doesn't smell too bad, though."


Someone in the corner gagged when they saw the old lady lick the fresh blood from her hand. She made a point of grinning wildly at them whilst kissing the tips of each of her ten fingers. The person was sensible enough to avert their eyes before they could face a verbal retort.


Several pairs of glowing eyes watched hungrily as the old woman treated her patient's wounds. The salt she had found earlier was first tasted and then mixed with the icy water that somebody had brought. More pain followed Bella's first screams as the hole in her body swallowed the mixture's sting. Daryl's shirt finally saw its use as a bandage when it was wrapped around the woman's middle, pressing tightly against her wound and almost knitting the flesh together with its own force of binding.


"How is that?" the old woman asked when she clapped her hands together and stepped back to admire her handiwork. "Much less ugly. But there is no guarantee that you are done now, do you hear? Don't move. I will find somebody to carry you... Aye-aye, I need to sit down..."


*


His hands were thick and heavy-looking, bearing the weight of strength, and yet they moved so delicately. Aaron caught the knife mid-air by its blade, perhaps forgetting for a moment how sharp it was, judging by the way his almost disappointed eyes slid down to gaze at the little line of blood welling up at the edges of the metal.


"Sorry, Lorn," the man mumbled. He leaned his trident against his shoulder for a moment to wipe the little red beads from the metal with his finger and thumb. When he saw that it was as clean as it had been a moment ago, his knees stopped trembling. "It's for the other man. I'll bring it back clean."


*


"Knife?" Jackson whispered expectantly. He squinted through his filthy glasses when Aaron reappeared in the room with that promising glint in his left hand, and his heart kept fluttering with anticipation. 


"Here, Sir," said Aaron. Jackson snatched the knife away, making a similar mistake to the other blond man's which ended up with blood dribbling down his wrist. He didn't care. There were cuts and scrapes all over his body; he was even sure that one of his legs had been broken and twisted the wrong way around, and none of those injuries hurt as much as seeing Adrian tied up in that jacket. Aaron had the audacity to remind Jackson, "Please don't get blood on it."


Jackson had not even heard the request. One arm still around Adrian, he told the boy the same things that he had said already a thousand times, then flipped the knife around and began to tear at the jacket with its blade. Threads started to fray the edges of the slit, falling apart like the sinew of a living body. It was an ugly sight, but Jackson kept going. Adrian was underneath there, somewhere, and now he was just within reach.


When the knife reached the bottom, Jackson hurled it back at Aaron. The man caught it by the handle this time and wiped it with his fingers again to remove the little spots of the other male's blood.


"Adrian," Jackson kept saying as he tore ruthlessly at the straitjacket, peeling it off the boy's skin one part at a time, "Adrian, Adrian, look. You're out. We've got you, it's okay, y-you... How are your arms?"

 

[Yoki]

"Oh...okay, no need for me to know that..." Bella winced, turning her head to the side. Honestly, she didn't like the idea of her insides even being on show, she didn't want anyone to see this...it was disgusting as was, no need to make it all worse. "Just...keep that but to yourself." The woman chewed on her cheek, closing her eyes to try and relax for a moment, but...that didn't last.


Her light eyes shot open wide again as a hand started to mess around with her guts, it was hard not to scream out, considering it was the equivalent of someone performing an operation on you whilst you were awake. There was stinging, and tearing, and thumping. "Oh son of a BITCH." The woman yelled, throwing her head to the opposite side. She could take it, but only because she wanted to live. It might not have been as bad as the pain before, but it was still bad.


It seemed like another eternity until the silver haired ghoul was done with her, but...at least the worst of it was over. "Y'know." Bella started, gritting her teeth, "It would be better if I could breathe." Obviously she was referring to how tightly Daryl's shirt was around her middle, but...if it was keeping her alive she couldn't complain. "Ah, yup! I'll...just wait here then..." 


*


"Hnnnn..." Adrian moved his head a little as Jackson started to cut off the straitjacket holding him captive, but other than that, he didn't move at all. The boy was making some sort of whining noise, like he was trying to talk but was completely unable. He was short of breath, and his eyes kept shutting and then fluttering open again, he obviously wanted to talk to Jackson, to say something more, but it was extremely hard for him to do so. 


His mind was a muddle, in fact, he hadn't even noticed Jackson ripping at the jacket until he'd finally cut enough of it off to get through to the boy...and then it was suddenly being pulled back off of him. 


Adrian made a squeaking noise, his now free right arm grabbed at Jackson's clothing meakly, pulling it towards him. He pulled his legs up towards his chest, mumbling something incomprehensible. It seemed like he'd calmed down a lot now that Jackson had cut him out and was talking to him, at least...until he realised something... Suddenly, Adrian's eyes shot open, he was attempting to move left arm...but...it wasn't working very well. 


His grip on Jackson's clothing tightened as he realised this, he didn't like it, he didn't like it at all. The boy shook his head, burying his face into the man who had hold of him. There was something wrong, why wouldn't his arm move? Why couldn't he... Why couldn't he move it? It...didn't work properly!


Looking upon the limb, it was obvious that it was twisted out of position. Maybe broken, most likely dislocated, either way in decently bad shape, but...that wasn't all. Adrian's wrists were covered in something, it was dried, brown, looked like...blood. As Adrian moved, he turned his wrist up, revealing the source of that staining. His arms were cut up badly, and obviously not cared for properly, he cuts were hardly dealt with...just enough to make sure they at least started to heal. They weren't uniform, not like anyone with precision and medical training would have cut, no, they were much more random and rough. Being kept on so many suppressants had obviously slowed down his healing, leaving his body unable to deal with this injuries like it previously would have. 

 

[yaint]

That woman was a trophy of vitality, a statue stood upon stone legs heavy and unyielding. All that she had done was save a single person's life on demand when she had watched hundreds more die with fascination, and yet when she stepped away, she seemed to leave a little trail of life behind her.


Bella was one job, but she was one job done well enough for the time being. The old woman grinned past her silver hair, "Good idea. We wouldn't want your liver to fall out," with a husk of a laugh tied in beneath her words. That had only been half a joke; her sense of humour was warped and unsettling. She enjoyed this far too much.


"Face!" The demand shocked one of the surviving ghouls into faltering. They blinked in shock and turned their head in the direction of the noise, only to find the old woman's dark eyes staring back, creased in a smile. She wiped her bloodied hands on his stubble and then whistled her thanks whilst he stood in place, stunned.


A few injured fighters rose hesitantly to their feet, but they were clapped back down by a pair of light-weight hands turned strong. "You, down," the old woman said to one of them. "And you. And you, and... You, stand up."


"What for?"


"Oh, what an adorable attitude. I'd love to smack that look right off your face. Now, you go and pick up the lady and give her to the gentleman in the wheelchair."


The look that she received was close to murderous. Pale eyes threw knife-sharp glares at her throat, but she batted them away like flies and smiled as she always did. Eventually, the ghoul obeyed, although reluctantly and with much incomprehensible muttering. He approached Bella and shovelled one hand behind her back and one beneath the crooks of her legs, then lifted her wordlessly into the air.


"Careful, careful!" the old woman tutted. "I worked hard on her. Be gentle."


"Yeah..." Almost as roughly as before, the man swung Bella around and dropped her face-up across Dane's lap. There was no greeting to the other male, no warning... He left her, and he left him.


*


Adrian was making noises that sounded how Jackson felt - hopeless, pained and exhausted. It hurt even more to hear it coming from the boy, and for some reason Jackson could not shake the feeling that there was something terribly wrong with them both.


This should be heart-wrenching. Why could he only smile and stare? Why did his eyes feel so dry and heavy when they should have been pricking with tears? He felt choked enough to suffocate, like his head was underwater, and still he breathed softly, "Hey, d-don't pull too hard, I'll lose my balance. Just let me sit up for a moment, okay? I - I w-want to t-take a look at you."


Apparently, 'you' meant everything except Adrian's face. Jackson could not bear to meet those big grey eyes yet... Not here, because if he saw the agony set inside them then he would start hurting properly, and then he would be of no use to anyone. Instead he ran his fingers down Adrian's neck, stopping to check for a pulse, a sign he expected to see that meant something was wrong.


When those hands reached the boy's shoulders, they froze. Something was missing? No, no, it was there. It was just in the wrong place - somewhere it was never meant to be. Adrian's arm was limp and soft where it was supposed to be firm. His wrists... God, Jackson hadn't seen that yet. The cuts, the scratches... They weren't bleeding like they were new. These were human wounds on a human boy, and it made the man cradling him so protectively want to be sick.


"God... What'd they do to you..?" Maybe it was panic, or a spasm, or some kind of protection, but Jackson watched his arms wrap around Adrian's tiny body and pull him closer until he was almost on his lap. The man said, "Hold still for a moment, Adrian, d-don't panic, it's okay. You hear that? You're gonna be fine, it's just your shoulder's come out is all. But no worries - I'll fix it. I'll fix all of this, I promise."

 

[Yoki]

Bella did not enjoy being picked up and tossed around like some play thing, however, she got over it and stayed quiet as she was carried over to Dane. At least they weren't putting her with someone she knew, everyone else had had much rougher treatment than her. 


"Charming." She muttered as she was dropped into the man's lap, only to hear him chuckle at her angry muttering. 


"Hello you." Dane grinned, earning a roll of the eyes and then a smile from Bella, "Really went and stitched yourself up there, didn't you?" 


"Oh, like you're one to talk." She shook her head, "Look what you did to yourself trying to protect all of those people... You could have been killed you idiot!" She slammed her fist into his shoulder, both of them winced from the action. 


Her face softened up as she stared a Dane, smiling like he always did in tough situations. "We really fucked up...didn't we?" 


"Yeah," He looked down at her arms, motioning with his head for her to wrap them around him, "Yeah we did..." Bella did just that, she let her arms wrap around Dane's shoulders and learned her head against his neck. They all needed to sleep for a year after this.


"I'm sorry Dane." 


"Don't be." 


*


It was almost like Adrian knew Jackson would panic as he noticed what was going on, the boy was desperately trying to catch his eye, but Jackson just didn't seem to want to look at him. The man's gaze was looking over him, but never at him, did he do something wrong? Had he upset Jackson by getting himself caught? He didn't mean to, he didn't want to do that...he just...he... 


His energy came in jumps, for a moment he'd be able to raise his head, move his limbs, but then the next all he'd want to do was sleep... He'd moved back to just wanting to sleep again. Adrian's innocent looking eyes fluttered closed, his body going slightly more limp than before, almost like he was unconscious, but...not quite. His breathing was still quick, and his heart rate hadn't slowed down any...he was still afraid. Everything still ached, it was all a blur, moving too fast, the only thing in focus was Jackson. 


"Ja..." Adrian breathed, his mouth hardly moving and nothing else even so much as twitching. His breathing became a little more heavy and he made another whining noise, before muttering something that probably wasn't expected by anyone in the room. 


"Run..." 


"HOLY- I GOT IT, I GOT IT, CHILL!" There was a large clang from outside, before Lorn's voice could be heard yelling like he was telling someone off for acting brashly. Someone was there...and they definitely didn't sound friendly...

 

[yaint]

When the woman put the weight of her old and aching body against the wall, room itself seemed to sigh out its deathly chill. Air blighted by blood and the held breaths of those shivering in the light between the shadows hissed out between the tiles in the walls. Wisps of white cloud snaked through the ventilation shafts. That one young lady bundled in the corner was still coughing, but now not quite as much.


What a vile mess...


The old woman could not have been more thrilled.


She licked her leathery lips over and over, feeling how those old scabs and chaps finally beginning to smooth out after years of cracking and bleeding beneath her frighteningly sharp teeth. Her eyes watched Dane and Bella - not lazily, as much as it looked, but carefully. Observantly. There was more to be found at second glance than first, and more at third glance than second. She had taught herself that tidbit years ago, and had since found much entertainment in playing with the younger investigators' minds. It gave what was, in a way, a second sight.


Speech. Aggressive action, and oh, pain. Idiots. Bella's injury was disgusting, but her specimen was interesting. Her personality... Not so much. Not yet. The old woman had half a mind to cup her hands to her mouth and tell her to quiet down unless she wanted to lose a chunk of her lungs, too. They were intact, of course - not even close to the wound - but a good scare never hurt anyone, especially when it shut them up. Silence would be nice. Someone might actually be able to hear themselves think.


Unfortunately, silence was a long way off.


"Still, still, keep still," Jackson wouldn't stop muttering into Adrian's ear. He was leaning perilously towards the edge of the bed, but the arms wrapped firmly around the boy's middle kept him anchored to his seat. His teeth chattered when he spoke. "I'm gonna f-... I'm gonna fix..."


"Hah?" the old woman prompted.


Jackson froze for a moment and dared to turn his head to one side. He tore his gaze away just as the old woman caught his eye.


"Ah-em?" she coughed again, this time waving a hand. "What on Earth are you doing?"


With a great effort, the bespectacled man glanced back again. His blood-crusted glasses were slipping on a river of sweat running down the bridge of his nose, and it seemed to take him a couple of seconds to work out that it was really him she was speaking to. Eventually he rubbed a soft thumb against Adrian's arm and mumbled, "Fuck... Sh-shoulder."


"Hm... No."


"What?"


"Wrong. You are doing it-"


'Run.'


Clang.


All eyes went to the door, and for once, the old woman's speech was cut off. Aaron scrambled past everyone's petrified bodies with both knife and trident in hand. As he disappeared through the door, he half-whispered, "Lorn! What happened?"


"Okay, okay. Come here. Let me do it, I will be quicker." Jackson did not see where that hand came from, but suddenly there was an enormous weight on his chest. His limp body was slid across the bed to the end, where it crumpled into a broken, pathetic heap.


"D-dislocated," he tried, although something about that loud noise had stolen his voice away from him.


The old woman scoffed, grabbed at Adrian's arm and roughly twisted it back into its socket without wasting a spare second. The movement was accompanied by what had to be the thousandth cringe-inducing crack that day. Jackson wanted to be sick all over again.


"Fixed," said the old woman. She finally let go of Adrian's arm.


Jackson struggled feebly against the weight of his own body, trying to find a hold on the wall above his head to prop himself up. He wanted to see Adrian. But then there was that hand again, pressing down against his temples with two vicious fingers.


"Down."


"But-"


As he tried again to sit, the old woman forced him to his back. "I said down. You go outside and you die, do you understand me?" she asked. Jackson nodded sheepishly in response. "Let me go and see what that noise is."


"Careful," Jackson croaked uselessly, but the old woman was already gone. She and her nightmarishly powerful hands were gone, swinging towards the door in a brisk, impatient rhythm, but still her ringing voice called out:


"Oh, and somebody watch the happy couple in the middle for me!"

 

[Yoki]

Feeling pressure on his shoulder, Adrian yelped, tensing and recoiling weakly as the old woman popped his shoulder back into position. As expected, after that he kept it very close, rocking backwards and forwards and whimpering like someone had just yelled at him or hit him. 


"So-So..." He choked, trying his best to get some sort of sound out, but he didn't have the energy or perseverance to do so, all he wanted to do was curl up and sleep, but they wanted to hurt him... He couldn't sleep...they'd take him back, he didn't want to go back...it was small and cramped there and they didn't let him move, he wasn't allowed to move! 


Adrian continued to make small sounds in his panic, but none of them were comprehensible, and he was too drowsy to make sense of any more of the situation... All he knew was that Jackson had been taken away from him, and he wanted him back. 


*


"Come ON!" Lorn growled, as something dark slithered back into his shoulder blades. An arm rolled along the floor, landing next to the boy's foot as he kicked it away again. Looking up at Aaron, who had seemingly ran out of the room whilst he was busy cutting someone up. With a smug smile, he teenager walked over and placed a finger against the man's lips. "Let's keep this little demonstration to ourselves, shall we?" After holding his position for a second or so, he nodded once and dropped his hand, "Good." 


Lorn walked away, pulling at his trouser leg, which now had a rather large gash in the fabric. "These were perfectly good trousers!" He muttered, shaking his leg a little. It didn't look like he was bleeding, his leg seemed intact, but...that wasn't what he was worried about. His gaze moved up to lock on to someone with bright, sharp eyes and brown hair tied up in a bun above their head. Their bright red lipstick only emphasised the smug smile on their perfectly proportioned face. 


"I commend your effort, child, I'm sure my colleague regrets meeting you." She started, hoisting her quinque onto her shoulder and flicking her hand at some other individuals standing behind her. A man with blond hair and another woman with blue eyes moved forwards, the two coming up behind her looked awfully similar to each other, they even shared the same calm expressions. 


Behind them stood two more investigators, one hunched over slightly, grasping at what used to be their arm as the other attempted to patch up their bleeding. 


"You shouldn't have gone in alone First Class Urane." The woman at the front muttered, shaking her head. 


"I-I know ma'am..." The man gripping his stump muttered, "But he was just a kid... I didn't think-" 


"You didn't think. Exactly, I'm glad we're on the same page here." She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment, "No matter, what is done is done." Her attention quickly moved back to the boy standing in front of the group with his arms crossed, "Would you kindly tell me where Sanister is, child? We know you took him, after all, Lambert came all this way..." 


"Who?" Lorn furrowed his brow, leaning forwards and putting a hand to his ear, "I'm sorry, you'll have to speak up, can't hear you over all that droning."


"Oh. So we're playing games now." The woman rolled her eyes and sighed, "Okay, sure." 


"Tell youuuu what." Pointing a finger up in the air, Lorn looked up, "You buy me a new pair of trousers and I'll tell you all you need to know about your little treasure hunt in order to finish it."  


"OH FUCKING HELL." Stepping through the door, Daryl couldn't help but let out the biggest of sighs, "YOU'RE FUCKING KIDDING ME." It seemed he wasn't the only one to head outside, as as he'd appeared the old lady ghoul had also. 


"Oh great. A party. Never been to one of those before." Lorn grinned, looking between the investigators and the new ghouls, "Where's the alcohol?"