Storm POV

The Swift girl person thing leads us through the clumps of trees so easily she might as well have been blindfolded. 

Very suSPICIOUS

Or maybe she has extra eyes on the back of her head like a spider.. spiders have that right? They have like.. 20 eyes right? So it's gonna have to fit all over around the head yeah? Yeah.

What was I thinking again? Oh right.

She's gotta have eyes on the back of her head or something coz its almost like she can see me giving her dirty looks. And she.. she's SMILING! SHES MOCKING ME

"Storm stop glaring at her like that. You're going to pull a muscle in your face." Pax nudges me, passing me a glare of her own.

I'm a good girl so instead of giving her the finger I only stick out my tongue at her. She looks unamused.

"So who are you again?" I ask Swift, making no effort to leave out the aggression much to Pax's disappointment. "You run around this forest everyday for fun or something? How do you know your way around so well?"

"I live in these woods." She answered simply.

Oh, great. Next she's gonna say she was raised by wolves or that she's actually a tree.

"Oh.. t..that's cool..!" Saurus pipes up. An impressive feat knowing his cowardice with speaking and... everything. Wimp.

I shrug. "Yeah yeah. COooooLLl."

"You live here? All on your own?" Pax inquires, still for some reason thinking that glaring at me is gonna stop me from glaring. Hypocrite.

"Well not really alone. I have a friend who visits me," Swift answers. "He's like my family."

"So where's your actual actual family?" I ask. 

Pax hisses like some pink furless cat. "Storm!"

"It's okay, Pax." Swift assures her. "My parents died a long time ago. I've moved on, so you don't have to worry about upsetting me."

UGHHGGH WHY DID I HAVE TO ASK. Now I'm gonna feel bad when I wanna talk shit about her. But she DID say she moved on and it doesn't upset her soooooo...

"Oh.. well.. thank you for helping us look for our friend."

I see a smile spread across Swift's face again, full of endearment or whatever. "No problem." 

She stops suddenly, frozen so still so quickly she's almost like the tree she's perched on.

"Wrong way?" I scoff before a small "ow" as Pax hits me in the same spot with her elbow.

"No, we're here." 

~~~

Wither POV

The floor of the cage is still damp with water. I try to resist hugging myself to keep warm. I don't want anyone coming in and seeing me in a vulnerable position. If only I could just stop myself from shivering..

I hear someone enter the room, the door's opening and loud shut as indicators. I turn slightly to catch a glimpse of the person, expecting Ginn or that trickster Kick. Why?? Why did I not step in before he tricked Leif? Idiot.. IDIOT IM AN IDIOT!

"N-No Wither! You're not an idiot! It.. It's my fault.. I'm sorry!"

No. It's his fault. Kick. Ginn. Sward. Alan. It's all their fault!

Why do they all have to be so selfish and disgusting? These men.. all they ever want is..

ARGHH I wish they would all just die! Whats the point in them even living? Disgusting creatures like them.. What's the point in living in a world full of them??

Wait no.. Leif, I didn't mean that. Don't.. ughh. Don't cry, please. 

"No one should just die.."

I know.. I know. I made a mistake. I'm sorry. 

"It's okay.."

"You're the Chosen of Life, right?" 

The newcomer is that Sonya girl. She's maybe a few years older than me, but something about her feels.. simple minded. Like.. Leif. A childlike fixation on a belief with no knowledge of anything outside her own little world.

Even so with the similarities and lack of being a man, there's something about her that makes my blood boil and my skin crawl.

"What do you want." I snap. "Who are you? You're with those assholes aren't you."

"I don't really know in full detail what needs to be done," Sonya begins. "But I know you stole something from Ginn that he's spent a long time working towards."

"I didn't steal shit." I scoff. "You think I asked for some magic tree to give me some talking flying leaf so my sister's murderer could dedicate his lovely time to trying to kill me?"

"Why can't you just force the connection out? Or just reject it?" 

"Oh yeah sure lemme just quickly ask the talking leaf- oh wait its all tired and weak because you guys TRIED TO DROWN ME." I roll my eyes. "Why the hell are you even with them? Who are you? That Kick guy's sister?"

"I-" She looks angry but she's fumbling for words. Just like Leif. "Ginn deserves that power more than you do. You don't need it! You have your life out here with that blue girl all safe in this little town. Why did YOU have to be given his chance at.."

She disappears around the side of the glass. A hiss hums around me as the door slides open. I jump to my feet, quickly seizing this chance to leap out of my prison, only to land in her grasp. She clasps her hand around my throat and my back is thrown up against the glass. 

My fingers pry at hers and I kick out towards her torso, but before I make contact my skull rattles. It feels like my throat has been pulled up and out my mouth, my screams are garbled and I only succeed in biting onto my tongue. I force my mouth shut to avoid the same mistake.

Her palm is pressed against my head, shockwaves run through my bone and every fibre of my flesh is put under strain. My vision of her is like a scattered puzzle, my lunges at her result in nothing but more pain as the seconds tick on.

I break under the agony and scream again, writhing, clawing, desperate to break out of this onslaught of torture. 

"Get out of her!" I barely piece together her words. Her face, though a waving dancing image of colour burns straight through my mind, hurting me somewhere so buried and raw. Her purple skin hurts my eyes, my head. My heart races faster than it was before, which is an impressive feat. 

I know why I hate her.

I whip my head down, bumping my chin into my neck as I take his disgusting flesh between my teeth. My screams become his and I bite down, harder and harder, trying to join my teeth together within his arm.

He retracts his hand from my neck but I don't let go. I wrench back my head, and his screams go an octave higher. He staggers back, and I glare at him, spitting the piece of his arm from my mouth.

I charge at Alan, my palm closing around his face, my entire weight bringing us both down. His head slams against the floor with a satisfying thump and I replace my hand with a fist into his face. Again and again I exchange each hand, I try to carve into his disgusting face, the blood of my fists and his are mixed in the bowl of his skin. His arms tangle with mine and we fumble across the floor, scrabbling, kicking and screaming. 

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" I spit at his eye and squeeze my hands around his throat.

A hard object crushes into my side and cut me free from him. I can feel my ribs crack before I hit the ground, rolling into the wall. 

"Sonya!" Kick rushes to Alan and pulls him from the floor, Ginn by his side.

Only now do I take the time to breathe again. It hurts, filling my battered chest and out my shaking lips, tinged with the flavour of my blood. My vision is still out of whack but I can see more clearly than when Sonya attacked... me..

That wasn't Alan.

Ginn's stupid sunglasses cover any view of his eyes or hint of what he's feeling. His body language, hunched and lowered to Sonya as if he's checking on her. He pauses before turning back to me.

"I'm sorry.. I let her out to.. to try to get the connection out of her myself.." Sonya sputters, scarlet trickling down her chin. "I guess I underestimated her.."

"It's alright, Sonya. I understand." Ginn speaks, still looking at me. "Thank you for trying."

I have to get up but my limbs won't listen to me. I got out of the cage.. if I can just make it past them out the door, I'll be free. I'll be away from them.

I can't move from where I lay.. why am I so weak? Why am I so useless?

No, no time to think about that.. just..

I manage to drag one foot under my weight, pushing me to a kneeling position. My hands scramble to balance me as I slowly heave myself shakily to my feet. I can't stop myself from grimacing as my chest seems to cave into itself. 

"I doubt you can run your way out of here." Ginn says simply.

It hurts too much to breathe, much less speak. So as my response I throw myself forward, flicking my legs outward one after another to keep me running. 

I end up on the ground again, after Kick knocked me back down in my attempt to run past. 

So close.. Why do I keep failing? I've been given the chances and I..

I can't do this. 

"Thank you for trying."

Leif POV

"Please.." It hurts to breathe, and more to talk. But I need to. I'm sure if I ask nicely, we can leave this place. Everyone's good in their inside, Ginn and Sward and Kick must all just be confused.

But it hurts so much, and it makes talking so hard.

Red petals cough out of my mouth, and blue flowers form in the corners of my eyes. I want to speak, say something, but I can't stop crying and I can't stop coughing.

When I took over from Wither I wasn't ready for this sudden and intense pain..!

Ginn grabs me, but it's surprisingly gentle.

"If there was a better way to do this, I'd do it." He says. "With your current condition.. I'll try to make this quick."

"P-Please..." I manage to spit out. "Don't h-hurt me.."

"Unfortunately it has to for this to work. I'm sorry." 

"But Ginn, the machine wont work now that the core guy is dead right?" Sonya says, confused.

"Yes.. but I have a little idea." I think I see a grin pull across his mouth.

His grip tightens and a hand grabs me by the hair, making me yelp.

"Well Kick, time for you to show your loyalty!" Ginn forces me to my knees.

"Um what?" Kick looks as confused as Sonya.

"We're gonna have to put her body through so much pain, to the brink of death, that the connection has no choice but to abandon her body." Ginn sounds almost happy to say that.

"Um.. WHAT?"

"Well, Kick?" Ginn grins. "Make good on your word."