#lewther

~ The drive to the grocery store was only interrupted to drop Lewis’ mother off back at the restaurant. She spent a few more moments with her arms around her son’s head, and she planted a kiss on his temple before leaving.  “Remember to come see me.  Anytime,” She said.

Lewis nodded.  “Yes mama.”

As the van left the restaurant in its rearview, Vivi glanced over her shoulder at Lewis and then back to the road.  “Is she gonna say anything?”

“No.  She won’t tell.”  Lewis said, settling down against the wall.  He inhaled deeply and let out a shaky sigh.  He gripped his head.

“You okay?”  She asked.

“Not really.  I’m trying not to think about it.”  He dropped his hands and looked at the back of Leo’s head.  “So… Zombie huh?”

“Pretty much.”  Leo muttered.  “About a week now.”

“That’s rough. Sorry.”

Leo shrugged.   “It’s fine.  I’ve got at least a decade before it’s noticeable.”

The van pulled up to the grocery store a short while later.  The shop wasn’t very far from the Pepper’s restaurant, and it was, for the most part, open.  The front, shattered window was still gone, with caution tape stretched across the length of it.  Aside from that, it appeared that everything had been cleaned and sorted.  The glass was swept, the damaged food was replaced, and William was doing a very good job of pretending that everything was okay otherwise.

That façade dropped the minute the van pulled back up to the store.  He rushed out of the doors and skidded to a stop on the sidewalk.

Leo stepped out first and was immediately met with an armful of his father.  “Oh, thank god.”  The man spoke into his shoulder.

Leo hugged him back. “I’m okay, dad.”

Vivi and Lewis hopped out a few seconds later.  “Safe and sound, sir!”  Vivi touted as she rounded the nose of the van.

William pulled back a bit to greet her, but his hand grazed the hole in the back of Leo’s shirt. He spun his son around to check him. “…Did that bastard get you?”

“I-It’s all right, really, dad.  Mom patched me up, and I don’t even feel it.”

William tried to hiss him quiet, but Vivi clamped her hands behind her back and rocked back and forth on her feet.  “It’s okay. I already figured it out,” She admitted.

The older man gave her a blank stare.  “How?”

“It wasn’t like it was hard.”  Vivi crossed her arms and beamed.  “But I’m not giving up my secrets.”

Leo gave her a smirk. “I told her.”

Vivi stamped her foot. “Leo!  I wanted to sound all mysterious.”

Leo’s father yanked his son down to his level by his apron.  “Are you sure it’s safe that she knows?”  He asked, narrowing his concerned eyes at him.  “She’s a hunter, too,” He hissed.

“Not that kind of hunter,” Leo eased, pulling his father’s tight grip free.  “She won’t hurt me or mom.  I promise.”  He turned his gaze to the ground.  “Dad, can I just…  I really wanna get back to work now.”  He twisted the end of his apron in his hands.

William sighed and patted his son’s shoulder.  There was a measure of sadness there, seeing as Leo was technically dead.  Eventually, he was going to be as limited in how often he could see Leo as he was apparently in seeing his wife.  Also, William wasn’t related to Leo’s mother by blood.  When William died, he would just be dead.

Vivi took a few tentative steps forward.  “I promise you don’t have to worry about anything.”

Lewis followed her lead and took his sunglasses off.  “He’s not the only one who’s not supposed to be here anymore.”

William watched Lewis’ eyes for a few moments.  His own softened, and he let go of Leo’s shoulder.  “Go on.  I’ve only gotten a few of the veggies out, and I haven’t watered the herbs yet.”

Leo smile and hugged him again.  “See you in there.  Thanks again, guys.”

William’s gaze followed his lanky son back into the shop.  “…When Leo was younger, I had to watch him get so scared that I wasn’t going to love him anymore because I didn’t have a daughter like I thought.  A week ago, I watched him get so scared that I was going to cast him out because he’d become something… otherworldly, like his mother.  Then I watched him panic because he was so sure that his friends were going to be afraid of him.”  He slowly looked back at Vivi and Lewis.  “Bless you both.  I’ve not seen him so… at ease before now.  He’s needed friends like you all his life.  Please don’t be strangers.”

Vivi rushed forward and hugged the man.  “We may not be dating anymore, but I still love him, and that won’t ever change.” She pulled away and beamed. “We’ve still got standing game night at the end of the month.  I’ll come remind him in a few days.”

~

Duet had been at the shop for a few hours by the time Chloe arrived for her shift.  The bell on the door announced her arrival, and Duet lifted their head to greet her.

Words stuck in their throat.  “W-…Whoa.”

Chloe was not in her normal attire.  Instead of the costumes and the wings, she wore a green hoodie and a pair of dark green shorts.  The hood wasn’t up, so the features of her face were fully visible.  She looked exhausted.  “What?”

Duet’s eyes narrowed. “Huh uh, no ‘what’, you know ‘what’.” They rounded the counter.  “Are you all right?  You don’t look like you’ve slept.”  They glanced at her sweater.  “And this is definitely not your normal garb.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “I’m not gonna be in costume every day. I was running late, I didn’t have time to put on everything so…  I just wore what I wear to the mall.”  She walked into the back and put her bag away, clocking in.  “Do we have any back stock to count?”

She turned to go back out of the break room, but Duet had somehow made it to the door frame before she could leave.  Their face was blank, but Chloe still felt small.  Duet tilted their head.  “I don’t care if you keep your own secrets.”  They leaned closer, and something flashed in their eyes.  “What I care about is when those secrets destroy my friends.”

Chloe looked fearful and offended.  “I-I’m not destroying anybody!  God, I came in to work today, not get the third degree!”  She ducked around them, feeling like a mouse under a cat-like stare, and moved back out to the floor.  She immediately beelined for a bookshelf and began checking their proper order.

Duet was behind her in seconds.  “Chloe.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you are also my friend.  I’m pretty sure, among others, the one this secret is destroying is you.”

Chloe was silent and frozen as she tried to think of a rebuttal, but nothing came.  Instead, she rested her forehead against the shelving and hunched her shoulders in a sob.

Duet sighed and rested a hand between her shoulders.  “Come on. We’ll close up for a few minutes.” Chloe spun around and buried herself against Duet’s front, the sobbing continuing.  Duet hugged her and rubbed her back.  “Now, now.  None of that.”  They pulled her away and offered her a smile.  “You can tell me everything over a cup of tea next door.  Okay?”

Chloe’s shuddering sob gave way to an affirmative.  “…O-Okay…”

~

Vivi stood in the doorway of their apartment and squinted at the room.  It was dark.  The door had been locked.  There was no sign that anyone was there.

Mystery was nowhere to be seen.

Vivi was near shaking with frustration.  “Wasn’t Mystery supposed to be back?  He should be back.”  Her grip on the doorframe threatened to crack it.

Lewis fidgeted and, rather than force Vivi to move, phased through threw the wall around her to ease her where she could see him.  “Vivi, he might just still be with Arthur.  He just went to check on him.  Or, maybe he’s out looking for us.  We were supposed to stay here if you remember…”  He watched Vivi suddenly look horrified, and he held his hands up quickly. “N-Not to say that means Arthur is in trouble!  I’m sure Lance would have called us!  Mystery would have been back!”

Vivi grabbed at his collar and yanked him to her height.  “Or they’re all in trouble.”

Lewis sighed and lifted his hands to the sides of Vivi’s head.  He pulled her scowl into a disturbing smile.  “I will call him.  I’m sure everything is fine.”  He let her go and tugged his ascot free from her grasp.

As he went to fetch the phone, he kept his concern off of his face.  He was just as worried as Vivi was, but somebody had to keep a cool head.  It had been him before; it may as well still be him now.  He dialed the phone and sat on the couch with it to his ear.

Vivi planted herself next to him, and he flinched as she leaned up so her ear could be against the other side of the phone.

It rang.

And rang.

And rang.

And rang- “Hello?”

“OH THANK GOD!” Vivi shrieked.

Lewis nigh-literally jumped out of his skin.  His façade dropped, and he nearly dropped the phone.  “Vivi!  Jesus Christ!”  He brought the phone back to his ear and forced his living visage back into place. He was going to have to learn to control that more.  Still, it was a relief to hear Arthur’s voice.  “Arthur?  Sorry about that.”

“Whoa, holy hell.  Lewis, is that you?  I can barely hear what you’re saying,” Arthur responded.

Lewis’ brows furrowed. “Are you okay?”  He asked, trying for clear and concise words.

Arthur was silent for a second.  “Uh, Lew you might wanna hand the phone to Vivi. You sound-… well… distorted.”

Lewis sighed and looked at the phone.  This was the first time he’d really made a call since being back.  He supposed he’d have to learn how to keep his effect on electronics to a minimum.  He passed the phone to Vivi.

Vivi obliged Lewis’ concern by switching Arthur to speaker phone.  “We wanna know if you’re okay.  If anything’s happened,” She asked.

Arthur could almost be heard shrugging.  “Everything’s fine.  Has something happened?”  His own concern rang clear as a bell through the phone line.

Vivi sighed in obvious relief.  “No, no. I mean.  Well, Leo’s a zombie, but that’s unrelated.”

“Wait, what?”

“Not important right now.”  Vivi waved off the topic at no one.  “Listen, if Mystery’s still with you, can you tell him that everything’s fine here and he can come home?  Whoever went through the van was probably just some guy who found the door unlocked, it’s not anything supernatural.”

“Vivi, what!?”  None of what Vivi was saying seemed to quell the boiling fear in Arthur’s voice.  “Okay, you need to slow down and back right the hell up.  Somebody broke into the van?  Are you missing anything?  Leo’s a zombie?  And what do you mean about Mystery?”

Vivi stared at the phone. “…Is he not with you?  Did he not go check on you?”

“No… I haven’t seen Mystery since you guys left.”  There was a pause on Arthur’s end.  “Do you need me to come over?  I can leave work for you, Uncle Lance will understand.”

Vivi shut her eyes and sighed again.  This time, relief was not the feeling it carried.  “No… No, it’s better if you stay with Lance.”  She looked up at the ceiling.  “It’s probably safer…  Besides, you left to get away from all this; you’re not supposed to jump back in with the sharks.”

Arthur made a nervous humming noise.  “...Okay…  But I’m not off limits, all right?  If…  If you really need me, just say something.”

“We will, Artie. We love you.  Please, please, please, call if Mystery shows up, okay…?”  Vivi begged.

“I will.  I love you guys, too.  Thanks for checking on me.  Bye Vivi.”  There was a pause.  “…B-Bye, Lew.”

Lewis debated saying good bye back, but apparently Arthur wouldn’t have been able to hear it properly.  He didn’t want to scare him.  Before he could officially make up his mind, Arthur had already hung up.

Vivi lifted the phone and smacked it on her forehead, leaning back on the couch.  “…Mystery ran away.”

Lewis fidgeted.  “Are you sure that’s what it is…? He… might be in trouble, you might be right.”

“No, I know Mystery.”  Vivi dropped her hand, but the phone stayed on her forehead.  “I’ve never seen him afraid of anything, but something about getting back to the van spooked him really bad.  His fur was all fluffed and everything.”  She sank into the cushions, and her phone slid off of her face and into her lap. “…It makes sense why he told us to just go home…  Arthur was never in any danger.  He didn’t want us to go because that wasn’t where he was going.”

Lewis’ gaze found the floor.  He toed at it a bit.  “Vivi, he’s not some bad guy.  I’m sure he has a reason.”

Vivi lifted her foot and kicked at the coffee table, nudging it across the floor inch by inch.  “…Yeah.”  She sat up a bit and squared her shoulders.  “Yeah, maybe… maybe he lied, and he does know who went through our van?  Maybe he’s… leading it away from us.”  She looked proud for a moment, but then she flopped back into the couch.  “…But why wouldn’t he just ask us for help?”

“We don’t really know a lot about him.  He’s got a lot of secrets, and we’ve known that he’s keeping them for our own good.” He dared to rub her shoulders.  When Vivi was unsure about things like this, touching her was a bit like testing to see if the cat was done being upset about someone giving it a bath.  “But we do know that he’s a good dog.  He’s a good guy.”

Vivi turned her head to Lewis.  Her face seemed a bit blank, but there was a clear sadness in her eyes.  “…Okay.”  She finally relented.

Lewis nodded at her and sank back into the couch as well.

“Are you okay?” Vivi’s voice cut back through the silence before it could fall for too long.

Lewis’ gaze remained on the ceiling.  “Yeah, I just…”  He almost gave the silence the advantage again.  “…I can’t call Arthur.  I can’t even talk to him from afar, and he gets nervous when I’m up close…”  He sighed.  “I’m running out of options, Viv.”

Vivi pouted and punched Lewis weakly in the shoulder.  “I’m telling you to talk to him, Lew.  I mean it.”

It was Lewis’ turn to shrink into the cushions.  “I don’t know where to start!  And I don’t think I can… do it in a way that doesn’t come off as patronizing.”  He sank even further, and his form began to look a little translucent.  “…And I don’t want to start anything if I’m… about to move on.”

Vivi half glared at Lewis’ half logical reason (the second half, not the first), and face planted against Lewis’ shoulder.  “Uurrgh, you boys are so frustrating!”

Lewis gave a halfhearted smile.  “Sorry.”

~

Duet sat across from Chloe at a small tea café in the same plaza as their shop.  They’d let Chloe pick a table, where she’d planted herself firmly in a seat with her back to a wall, and sat across from her.

Their tea had long since been delivered to their table, and Duet was nearly done with their cup.  Chloe was taking her time sipping at hers.  Duet cleared their throat.  Chloe flinched.  Duet smiled. “The idea of talking over tea was the talking part.”

Chloe bit her lip and sat back in her chair.  She was small enough that she could bring her knees up and plant her feet on the edge of the chair.  “…I’m scared.”

Duet tilted their head. “What on earth for?”

“…I just don’t want anybody to be mad at me.”  She held her cup up to her face more to block it than to drink it.

Duet arched their visible eyebrow.  “Uh huh. I think the anger will probably come when something happens that you talking to me might have prevented.  No one is going to be mad if you’re in some kind of trouble, your fault or no.”

Chloe stared down into her tea, watching the steam rise.  “…I… found the book last year…  The one you gave Vivi.”

Duet made no expression to show they were surprised.  “Where?”   They asked anyway.

Chloe bit her lip and shimmied further behind her knees.  “…In a shipment…”  She squeezed her eyes closed.  “I s-stole it, okay?  It looked… It looked cool, and it was full of spells, and I wanted to… to try them.” Her knees dropped, and she leaned on the edge of the table to look Duet in the eye.  “I was going to put it back, I swear!”

Duet still didn’t change expression.  Chloe was uneasy under the stable gaze.  Duet sipped their tea.  “And did you? Try anything?”

Chloe swallowed hard and nodded.  “Yeah… And something… something happened, but I got scared and didn’t finish something right.”  She shrank back in her chair.  “I messed up.  I didn’t know what I was doing, I thought I could handle it, but I couldn’t so I…  I threw the book by the trash hoping it would just get taken away.”  She shook with some kind of resolve.  She felt like she was in a lot of trouble, but it was worth it to say her piece. Part of it, anyway.  “I’m just worried about Vivi.  What if she messes up like I did?”

Duet sipped their tea again.  “I really doubt that’s a concern.  Vivi does quite a bit a research before diving in to anything.”  Duet swirled the very last bit of liquid and the loose leaves in their cup and slowly flipped it upside down on the plate it came on.  If anything, they looked a bit disinterested in Chloe’s plight.  Then again, Duet was incredibly hard to read.  “That aside, what happened?  What scared you so badly?”

Chloe felt cold, and she knew she’d gone pale.  She ducked her head.  “…I’m not sure.”  She closed her eyes again and reached up to tug the hood of her jacket up.  She looked a little more like herself now, but she was definitely not going to be completely forthcoming with whatever she was about to say.  Duet already knew that.  “…I think I… summoned something.  Something bad.”

Duet leaned their head on their hand, glancing down at their overturned cup.  “So you didn’t send it away like you should have.”

“I didn’t even know I was supposed to.  It… It showed up, and I screamed, and I left the circle I was supposed to stay in. Then it was gone.”  She ducked her head so far, her forehead was pressed into the table.  “I just don’t know what to do…”

Duet pondered the upturned tea cup for a moment.  “I would think perhaps, it would be a good idea to ask Vivi if there’s anything in the book to help you.”  There was a pause.  “You should also probably divulge to her whatever it is you’re still hiding from me. The more information she has to work with, the better off you’ll be, I’m sure.”  They tapped the bottom of the cup a few times and flipped it back over.

Chloe went tense, but stayed with her head glued to the table.  “…What if she doesn’t want to help me…?   You know she doesn’t like me…”  When there was nothing but silence in return, Chloe lifted her head.  “Duet…?”

Her boss’ gaze, now unnervingly wide, was locked into the bottom of the cup.  They were stiff in the shoulders, rather than loose or relaxed, and Chloe was immediately scared.

“W-What is it?  Are you okay?”

“Can you run the shop by yourself for a while?”  The question sounded like it was the only noise in a dead silent room.

Chloe swallowed her nerves.  “Uh…  Sure, but-”

A set of keys landed in front of her, and Duet set the cup down less than gracefully.  “I have to go.”

Chloe had stood to ask Duet why they were leaving, but they were out the door before she could even inhale.

She had no answers real answers.  She’d really asked no real questions to get those answers, so she supposed this was all she was going to get.  This all settled something unfortunate in her mind.  She’d have to try and handle this herself.

Out of curiosity, she picked up the mug and peered into it.  Inside, just loose tea leaves stuck to the bottom.  One clump of them kind of looked like a large bird, and another… a bit like a dagger.  Her brow dipped in confusion.  She had absolutely no idea what that meant, but whatever it was spooked the hell out of Duet.  That wasn’t something that happened, ever.

She grabbed the keys and made her way to the door, legs shaky, and eyes red.  She wasn’t ready for any of what she was about to do, but she had to do it.  She’d fix what she could, and maybe Vivi would see just how well she could handle this stuff.

None of this would have happened if Vivi let her come along to begin with.  Chloe was going to make her see.

~

Vivi had taken to wandering her apartment more aimlessly than a ghost.  It was only midday, but she wanted nothing more than to be asleep and unaware.

Lewis was familiar with the feeling.  He’d spent a good while since being back wishing he could just turn off and sleep like he used to, but he didn’t have the ability anymore.  Vivi seemed like she was losing her own, but for a completely different reason.

Lewis was in his room.  He sat on his bed and tried to meditate to keep himself calm, and maybe it would rub off on Vivi.  As mindless as Vivi’s movement had been, she was definitely stressed.  Stress made her quiet.  And now, since she was technically the only person left in a three bedroom apartment, she was nearly silent.

His meditation was interrupted when Vivi walked in through the open door and flopped face first onto Lewis’ bed.  Lewis bit his lip.   “Vivi…?  You okay?”

“No.”  Came the muffled answer.

Lewis sighed.  He shifted himself to lie down opposite of her and stared at the ceiling.  “…Neither am I…”

Vivi turned her head out of the covers and looked at Lewis.  “We can be miserable together.”

Lewis snorted.  “That was always the plan, wasn’t it?”

Vivi giggled halfheartedly.  There was silence, and then she rolled over onto her back to stare at the ceiling as well.   “I miss the way it used to be… You, me, Artie, Mystery…  Solving stuff…  We got back to that when you came back, but everything’s just been going so wrong…”

“That isn’t your fault.”

“Okay, I can FEEL where this is going, and it’s not yours either,” Vivi said, final.

Lewis gave her a look of frustration.  “I didn’t help.”

Before Vivi could argue, her phone went off in the living room.  Vivi shot up off of the bed and around the corner.  “Maybe that’s Artie!”  Lewis floated off of the bed and after her as she dove for the couch where the phone was sitting.  She was beaming until she looked at the caller ID.  Then she pouted.  “Aw, it’s just my boss…”

Lewis smiled at her. “Well, it’s word from the outside world anyway.  Think of it as a distraction.”

“Yeah, yeah.”  She answered the phone and held it to her ear. “Yes, boss?”

“Vivi, I am not your boss right now.  Have you heard from Arthur?”

Vivi sat up.  “Y- I mean, I called him.  Why, is something wrong?”

“How long ago?”  Duet wasted no time asking.

Vivi flinched, and her nails dug into the fabric of the couch cushion.  “Like an hour ago?  Duet, what’s happening?”

“Call him again.  Get in the van, take Lewis, go to him now.”  Duet sounded frantic, but controlled.  “I’m already on my way, but it’s public transportation; I’m not going to get there very fast.”

Vivi stood up and grabbed the keys to the van.  “He’s at work right now, so it’s about twenty minutes a-”

“No, he’s going to be home.  You have to go to his home.”  Duet paused to breathe.  “I gotta go, I’ll see you there.”

“Wait Duet-!”  The call was disconnected.  Vivi stared at the phone.

Lewis stood by, tense and cold.  He had a horrible, horrible feeling, and he knew where it was coming from.  “Arthur.”

Vivi nodded.  “We have to go to him right now.  I’m driving.”

~

Arthur stared out the window of the truck.  Lance tried his best to keep his eyes on the road.  “Sorry about this, Uncle Lance,” Arthur offered.

“It’s fine, kid. You’re worried, you don’t have to feel bad about it.”  Lance smiled at him.  He watched Arthur’s leg bounce with a need he’d not filled in a week.  As much as Arthur liked to deny it, Lance knew how much Arthur loved going on those cases, and this felt like it was turning into one.

They pulled up to Lance’s home and Arthur hopped out of the truck, heading for the door.  “Help me find the toolkit.  I usually don’t leave it at home, sorry.”

“Stop apologising. You weren’t expecting to need it at work.  Where did you leave it last?”  Lance asked as he unlocked the door to let them in.

“Uh… It’s either in my room, or in the kitchen.  I’ll go up and check, lemme know if you find it down here.”  Arthur hurried up the stairs.

He didn’t like feeling this nervous, but he knew exactly why that was.  He wasn’t there to address whatever it was that was going wrong with his friends.  He’d moved out.  He brought this worry on himself.

As he searched around his room, he realised that it was getting darker.  There was less and less sunlight streaming in through the window over time.  He figured it was just clouds in the sky, and kept searching.  He knelt down on the floor and peered under the bed.  A small set of screwdrivers and a battery powered soldering iron sat neatly in a small case between the wall and the bed.   “Ha!  There you are, you sneaky bastard.”  He reached under and began shifting beneath the bed frame to grab it.

As it got darker and darker, he turned his head around to the room.  Was it about to storm?  He finally grabbed the kit and slid back out from under the bed.  The room was almost black.  He turned to the window and found the source was definitely not clouds.

What looked to be vines were crawling over the last few slivers of light coming in.  “Uh…”

“Aaugh!”  His uncle’s cry sounded from downstairs.

“Uncle Lance!?”  Arthur ran at the stairs and made it to the bottom in record time.  When he got to the kitchen, he found out the vines has spilled into the house.  They crawled under doorframes and through floorboards, and they’d wound their way around his uncle and pinned him to a wall.

“Uncle Lance!”  He ran at him and started tugging at the vines around his limbs.

“No!  Kid, get outta here, you have to hide!”

“I’m not doing that!” Arthur shouted.  When the vines wouldn’t give, he rolled his sleeve away from his arm and flipped a newly installed switch.  His strength limits were shut off, and he set back to work ripping away the vines.  With each he destroyed, another grew and replaced it.  “Dammit!”

“Arthur, you have to go!”

“Go where!?” Arthur demanded.  “You’re all I have, Uncle Lance, I’m getting you out of this!”

The floor boards ached and creaked under the growth of the vines, and Arthur could hearing the wood splitting.  His uncle went tense as he stared over his shoulder.  “Arthur, behind you!”

Arthur went rigid, and without another second’s thought, he spun around and threw out his false, strengthened fist.

It planted itself in, and burst through, the stomach of a large, blue skinned woman.  She loomed over him like death as the skin around where Arthur’s fist punched through turned to ash.  Without warning, quicker than lightning, She grasped at the arm with both hands.

Vines crawled up from Arthur’s feet and coiled around his body until they slid beneath the false arm.  They slipped beneath the leather straps and where the nerve sensors sat against him.  Arthur cried out as the straps pulled tight and raw against his skin.  Eventually, the straps broke, and the demon woman chucked the false arm to the side.

“Let him go!  Let him go, you bitch!”  Lance demanded from his vine prison.  He wrenched and tugged, but even with his strength (which was actually doing quite a number on those vines), he couldn’t break free.  The vines curled further and wrapped around his mouth to keep him from talking.

The vines curling around Arthur lifted him up until he was eye level with the demon lady.  She grinned, wild and terrifying, and her ‘wound’ in her gut seemed to disappear as her skin grew together, much like the vines enclosing the house.  “Now why would I want to do that?”  She grabbed the vines at his chest with her massive hand and yanked him closer to her face. “This one will lead me right to what I desire.”

In response to her threatening demeanor, her words, her omnipresence, Arthur could only look cold.  He had a steeled, blank resolve in his eyes where there should have been fear.  Whoever, whatever, this demon was, she had to be what the danger was.  And this resolve was definitely not his own. “I’m never going to lead you to my friends.”

She tilted her head and smirked.  “Then you will die.”  She let go of the vines.  “I would hold your breath.”  She cackled and sank into the ground.

Arthur felt the vines around him shift, and he forced his head to look back at Lance.  The older man was still bound, but he was struggling, successfully, to get free.  The look in Lance’s eyes mirrored his own.  Arthur tried to smile, trying to tell him with his eyes that everything would be fine, but the vines pulled into the ground.  His vision caked with dirt and blackness.  Everything was cold.  He made a decision there, as the dirt and damp earth rushed past his face, and the fear began to return.

He never should have left home.

~