From The Ashes [#NaNoWriMo16]

Chapter Fourteen - Issobel Rique

Issey felt like she couldn't breathe. The first thing she did when she found Kida lying outside with her throat slit was drag the body inside, horror stricken in her features. The girl was on the floor with a deep cut in her throat, after a psycho had just slit it it open before jumping from a building. What part of that was normal in Adrana?

"So much for your prophecy," Arlo muttered to Helio, rubbing his forehead like he was trying not to throw up.

"She's not dead, taraer," Issey snapped at him. "This hasn't killed her. If it was anyone else, though..."

"I apologise," Helio announced. "This was my fault. My visions told me of his first soul, not his second."

"That was his second soul?" Hallee demanded, her white eyes staring down at Kida's unconscious body with horror in them. "You want us to work with that?"

"I agree," Ryia growled. "If he comes back, I'll snap his neck."

"You will not do any such thing," Helio snapped. "If he comes back in that same state, he will kill you all. He is too dangerous for you. I must go find him and speak with him. I know what to do."

"Try and get to him before he kills someone else," Issey pleaded. "Kida is lucky she's immortal, or she wouldn't be alive right now."

"She's immortal?" Ryia demanded, then glared at Helio. "There's a lot you haven't told me, spirit."

"When Quinton returns, I will explain everything," he promised her. "For now, keep an eye out. Help Kida. Stay out of trouble."

With that, Helio vanished into thin air, leaving Issey to cradle Kida's head as Arlo went looking for something to stitch her wound.

"She is immortal?" Hallee asked as she approached Issey, sitting beside her. Issey nodded.

"She was experimented on," she explained quietly. "I don't want to say much more, because it's not my place, but she's really angry."

"I understand," Hallee murmured, but Issey knew she wasn't talking about the lack of information.

By the time Arlo had stitched Kida's neck and she'd woken up, Helio and Quin still weren't back. Kida was pissed off, Ryia was pissed off, everyone was pissed off. Only Issey managed to keep a level head, and even she was struggling to keep up with that.

"I think we leave," Hallee announced finally, leaning back as she pursed her lips. "We do not know what we are dealing with. I am not getting money. I do not know why I am here."

"We were trying to save the world," Kida snapped, glaring at the curtain separating the inside of the apartment from the outside. "But then Mr. Psycho just gets up and thinks 'Hey, you know what? I'm gonna slit the throat of the girl who's trying to help me, because I'm a stupid nårtåhh who's gonna get punched in the face when Helio finally decides to stop playing around and bring me back'. I mean, I knew he was called 'the crazy' but I didn't know he was that crazy."

"The crazy?" Ryia mused, sharpening her daggers together. "What's that mean?"

"It was this vision that Helio had, that told him who everyone was that he needed to round up," Kida grumbled, grimacing as she sat up a little straighter. "He's called the crazy."

"What am I?" Arlo asked suddenly, his eyes wide. "Am I the ninja? Ooh, I know! I'm the handsome, aren't I?"

"You're the annoying," Kida hissed. "Back off or I'll slit your throat."