Chaos 🌃

"Deneeos!" I yell. It's hard to focus given my current situation, but considering the events around us, I don't really care about being reckless. "Deneeos, please. Don't. Please."

Like me, he's crying. He knows what'll happen, but he does it anyway. He lets go, and as we fall, I watch the monster disappear, taking him along with it.

I hear James curse behind us, and we're caught by a cushion of air. I hop off of it as quickly as I can and begin running.

The monster reappears at the end of the parking lot, trying to figure out how it got there. At the other end there's a person, coughing and failing to get out of the way.

"Deneeos!"

I hear James running behind me, perhaps followed by some of his soldiers. The monster's stirring, regathering its bearings after being teleported. I drag Deneeos out of the way, towards the edge of the lot. He's stopped coughing, but he's now barely conscious. Not only that, he’s also much paler than he should be. I fall to the ground, trying to keep my tears from clouding my vision (well, again), and pull him over as gently as I can. James is standing to the side. I wasn’t paying enough attention to notice when he got there.

I hear a commotion from the house, then a sort of pop noise somewhere off to my left. When I look up, I see William and Evie fighting viciously with the monster. They have weapons, yet of course, they don't have armor. Usually I would do something to stop them. Usually I would care. Right now, I can't bring myself to look away from the person lying in front of me.

"You idiot," I whisper to Deneeos. "You knew what would happen. You knew, and you still did it anyway."

"I do a lot of stupid things," he says back, his voice quiet and hoarse, a small smile on his lips. He tries to push himself up. It doesn't work.

"Stay down," I tell him. "Don't make it worse."

"Mm," he sighs. "It's... I'm pretty bad, Vik."

He reaches out, but he can't see well enough. I grab his hand. "Don't act like that," I scold. "Don't say it that way. You'll... you're..."

I've dealt with plenty of patients, a lot with stupid severe injuries. Most of them have belonged to Deneeos–but they've never been this bad. It's never gotten this bad, no matter what stupid thing he does, no matter what goes wrong.

"Vik, I..." He moves his hand away from mine and points vaguely towards the house across the dirt road. "I can... if I could just..."

I hear something underground, moving, deep beneath the earth. I smack down his hand. "Deneeos! No, no magic. You'll kill yourself. Stop." I try to sound tough, but by the end, the words are quiet, and my voice is breaking again. I look at Deneeos. To his hand, his chest, barely moving up and down now, his eyes, staring, pleading at the lawn across the way. A plan forms.

"James," I say, turning to him. He's staring at Deneeos, trying to keep his own composure.

"Yeah?" He doesn't look away. I snap my fingers, and he turns.

I point to the house. "Break their pipes."

"What?"

"Their water pipes. Break them."

He scoffs. "Viktor, I can't just—"

"Break them."

He sighs. "Okay. I trust you."

His eyes refocus, trained on the house, he lifts his hand, and I feel the power resonating within the earth return full-force.

Until it bursts, and along with it, the neighbor's pipes shoot water fifteen feet into the air, breaking the Spell of Silence over the houses.

And with that, a light in the house turns on, and footsteps approach, and Rävo Dülgar comes running, spear pointing at the monster, launching herself at it. Because that’s Rävo.

The water splits into two clear streams. One heads straight for the monster, effectively pelting and jostling it around, working alongside Evie, William, and Rävo. The other heads for us, taking a moment to inspect Deneeos. Then it gingerly touches his finger, and he sits bolt upright, coughing and sputtering again. The water curls around, watching him.

The energy boost wears off. After all, it was only meant to keep him from dying on the spot (which I can’t say I’m not grateful for, of course). He falls, and I catch him, pulling him closer.

"You idiot," I whisper again, feeling his grasp on me tightening. "You idiot, I thought you were going to... I was going to..."

"Viktor?" he mutters the words into my shoulder, where he's propped himself up.

"Yeah?"

"We're even now."

And even in the midst of this catastrophe, that makes me smile.