S a l e t é I I

XVI - Griffes - Neuf

Monet's presence provided little in the way of comfort as the shock coursed through Cassia's veins, her mind slipping into an uncontrollable stream.

What was that?! F-fingers? They were, there was a... They were all... Fingers weren't supposed to look like that!

The girl in red stepped forward cautiously as she followed Cassia's pointing, carefully investigating just what it was that had managed to startle her so terribly. Uliana reached them at the same time, quickly dropping to the new girl's side so that she could help her back to her feet.

"What is it?" Uliana asked Monet as she assisted Cassia, the three of them standing again. She stayed close to the lass who'd fallen once she was back up, sense gradually beginning to return to her as the initial scare subsided.

She was okay, she was fine, she was with Uliana, and Monet, and... She wqs fine.

"Jouet parts. Looks like a hand."

So, it really was a hand... Monet had made her statement in such a nonchalant way, a reaction that struck Cassia as something that should not have been possible.

She began to clear some of the surrounding junk in order to get a better look at things, the entire situation continuing to instil Cassia with an icy, crawling chill, Uliana less than content herself. Monet carried on, somehow unmoved, her resolution both impressive and bewildering to the new girl.

How could she be so calm...? It might not have been an actual person's hand, but...

No, it was, wasn't it? They were actual people, being Jouets didn't mean that they weren't normal, so it really was an actual person's hand, and...

Cassia's legs felt like jelly. Making sense of everything was a purely ludicrous endeavour.

"It's just the hand. Nothing else." Monet stated after she'd had her closer look.

"Do you think it belonged to someone up top?" Uliana asked, her voice quieter than normal as she dared to try and steal a glance. She didn't seem outright disturbed, or anything to that extent, but she certainly didn't look cheerful either.

"No way of telling. Possibly."

Monet covered it with one of the many nearby bags now, obscuring it from view in a merciful motion, after which she turned back to her companions.

"That wasn't exactly an ideal find, Cassia, but you must be prepared for these kinds of things." She said calmly.

"T-these kinds of...?"

"It might seem grizzly, but you have to remember, a Jouet is not strictly a human being at the end of the day. What might be a serious injury to a human may not be so damning to one of us."

Jouets,replacement parts, repairs... That was all one thing, but Uliana had made a rather pressing comment less than a minute before; their little find had belonged to someone.

Someone, somewhere, had lost a hand somehow. How had it happened? How did someone get into a situation where something like that could befall them? She didn't want to think about it, and yet she couldn't stop herself from doing so.

"But... Why would it be here...?" She asked, her tone firmly back to being shaky, only this time the thought of trying to come across as confident didn't even cross her mind.

"It's like most other things here. Useless junk." Monet replied, gesturing to the plentiful examples of trash as she spoke.

"I know I said that interesting things turn up here, but I uh... I wasn't really expecting that." Uliana said softly, almost apologetically, making an attempt to smile.