#ecto-rp

The sudden, agonized scream shattered the silence and the stalemate between Vivi and Mystery, but in an unexpected way.

“Lewis!” Arthur, galvanized into utterly forgetting his terror of Mystery, leapt forward, wings folded tight and moving with fluidity like he hadn’t since before the cave. He dodged Mystery’s lashing paw, oblivious to the fact that the paw rebounded off of air a good distance away from his body. All he could focus on was getting to Lewis.

Mystery roared, a sound of thwarted rage, and doubled back to leap in front of him again. His eyes behind his glasses were white-rimmed and more than half mad. “𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖓𝖔𝖙 𝖕𝖆𝖘𝖘, 𝖉𝖊𝖒𝖔𝖓!” he bellowed, blue-white foxfire curling around his jaws.

Arthur dug in his claws and darted left, even his atavistic fear of Mystery barely registering over the need to reach Lewis, who was still screaming, an unrelenting shriek of agony. He had to help him!

“Mystery!” Vivi’s voice was uncharacteristically shrill. “Listen to what you’re doing! You’re hurting someone! This isn’t right!”

Mystery sprang to intercept Arthur again, claws digging furrows in the dirt. “𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖉𝖔𝖓'𝖙 𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖓𝖉, 𝓥𝖎𝖛𝖎!” he raged, trying to keep Arthur from darting past him.

Vivi leapt into the fray, jumping between Mystery and Arthur, arms spread. “No, I don’t! Mystery, look at what you’re doing!” There were tears on her cheeks. “I’m scared, Mystery, and right now, it’s you I’m scared of! You’re not the Mystery I know!”

Mystery’s head shot up, ears flicking forward in shock and eyes dilating.”Vivi—?” Then he shook his head. “No. You’ll forgive me when you understand.” One of his tails darted forward, to coil around Vivi and push her out of the way— at least that was the intention. The tail stopped short before it could reach her and could get no closer.

Mystery rocked back on his haunches like he’d been punched, pupils shrinking to pinpoints. All his tails writhed forward, stretching to try and grasp her. None of them came close, stopped in thin air and unable to get any nearer.

Horror filled his vulpine features. “𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝒚𝖔𝖚 𝕯𝕺𝓝𝕰!?” His howl was heartbreaking in its raw terror. Unthinkingly, he darted for her, until he hit the invisible barrier with a strangled “Kii-yiiiii—” and went down on his rump, glasses knocked askew and eyes wild with unreasoning fear. He scrambled to his feet and lunged for Vivi again, slamming against the air with an audible thud. He rocked back and then strained forward, like he could overcome whatever was keeping him away from her with sheer force of will. It didn’t work and he circled her frantically, unable to come any closer to her. Arthur barely had the time to dodge out of his way.

Mystery reared back in his hind legs and threw his full weight into a headbutt against the force holding him away from his human. It stunned him for a second, and he staggered back, shaking his head.

Arthur took the opportunity to dash past him, desperate to reach the church and Lewis...

At least until he heard Mystery make an agonized bellow and then another thud. Hesitating, Arthur turned to look back.

Mystery was repeatedly headbutting the too solid air between him and Vivi, grunting with each impact. Vivi was backing away, her pale face streaked with tears, until she backed into the rusted iron gate and could go no further. “Mystery, stop, please!” she begged.

Mystery clawed at the air and rammed his head into it again. Arthur could see a bright trickle of  blood on his white fur, streaking from his nostrils. Vivi had said the ward wouldn’t hurt him but he hadn’t thought he would hurt himself on it! Mystery was going to kill himself at this rate!

Casting a longing glance at the church where Lewis had to be suffering, Arthur made the hardest decision he’d ever made. Hands shaking with terror, he tugged the leather thong up and over his head. It caught on one of his horns and he yanked until it broke, the little ward dropping from his fingers to the ground. Swallowing harshly, he leapt onto Mystery’s back, his weight making Mystery’s legs buckle with a surprised grunt. He knew it wouldn’t last long, Mystery was huge and could easily recover, but he had to make him stop harming himself.

“Vivi, gimme a hand here!” He shouted as Mystery started to buck beneath him, trying to get his feet back under him. Mystery was snarling, spittle flying from his jaws and all Arthur could think about was the half-lucid memory of Mystery lunging for him up on that cliff, but he only clung tighter, shaking hard.

Something bright blue cut across his vision and a shirtless Vivi flung herself onto Mystery’s head, bearing it to the ground. Her sweater was stretched over Mystery’s face and she used the arms to tie it down over his eyes. She crouched on his neck, wearing only her bra and skirt, and used a loop of her scarf to clamp Mystery’s jaws shut. Her face was still stained with tears but fiercely determined, and she leaned all her weight onto Mystery’s head to keep it pinned. Mystery flailed under their weight until Vivi lunged her head down and clamped her teeth hard on the base of his ear, the hand not holding the scarf digging fingers hard into the scruff of his neck.

Mystery froze with a muffled yip, every muscle locked up, and his tails standing straight out in shock.

Arthur looked up into Vivi’s face, set in a grimace. Without moving more than her eyes, she glanced down at the rest of her scarf trailing on the ground and then at Mystery’s feet.

Arthur took the hint and grabbed the long scarf, practically mummifying Mystery’s legs in the material and yanking a hard knot in it. It wouldn’t hold Mystery for long, not as strong as he was, but he hoped Vivi knew what she was doing. Mystery was starting to come out of his state of paralyzed shock, his tails starting to thrash along the ground.

Vivi released her hold on Mystery’s ear and slid sideways off of Mystery’s neck, arms wrapped around his head and pulling it close to her chest. She kept one leg looped over his neck and pinned that as well, even as the rest of his body began to thrash against the restraints. Without a word, she jerked her head toward the church, keeping Mystery’s blindfolded head held tight against her chest. She began talking quietly in japanese, her tone low and soothing.

Arthur scrambled awkwardly to his feet and wavered for a moment, undecided. Lewis needed him, but Vivi...

Something thumped against his foot and he looked down to see Vivi had kicked a ward at him. Not his, because the thong wasn’t snapped, so it had to be her own. She had to have taken it off to help subdue the more than half-mad Mystery. She glared at it and then up at him pointedly, but never stopped talking softly to the creature she held in a modified headlock.

Arthur’s wings drooped, but he did as directed, snatching up the ward and with one last worried look— he turned away and ran for the church, where the screams at last had tapered into silence, trying not to trip over his own feet. He was afraid of what he might find, but he would do anything he could to protect Lewis. Lewis had looked after him all the time since the cave, now it was his turn to return the favor. He scrambled for the shattered remnants of the door, hoping against hope he wasn’t too late.

******

For an agonized eternity, everything was pain. It wasn’t the familiar heat of a burn, or the agony of his own death, or even the sundering, tearing sensation of his locket being stolen; but some unholy combination of all of those, coupled with what felt like his mind being ripped to shreds. Lewis struggled against the flood of agony, but it swept him away in its unstoppable tide. It felt like he was coming apart at the seams and some distant, still-sane part of his mind wondered if this is what it felt like for a ghost to die.

It felt like bits of him were being flayed away, leaving him raw and bleeding; a torment of millions of tiny wounds bleeding his essence away. He was being torn asunder, scorched red and raw. He tried to hold on to anything, his love for Vivi and Arthur and Mama and Papa, his anger at his own death, even just the color of the sky, but they were all being ripped away and whirled into the maelstrom that was his entire existence now.

— And then, like the hurricane, there was a moment of utter silence, the eye of the storm holding the tiniest seed of what he had been in a formless limbo. There was nothing left to hold onto, so he did not try, only existing for a timeless moment, without thought or feeling, without pain or love, just being.

Then slowly, like the gentle plinking of raindrops on a utterly still pond, small things came trickling back. A name, one given by loving hearts to a nameless, lost child. The color of someone’s eyes, a clear, guileless blue, that darkened like stormclouds when they were angry. A shy half-smile, nervous and fleeting, but still speaking of an open, caring heart and humor in everything. Three hands, all of different sizes, but tiny compared to his own, reaching out for him with love and utter trust. A soft, puppyish bark and laughter that went from high yips to the chuckle of someone much older. Two people, whose names he could not find, but whose faces he would never forget. Another face, gruff and no-nonsense, but just as caring in their own slightly unpolished way.

Like the opening of a floodgate, more came pouring back, names, and places, love, and laughter, memories made soft by the passing of time, joy and wonder. There was sorrow too, to temper those joys into something worth holding onto; names and faces of those who had touched his life and left it, those who had come into his heart and stayed, a veritable swarm of things and feelings that made him who he was.

He remembered everything, even to his own death in the cave at the hands of the being that had taken over Arthur, but the things that came with those memories, the burning rage at what he’d thought was betrayal by his best friend, the sheer anguish and pain, the numbing terror of knowing Vivi had seen what had happened to him, were all faded, at a distance, like something from an old story once told to him. He still remembered what it was to die, still remembered everything with merciless clarity, but the bitter, ruinously poisonous emotional overtones were gone, blown away like so much ash.

The hate, the helpless fury at his own death and Arthur’s unwanted and agonizing transformation, the bitter thought that all that he was— was rage given form; only a shade of what he had been— those were not there any longer. He could pull up those things and look at them in the cold light of day, but they were not his be-all and end-all of existence.

In a blinding moment of clarity, he understood. The fire Mystery had called up had not harmed his locket because it could not; the anchor was the best of him, his love for Vivi, Arthur and family. But he had been reborn in the moment of his death; at the thought of the perceived betrayal, as a being of rage and hate. He only thought it had been snuffed out at the sight of Arthur’s body, but it had still been there, like a poison lurking beneath the surface.

It had been a poison, a corruption... and as was its purpose, the purifying flame had found that taint and burned it ruthlessly out. It had hurt because coming back the way he had, so very much of his essence, his soul, had been trapped in that corruption, those toxic feelings that eventually would have stripped away all that was Lewis, leaving behind a spirit that knew only how to hate. Not even having an anchor would have saved him from that fate, not if he had remained as he was.

But because of his friends, he had retained what he was, the humanity, and with the searing flames of the purifying fire, he was free and knew, even without anyone to tell him, that if he chose, he could leave the world of the living and go on to what awaited him. As he had been, he would never have had that option.

And that’s what it was, a choice. He could move on— or he could stay— and become what he had tried to be for Arthur, a guardian, a protector. And really, there wasn’t any choice at all.

With that thought, the church came back into focus around him and he realized he was still standing next to the altar, his locket resting in the palm of his hand. The flames still flickered around him, but they no longer hurt, just a warm tingle across his senses.

Right about then, Arthur stumbled through the ruined door, looking a little worse for the wear. His eyes were frantic as he scanned the interior of the church, lit only by the flames around Lewis now, because the light outside was fading into twilight.

“Lewis?!” Arthur called, his thin face full of fear. “Big guy, c’mon, you have to be okay... I can’t be too late, not after everything!” He was looking directly at the flames, and for a moment, his words made no sense, until Lewis realized he was looking right through him...

Lewis looked down at his hand, realizing it was as translucent as the flames flickering around it. Oh... oops.

He concentrated on becoming visible, and the flames went out, leaving them in near-dark until Lewis called up several of his little will o’wisp lights.

“Lewis!” Arthur exclaimed delightedly, and then made a strangled sound and went a sort of muddy green, his version of a blush, covering his eyes with one hand.

“Arthur!” Lewis floated toward his friend, so glad he was alright. A little roughed up, but no real damage. Vivi’s charm must have worked.

Arthur flailed at him with his wings. “Pants! They are a thing!” He backed up a step with a strangled squawk. “A thing you seem to have lost between when you left and now!” His voice scaled up, and he flapped the hand not covering his eyes wildly in Lewis’ direction. “How does a ghost even lose his pants, Dude?!”

Startled, Lewis looked down at a very definitely bare chest and arms... and lower. He made a mortified squeak and tried to cover himself with his hands.

Arthur turned his back, tail switching like a cat’s, the tuft of fur at the end standing out like a bottlebrush. “What is it with everybody taking their damn clothes off today? Is it like something in the air?”

Lewis could feel the blush creeping down his very bare shoulders and chest. Utterly abashed, Lewis tried desperately to figure out how to put his clothes back on... at least until something else Arthur had said got through his distraction. “E-everybody?”

Arthur’s tail lashed so hard it sent up a plume of dust. The murky blush was spreading over his shoulders too, and he scraped at the stone floor with his toe-talons.

“Arthur?”

Arthur deliberately kept his back turned to Lewis. “Um— yeah, kinda. Mystery went a little cuckoo and Vivi sorta took off her sweater to blindfold him.”

“Is she alright?” Lewis knew her wards were effective, but he still couldn’t help but worry.

“She— yeah, she’s okay, big guy. Are you? I mean, we heard you screaming out there!”

Lewis made sure he had figured out clothing before answering. “You can turn around now, Artie, I’m decent.”

Arthur kept his hand in front of his face as he did, peering out from between his fingers before heaving a sigh of relief and lowering it. He didn’t stop blushing, though, as he examined Lewis like he might be able to see something wrong with him.

“I’m okay,” Lewis reassured. He really was. “It hurt me, yeah, but— I think it helped me too.”

“Helped you how?” Arthur ventured a step closer, reaching out to touch Lewis’s arm, as if he were reassuring himself that Lewis was still there, still real.

Lewis covered Arthur’s fingers with his own, squeezing lightly. “It’s a long story, but I promise I’ll tell you. First, though, we need to check on Vivi.”

“R-right,” Arthur stumbled over the word, fingers tightening on Lewis’s arm for a second. He averted his face and suddenly lunged forward to hug Lewis tightly. He was trembling.

“Artie?” Lewis wrapped his arms around the slighter figure. “Hey, what is it?”

Arthur had buried his face in Lewis's chest, and didn’t look up. “Nothing. Just— just glad you’re st— okay.”

Lewis understood what Arthur had been thinking, and smoothed a hand over his hair. “I’m still here, Arthur. Not leaving you or Vivi, ever.”

Arthur made a small sound and nodded against Lewis’s chest, but just continued to cling for a moment, wings curling around Lewis and tail winding around his calf.

In spite of his concern for Vivi, Lewis was just content to hold Arthur, let him feel he was there. His locket beat steadily where it was pressed between them and Arthur slowly relaxed, an inch at a time.

Finally, Arthur sniffed a little and pushed away slowly. “Sorry.’ His lashes were damp.

Lewis cupped his cheek. “Nothing to be sorry for. I’m only sorry it scared you.”

Arthur shrugged, a deliberately careless motion, but still leaned his head into Lewis’s touch. “Yeah, well, it can join the crowd. There’s a lot of things that scare me.”

“You shush,” Lewis scolded affectionately. “You’re brave when and where it counts.”

Arthur snorted, but didn’t try to argue, simply content to stand there in Lewis’s loose hold.

The moment was broken by a warbling trill, as the deadbeat Lewis had sent away before he dared the fire swooped back in and looped wildly around them, trilling excitedly.

Arthur glanced up at it, a small half-hearted smile curving his lips up. “Guess we better go see if Vivi needs any help with Mystery.”

It took longer than any of them wanted to get to the van. Vivi scowled as she stumbled over a root. “If you’re going to live out here, we need to invest in a better way of reaching this place; a nice driveway or something.”

Arthur looked up from helping Lewis, who hadn’t the energy to float, over the same root. “Um, Viv, I think that would defeat the purpose of hiding away in the woods. You know, so great big bat-winged green thing doesn’t freak everyone out?”

Vivi waved a hand irritably. “Pssh. Look at me, I’m not freaking out.”

“Because you’re you.” Arthur snarked back.

“Oh, shoosh.” Vivi returned, digging for the keys in the pocket of her skirt as they broke through the trees. “That reminds me, we need to let Lance know you’re okay. I mean there was the note, but, I mean, he really needs to know.” She pointed with the hand holding the keys to a familiar van parked on the side of the road.

“What note?” Arthur squinted suspiciously at her as she unlocked the back door of the van and he helped Lewis climb up and slide over to the middle of the seat so he could see where they were going.

“The one you sent to me, silly.” Vivi had unlocked the back of the van and was rummaging in her chests of magical supplies and relics, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. “I mean you didn’t sign it and your handwriting has actually improved, but it said you had been hurt and were recovering and asked me to let Lance know. You also asked me to let the Pepper family know that Lewis here was “still around, in spite of evidence to the contrary,” and man, let me tell you did that one get me some strange looks!”

“Vivi, I didn’t send you any note.”

“I sent it.” Lewis confessed, petting his little deadbeat’s head absently. “You were so worried about letting Vivi and my folks know that we were still— around, but you never once mentioned Lance. Did you think he wouldn’t be worried sick too?”

Arthur ducked his head, lips pressed tight. “It doesn’t matter now, does it? We have more important things to worry about, like getting your anchor back.”

“It does matter!” Vivi huffed, emerging from her excavating with her hands full of an assortment of esoterica, including a small vial that glowed with an eerie red luminescence. “And we’ll be talking about it later, like it or not, you can bet your scrawny green butt on that!” She hip-checked the rear door closed and shifted things into the crook of one arm until she had freed a hand to pull the keys out of the lock.

“Think fast!” She chucked the keys at Arthur, who yelped, but snagged them out of the air almost instinctively,

“Vi—” he protested, keys dangling loosely from one claw. “I can’t drive. Not like this!”

“You can. I need my hands free to work on something to deal with Mystery. And he’s too weak to drive.” She cocked a thumb at Lewis as she clambered into the passenger seat. “You always were the best driver. I trust you.”

Arthur shut his mouth with a snap, blinking. He glanced back at Lewis, and then once more at Vivi, before nodding firmly and climbing into the driver’s side door. It took him a moment to arrange his bandaged wings and tail so they were out of the way, but at last he swallowed hard and inserted the key into the ignition. He turned it and the van rumbled smoothly to life. “Here goes nothing.”

Gingerly he pressed the ball of his elongated foot on the gas pedal, flinching a little when the van responded by gliding forward back onto the road. “W-which way, big guy?”

Lewis indicated the division in the road. “Left. It’s east of here.”

Arthur nodded, his hands clenched tight around the steering wheel, and a little more confidently, pressed on the gas.

Between giving Arthur more directions, Lewis watched Vivi curiously. She had a cloth spread over her knees and three slips of vellum that were inked with black kanji and other sigils he did not know. He knew some of the kanji though, Vivi had taught him and Arthur the most basic of wards long before they had taken to the road in search of the paranormal.

As he watched, Vivi picked up the tiny vial and stared at it for a long moment, brow creasing in a frown. Finally she sighed heavily and picked up one of the wards. One at a time, she wrapped each strip around the softly-glowing bottle, muttering something under her breath that might have been japanese, but it didn’t sound like any of the words Lewis knew. Each time, the red glow of the vial dimmed a little more, and the sigils and kanji started glowing with the same clear ruby color.

At last she settled the slips back onto the cloth on her lap and let out her breath in a long exhale. Her forehead was beaded with sweat, but her fingers were steady as she rolled each ward into tiny little scrolls and inserted them each into small two-part metal capsules with a loop on one end, screwing the two halves together tightly. She lit the stub of a red candle with the van’s cigarette lighter and carefully dripped wax over the seals of each of the tubes. Finally, she threaded each one onto a leather thong that she knotted to make a necklace out of.

Lewis accepted the one she handed to him. The metal was smooth and cold and a dull gray-silver that he knew without asking was cold iron. Mystery wasn’t hurt by it, but his magic did nothing absolutely against it. “What did you just do? That wasn’t like any warding I’ve ever seen you do, even though I recognized some of the symbols.” He slipped it over his head, a strange tingle passing through his entire being.

Vivi held up the small glass vial, now much dimmer than before, studying it contemplatively. “This is a sample of Mystery’s magic, taken directly from his Hoshi no Tama. I used it to ward him from ever coming near us.”

Arthur gulped. “Vi, he’s really, really not gonna like that.”

“Maybe— but maybe he needs to learn this lesson the hard way, He’s not thinking rationally right now. How else do you explain his actions? He’s convinced you’re a ‘demon’, yet he leaves me alone with you— after weakening the only other person there who might protect me from said demon.”

“Would protect you,” Lewis muttered. He hated that she didn’t know him well enough to know that he would walk barefoot through hell for her. “And Artie’s not a demon.”

“I know that and you know that, but Mystery— he’s not playing with a full deck at the moment. He needs something, a— a shock to the system to make him realize just what he’s doing.” Her face was grim as she slipped one of the pendants over her own head. “Maybe this will be enough to do it.”

Arthur looked down at his hands on the wheel briefly before returning his attention to the narrow dirt road they were now following. “I— I won’t deny that I’m terrified of him. For what he did and what he tried to do. But— It’s still Mystery. I can’t like this plan entirely, Vivi.”

Vivi sighed, reaching over to drop the last necklace over Arthur’s head, delicately keeping it from blocking his vision or tangling on his horns. She smoothed his hair back into place once it had settled around his throat, the metal looking bright against his green skin. “To be honest, neither do I. I think—” she heaved another sigh. “I think it’ll scare him, and I hate to do it in the state of mind he’s in right now. But it can’t go on like this.”

Lewis lifted his head. His locket was close now and the proximity made him feel so much better than he had since the moment Mystery had stolen it. “We’re close,” he warned. “The road’s gonna fork up ahead and there’s one that’s barely even a goat track; that’s the one we need. Take it as far as the van can go, but we’ll never make it up the bluff in the van. We’ll have to go the rest of the way on foot. It won’t be an easy climb.”

“Before you ask, no, I can’t fly us up there.” Arthur shuddered. “I don’t even know if I can, much less want to be that far off the ground.”

Vivi stuck out her lower lip some but didn’t argue with him.

It wasn’t very much farther before the van couldn’t push on. Arthur grunted with frustration and killed the engine. “Looks like we’re hoofing it from here.” He shoved the door open, wincing at the sound of underbrush scratching against the paint, and clambered out. He hurried to pull the side door open for Lewis, but Lewis did it himself. Now that they were closer to his locket, he felt more like himself, if still a little weak. He did accept the arm Arthur held out to help him out though.

Vivi had already disembarked and was squinting at the path. “With brush this deep he won’t see us coming, that’s for sure.”

Arthur nodded. His face was still pale, but he gamely started forward. His toe-talons actually helped in terrain this rough, allowing him to grip the uneven ground. He had folded his wings as close as he could, but branches kept snagging at the bandages and causing him to wince at the tugs on his wounds.

Lewis found he could float now, and drifted upwards so he was no longer tripping on everything. He helped Arthur untangle a wing before drifting over to Vivi. “Any idea what we’re going to do when we get there?”

Vivi pursed her lips. “Arthur and I will draw him out. He can’t touch us unless we take the wards off and neither of us are going to do that. You can go intangible and go after the locket. He can’t set a ward directly on your anchor, not if he intends to purify it, so expect some barrier between you and it. There might be other wards, and you’ll have to watch out for those. Even if you can’t touch them, there are ways to disrupt them. You can find ways to break them if you try.”

Lewis nodded. She hadn’t lost her ability to take command with her memories. “I trust your wards but are you sure he can’t hurt you?”

Vivi measured a space out from her body, not quite the length of her arm. “He won’t even be able to get close enough to try. That’s what I used the sample for. The wards I made act to repel his magic alone. And since his magic is inherent, there is no way around it for him. Even if he stops using his magic, because he is inherently a magical creature, he cannot pass the ward.”

Arthur had obviously been listening in, and fingered the tiny capsule around his neck. “I-it won’t hurt him, will it?”

Vivi’s face softened and she reached out to sock Arthur lightly in the arm. “No. I promise. It just won’t let him get near.”

“G-good.” Arthur relaxed a little.

“Silly,” Vivi chided. “Even scared to death, you worry for him.”

Arthur’s cheeks flushed a darker shade of green and he ducked his head. “He’s still Mystery. And he’s just as screwed up as the rest of us. We all suffered because of that damned c-cave. I’m gonna be scared of him, no matter what, because all I remember is that moment up there where he came for me. Maybe he didn’t mean for me t-to f-fall, but I did, and that’s not gonna go away that easy for me.” He rubbed the back of his neck, mindful of his claws. “But, I think— maybe— the reason he’s acting so crazy, trying to a-attack me and then running away with Lewis’s locket— is cause he’s all scared and messed up.” Arthur ducked his head. “That’s a feeling I know pretty well. He’s running scared, not only because he’s messed up in the head by what happened, but because he messed up too and he knows it. He lied to you, and he knows you don’t forgive lies easily.”

Vivi’s expression softened and she reached over to take Arthur’s hand in her own. “I know. We’re all of us messed up.” She glanced over at Lewis. “Even me. I’m missing memories— and I’m going to guess they are pretty danged important ones from the way you keep looking at me like you do.”

Lewis didn’t even know he could blush anymore, much less turn so bright a red he felt like he was glowing. “U-Umm, w-well...” he stammered helplessly.

Arthur looked up at him with a lopsided smile. “Big guy, she’d’ve had to been blind not to notice you mooning at her.” A surprisingly cheerful chuckle escaped him.

Lewis ducked his head sheepishly. He hadn’t even realized he’d been doing it. “Sorry,” he muttered.

Vivi hopped over a tangle of twisted roots and struck a pose. “Don’t be sorry. If I had someone as awesome as me, I’d be all love-struck too.”

The teasing worked to break the embarrassment Lewis was feeling and he laughed. Vivi’s sense of humor was matched only by her exuberance.

“Careful, Vi. Your ego gets any bigger and there won’t be room for the rest of us on this bluff.” Arthur poked back, his grin widening enough to show the tips of his fangs.

“Pfft.” Vivi waved a hand in the air, but as quickly as she had switched into joking, she flipped back to the serious leader. “I think I see a break in the trees ahead. Lewis, now would be a good time to find a place to go in. Stay hidden until Artie and I provide the distraction you’re gonna need.”

“Gotcha,” Lewis nodded, and drifted away from the two of them. He knew he could trust Vivi to protect Arthur.

He hadn’t gone far enough to not overhear what Vivi said to Arthur in an undertone. “That’s another lie Mystery’s got to answer for. He... he told me that Lewis was a friend and nothing more.”

Lewis’s anger burned again at those words. Why would he have lied to her about that; about what she and Lewis had been, about what they had meant to each other? Mystery might have been as fucked up as the rest of them, but Lewis wasn’t going to be above scorching a few tails for that little tidbit... and for attacking Arthur.

He circled around the church, hoping that this close to his anchor, he would feel strong enough for that fire. Spotting a mostly unbroken stained-glass window, he sent his remaining deadbeat to peer inside, cautioning it silently to remain unseen. It nodded and drifted soundlessly up to the window. In a moment, Lewis was seeing what it saw in that strange sense of double vision from before. The interior of the tiny church had been swept clean, the broken pews shoved against the walls to clear the stone floor. What had been the altar had been pushed to the center of the floor, and his locket glowed softly atop it, hovering in a circle of colorless flames that burned nothing.  There was a simple circle of salt around the fire and beyond that, Mystery paced the floor in what seemed to be growing frustration. His tails lashed the air and he growled softly, teeth snapping every now and again.

Mystery padded up to the very edge of the salt circle and leaned in, brows furrowed as he peered anxiously at the locket. “It should be working. Why isn’t it working?” His voice pitched up in a worried whine.

“Mystery!” Vivi’s voice was the roar of a general in full command, echoing in from both the deadbeat relay and Lewis’s own ears. It shook dust from the rafters of the old church.

Mystery whirled away from the heart, eyes pinning rapidly and ears up.

“You get your fuzzy flea-flipping furry foundation out here before we have to come in after it!” Vivi challenged.

Mystery’s ears flattened to his neck. “We—?” He barely breathed the word. He rushed to peer out one of the broken windows, claws clattering noisily on the stone. “Oh, Vivi, no—!”

A snarl ripped out of Mystery’s throat and he flung himself at the heavy and still solid oak doors, bulling through them in a rush that gave disregard to any damage they might do to him as they shattered from the force of the blow.

Through his deadbeat’s eyes and the ragged splinters of the doors, Lewis could clearly see Vivi and Arthur standing shoulder to shoulder a few feet from the rusted iron gate of the tiny cemetery, backlight by the lowering sun that was turning the clouds to vivid orange and red. Vivi looked magnificent in her justified fury, the image of a warrior-queen, expecting everyone and every thing to bow to her whims.

Beside her Arthur was shrunken in on himself, shoulders hunched defensively and his wings furled as tightly as the bandages would allow. But he still stood firm, never giving an inch, and his gold eyes nearly steady on Mystery’s baffled face.

Mystery surged forward, stopping a few feet away. His hackles were up and he growled long and low in his throat. His eyes glowed in fury, claws tearing at the dirt beneath his feet and tails lashing in the air like a multitude of irritated cats. “Vivi, you fool! Get away from that thing!”

Vivi planted her hands on her hips and favored Mystery with one of her very best ‘you are an idiot’ glares. “Mystery, you need to pull your stupid skull out of your seven supernatural sphincters. He is not a thing; he is Artie, our dearest friend!” Her fists clenched, Vivi took a deep breath. “Please, ‘Stree...” Her hands loosened and she held them out pleadingly to him. “You’re not thinking right. You know that... you have to know that!”

Mystery shook his shaggy head violently.  “No, Vivi— you can’t trust anything he says.”

Lewis’s deadbeat chirped and drew his attention back to the job at hand. As much as he wanted to be out there protecting Vivi and Arthur, he needed his locket back to do that best.

Lewis passed through the wall easily enough, though he could sense a sort of low-level shiver across his senses from the colorless flames surrounding his anchor. Surprisingly, there seemed to be no other wards... probably a good indicator of Mystery’s state of mind.

Cautiously, he crossed the floor, and stopped just short of the line of salt. They had used salt in investigations before, as it did seem to give some ghosts pause, but he had never had an issue with it in the time since his— death. Warily, he reached out, expecting a shock or something unpleasant, but felt nothing. His fingertip touched the grainy surface of the line of salt and made an impression. A small laugh bubbled up and he broke the circle by brushing some of the salt away easily. Some cook he’d be if he couldn’t even handle a little salt!

The translucent fire around the locket was another matter altogether. One careful prod earned him a nasty shock that made him feel like he’d stuck his whole body in an electrical outlet. Yelping, he drew his hand back and stumbled backwards, too stunned to hover.

His little deadbeat whirled around his shoulders, cooing worriedly as he examined his fingers for damage. He could see nothing, but the memory of that shock made his fingers shake.

Wavering, Lewis straightened up and faced the altar and the fire that kept him from his heart. He had to get it. Nothing else mattered but reaching it so he could help Arthur and Vivi.

He glanced up at his remaining deadbeat, the lonely wandering spirit that had attached itself to him, and sent it to watch out for Arthur and Vivi. If something went wrong, he didn’t want it harmed.

He took a moment to study the fire, barely visible flames that wavered the air around the locket like a heat shimmer. He’d heard of a purification fire before, but never seen one, not a real one anyway. It was an old spell, predating a lot of religions and civilizations. The basest idea was that it could burn away corruption, an idea that had been perverted in other hands until it became indistinguishable from the witch-fire used against those accused of witchcraft.

Vivi had said Mystery didn’t want to hurt him, but that hadn’t felt like something that would do him no harm.. It had been the closest thing to real pain aside from the theft of his locket that he’d felt since the cave. Maybe it wouldn’t harm his anchor, but it seemed it could do him some real damage.

And unfortunately, the only way to get to what he needed, was through it, and he had a feeling no water would put this fire out.

He heard a snarl from outside and knew time was running short.

With a silent thought at his deadbeat to look after the others should the worst happen, he stepped forward and thrust his left arm into the shimmer of fire. For a second, he could see the flames crawling up his arm, now flickering with hints of ebon and scarlet. Then...

Lewis hadn’t expected it to hurt. The sudden sense of disconnection sent him to his knees, a pain that was both physical and spiritual making his head reel. He knew he made a startled sound, but it felt like he was suddenly stretched to his limit and he was at a distance from the world.  There was a roaring in his ears that he might have thought was his heartbeat— if he still had one.

Three streaks of magenta, his little deadbeats, zoomed into the room, converging on and vanishing into his chest. He could feel them only faintly and it frightened him.

“Lewis!” Arthur’s shout came dimly to him and he could only watch Arthur struggle free of the bed and stumble to his side, still reeling from the blow to his very self. Arthur caught his arm, and Lewis barely felt his touch, even though he could see the fabric of his shirt compressed in that desperate grip. “Are you alright?”

“Arthur...” Even through the surf-like roar in his ears, his voice sounded strange, thin and distorted. “Artie...” he tried again.

Vivi was suddenly at his other side, hoisting his arm over her shoulder. Her face was incandescent with rage, but her hands were sure, even though he could barely feel their touch. “Help me get him to the bed,” she told Arthur, her voice calm and far too controlled.

Lewis wasn't able to help much, but between the two of them they were able to maneuver him to sit on the edge of the bed. Vivi caught his face between her hands and forced him to look her in the face. “I swear, I’m going to kick Mystery’s butt from here to next week. What was he thinking?! That was your anchor he stole, wasn’t it?”

Lewis wanted to enjoy the feel of her hands on his face again, but like Arthur’s touch, it felt distant and unreal. “I— I think so. I know I feel— more real— with it.” He remembered knowing about spectral anchors from before, but somehow it hadn’t really occurred to him how much he needed the locket now.

“Yeah, that’s your anchor. I don’t know what fuzzface thinks he’s doing, but we have to get it back to you.”

Arthur made a distressed noise, his wings flexing under the bandages. “He— he thinks I’m— not me. He’s trying to save you from me.”

Lewis struggled to focus, worried by the tone in Arthur’s voice. “Don’t need saving.” He reached for Arthur, who caught his hand in a desperate grasp. It felt a little more real to him now and Lewis clung to that feeling, wrapping his other hand over Arthur’s.

“Dammit, Mystery! When I catch you I’m giving grandma a fox-skin rug for her birthday!”

“What can we do?” Arthur asked worriedly, sitting on the bed next to Lewis.

“Find him before he does something even stupider than usual.” Vivi’s voice was flat.

“W-what’s stupider than usual?” Arthur asked.

Lewis leaned into Arthur, who spread one of his wings around him, wincing at the pull on his blisters, but still wrapping it tightly around Lewis. He didn’t like how tired he was feeling, because the last time he’d been that worn-out, it had been bad. He winced at the memory. He hadn’t dared let himself get that tired again. He never wanted Vivi or Arthur to see the horror he’d become.

Vivi didn’t answer Arthur’s question, instead crouching in front of Lewis and holding his head steady between both of her palms. “Hey— hey, focus on me, okay?”

Lewis struggled to obey.

Arthur had all but wrapped himself around Lewis, tail and bandaged wings clinging with fierce strength. Lewis liked it. Arthur’s touch was somehow more substantial than Vivi’s; it made him feel more there— more grounded.

With an effort, Lewis dragged his wandering attention back to Vivi.

“That’s better,” she coaxed. “Now, listen, he can’t keep your anchor hidden from you, because it is a part of you. He can hide it from me, but never from you. I know the magic he used messed you up, but you have to concentrate. Tell me what you can sense from your anchor.”

Oh. Lewis closed his eyes and groped blindly after the feel of his locket. It was hard, but having Arthur and Vivi nearby seemed to help. “Dark,” he decided at last. “Dark— and wet and red... Oh my god, he has it in his mouth! Ick.”

Arthur managed a raspy laugh near his ear.

“No, that’s good,” Vivi was quick to interject. “It means he’s still running away with it. He hasn’t stopped to try anything yet.”

“What can he do that won’t hurt Lewis?” Arthur asked, fingers tightening around Lewis’s. “I mean he doesn’t seem to want to hurt him, just—”

“Free him from the influence of the demon— which he’s not under.” Vivi sounded concerned and Lewis opened his eyes to see her biting her lower lip. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think Mystery’s really thinking straight. I mean, I know I’m missing chunks of my memory and one of those is apparently anything to do with you, but Mystery saw the whole thing go down in the cave and seems pretty set that—”

“I’m a monster,” Arthur finished morosely. “Maybe he’s not wrong.”

“You shoosh your facehole!” Vivi snapped. “I knew it was you the very first moment I saw you, no matter what you look like now. For someone who claims to have been around for centuries, he’s jumping to conclusions, when he knows things aren’t always what they seem.”

Arthur looked doubtful, so Lewis squeezed his hand. “Not a monster. I’ve been there since we fell. There’s no monster here. Just a ghost and a—” Lewis had to pause, trying to get his muddled thoughts to come up with something that wouldn’t add to Arthur’s dismay over what he’d become.

“A winged greenbean!” Vivi piped up with a lopsided grin.

Both their heads swiveled to face her at the same time, like they were on pivots.

“What?” She looked mulish. “I always called Artie a stringbean when he wouldn’t eat enough. I swear I remember someone else saying the same thing too, so it wasn’t just me. Now he’s green, but still skinny as ever, so he’s a greenbean.”

Lewis blinked slowly. “You... are a dork,” he pronounced carefully. He’d been the first one to call his friend a stringbean, chiding scrawny Arthur to accept the plates of food Mama had always been trying to feed him. Vivi had picked it up from him, but seeing that she couldn't remember him at all, she clearly thought she’d been the author of the nickname.

Arthur tilted his head. “You’re both dorks,” he declared. “And we have more important things to worry about. Mystery doesn’t seem to want to hurt Lewis, just... free him. So he can’t use an exorcism or do anything to damage his anchor. What will he think to try? Vivi, this is your area of expertise, not mine.”

Vivi thought for a moment. “The first think I can think that he might try would be a purifying fire. It’s meant to burn out corruption or taint, so if he thinks that ‘the demon’ is manipulating Lewis, that might be the first thing he’ll try.”

“What will he need? That might give us a clue where he’s headed.”

“Just basic Elements. Water, to wash away, earth to ground the spirit, fire to burn it away and air to sweep away the ashes of the fire.” Vivi chewed the inside of her cheek. “The anchor is gold, so that’s a point in favor of purification. In some spells, gold is an element that stands for healing, and If he’s trying to heal you of the control he thinks you are under, he’ll want to use that association.”

“Okay, so— someplace where he can get hold of all four elements.” Arthur’s brow scrunched up in thought. “Anything else? I mean does it have to be on a what-do-you-call-’em— leyline or holy ground or anything?” His wings tightened briefly around Lewis.

“I don’t think is has to be, but I have a feeling that he’ll consider holy ground a better choice. All the better to get rid of the ‘demonic’ control—” Vivi’s face settled into a scowl. “Why does he have to be so— urrgh!”

The talk of holy ground sparked something in Lewis’s sluggish thoughts. He’d made a point of exploring the local area; both to keep Arthur safe and to find any trouble spots before something happened. It had saved them some issues, though there was always something to contend with, be it their unseen, but definitely not unfelt, neighbors, or simply the odd lost hiker Lewis had led to safety.

“There’s— there’s a small church and graveyard, about four or five miles from here,” Lewis stated carefully, cursing at how hard it was to pull himself together. Once he got his anchor back, he was never letting it out of his sight again. “It’s on a bluff, by a stream, really far from any real roads. It looks like it’s been abandoned for years, though—”

“Doesn’t matter. So long as it’s never been deconsecrated, it’s still holy ground. Chances are, that’s where he’ll go. I know his fleabitten butt can sniff out places like that.” Vivi rose to her feet, pacing in a small circle. “If there’s a stream, that’s water. Up on a bluff would be both air and earth too.”

Lewis remembered the swirl of flames Mystery had vanished in. “And he’s already got the fire.”

“We need to get there, and quick.” Vivi declared. “I can’t promise he won’t do something boneheaded if we don’t stop him.”

“Um, Vivi—” Arthur’s voice was hesitant and his tail lashed restlessly against Lewis’s leg. “Wouldn’t it be— better if he finished the purification ritual? I mean, he’d maybe be convinced that— that I’m not really a demon?”

Lewis could see the desperate desire in Arthur’s eyes; the hope that Mystery’s spell would prove he was still himself, still Arthur Kingsmen and not the demon, despite the shape he now wore. Lewis tightened his hand on Arthur’s.

Vivi shook her head, lips pursed. “It won’t prove anything to him; not now, not in the state of mind he’s in. He’ll think that the demon has done more than just control, especially if he attacks Arthur and we try and defend him. He’ll— I hate to say it, but he’ll probably try a more drastic approach... and that could be really bad.”

Arthur shuddered.

Lewis knew what would be the next thing out of his mouth and it was the very last thing he wanted him to think— or Vivi to hear. “Not your fault,” he reminded Arthur gently, before he could go back down that self-destructive mental path again.

Vivi stopped her pacing and hurried over to cup Arthur’s face and turn it up to hers. “Hey, you listen to me right now, Artie. I think Mystery— he’s really not thinking clearly at all right now. I think the cave, everything that I don’t remember but that he does— it hurt him too. Maybe it’s that he saw you both fall, one to a monster that stole your body from you, and one— in a weird kinda way— to himself. From what he said earlier, he’s blaming himself for not being able to save both of you.”

Arthur shivered again and drew a hitching breath before nodding. “Okay— okay, so we have to stop him. But even if we do, how do we stop him from trying again, if he’s that messed up?”

“You leave that part to me. I’ll figure something out even if it means siccing grandma on him.”

Lewis had opened his mouth to respond when he felt the tiniest bit of strength trickle back in. He forgot what he was going to say, concentrating on feeling for his connection to his anchor. It was stronger. Still too far away from him, but no longer stifled under the aura of Mystery’s magic. It was enough to clear his head a bit and he straightened up a little in Arthur’s hold.

The little deadbeat that had tried to restrain Mystery was still on the floor where it had been tossed aside. Lewis concentrated on calling it to him. It was the stray spirit that had attached itself to him. The others had been forced to retreat into him with the theft of his locket, but this one was just a tiny bit more autonomous, it seemed.

Warbling sadly, it rose into the air unsteadily and came to him. He could feel its remorse for being unable to stop Mystery. He let go of Arthur’s hand with one of his and cradled it close, reassuring it silently that it was not to blame. He tried feeding it a little of the strength that had returned to him and watched as it steadied. “I can lead us to the bluff. Vivi, did you bring the van? We’ll need something faster than our own feet for this.”

“I did, but it’s parked down by where the highway divides. We hiked the rest of the way in.”

“Close enough. Let’s go.”

Arthur hesitated. “Maybe I shouldn’t go. I might only make him do something. It’s me he has it in for.”

Vivi shook her head firmly. “Nuh-uh, buster. We all go in together. I’m not risking you out of my sight again.”

“Vivi—” Arthur’s protest was shut off by Vivi clamping a hand over his mouth. “No. You are coming with. There is no debating this.”

Lewis tried to push himself to his feet. It didn’t work so well, and he had to lean rather heavily on the shoulder Arthur hastily shoved under his arm. “Vivi’s right, Arthur. We need to stay together. What if he stole my locket as a distraction and decides to come back and finish off the so-called demon once and for all?”

Arthur swallowed hard and went a sickly shade of pale-green. “Y-you think he would?”

“I don’t think I would put it past him, as screwed up by this he is.”  Vivi shook her head. “We’re all damaged by what happened that night, but I honestly never realized just how hard it must have been on him too. I lost my memory, and while I’m not forgiving him just yet for lying to me about things, he was trying to keep me safe and maybe from going a little mad in the search for you, Artie.” She took Lewis’s other arm and began to steer them toward the door.

Arthur ducked his head. “I— We should have— would have contacted you sooner, but I—”

“It doesn’t matter now. I found you,” Vivi corrected. “We are back together, and right now, that’s what matters. That and getting back your friend’s anchor.”

Lewis winced again. There it was again; the reminder that she didn’t remember him at all. Everything between them was lost.

Arthur understood. His arm around Lewis tightened. “Let’s go then.”

It took a while for sleep to finally overwhelm Arthur’s efforts to fight it off, but he finally sank into a restless slumber. Lewis carefully draped a sheet over him, and looked down at his heart locket still caged in Arthur’s fingers. He thought about removing it, since he really wanted to show Vivi the photo inside of it, but thought it might be better to leave it with Arthur for the moment. He needed it more.

Lewis rose to his feet and with a thought, set two of his deadbeats to watch, one inside to keep an eye on Arthur and warn him if he woke or had a nightmare and the other to stand guard outside the door. He didn’t trust Mystery not to try something. Right now he couldn’t afford to trust Mystery all all.

Speaking of... Lewis turned his attention back to the deadbeat he’d left stationed with Vivi and Mystery, though honestly, he wasn’t expecting much but stony silence. When Vivi declared she wasn’t talking to someone, she meant it. But instead of the anticipated quiet, he heard Mystery still whining softly. “Vivi— please. You’re not safe here. They— this place is dangerous. Please, listen to me!”

The doubled-vision showed Mystery dancing impatiently around Vivi’s legs, having reverted to his smaller, more familiar form.

Vivi, standing by one of the windows, was ignoring him completely. She was idly fingering a fold of one of the curtains, her creased brow and distant look indicating she was deep in thought. Lewis wanted to just stare at her through the deadbeat’s eyes, drinking in the sight of her like water in the desert. He’d missed her so much.

Mystery, however, wasn’t giving up his efforts to make her leave them again. “Vivi, you’re in danger here. We can come back later, better prepared for— for what we might encounter.”

That got a reaction from her, but obviously not the one Mystery was going for. “I’m not leaving.”

Mystery shook his head in angry frustration. “Vivi, you know I could just carry you off—”

“I’d love to see you try.” Her tone was icy and now she turned a glare on Mystery.

“ —But then you would never listen to me again, and I need you to listen now. You can’t trust anything they say.” Mystery’s ears were flat to his skull.”I know you don’t want to believe me, but that’s not him. It can’t be! That was holy water I threw on it! You saw what happened yourself. No demon can bear the touch of holy water! It burns them. If it were Arthur, he wouldn’t have been harmed!” Mystery snapped air again in frustration. “You have to listen to me. You can’t trust that creature, no matter whose face it wears; and I don’t know what kind of hold it has over Lew—”

Vivi whirled around, her face alight with fierce glee. “So we do know him! How? Was he the other person that I can’t remember?” She latched onto the ruff on either side of Mystery’s cheeks. “Tell me the truth!”

Mystery tried to shake his head free of her grasp, but failed. Vivi yanked his furry face closer to hers. “Talk, mutt, or I swear I’ll let Grandma have a go at getting it out of you!”

“Yes,” Mystery said at last with a defeated sigh. “He’s the one you can’t remember. His name is Lewis— Lewis Pepper.”

“Pepper?” Vivi’s brow creased. “Pepper, as in the nice family that kept visiting me in the hospital?” She released Mystery, thinking hard. “Is he related to them?”

Mystery sighed and nodded slowly, “Yes. He— he’s the eldest son.”

“Is he important to us?”

“He was—” Lewis got the impression Mystery was choosing his words carefully. “A member of the team. He and Arthur were best friends... since forever, it seems.” He seemed to be thinking hard on what to say next, and as Lewis didn’t trust him to not tell Vivi more lies about Arthur; he hurried his pace. “He—”

“Don’t you think I should be the one telling her more about myself?” Lewis interrupted, entering the room.

Vivi looked up, relief brightening her eyes. “Mr. Pepper! Please, how is Arthur?”

Lewis leveled a flat stare at Mystery. “Resting for the moment. He’s... not well.” Considering that he could sense Arthur’s troubled sleep through both the deadbeat and the proximity of his locket, ‘not well’ was understating the case.

“Could I see him later, please, Mr. Pepper?” Vivi pled.

“Of course you may.” Lewis couldn’t help but smile lovingly at her. So very worried for Arthur. Without amnesia, she would never have abandoned them in the cave. “He’ll be very glad to see you. He’s missed you too. And please, call me Lewis. Mr. Pepper is my father.”

Mystery made a strange sound deep in his chest and Lewis transferred his gaze to him warningly. “You are not welcome to visit him. I think you’ve done quite enough harm.” He bared his teeth at the dog in something that wasn’t a smile.

Mystery ducked his head, a whining growl building in his throat. “I don’t know what hold that creature has over you—”

Lewis’s temper frayed a little. “It’s called friendship. You might try it sometime.”

Mystery ducked his head, ears canting backwards. “That’s not you talking.” He actually sounded hurt. “Lewis wouldn’t be so—”

“What? Justifiably angry?” Lewis wasn’t going to fall for his act. He.folded his arms and stared down at Mystery. “Wrong. He would be, because he is. Maybe you think you're protecting Vivi, but...” He shook his head heavily. “I’m not going to argue right now. I’m too angry to think straight. But I will warn you right now, if you ever try to hurt Arthur again, I will—”

“That isn’t Ar—”

“I dare you to spout that lie one more time,” Lewis simmered with barely controlled anger. “I’ve been with him since— well, since! Do you think I wouldn’t know my best friend?!”

“I think you are seeing what you want to see!” Mystery raged, teeth bared in a snarl. “I tried, but I was too late to save either of you.” That odd, mournful sound came from his mouth again. “I had to save Vivi, don’t you see?!”

Lewis saw purple out of the corner of one eye and realized flames were licking around his clenched fists. Struggling to extinguish them cooled his temper just enough to answer calmly. “I do. But I also see that you couldn’t be bothered to check back once she was safe. Were we just not that important to you? Even though you knew what it would do to Vivi?”

“As much as I’d love to know what’s going on, stop talking around me. I’m right here.” Vivi glared at both of them, small fists propped on her hips

“Vivi—” Mystery began.

“Don’t you Vivi me, bucko. I want an explanation and I want it now.” She leaned down into Mystery’s face. “Start talking.”

Mystery growled, ears flicking nervously. “There were four of us,” he said at last. “You and I, Arthur and Lewis—”

Vivi made a little triumphant sound and glanced sideways at Lewis. He smiled to see it.

“We were searching the cave because of reports of strange occurrences and po— happenings there.” Mystery continued reluctantly. “There— the cave, it made me nervous, but I could not get a... a bead on what I was sensing. Arthur, he— because of his sensitivity, was even more frightened of the cave than his normal— wariness... about supernatural situations. Perhaps we all would have done well to listen to him.”

“And—?” Vivi prompted when he hesitated too long.

“I— failed to sense it in time to prevent something terrible from befalling us.” Mystery looked down at his paws.

Lewis was too angry to buy into the ‘poor me’ posture. “You certainly seemed to know something was wrong enough to leave Vivi and follow us.”

“Because that is where I sensed the most danger!” Mystery snapped, head coming up to fix Lewis with a scathing glare. “I didn’t know what we were walking into.”

“What did we walk into?” Vivi narrowed her eyes at Mystery. “I want the truth.”

Mystery clacked his teeth together with a frustrated sound. “There was— something in the cave. Old, and malicious. I sensed what it was planning just a little too late. I tried, but I couldn’t save anyone.” An eerie, mournful sound began in his throat. “I failed, and all I could do was get you out of there before it got you too.”

“What happened? What did you do?” Vivi was leaning down into Mystery’s face.

“I got you away and sealed the cave.” Mystery looked away, his entire posture one long line of sorrow.

Lewis huffed, glaring down at Mystery. “Why don’t you tell her the truth?”

Vivi’s bright blue eyes peered up at him suspiciously. “What truth?”

Lewis hated seeing that look directed at him, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t remember him. He doubted she would give his words more credence than Mystery’s, but he had to try. “It... I suppose the best thing to call it was a demon. Arthur, he was vulnerable to it. It got into him, stole control of his body from him. It used his body to— to—” Lewis couldn’t force the words out of his mouth. He’d come to terms with it, really he had, but it was still too painful to say. As much as he’d wanted to reunite with Vivi, this was not at all how he’d imagined it.

“To—” Vivi stepped up to him, laying a gentle hand on his wrist. “To kill you, right? That’s what it did? It killed you.”

Lewis could only stare at her slender fingers on his arm. They were warm and solid and he wanted so much to take them in his own. “I— how?”

Vivi glanced down at the floor. “You don’t have a shadow.”

The afternoon sunlight through the curtains had painted long shadows on the wood floor under her and Mystery, but not of him. Lewis had never even realized...

“The demon took over Arthur and used him to kill you. Then what happened?” Vivi’s tone was soft and sympathetic.

Lewis tore his eyes away from her hand on his wrist with difficulty and stared sourly at Mystery, who was looking oddly at Vivi, his head cocked so far to one side it looked like his neck was broken. “You going to tell her?”

Mystery snapped his head upright and stared back at Lewis. Behind his tiny glasses, his eyes were damp.”I— she couldn’t remember. I couldn’t tell her that! I—” He threw back his head with an agonized howl. “I didn’t want her to know. How could I tarnish her memory of Arthur by telling her a demon stole his body to murder the per— someone?!” He bought his head back down to stare at Lewis with tormented eyes. “How could I let that ruin her memory of him?! Arthur wouldn’t have wanted that for her!”

Vivi’s hand dropped from Lewis’s arm as she whirled to glare at the remorseful mutt. “Are you seriously that special? Do you really think I would let what some asshole demon did color my perceptions so badly?”

“Errr... yes?” Mystery’s tone made it sound like a question, confusion filling his face and his ears canted out to the sides.

Vivi rolled her eyes. “Jee-zeus banana-fish, Mystery. Nice to know what you think of my mental facilities.” She stomped over to grab his muzzle and pull his head up. “Listen here, butt-sniffer extraordinaire. Did you honestly think I would hold the actions he did under possession against him?”

Mystery yipped indignantly and pulled his muzzle free. “I didn’t sense the possession until too late! How would you have known any better? You would have thought Arthur—!”

“No, I wouldn’t have.” Vivi said with complete confidence. “I know Arthur. He wouldn’t have hurt anyone, unless it was to protect someone else. And if—” she waved one hand in Lewis’s direction. “Lewis here— was also one of his best friends, Arthur would have never done a fucking thing to hurt him!”

“Vivi—” Mystery tried.

“I’m through. I’m tired of half-answers and evaded questions. I want some real answers. They better start being provided.” Vivi folded her arms and glared down over the rim of the glasses. “And I guess my senses are better than yours, because that was Arthur, not some demon you attacked. So I’d like an answer for that attack as well.”

“No!” Mystery barked. “Vivi, no! That wasn’t Arthur. It couldn’t be! Arthur died in that cave!”

Too late, it seemed, Mystery realized that was the entirely wrong thing to say. He flinched backwards from the storm of rage brewing on Vivi’s face.

“Funny thing about that,” Vivi’s voice was sharp enough to cut glass. “I told you I believed Arthur was still alive, even after the evidence the police brought us. I was certain. You...” She poked Mystery’s nose hard with one outstretched finger. “You didn’t even try to convince me otherwise. You said that you couldn’t remember what happened in the cave, so there was a chance he was still alive. And yet, here he is, very much alive, and now you’re trying to tell me he’s dead. Which is the lie and which is the truth? Because right now, I’m inclined to believe everything you’ve ever told me is a lie!”

Lewis wisely decided not to say anything. He didn’t want her ire turning on him. She was magnificent in her controlled rage and Mystery was obviously enough cowed by it.

Mystery went belly-down on the floor, stub of a tail tucked and ears pressed flat to his neck. “Vivi—”

“I’d better start hearing some truth outta you.” Viv wasn’t giving an inch.

Neither, it seemed was Mystery, who only whined and tried to press himself even further into the wooden floor.

Lewis sighed and ventured carefully, “Maybe I can start and he can fill in some of the blanks—?” It seemed a wiser course of action than letting Mystery fill the silence with more accusations to fling at Arthur.

Vivi turned to face him a smile as bright as the dawn breaking on her face. “I think that sounds like a wonderful idea— Lewis, wasn’t it?”

Those three words caused a sick feeling to ripple through Lewis’s entire being, but he covered it with a pleasant smile. “It is. Why don’t you have a seat and I’ll fill in what I can for you.”

Mystery’s head came up and he whimpered softly, but said nothing, too wary of invoking another display of Vivi’s temper.

Vivi sat on the couch, sunlight from the window behind her haloing her blue hair. Her smile was eager, like a child promised a treat and Lewis’s stomach sank at the thought of making that expression fade with the truth of what had happened in the cave. But she deserved to know the truth and she would thank none of them for trying to hide it from her.

Lewis took a seat opposite her on one of the purple-velvet wingback chairs. “So, like Mystery told you, the four of us were going to explore a cave. You... I don’t know how much you remember, but you had researched a lot of the paranormal tales about the area, and the cave seemed to be the focal point of all of them. Just inside the entrance, Arthur— He got even more spooked than usual. He said the place had a really bad vibe to it. He tried to get us to leave, but didn’t try again after you reminded him that that’s what we were there for, to deal with the problem before someone else got hurt— or worse.”

Lewis closed his eyes, seeing the dank, green-tinted walls of the place in his mind again. “Just inside the entrance, the tunnel split into two, one leading up and the other going down. Arthur and I took the high road and you and Mystery were supposed to head down. But Mystery followed us instead.”

“I told you, I sensed more danger the way you two were going!” Mystery protested.

“Didn’t do us a whole lot of good, now did it?” Lewis didn’t open his eyes to look at the dog, instead reliving the night in the cave. “Our path took us up a narrow tunnel, that widened out into a cliff overlooking... what looked to be a sea of stalagmites in an eerie greenish mist that almost seemed to glow. Arthur was even more nervous, but I— I went right up to the edge, trying to see if there was a source for the luminescence. He warned me to stay away from the edge, but—”

Lewis swallowed hard, even though he no longer had a gorge to rise. “Artie— he made this s-strangled sound, and when I turned to see, there was— a hand against my chest, shoving me backwards and over the l-lip.” Lewis shivered, trying hard not to remember the feeling of falling, or the sudden bright shock of pain that brought it all to an abrupt end.

“I didn’t remember it til I c-came back, but I saw his face. Half of it was terrified and crying and the other half... it was tinted green, and laughing. I think I heard you scream and I know I saw or imagined you... spattered with blood, but for a time, there was nothing.” Lewis trembled again, knotting his fingers together in his lap.

Warm fingers brushed over his and surprised, Lewis opened his eyes. Vivi had scooted forward to the edge of her seat and leaned forward, her arm outstretched to touch him. “I don’t remember any of this, but for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for dragging up such things.”

Lewis manage a shaky smile and patted her fingers. “No. While I’m glad you can’t remember— that part, at least— you need to know what happened.”

Vivi smiled at him, and even though he knew she couldn’t remember him, it was comforting. Lewis gave her another wobbly smile and tried to compose himself to remember his own personal hell. “W-when I— woke up, I guess? I was angry, because all I could remember was— was Arthur pushing me. But that’s when I saw—” God, it hurt to remember, and he didn’t want to describe Arthur’s horrific injuries to her. “Arthur had fallen too. I— I— it was bad. All of the anger went out and all I could think was that— the cave had killed him too.”

Lewis thought idly if he could still breathe, he’d be close to hyperventilating now. The memory of Arthur impaled like that lurked in the back of his brain and made his whole being feel sick. “I thought he was dead too, until I was holding him and he gasped. He— he was bleeding all over the place and— and hurt so bad, but he was aware of the thing in his head and was trying to get away— to keep it from— h-hurting me.” The next part was even harder to put into words. “He c-convulsed and then for a minute it wasn’t him, but the thing that— that killed me. But it reached for me and then Arthur was back, fighting t-to keep it away from me.” Lewis had to fight to keep himself from shaking. It still felt as fresh as when it happened. The strange echoing voice emerging from Arthur’s bloody lips and the acid green eye staring back at him... he’d never forget that horrifying moment. And then, Arthur had been back, in horrible pain from his injuries, but still fighting with the monster in his mind to protect Lewis.

“Arthur would do that,” Vivi said with a watery smile, reaching out to squeeze his hands again. “He always thinks of others first.”

Lewis gave her a grateful smile. “Yes. He really does.”

Mystery made a disgruntled sound, but said nothing. Vivi side-eyed him, but when he remained silent, turned her attention back to Lewis. “And...?”

“He spent most of the time unconscious or delirious, fighting with the thing in his mind. He was healing, but at the same time, his body was changing into what you saw.” Lewis said carefully, turning his eyes onto Mystery who was squirming in place, like he wanted to say something, but he kept his muzzle shut. “He was— hurt— for a long time. But eventually he came to his senses...” Lewis intensified his glare on Mystery. “He remembered you attacking him, there on the cliff.”

“I was trying to save him!” Mystery burst out. “I was too late to save you, but I could have saved him if I could have taken the point of infection! But—” He whined mournfully and shook his head. “The creature pulled him free of my grasp and stepped backwards, off the edge. It killed him! I saw the awareness in Arthur’s eyes as he fell. The monster left him to die!”

Rage bubbled up in Lewis’s chest again. “You left him to die! You sealed us into that damned cave. You never came back, even though you knew there was a chance at least our spirits lingered! You could have come back!”

“I had to protect Vivi! If I had let that demon out of the cave, it might have come after her!”

“I can protect myself, Mystery, or did you forget that?” Vivi’s tone was cold.

“You weren’t yourself! You were dazed and almost catatonic! I had to herd you out of there like a child!” Mystery scowled, ruff bristling.

Lewis might have said something else in his rage at the dog, but a frantic bid for attention from the deadbeat he had left with Arthur cooled his temper. A moment later, a panicked scream rang from the hallway.

With a curse, Lewis took off down the hall. Vivi was hot on his heels but he didn’t have the attention to spare her. Through his locket, he could sense Arthur’s panic and confusion, woken from a nightmare and in pain.

Lewis bolted past the deadbeat he’d left to guard the room, hurrying to Arthur’s bedside, where Arthur was trying to thrash free of the sheets and pillows. The bandages on his wings seemed to be adding to his panic, because his wings kept flexing against the binding of the gauze.

“Arthur!” Lewis rushed to untangle Arthur, helping him sit upright and catching his chin to turn Arthur’s wild-eyed gaze his way. “Shh— Arthur... I’m right here. You’re okay. It was a nightmare.”

“Lew...?” Arthur’s voice was soft, almost childlike in its sleepy confusion. “I t-think I had a nightmare, but I was dreaming about Vivi before that...” He hesitated, licking chapped lips. “Hurts...”

“Shh—” Lewis soothed, smoothing back Arthur’s damp hair.

“Artie—?” Vivi’s voice trembled a little. She stepped up beside Lewis and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to touch Arthur’s cheek. “Hey, there.”

Arthur’s breath caught in his throat and he lifted one hand from the locket to touch hers on his face. “Vi? Am I still dreaming?” His voice was still soft and thick with sleep.

Vivi’s voice caught on a sob. “No. I’m here. I finally found you.” Tears welling in her eyes, she leaned forward to press a tender kiss on his forehead, right between his horns. “I’m right here.”

“Vivi—” Arthur hiccupped a sob and hauled Vivi into a hug with desperate strength. “I thought we’d never see you again!” He buried his face in her shoulder, his breath hitching.

Vivi went willingly into the hug, tears spilling down her cheeks and a huge grin stretching her lips. “I’d’ve kept searching til I found you. You can’t get rid of me that easily!”

Lewis couldn’t help the huge grin on his face. Maybe they were still a little battered and broken around the edges, but they were all together again.

A white streak darted from the doorway, shaking off the deadbeat trying to restrain it. Mystery dodged past Lewis and sprang for the bed, snatching the forgotten locket from Arthur’s lap in his teeth. He kicked off the bed, forcing a frightened wail from Arthur, who recoiled violently, and bolted for the doorway, shedding his smaller form as he went.

“I’m sorry!” His voice trailed in his wake. “You’ll forgive me later when I’ve freed you from the demon’s influence!”