CHAPTER 23 – T-minus (9)

"I-it is poison," Feather says.

Mr. Wrap looks at his wound, and I do too. Blood spreads out of his chest, and I feel myself tear up. There must be something I could do. The doctors… if only they were here…

"Mr. Wrap," I cry out, looking at him in pain, in tears like me, yet only fallen on his knees, stiff as a rock.

I feel bad, to be so undecided and unhelpful to this great man, and grab the arrow on Mr. Wrap's chest, even with water covering my eyes, I somehow concentrate. But Ma grabs my hands, and pulls it from the arrow, carefully.

"Psyand, no! You may hurt him," Ma says, holding me closer, and looking at Mr. Wrap.

Ma was teary too. It was rare to see her this way. The one other time she was teary, was when I woke up in the hospital, that one time.

Mr. LB was at the edge of the dome, closing his ears, and scared.

"You must survive, please. Or this all, all this pain, will be for nothing. We need you to survive," the-elite-on-the-speaker says.

"Oh you guy filled with might must be feeling strong behind that speaker and the dome, huh?" Rusk asks. "Why don't you come here and face us and see, if you stand a chance?"

Mr. Wrap laughs through pain.

"Because I know I don't," the-elite-on-the-speaker says. "But I will grant you that. If you escape here, that is."

Mr. Wrap gasps for air, and the-elite-on-the-speaker scoffs.

"Goodbye and…" the-elite-on-the-speaker says. "Don't just fly away, Feather. I knew you were here. Let us see how good you have become."

"FIGHT IT WRAP!"

Ms. Scelesthe runs this way, and releases some lightning through her gauntlets, towards Mr. Wrap's chest. Mr. Wrap almost falls, because of the force, but Ms. Scelesthe holds him in her arms.

"About a minute, and a half. Or maybe two," Ms. Scelesthe says.

Mr. Forcerer runs here, and picks Mr. Wrap. Ms. Scelesthe helps and they take him away, as Rusk opens the shield, just a bit, for them. And as they exit, Rusk closes it again. Ms. Scelesthe covers Mr. Wrap, and they take Mr. Wrap away, to a nearby building.

Feather quickly follows, getting himself up, even after being hurt too.

"Rusk, are you ok?" Ma asks.

"Yes. I'll be fine," Rusk says. "But you need to go please. It may not be safe here. Just check on Wrap."

"Mr. LB…" I say, looking at Mr. LB, who was still in his state.

Rusk looks at Mr. LB, and gets sadder.

"I'll protect him…" Rusk says. "Could you please take the luggage which you can manage?"

I and Ma just take two bags, and Rusk makes a shielded path for us to take, and go back to our building, and back to Rusk's room.

Ma shields over me, making me stand in front of her, as she covers me and opens the door.

We go inside and Ma checks on Witch, just in case.

"She's safe," Ma says, and looks at me. "You are still crying."

I wipe my tears and sniffle. "I'm fine. Let us go to Mr. Wrap, please!"

"I'm worried too. But… we don't know where they went exactly."

After some time Ms. Scelesthe gets us, and takes us to another room, with a Grandpa.

"Scelestha… could you and Psyand get the other bags from the entrance? We only brought the smaller ones," Ma asks Ms. Scelesthe.

"But I wanna see Mr. Wrap!"

"Psyand… just don't be like that now!"

Ma storms away, into another room. I cry loudly, but Ma just walks away, and Ms. Scelesthe holds me, wordlessly.

After my crying stops, me and Ms. Scelesthe go to get the bags. As we enter outside, Ms. Scelesthe covers me.

"It'll be fine, Psyand," Ms. Scelesthe says, and I wipe my tears. "I understand that you feel sad Psyand. But none of what I or your mother say, is to get you to stop crying. It is merely to stop you from feeling bad."

I don't say a word, and we get all the bags to the room, in two turns.

"Then…" I say. "Is crying ok?"

"We all are put through tough times Psyand," Ms. Scelesthe says. "Either we fight or feel sad about it, it doesn't matter. We just need to face it. And you can take some time to feel bad and cry. But… you can't stop. Not there."

I hug Ms. Scelesthe, and she just pats my bag.

"I, and everyone will be here for you Psyand," Ms. Scelesthe says. "Even Lost-Bird needs some time off, that is why I didn't approach him. So you both can take your time, ok? I swear to protect you both in battle. As long as you are near me."

Ms. Scelesthe just dozes off on the chair, as I open up bags, to distract myself. And I find the book again, from the bag I had gotten with Ma.

"Psyand, you can't peek into other's belongings. Everyone has a past which they don't want to share, and we must respect that," Ma had said. "Would you like it if the others peeked into our past?"

But then again… Ms. Scelesthe was sleeping and… Ma isn't around.

No! I shouldn't.

Feather makes me something to eat. It tasted weird, but it was fine. And as I eat, sitting in the room, Ms. Scelesthe jolts awake.

Did she have a nightmare? That must be sad.

"Rusk still hasn't returned?" Ms. Scelesthe asks, looking at me.

"No…" I say. "You barely slept, Ms. Scelesthe. Everything is the same."

"Hmm, really unnecessary, but so that name is your preference?" Ms. Scelesthe asks.

"That is your real name," I shrug. "Why even use another? There barely is a difference anyway."

"Hmm. Maybe it makes me feel stronger," Ms. Scelesthe says.

Stronger?

I couldn't ask about it. I should respect their past too.

Ms. Scelesthe… no, Ms. Scelestha, leaves the room.

But asking about the past would make the person feel bad, and they may ask you back. But if it were something written down… it is just checking the person.

I must have watched a lot of mystery movies. Or maybe I took some words way too seriously. Either way, I had to know. And if it were nothing, then it only is good. I would just forget it then.

Only between me and this book…

.

.

.

"It has everything about us. About me, about mom, about Witch, about Rusk, about Wrap," I sniffle, holding up the book.

Mr. LB just stares at me, wordlessly.

While everyone struggle to think of a move, Witch forms a sword in her hand and places it as Mr. LB's neck. Goosebumps jolt down my back, and I almost drop the book.

"Give me the book, Psyand," Witch says, holding her position, and looking at me.

I give the book to Witch, and she manages to hold it with one hand, and look at the content slowly. It wasn't much, but it was a huge log of our sightings, our information, both personal and power-based.

Ms. Scelestha helps Witch hold the book and reads through it too, with shock on her face.

"So it indeed was a plan," Ms. Scelestha says. "Meeting us, and getting to us."

"Come on, that isn't what is written on it," Mr. LB says.

"So? Maybe you anticipated such a thing. And didn't write it," Witch says. "Let us even say you didn't plan it. Still, what the FUCK is this?"

Mr. LB nudges a bit, but Witch moves the sword to his neck again.

"Wait a minute," Ms. Scelestha says, and I realise she reached the part. "There is an entry… Arson."

Mr. Edward moves ahead to grab the book, but Ms. Scelestha doesn't let him.

"No, wait," Mr. Edward says. "There is no way. Even us on TBC have no information on Arson. I NEED to know."

"We still don't know if you are from TBC," Rusk says. "Everyone knows about TBC."

"And I don't trust TBC," Ms. Scelestha says. "Ring or not, that organisation is down, and Saturn would know about them. So you could be anyone at all."

Mr. Edward just lifts both his hands and backs away.

"Alright then, birdie," Witch turns to Mr. LB. "Speak, or I will make you unable to."

"Now, now, he is like the only other person of Saturn, possibly. Besides Edward. We do not want that," Ms. Scelestha says.

"I'm not from Saturn Organisation," both Mr. LB and Mr. Edward say.

"Can we not get to the killing part, yet?" Ma asks.

"I said possibly," Ms. Scelestha says.

"Psyand, you should probably go inside," Ma says.

"What?" I ask, wiping my tears.

"You should," everyone, including Mr. LB, say.

"I brought the book! I possibly saved us from… you know! And so stop treating me like a fucking kid!"

"Psyand!" Ma says.

"But you are a kid," Rusk says.

"Oh, shut up Rusk!" I say.

Everyone gets silent and looks at me.

"I'm sorry brother," I say, taking a small-step back. "But you know… can we just…"

I feel my cheeks turn hot, unable to find words to say.

"Can we get to the actual thing now?" Witch asks. "Who are you? What is this?"

Mr. LB just looks at Witch, with some expression.

"And who is this… 'The Brave 1'?" Ms. Scelestha adds.