Chapter 5

"Where am I? Is the kid ok?" The hare began before startling up on her paws. Her muzzle twisted into a snarl as she bolted back, moving in reverse until she worked herself up against a tree at the sight of the wolf.

"Where's the apartment? The city? The forest… No… no… The control room? I remember an alley and a hawk…Oh, dear... What? You're a... You're a..." Grimm could see her heart palpitating through the quivers in her fur.

"Try to stay calm," The wolf assured; all the while, she twitched for a moment, falling into a brief rictus, the panic overwhelming sense. She went to run but startled again, slamming her muzzle into the ground.

The smack acted like a bucket of cold water. She bolted upright, only to continue with the verbal tirade.

"Stay calm? Animals aren't supposed to talk!" She protested, shaking her head, "this isn't a novel by Lewis Carroll. Am I tripping?" Sitting up on her back legs, she pressed her paws to her head, "Somethings wrong... Boxes... Somethings wrong..."

"Breathe... focus on me. I'm not going to hurt you. Do you remember me at all?" Grimm asked, keeping his body language non-threatening, looking down and away.

It was his first time on this side of things, and his own heart was pounding, racing with his thoughts.

The last time he was here, he had been terrified too.

"You... You're familiar, but I don't remember you. There's a sense of you, though...Gra... Gra... How am I talking?" The hare trailed off before she cocked her head to the right. Slowly, her muzzle raised towards Grimm's silver halo.

"We are each sapient beings, connected and speaking through magic. I am a celestial; you are part celestial and part mortal. All of these things will be understood in time," Grimm wagged his tail as the hare convulsed like a stuttering video.

"I'm dead...again... Am I being punished? It's like there's two lives inside of me; one is faint, ghostly, but there, the other one is akin to concrete fragments of memory. It's... It's like icebergs. This body feels wrong, but not... didn't I have thumbs?" She worked her left forepaw as she stuck it out long, forgetting all about her instinctual terror.

"Some part of you had thumbs," Grimm recognized Riley at that moment, but did she?

"Can you tell me your name?" He asked, the question smacking into her like a freight train, refocusing on him, but her breathing was slowing. Things were settling down.

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"Maybe? One part of me says Riley; the other is slippery... We... Wi.. Something?" She stammered before looking down at the ground, her eyes dilated, portending true terror.

"Something awful happened. Something I can't remember, flashes of...? I'm dead, but that happens, right? Every couple years? Why is this more terrifying? Something is going spare inside of me. The other part is strangely calm. It's like... water rushing to fill a void space. I'm scared... Can you help me?" She pleaded.

"You're alive, actually; death is just a threshold, and you've both crossed it. Now, let me explain," Grimm wagged his tail and let his tongue hang out, trying and failing to ape the appearance of a dog.

"Nope, not buying that cheeseball routine," Riley chided, "so this is my freaky afterlife? Are you my Guardian Angel? What about the tunnel and dead relatives?"

That wasn't Riley, but Willa. Grimm could see the two pieces resolving into one soul before his eyes, inspiring both wonder and terror.

Was it really this easy to make a person or to unmake one? All in all, this felt cruel. Two different lifetimes colliding into one. Creation was supposed to be beautiful, but this wasn't. This was a train wreck, and all he could do was help her with the aftermath.

Alaric... Grimm growled within.

"This is more like a waystation. You're the result of the choices of those who came before you, Riley and Willa. Each sacrificed parts of themselves for the survival of another; normally, you would each pass back through the cycle and incarnate separately, becoming part of new beings, but the fates ordained something different; towards what end is a mystery they are content to keep," A moment of realization dawned for the hare, as Grimm explained.

"That explains the incongruence, but what's the difference really if we were just pieces? Why not put us together if we were both there? It seems like we had similar goals," She trailed off.

"You do seem similar. Riley told Willa to take the child to safety. She did, only to double back around and attempt to assist. Some souls naturally run towards danger. You were each that way," Grimm felt his own guilt deep within, like an unhealed wound.

"The kid... are they ok? Are they safe after the... Orlag event?" She shook her head as if remembering was painful.

"Yes, Riley and Willa both sacrificed the whole of themselves, but it was towards a successful and noble end," Grimm explained.

"And you... stayed... behind?" She asked.

"I thought I was doing my duty; for what it is worth, I am sorry. I suppose your genesis is an opportunity for both of us in this regard," the wolf said, dipping his head this time while his ears drooped.

"That's a good way to look at it, I think. Life isn't static. You have to keep moving forward. Things were bad back in the human city, but they weren't going to get better by me being sad about it. Buck up, buddy," a golden strand began to form out of the ether around the hare's left back paw.

"What's that?" Her ears flattened as the right hindpaw began to vibrate, thumping the ground.

"Your next incarnation looms. We haven't much time. Are you ok?" Grimm asked.

"Uh.. No...Nope... Uh, what the hell kind of question is that? I'm a long way from it. I've got all these screens floating in front of my eyes, disjointed memories, and the two parts of me died a martyr...before some kind of something made a Frankenstein's monster soul that happens to be me. This is kind of nuts, but I'll get through it. Just keep running, just keep moving, it'll sort, or I'm nuts. What other choice is there?" Slowly, the golden thread began to go taught.

"I will be watching. Remember my name, Grimm, speak it thrice, and if I can help, I will," he intoned.

"I guess call me Riley. It's got a nice ring to it, uh... shit... I still have no idea what..." Riley was pulled back in a sudden jerk before vanishing.

"Bye!" echoed on the winds.

"Stars, it's been a weird day," Grimm said to himself, "Wait a minute. Screens? What screens?"