Best Served Cold

Shattered

Note: The characters do not belong to me, but to MysteryBen and Artsy. The POV belongs to Mystery until we get Arthur’s sanity back.

………………………………….

            I don’t know where the energy comes from, I’m bleeding from my side, my belly, my hind leg. Demon-inflicted wounds are not so easily healed, and I should not be able to to burst back to full size again, but I do. I break my back against the stones, roaring with the effort as I press against the tomb that caved around me.

            The rocks shift slowly at first, then they tumble back as I burst through, dragging myself from the hole. The sky is starlit overhead. Only a few remnants of the walls remain, though we are still in a deep pit. I scan the rubble, but see nothing. I close my eyes, inhaling deeply through my nose. Past the scent of his blood and mine, I smell Arthur. I smell Vivi.

            And I feel Lewis.

            I stumble across the rubble, picking my way to the spot where the scent is strongest. I grasp chunks in my teeth, tossing them aside, and work them free with my forepaws.

            Clever Vivi and her quick thinking. The alcove is still there, and so are they. Covered in cavedust and shaking, but alive. I reach my muzzle in to pull them out, but Vivi yanks Arthur back, staring at me like she’s never seen me before.

            It stings, but truthfully, she has never seen me before. Not like this. But I don’t have time to explain. Arthur smells more like Lewis than Arthur, and that’s bad. I reach in, nipping Arthur by the back of his jacket and dragging him out. Vivi seems to be attached, as she is also dragged out. I pull them into the open and drop them, trying to nose Arthur onto his back.

            Vivi swats my nose. I wince, growling lightly.

            “BACK OFF!” She shouts up at me, brandishing a fist while still clinging to Arthur. “I don’t know who you are or what you did with Mystery but just stay away!”

            I sink down on my haunches, the rubble suddenly spinning around me. How much blood am I losing? I’m shrinking down again, and I didn’t initiate the shift. I don’t have time!

            “Mystery?” She’s looking down at me in shock now. I drag myself closer and put a paw on Arthur, managing a weak bark.

            “He’s… I don’t know how he is…” She looks down at him. There are tear tracks through the dust on her face. “How they are.”

            So she knows.

            I paw at her pocket where she usually keeps her cell. She pushes my paw away. “I already called, people are on their way, but something’s wrong with Arthur. Lew… I mean…” she faltered. “I think it’s Lew… he’s talking like Arthur’s trying to leave. Mystery what’s going on?”

            The rubble is spinning and I am having trouble remembering which way is up. Breathing is harder, did I crack ribs? I tug at her sleeve, positioning my head under her hand. I bark to let her know to keep her hand there—it sounds weaker than I would prefer—and I move to sit on Arthur’s stomach.

            I curl up on his chest, burying my face just under his chin. Vivi’s hand is on my head. I cannot take her inside Arthur with me, but I can let her hear our thoughts.

            And then I am also there, and I can see.

            The humans have only faint glimpses in their minds of what I see quite clearly. And what I see is Lewis, crouched in the center of a screaming black void of cacophony and chaos that sucks hungrily at the light he cups protectively in his hands.