The Diamond Tattoo: Death wish

Stop Running

I called everyone downstairs and told them to be nice. They all made their way downstairs, into the basement. Nikki brushed out her dress and held my arm tight to her side. I pat her shoulder and told her not to worry. Mary came down, obviously just woken up from her nap, and told her to slightly worry. She looked at me wide eyed. I looked at Mary.
"I'm sorry to wake you."
"You damn well should be."
I covered Nikki's ears "She's only fifteen, she used to be a rabbit."
"Oh shit, sorry. I mean-"
"Don't, Mary no need. I'm sorry."
"Yeah, sure."
"But anyway, everyone, this is Nikki, she's fifteen, I just crafted her from the little bunny that used to be in there."
"Oh. Okay, umm, one question,"
"Sure Rachel."
"WHY!!!"
"Okay, please, first calm down, next, cause Fred told me too."
"Hey, don't pin this on me, I said make it something else."
"I chose a person, but Nikki jumped at me before I could've finished."
"Sorry..."
"It's fine hon, it's in the past."
Nikki was cutting off blood flow to my hand at this point, but I didn't have the heart to stop her.
"Who are all of them?"
"Nikki, this is my family. Now, I guess, it's your family."
"Oh." She started communicating telepathically. Is it okay if I don't entirely like them?
Yes Nikki, that's fine.
Okay good. Cause I think that one's staring at my ass.
Oh that's Eddy, he's just looking at your tail.
Can you hit him for me?
No, sorry.
Dangit...
"So, what is she?"
"She's my daughter."
"Yes, but as a species."
"Well, about 90% human, and 10% rabbit. Her leg muscles are powerful, so she's a good runner, and can jump really far, and also has very good temperature control with the ears."
I poked at her ears and she practically winced.
"Please, the ears, they're very sensitive..."
Sally laughed aloud and everyone jumped. "Sorry, everyone... just something funny happened in another reality..." she rubbed her hands together.
"It's fine Sally, don't worry." I turned to Nikki. "That's my younger cousin, she's nice."
"Yeah..." she didn't sound convinced.
"So, you just... thought this up? This whole girl?"
"Yeah. She was already a girl, I just looked at Eliza and changed it up a slight bit. Shorter hair, a little rounder face." She rubbed her nose and made the most adorable sneeze. Andrew raised his hand.
"Hey Chris, could I borrow you for a minute?"
"Yeah, sure, what's up?"
"Just, come with me."
I tried to move but Nikki held tight and did her little puppy eyes thing. Her purple eyes nearly got me, but Jess and Sally had given me plenty of practice.
"Nikki, hon I'm sorry, stay here, Sally! Please ummm... Protect her from... Those."
I walked out into the stairway with Andrew.
"So, you have a new daughter."
"Yeah. It's not that big a deal for me, though. I've had to take care of Sally, and Jess, and that's given me enough practice I'd think."
"Yeah, of course, shy moody Bun-Bun in there is gonna have one hell of a dad."
"That's... not what you dragged me out here to talk about though."
"Yeah, I just want to make sure you know this doesn't replace what you lost."
"Yeah, I know. She's not Jess."
"And if you try and compare the two, you're gonna hurt her and yourself."
"I know. That's why we're getting Jess back."
"Wait, what? She melted, you can't get her back!"
"She was taken by death. It's a test. Death makes sure I limit the people I keep alive to less than ten, the Reaper didn't want Jess, it wants me."
"Wait, Chris no!"
"When she comes back, I'm leaving you in charge."
"What? No, Chris that is a bad idea, alright? I could barely survive in a room with Mary for ten minutes, that's hardly a house for almost eighty years!"
"You'll be fine, Andrew they need you. You're the only hope I have. And honestly, if it's not you it's Fred."
"I consider that blackmail. I have no other option."
"Can't leave Fred in charge, huh?"
"Yeah, that would be a bad idea."
"Alright. Let's go kill death then."
We both stepped into the room, and I could see that Nikki was having some sort of claustrophobic attack, and so could Andrew. He pushed everyone away and I jumped over the table and hugged Nikki.
"WHAT THE HELL FRED!!!"
"We need to get as much information as we can!"
"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!!!"
"Okay, I'm sorry I didn't notice!"
I hugged Nikki as she regained her regular breathing pattern. Once she finally regained it I lifted her up in one arm, and she wrapped her arms around my neck, and wrapped her legs around me. I walked over too Fred and whacked him across the face, nocking him over and into Eliza. I walked out of the room and carried her back upstairs. I went into Mary's room, and set her down on the bed. Mary had ordered a bunch of food but it was all gone. I dug into the fridge and found a bowl of Jello. I handed it to Nikki and gave her a spoon. She was baffled by the jello structure, and poked at it, looking through the glass bowl as all of it jiggled. I ordered some room service and they brought some more healthy food up, with one of the new fancy robot things. I remembered that some places had fabricators nowadays, that would be able to make whatever you wanted, but synthetic vegetation tasted awful and she wanted berries and potatoes. I didn't know why. She ate them surprisingly fast, but there was enough to keep her occupied for a little while. I walked outside, where everyone was waiting for me. Fred was still rubbing his face, but I ignored him.
"We're gonna find that thing."
"What? Chris, that's not possible. It pops up out of nowhere randomly, it finds us more often than we find it."
"We're going to find it, Mary."
"Even if it does have some point of origin, how are we gonna find it without splitting up?"
"We need to stick together, it could burst out at any moment, so together is our safest bet. We're gonna look at all of the places we've run from, but first we're going back to Air's cell."
"What? Why?"
"That's where we first fought it. You guys weren't there, but it first came from there."
"Just look out for black fog, I guess." Fred said, still adjusting his jaw.
"Yeah. And this time, don't hurt my daughter."
"Right... Sorry..."