V+O; in the Alternate Universe **Completed**

Chapter 6

Silence between them settled in once more. O listened to the birds call in wonder, occasionally the songs sounded familiar but others sounded shrill even grim. She focused in on one in particular, trying to find the source pulling it towards herself mentally.

The bird's death call pierced the inside of her head; it felt reptilian as the screams of its pain scratched the inside of her skull, imprisoned there. It wasn't a bird at all, and the sound probably wasn't an audible one. She clutched at her ears staggering and dropping like a rock to the ground, as if gravity itself had kicked her. O pressed her fingers into her ears, gouging skin from her own temples.

The torture of this animals scream echoed through her head, escaping through her own lips. The loneliness that had filled this creature's heart for so long filled her soul with nothingness; then blackness consumed them both.

She could feel his body standing protectively over hers.

"Let me pass!" V frustratedly shouted at Coa, who growled. Being so close to him she could feel the vibrations of the sound rumble through her like a minor earthquake. "Yes you're right, I'm an idiot, I know I'm an idiot; but let me try to help, please." V pleaded with Coa.

"It's okay," O whispered through a groan.

Coa side stepped, and lay down next to her, so close she could feel the tickle of his fur against her arm, his presence like a warm blanket. O could feel a breeze from V's swift movements as he rushed forward and stooped at her side. His fingers were warm against her cool skin, his fingers dancing over her wrist and then at her throat; O's eyes fluttered open and closed as she tried to look at him.

"I need to help her," V grovelled to get her head into his lap; she could feel it lolling back unnaturally, as if she had lost control of her body. "Hey, hey, you gotta stay with me." He whispered, stroking her hair.

O focused for a second on his stressed smile; his canine teeth slight pricks, like animal teeth. Maybe he was one, her confused conscience spoke. Her head was spinning, the forest may as well have been in a tornado. The feeling was worse than getting too high or too drunk.

Having the urge to throw up, she reached up her hand to grab V's arm, "You need to help me," but she wasn't the one who had spoken the words, but they had come from her mouth nonetheless. Her body tensed up and began to seize, eyes rolling back into her head; as soon as it started it was gone.

"Who...? Where are you?" She asked herself in a whispered panic, but the creature spoke no more from her lips. O searched for it with her ears, but nowhere could she find that strange cry. Then with her mind but the consciousness was either out of reach or gone, the dead kind of gone.

V looked confused but also as if he understood but at the same time didn't.

O gulped down breaths, as if emerging from the depths of the ocean. Panting, she rolled to her side, leaned over and threw up, black and green liquid; it kept coming the more her stomach heaved. When she couldn't throw up anymore, she wiped my mouth with a leaf.

"What the hell was that?"

V looked at her just as grossed out as she was. He shook his head, thinking exactly what she had; what the hell was that? "You connected with something?" He said the words with so much uncertainty, but she found truth within the statement.

"I want to agree with you, but that's just nasty." Her voice was rough with soreness. V's face was full of questions, none that she could answer if he asked them. "Let's just get to where we're going." O said, trying to clear her head, and attempting to push herself up and onto her feet.

Coa grumbled, V looked over and nodded.

"Having secret conversations are we?" O said, trying to jokingly mock V's previous question to her. In one motion V picked her up, and laid her back down on Coa's back. His arms were strong and she wondered how she had failed to notice when he flexed that the veins became cords of tension.