Chapter 2: Don't Feed the Animals

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST BITCH, I COULD HAVE SAVED THE DOG!!! James screamed. His eyes screwed shut, he sat against the curb as he couldn't bear to look.....until he heard soft, high pitched whining and felt something pressing against his side. Opening them up he saw the puppy, alive but hurt.

The car swerved to avoid him and clipped the dog by the rear if the bloodied hip was any indicator. "Oh thank god," he whispered, reaching out to hug the dog tightly. Please, he begged, please if you have a beef with me then take it up with me. But please don't take it out on a fucking puppy.

Bella moved on, the words she spoke to the man from before too had affected her too. Funny how words could do that. She moved onto the streets now, away from alleys so she didn't get the treatment the other woman got as the man described. Bella walked about, planning on heading back to Zeru's once she was done with her joy walk. That was until she heard Tires screeching and decided to check it out. Car crash, no metal on metal sounds. Maybe someone got hit. Bella thought of the possibilities that could arise to cars and their problems of hitting things.

The dog was still whining, crying loudly as blood came from its hind leg. James stood up, lifting the pup into his arms and not caring as blood started to stain his clothing. Gestalt, I need a veterinary clinic. Now!

Finding one. There's one several blocks from us, so run.

Bella ran until she saw it. A car had stopped and the driver was getting out. A boy held what smelt like a dog, she could smell blood too. Tell me he will get that driver to help. Bella felt like snarling at the driver but resisted. She was just still angry about before.

Holding the dog, James began to run, heading for the clinic as fast as he could. The puppy whimpered in his grip, struggling as he ran down the street. As for the driver they stepped out and tried to say something, though James ran past. Come on......come on! he thought, legs pumping under him.

Bella saw him run, run past his one chance of getting that dog anywhere. Her eye twitched a little and she began running, her speed already able to get her to catch up to the kid. "Hey! Dude." She called out as she closed in. "I don't think running is going to help." She turned to the driver and gave him an look to stay. One she wished he would follow.

Avaelli gave a mental sigh, sent the impulse down to James's arms, forced his arm to tighten and twist. Heard the snap of the neck.

"Oh, look what you did"

Deep down, she shoved the emotion away again, locking it up behind her door.

"Alright," Jack said once we'd reached my room, "Wait here, I'll see what I can do." What? I blinked. I hadn't expected him to help me, even if he was my friend. It just didn't seem possible. Shocked and overwhelmingly happy, I sat on the bed and waited, my eyes trained expectingly on the door. I waited for hours, but I still expected Jack to come back. He'd said he would, and he was my friend.

When four guards walked in, tazers raised, I was crushed. My 'friend' had lied to me and was going to have me locked away again. I clenched my hands into fists, so tightly that they were shaking. The guard in front fired his tazer. To me, it seemed like the wires were flying in slow-motion, and I grabbed them, yanking them towards me and pulling the guard off-balance. The others fired as well, but I was already on them. I grabbed the first guard and threw him into the opposite wall, his neck falling at an unnatural angle. I moved onto the next one, grabbing him by the throat and digging my nails in as far as I could, before yanking my arm back and severing his jugular. I stepped forwards, as the last two guards stumbled backwards in their attempt to get away. My flattened hand tore through the closest one's chest, while my other hand dragged the last guard to me, my teeth tearing into his throat.

As the last guard stopped struggling, an alarm went off.

At first, James didn't realize what happened. One second the dog was alive, crying in his arms and hurt, but alive. The next......he could feel it as they moved with a life of their own. Felt the fur against his skin as a grip was established. Palms squeezing tightly around the puppy's neck, choking it of breathing first. A quick twisting motion, the subtle crack and pop of bone and sinew along with a strangled death cry. It may have taken seconds but they felt like an eternity and at the end of it.......he screamed. Screamed in pain, fury and sadness as he held the dead pup tightly against him. A raw, burning hatred boiled inside him for the hideous thing in his mind. All sense of self preservation, survival and reason was burned away in the blaze that was his anger. I'm done. I'm not gonna do this anymore, he angrily thought, letting the pup fall as he shambled over to a brick wall. Gestalt.....I'm so sorry......but I'm gonna end this. One way or another.

Avaelli tutted a few more times.

"How could you just hurt an innocent puppy like that? That could have been some poor orphans only friend in the entire world and you just snapped it's neck..."

Ashaara finished her sewing and began closing off the life support systems of her host. Once that was done, she left before total brain death and entered her own body. It would be an hour or so until she could actually move however. The healing process had only just began.

Fuck you, he thought. Palms on the brickwork, he could dimly make out Gestalt trying to reach him through the thick red haze of his rage. Heart pounding and breath coming in large pants, James pulled his head back......and then slammed it home into the wall. It hurt like hell, the dull ache in his head briefly washing away all thoughts before they came back. I'm dying.....on my terms....

"Hey, don't let me stop you. Want me to help? You could really put a little more force into that"

Avaelli mentally began to paint her nails. This was dull, and not the way she wanted it to go.

A second bang of his head on the wall, a dull thump heard. Blood seeped down from a cut on his head, a brick corner slightly pointed out. As James pulled back for what maybe would have been the last one.....he heard a scream, a familiar voice. "JAMES!" Chris screamed, running towards him from her dad's car, Michael just now stepping out. When he didn't come home, didn't answer the cell, Michael tracked James' phone and the pair went off after him.

Now Chris was pulling James away from the wall, tears running down her face as her friend angrily tried pushing her away, tried to get back to the wall. No, you are not gonna kill them, he thought. He had to end this now, because the two people he could not stand to let this thing even be near were now right there with him.

She dragged James back to his imagination. Put them both on top of a rooftop a million miles away from New York. A rooftop he'd never recognise. It was night time, the stars shined above, yet it rained despite the lack of cloud. She summoned her old body up, dragging it out of her own memories, from back before she died. She stood facing him, hair becoming drenched by the rain.

"You know you could have just come with me? I'd have taken you to my employer and just walked away. Couldn't care what you did after that."

She gave a sigh to him and turned her head to stare at the starry sky above, letting the cloudless rain run down her face.

"You just had to fight. Had to win. Now you're going to kill yourself because you lost."

"Come with you?!" he angrily spat. "You attacked me and my friend! What was I supposed to do, roll over and take it?" Glaring at her, his own anger shaped the world. Storm clouds gathered over them, the world taking a reddish hue. "A puppy. A puppy goddammit! I can understand hurting me, because I destroyed your body. But that puppy didn't so much as know you, so WHY THE FUCK DID YOU HAVE TO KILL IT?!"

She cleared the scene with a lazy wave of her hand. Walking to the edge of the rooftop, she sat down, dangling her legs over the side.

"Two minutes"

Avaelli glanced back at James.

"I didn't kill it, James."

"Yes. You. Did," he hissed. "It may have been my hands but you're the one that made them do it. Made me kill it. And that doesn't even begin to answer my question. Why? Why did you kill it? I was trying to save it, get it to a vet and you made me snap its neck."

She looked up to the stars again, ignoring the rain this time.

"They're pretty, aren't they? I always thought they were pretty."

There was a bang from a door down the street below them and it brought Avaelli's eyes down to the ground.

"Come here, James."

Not trusting her, James didn't move. At first. Then slowly, he made his way over though with a sizable gap between them. "What's all this about?" he growled.

Avaelli watched the young woman walk down the street alongside the water. She watched the shadow's move ahead of her.

"Don't be so afraid, James."

She stood up and stretched, her hands placed on the small of her back. The man stepped out in front of the woman on the street. Words, indisguinishable from the rooftop were exchanged. The woman laughed, but Avaelli didn't even have to look to remember the the expression on the man's face at that laugh. The laugh turned to a scared voice, floating it's way up to the figures on the rooftop. The ripping of the clothes followed it, along with the slick sound of a knife. The woman began screaming as the man forced himself upon her.

Avaelli turned her gaze to James.

"You going to try to save her?"

Her voice got more heated and she began walking towards him.

"Save her like you try to save everyone else?"

She'd reached him by now and the screams were getting more sickening by the moment. Avaelli could feel the memory of the knife punching through her body, and the heat of the man lay over her. She jabbed James in the chest.

"Save her, James. Go on. Save her. Save her like you saved the god damn puppy."

His stomach churning in disgust, James looked away from the horror below, only to glare into Avaelli's eyes. "Maybe it was real......but it's not right now. So I can't save her. Everyone else.....I'm going to try and save them. Because this isn't the past, this is the now. That's where I can be, when I can save them." Taking a step away from her, he spread his arms and said "But if it means so much to you....fine. I'll save her."

She slapped him and spat at his feet in disgust.

"You still don't get it, do you?"

She turned her head to the scene below. Watched as the woman's screams dissipated into nothing. Watched the man drag her body to the water and roll it in.

"They find me in four hours, you know? Idiot forgot bodies float."

She sighed and lifted her head to the sky, letting the rain wash over her again.

"You don't choose when this ends. Gestalt's had your body for the last twenty minutes now, with you completely out of control. You think he won't have made sure you're safe? In a hospital or somewhere you can't hurt yourself. You don't win this. You only stop losing when I decide you've actually learnt your lesson. And then you're going to deliver yourself to my employer."

"My lesson?" he screamed at her, having reeled back from the slap, cheek red. "What lesson?! I don't know what the fuck I did to wind up in this mess. I have no idea who the hell I pissed off enough that they sent the walking nightmare after me!"

She gave another half sigh.

"Keep that anger up for another 200 years and you'll end up like me."

Avaelli let the last few drops of rain fall on her cheek as the image faded. Back in her little corner she settled down quietly, brewing on her thoughts.

"Yeah well I have anger issues, though in this case they're justified," James said. "Was killing the puppy part of the lesson? To teach me I can't save everyone or even everything?"

Bella had stopped short after what she saw, the kid who looked vaguely familiar had just killed the pup and after that he dropped it and went to smash his head against a wall. She was stunned to say the least. Soon, a car pulled up and a another person she remembered came out and stopped him, a older man also came out but began to move to his phone. Bella shook her head and ran over to the girl and couched next to her. She was already removing her jumper. "I saw what happened to him. He will be fine." Bella tried to reassure her as she used her jumper to help with the boys bleeding.

Chris rounded on the random girl, screaming "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN HAPPENED TO HIM?!" James, now laid on the ground, bled from the gash on his head. Inside him, Gestalt did his best to quietly heal the wound without giving anything away.

Dammit James, you suicidal idiot.....concussion, skull fractures......be glad you have me bonded or this could have been worse.

"Just keep my jumper here ok." Bella said to her after placing the Jumper down to support and help the boy before standing and moving to the older man. "You his father?"

"Guardian," Michael corrected. The line opened up and he began speaking, telling 911 the address and what had happened.

Bella waited for him to finish talking to the police before speaking. "Sir, I am a classmate of.. James." Bella knew she remembered the scent, he was the zombie who ripped the dress of another during halloween dance. "He arr. What I saw him do. He's not good in the head sir." Bella didn't want to say outright 'Oh hey your kid here just snapped the neck of a puppy and started bashing his head in right after.'

Glaring at her, Michael said nothing, waiting for the ambulance to arrive. "Whatever's wrong with him.....he'll have family when he wakes up."

"Sir he.." Bella stopped herself, glancing back to where the pup laid dead in the snow. She moved back to Chris, she remembered her in one of her classes. "Hey, he will be alright. Just look after him and see you in class." Bella said before she started to walk off, leaving her jumper which she was slightly regretting for the cold was starting to take it's toll on her.

Chris ignored her, focusing on James as the sound of sirens closed in. Flashing lights of red and blue lit the street as the ambulance pulled in, paramedics jumping out to tend to James.

--December 9th, Saturday, 8:00 AM--

James was still out, laying in the hospital bed, his head wrapped in a bandage. The rhythmic sound of the heart monitor played out, the only noise in the room. Through the window the sterile white room was painted in shades of orange light, the light of dawn creeping in.

In his head however, his conversation with Avaelli was still...progressing. If it could be called that.

-December 9th, Saturday, 8:00 AM--

Zeru was in the main kitchen cooking scrambled eggs with summer sausage along french toast humming to himself waiting for the others to wake up.

Marcus awoke but didn't bother to try and get up, his muscles were baked from Dark using his body too much. He felt terrible as terrible could be explained.

Bella awoke with a jump, her over night home was a small box that must have been used by someone before because it came with a blanket but no one to claim it. She felt a little hungry and thought about heading back to Zerus now. Her parade of freedom came with a few surprises she could have done without.

Urthus grumbled and rolled out of his bed, his head killing him. He had only been asleep for a few hours, he figured, simply from the way his head felt. Though the tiny clock on his HUD helped. Looking up at the blocks of stone that made up the ceiling didn't help him wake up at all, nor the fact he was laying on solid ground with very little comfort items below him. What did really wake up him though was the feeling of utter wrongness course through his body. He almost vomited, but he cought himself just before what little substance was in his stomach came back up. He rolled over and slowly got up as the wave passed, only for another to rock him and send him tilting into the wall. A feeling entered his mind, a feeling that something was trying to tell him something, something it didn't know how to translate. Like it didn't have words or any concept of communication to begin with. He retracted his helmet to get some relatively fresh air, and gasped for it, as if breathing something not filtered might fix this feeling. Another wave, the strongest yet, and he vomited for real. It was nothing much, barely more than a dry heave, but still some of his stomach acid splattered upon the floor, leaving a retched taste in his mouth. He coughed and braced for another impact of this feeling, but nothing came. He waited a minute, his face paler than normal, and slowly got up to look for food.

Zeru saw urthus come out looking miserable"you ok bro you look like you've seen a ghost "he said motioning to urthus to sit and eat.

Urthus shook his head but sat down. "How do you describe something that has no words to be described with?" He asked quietly, wiping at his mouth with a bit of saliva sat. "Something is happening in the Void. Something I've never seen yet."

"you don't describe it you just feel it"zeru said sitting down as well.

"Yeah. Woke up, something flashed through me. This feeling of just...wrongness. I don't know any other word for it. Something is most definitely coming, Z." He looked over at his roommate, eyes haunted and sunken in.

"then we should get ready for it but until then eat and should avoid staying up for long periods think it's time we get serious"

"I have to study this Z. You know this. I don't know when it will come. I don't have a sense for that yet. If I sleep it might happen, whatever this is, in my sleep. I need to be ready."

"studying can only get you so far in the end rest is your yourself is up to the task which means nothing if your physically and mentally fatigued"

"I would rather be ready and tired than not ready and energized. Until I know what this is, for all I know it could be another surge that claimed my planet. If I'm asleep for that, and I have the power to stop it, I mostly likely wouldn't be able to, and yet another species, if not countless others, would be consumed and I would be to blame."

"but what if your not ready and are tired as hell and when time comes you crash and burn and it happens anyway?"

"Then I would have at least tried." He answered, his voice coming out angrier than he meant, primarily due to his lack of sleep.

"you mean woulda tried your best?,Losers always whine about trying their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen"zeru replied eating some food"

"I don't know what that means..." Urthus replied, closing his eyes and nodding his head forward. It was part for sleep and part his version of raising an eyebrow. He knew how humans expressed curiosity and bemusement, but every now and then he slipped into his former traditions.

"it means losers sit and do nothing while winners go out and get shit done"zeru said continuing to eat.

"That statement sounds like a prophecy that fulfills itself." He replied. "And isn't the best logic."