Hazel was wide-eyed and smiling at Grim as they fell two stories. Grim tried to scream, but Hazel shoved her hand over her mouth to stop any sound from coming out. Blood smeared over Grim’s face as she did so, still warm from her stomach wound. The smell of iron contrasted with the scent of pine from the tree they were hurtling towards.

Oh, good. They’d end up as a smear before they hit the ground.

"Trust," Hazel said, her eyes nearly glazed over.

They spun, and for a moment, she saw Phil jump over the edge too, and she felt any hope of them making it out of this situation die. The both of them were crazy and suicidal, she'd just hadn't had enough time to figure it out yet. They flipped over again with hazel on the bottom, and she watched in horror as they hit the tree.

Only the tree opened up like a ribcage to swallow them up inside, tiny tendrils of wood acted as a net and broke to slow their fall until they came to a complete stop. The gap behind them closed, and the wood shifted to support them as the last of the light was cut off, leaving them in complete darkness.

"Oh," Grim said, at a loss for words.

Hazel coughed, and Grim felt specks of liquid hit her neck. Their bodies were intertwined, and they could move only a few inches in either direction. While Hazel was coughing, Grim put a hand to her stomach.

There was blood, lots of it.

"When did they get you?" Grim asked.

Hazel finished coughing and took a second to catch her breath, "Which time?"

She laughed before devolving into another coughing fit.

"Stop!" Grim ordered, and she did. "The one in your stomach."

"The lobby, but don't worry about me. I'm not real, alright? I can take it."

Not real? A surge of anger hit her.

"You’re pain sounds real. The blood on my fucking face feels real. Hazel, fuck. We’re so close I can feel you dying."

Hazel tensed up and tried to breathe normally, like a wounded animal hiding their injuries, "Sorry."

"That's not- Listen, I'm gonna put you back in my shadow, okay? We can talk later."

Grim felt Hazel’s grip on her tighten, "No! If I go in, when my Boon drops, the tree will start to go back to normal, and you’ll suffocate or get squished to death."

"So what? I'm supposed to watch you die?"

It was silent for a moment.

"Yeah."

She wanted to scream.

She didn’t.

A deep revulsion roiled up through her core as the back of her brain started to throb. A cold sweat broke out across her body; she wanted to throw up, almost did, but she held it down.

The sweat intermingled with the blood from Hazel’s wounds. It warmed her for a moment before it too became cold.

Hazel’s breathing was slow enough that she was surprised every time she drew another breath.

The bark was quiet, deafening the sounds from outside. There was nothing to distract her, and she could not move beyond an inch or two; the tree limbs encased them like shells.

.

.

.

She flinched, trying to pull herself away from Hazel. She couldn’t breathe, everything was too close. She gasped for air as she pulled against the bark.

“Grim! It’s okay! You’re okay,” Hazel said.

She reached for her knife, “I can’t fucking breathe, get me out of here. I can’t do this. Get the fuck away from me.”

“We have air, there’s holes. You’re okay, you can breathe.”

She couldn’t. She was lying.

Grim reached for [FRIENDLY SHADOW]. There was that thread connecting them, she had found it earlier. If she wouldn’t let her out, she would make her.

She dove into the skill and grabbed that part of it that would let her change her, force her to do what she wante—

"— Grim?" Phil spoke, his voice in her head.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She let go of the thread, a second away from doing something she couldn’t take back. She sucked in air as she tried to calm herself down. She didn’t know where the panic had come from. Maybe she’d finally reached her limit. She wasn’t sure.

"Phil? You're okay? Where are you?" Grim asked.

"I can feel you speaking, but this isn’t a two-way radio. I'm close by, in a tree of my own and we’ll have to wait this one out. The Watch are currently swarming this place and I wouldn't be surprised if more Witches come in response after we took out Lifeline. I won’t risk using his boon anymore, and I suggest you keep quiet, too. Buckle in and try to get some sleep; we’ve got a long night ahead of us."

Grim tried to ask him some more questions but he didn't respond. Hazel was quiet too, silent in her suffering.

She’d regained control of herself; the forced panic she had felt before was still there but manageable. She didn’t struggle anymore; she didn’t want to think about what she’d almost just done.

How did it get so wrong so fast?

The answer wasn’t hard to come by, she was weak. She’d been trying to run from it her whole life, but at the end of the day, she was. Hazel wouldn’t have to keep dying for her otherwise.

She couldn’t live like this anymore, not with everything hurting. She’d grown used to chronic pain, owed to the burns on her body. Most of the nerve endings had been overloaded until they’d settled down with an ignorable buzz. This was different, it was born from a void. The numbness she’d been living in the past few weeks. Years, if she went back that far.

Her thoughts were jumbled, and she couldn’t keep her mind in one direction long enough to fix herself. There was a path forward, and she would find it, but for now, it could wait.

She hugged Hazel, squeezing her with the rest of her strength. She buried her head into the side of her neck, and in the darkness, she couldn’t tell whether her face was wet from tears or blood.

------------------------------------

Grim was trapped, an immovable weight rested on her as the air was scorching. Her skin blistered as she screamed for help.

No one came.

She felt herself die as a voice screamed in her ear.

"Grim! Wake up, we need to go," Phil shouted, directly into her brain.

Everything was dark as she woke up, she tried to open her eyes but everything was still black, she squirmed but she was still trapped. Her heart rate rose as she realized there was nowhere to go, her death was travelling up her right arm, towards her head.

Her blade sunk into it but she felt no pain as the knife chipped off the bark of the tree.

"Hey, hey. It's okay, we're okay," Hazel cooed, her voice soft and delicate, barely audible even in the silence.

Hazel was… here? That didn’t make— they were still in the tree. That made sense, the air was hot but it wasn’t scorching. She wasn’t burnt.

She folded the blade back and maneuved it back into it’s holster, her muscles complained at her the whole time. A combination of bad sleep and how fast she’d moved trying to stab herself.

"Sorry, bad dream,” Grim said. “Phil said it’s time to go.

It took a moment for Hazel to reply, "That's good to hear, what were you dreaming about?"

Grim chased at the echoes of her memories but they were fleeting and ran from her. She’d only managed to recall vague impressions, more feelings than memories. Even the small glimpse she got was terrifying and she wasn’t sure she wanted to share it with Hazel. Not because she didn’t trust her but something like that should be kept hidden.

Or should it?

She wasn’t sure, but maybe just once would be okay. In the darkness of this tree’s hollow, no one could overhear and that would be as good as she’d ever get.

Grim recounted her dream in a hurry, conscious of Phil waiting on them. Hazel was quiet as she listened, not daring to interrupt her.

When she finished her story it was quiet, and the silence stretched on long enough for Grim to regret opening her mouth.

“Forget it, I shouldn’t have said anything,” Grim said. “We should go.”

Hazel didn’t move.

“I said we should— Hazel?”

The tree opened up behind them, the sunlight blinding her as she fell forward on top of Hazel. She flailed for a moment, too weak to push herself up. It was wet underneath her fingers and her eyes were still adjusting from the darkness they were in.

Once she could see, she caught the tail end of a blackened mass laying beside her dissolve into shadow. It limply nuzzled itself back into its proper place on her back.

[FRIE-]

Her boon recoiled away from her like a sprained muscle.

She wanted to feel surprised but she wasn't. She just felt empty.

The sunlight was warm on her skin as she closed her eyes, the blades of grass dug into her back, giving an odd sensation of pressure but without the ability to tell what it was. The nerves had only half healed, leaving her to feel only the barest whispers.

She stayed like that for a long time, the moment seeming to stretch on forever.

"What are you doing, kid? This isn't the time to be sunbathing. Do you know how long it took me to find you? Get up, let’s go," Phil said, hovering over her.

She opened her eyes, Phil wasn't wearing his armor any more, and looked like more of a dad on a walk.

Who dressed him? The thought caused her to start laughing.

“Not again. Fuck me, never should of come here,” Phil scowled as he lifted her to her feet. “Up you git.”

He got her to take off the white cloak she'd been wearing and he opened up a tree to stash it inside. With that done he guided her by the back of her sweater like a little kid. She didn’t have the energy to complain.

The apartment block was cordoned off and there were some Watch vehicles outside. Likely what had happened was still being investigated but since they hadn't found them they had just left a token force behind to conduct interviews.

It felt like they’d walked miles by the time they stopped but logically she knew it couldn’t have been that long. There was an older SUV infront of her and Phil beckoned her inside. The interior was meticulously clean and the passenger seat felt like it was a bed of feathers as she sunk into it.

She caught him staring at the leaves and twigs she had brought into the car, a deep frown on his face.

“Sorry,” She said.

Phil looked up, the frown disappearing, “It’s fine. Your… friend. She uhh, okay?”

"She's," Grim paused. "She'll be alright."

Phil nodded, chewing on his words as he turned the car on, and after making sure no one was following them, drove off.

"That's good. She's a tough lady, been a long time since I've seen someone risk their life like that."

Grim was on autopilot when she replied, "Yeah, she’s special."

"Keep her close, not a lot of people out there like that any more."

She almost laughed, "Trust me, can't keep her much closer if I tried."

She felt a vine wrap around her throat as Phil spoke, "Because she's not human? No more lies, what is she?"