B+Bs: To Stand In A Beast's World

32. Surprise

 The next time I woke up, I was in my bed. The scenery was so different from the last time, that I might really have dreamed up Mitchell. I touched the mark and thought of him.

My body shot up in pure surprise, it hating me very much at that moment. I ignored it because the tattoo broke. That, or Mitchell was here in the city. My ears strained, but I heard no screams or roars which would indicate battle.

Just what happened while I was out?

"Grace?" Harvey pushed the curtain aside. "How are you fe-!" Harvey got bowled over by Shuu who rushed inside.

"Grace! Are you okay? Does it hurt? Can I get you anything?" Shuu's near-frantic state calmed down very quickly after that.

"I think so. Are you all all right?" I vaguely recalled fighting, and I know I was with Curtis for a while. Everyone is okay, right? I checked the bonds without thinking, confirming that everyone was at least alive. Muir felt really far away though. "Where's Muir?"

Shuu's relief at seeing Grace awake dimmed as he remembered their failures.

Harvey, equally depressed, had to speak for them both. "We are well. Muir is hunting colossus to replenish your crystals." Harvey said it carefully and in the most positive way he could.

"...He left?"

Grace's tone made it clear that she wasn't happy about it. "Yes. Do you want us to go find him?" Harvey asked.

"...No. Do you know why he thought now was the best time to go? And how is Winston? He was fighting wasn't he?"

Shuu was the one who answered. "Muir dropped you." Shuu did not witness it, but he heard Harvey's diagnosis. "And he hurt you with his talons."

Harvey hastily added. "Winston is talking to the kings right now about Mitchell. His wounds have almost healed." Harvey could tell Grace didn't like that 'almost' but he pushed on. "Muir might blame himself..." Like they did.

I put a hand on my head. I was beyond relieved that we all survived that, but what a mess it made. "And Curtis? The snake?" I can't imagine him dying, but I can't imagine my family letting him off easily.

Harvey grew quiet and it was Shuu who answered. "The city is trying to track the four-striped one down. The other one is dead."

"The other one..." The image of brown hair and an unnaturally bent neck made me wretch.

"Grace?!" Both Harvey and Shuu were startled and jumped into action.

"I'm fine. Just fine."

No one believed that, not even Grace.

It took a while to get myself under control. There was nothing like the realization that you are now a murderer to turn over your stomach. I know it was idealistic to think my hands would stay clean forever, but I wanted that ideal to stay alive anyway.

Although I did lose my relatively empty stomach contents, I somehow avoided an existential crises. It was terrible and I wish it didn't happen, but I only did what I did to defend myself. If I were in that situation again, I can't see myself doing differently. No matter how much the outcome made me sick.

I also had so much more to focus on now and buried everything I felt about that deep. I needed to see Winston and talking to Mitchell was a must.

The first person I got to see was Mitchell. Turns out, he was hanging around right outside. Shuu carried me to the bedroom window and set me down on the sill.

Mitchell did not hesitate to walk right up to me. Shuu growled in warning, and I squeezed his hand. Mitchell's eyes locked on us and I sighed.

"I take it you come in peace?"