Incline 46: Heiya

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! POPS! POPS!" I scream, rushing with all I have. The dead mobster's nails scratch across my neck, scraping them open. I reach my father, clutching onto him. I throw him about, shaking him with all I have, as his warmth is everywhere but in his arms. It's all over the floor, spreading and soaking into my legs and clothes...!?

He holds a firm face, clasping my cheek with a weak paw. He smiles, stroking his thumb across my wet cheek. Soaking my fur in his blood. Soaking me in the blood of an idiot...

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT!? WHY DID YOU DO SOMETHING SO STUPID!? WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOOT HIM WHILE YOU HAD THE CHANCE!? WHY DIDN'T YOU- Why didn't you...? Pops... Please... Pops!" I whimper, breaking down into hiccups and ceaseless shaking.

Pops gulps hard, clearing his mouth of the build-up of bloody dribble. I snuggle against him, holding him close as my nose drowns in the smell of his blood. It clings to every bit of flesh, every obnoxious hair and slimy chunk of snot. The smell of my father's dying body.

"Oh, no..." Hrurim lets out, stumbling out into the open with that damn bug. I glare at the pair, holding Pops close as he clings on to life even with where the bullet went. I saw it. I saw it go right for his heart. I can't feel it. I can't feel its beat!

"Hei... He- Heiya." he struggles to get out and I lean away, finding his paw on my lips. I kiss away, hoping to somehow pass on any bit of magic in my body. I know this is how it works. This is how it works. If I give him magic, he will live, right!? Right!?

"H-HOLD ON!" Hrurim screams, his body springy with energy and awareness. He rushes off, vanishing around the wrecks. Where is he...?

"Heiya..." Pops repeats, gently pushing me away.

"P-Pops...!?" I let out, squeaking as my voice breaks into a million pieces. Pops pats about his chest, slapping just above the wound. I reach in and pull out what he seems to be gesturing for.

"Keep... K-Keep..." he wheezes, his lips finding the strength for one last smile. My cries go silent and I watch him go limp. His eyes close, the signs of air in his nose vanishing. 

"HOLD ON IVAHSTAR! I'VE GOT THE-" Hrurim screams, rushing back into view with a bottle of some kind. I blink and unfold what Pops wanted me to have. The hug he has on my body grows ever distant. Practically not even being there anymore when I can still see that it is.

I unfurl the little booklet, seeing picture after picture soaked in blood. My eyes travel to the driest of them all. The one we took back in Agadton before we left. It's gone. The bullet went right through his face in the picture.

My tears don't even fall onto the picture. They fall right through the bullet hole in it. I keep staring at the picture. Clinging to the image of me smiling and the headless image next to me. Pops is gone. Pops is gone. 

He's completely gone from my life and all I have to remember him by...

"P-Pops..." I whimper. I'm cold, Pops. I'm tired, Pops. I'm afraid... Pops...

Don't...

"Don't leave me, Pops..." I cry, holding his lifeless body close. My grip tightens, his cooling flesh taking my heat and not giving any back. I sniffle and sniffle, unable to do anything as Hrurim approaches. The sensation of magic burns the death-filled, smoke fog of the underground.

He limply hands me the bottle, already having opened it. I snatch it from his hands and pour it on Pops, soaking him in the magic-rich liquid to no avail. Undwote is still coming for him now. The Pack of Seven has his scent in the same way I do.

The roar of cars fills the chamber.

"We... We need to go," Hrurim tells me, his hand coming close. I lash out, biting into the meat of his fingers. All the way to the bone. I growl against his skin and he stares at me, nothing but a mutual feeling all over his face.

My jaw turns slack and I go limp. Another sniffle goes through me, and I twitch my head around. Headlights are coming closer. Weapons no doubt ready to take our lives in the hands of everyone. Hrurim tugs at me again, urging me onwards.

"Heiya. We need to go," Hrurim repeats, his words practically forced out at gunpoint.

I choke on my thoughts and stare deep into his eyes.

"..."

"Heiya!" he snaps, grabbing my arm.

"Ok..." I let out, weakly. He hoists me up, not a speck of energy anywhere in my muscles.

"You! Bug! Grab that container and get moving!" Hrurim snaps, not even bothering to speak to the osibindah in the surface tongue. He gets the point either way and gathers up weapons. My face continues to water silently and I grab Pops' spike gun. I cling it close to my chest and stare down at him.

My eyes bounce between the corpse of my last family member and the arriving mobsters. A fire worse than anything that's burned today sets off inside of me. I scramble around, looking for a weapon that has bullets. Anything!

My elbow strikes Hrurim's face, freeing me, and he snatches me right back up.

"HEIYA! NO! WE NEED TO GO!" Hrurim shouts against my ear as I thrash against him. My quills sabre and stab him, cutting into whatever they can get their points into. Desperation drives me mad and I try to force my way to a gun. One barely enters my hand and the first firing throws it right out. A useless shot that goes nowhere near blood.

"POPS! POPS! POOOOOOOOOOPS!" I scream, thrashing about against his human friend as I start to lose details. The bullet-ruined photo clings to my mind's eye. Each step away by Hrurim makes it harder to see my father. Each step away he hauls me makes it the same as that photo. Details I am going to forget and never see again. A memory I will now lose.

I don't want to forget Pops. I don't want to forget yet another face in my life. I don't want to forget any other faces in my life. I've already lost Mom and everyone else... Not you, too, Pops... Not you too!

Pops! Dad! Father!

"NOOOOOOO! NOOOOOOO!" I scream and wail endlessly, smashing my head back into Hrurim. I try to loosen his grip however I can and get nowhere with it. The bastard human won't let go. Pops' friend won't let me cling to my father's body!

He won't...

Pops.

"Pops... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." I whimper, sobbing away against Hrurim's arm as one clear detail goes through my head. It's my fault Pops is dead. If I never got grabbed just then, then he'd be...!

"Why did I have to be hit like that...!? DAMMIT!" Hrurim swears, his thoughts somehow mirroring mine in too similar a way. I twist around, watching his eyes as they water too.

"Put me down... Put me down now!" I cry, unable to get anything loud out of my hoarse throat. Hrurim shakes his head, his teeth biting down on his lip until it runs red. He shakes his head again, eyes watering with heart-filled pain.

Pops...