"Maddie, you love wolves. What do we do to stop it from tearing Al's heart out of his chest?"

Maddie (the wolf expert) clenched her fists. "We need to draw it away from his blood. That wolf is an outcast from its pack, and smelled Alois's blood! Quick, make noise!"

We all started doing everything we could think of that would draw the wolf from him. Gabby yelled at it, Cate cursed at it, Maddie clapped her hands and tried making some weird call, while I tried to talk to Alois.

"You'll be okay! Don't worry!" I said, pleading with myself more than anything. "Don't worry, you'll be fine Alois!"

Alois just stared at the wolf, not moving. If I hadn't seen him blink, I would've thought he was dead.

"Girls, get behind me!"

All at once, my friends and I turned our heads to see Hannah. Blood was dripping from a large wound that gave me a clear view of the tree behind her. I'm pretty sure my face grew pale at the sight of all that blood and guts. It was like something out of one of those AMC shows.

"Hannah!" I exclaimed, unable to move away from Alois and that wolf. "Y-You're supposed to be fighting Grell, right? What happened to him?"

"He will not be bothering us, don't worry Nichole. Now if you excuse me…" Before I or my friends could say anything, Hannah demon-jumped over us (giving us a view of what's under her skirt in the process) to the nearly dead Alois Trancy and grabbed the wolf by its neck. The animal squirmed, but then let out a sharp and short YIP. The old demon-maid then dropped its lifeless corpse down onto the cold ground. I heard Maddie stifle a sob as it did.

"ALOIS!" I yelled before running as fast I could to him. Tears messed up my vison, but I could still see Alois's weak smile as I ran over and threw my arms around him. "Thank God you're okay…"

"Y-Yeah, I guess…" He replied weakly, his eyes focusing and un-focusing on me. That was definitely not a good sign, and I don't need a degree in human's studies to know that. "H-Help me…please…"

Quickly after, my friends and Hannah quickly flocked over to me like sheep. "W-We can heal you Alois, don't worry!" Gabby said, smiling at him. Maddie began unpacking the first-aid kit, and Catilin looked away from Alois and Hannah, her hand over her mouth. She couldn't stand blood.

"Yeah…Not sure about you though Hannah…" Maddie said, looking the demoness's gaping wound over with uncertainty.

"She'll be fine! She's a demon, she can live!" I said as I hurriedly took Alois's jacket and then his vest. The once pretty green vest was absolutely soaked and I hated touching the soiled thing. "Right now, we need to save Alois! We need to; we have to!" The tears from earlier began dripping down my face, but I just brushed them away in anger. Jeez tears, I'm kinda doing something important here, don't screw me up!

"You happy he doesn't have a shirt on, Nic?" Maddie asked as Alois's shirt was thrown into the pile of bloody-clothes-inc.

"Shut the *&)% up Maddie!" I practically screamed at her shrilly. It only took a moment for me to regret what I said, but as my pastor said once as he showed us a cow tongue (long story), you can never take words back. "S-Sorry…I'm just stressed right now…"

"It's okay…" Hannah said as she reached over and put her hand on my shoulder. "I know this must be quite a thing to handle… face me for a second please…"

Face her? But I need to bandage Alois up! We're losing precious time! "M-Make it quick!" I said as I spun around to meet her, my hand over Alois's wound.

"It shall be." The demoness stated, and put her other hand lightly on my lips. They felt…well, I won't describe it to you, it was kinda gross. "Now, let me expel you from this curse you've bestowed upon yourself…"

Instantly, a red hot burning feeling erupted from my mouth and my vison grew white. Think of it like getting a 3rd degree burn on your tongue and not being able to ease the pain of said burn with anything. I managed to somehow keep my mouth closed without screaming, but once Hannah brought her fingers away from my lips I did what any other sensible human would do.

I cried. No wait, I need a better word. Something more describing for it…ah, I know. I sobbed a river. Yeah, that's much better.

"N-Nichole…"

I looked over to my three friends. They all looked concerned beyond belief. On Maddie's back rested a near-naked Alois, who just stared at me with his barely responsive eyes.

"It's okay now." Hannah said, holding onto my hand, "Come on, you can stand Nichole. All I did was rid you of that cursed contract with Claude."

So she basically preformed a laser-tattoo-removal? Gee, if it hurt as much as that, I am never getting a tattoo. I nodded and took her hand, and stood up. After regaining my balance, I turned to Gabby, Maddie, Cate, and Alois, who was looking even worse sadly. "O-Okay, I'm good now…Let's go now, before Claude and Grell get here."

Everyone who was able to nod did and we all began to head out. Despite the LARGE GAPING HOLE IN HER TORSO, Hannah was able to keep pace with us easily. I was worried for her, I was, but Alois was much more important to me currently. He needed to get out of here, as soon as possible the better. If anything else happens to him, I don't know what I'll do…

"N-Nic…hole…"

That mutter was obviously Alois. I turned towards him and held his hand as tightly as I could. "What is it…?"

He squeezed my hand back lightly, and just said something I'd never expect to come out of a dirty mouth like his. "Thank you…"

As much as it embarrasses me to say this, I felt my cheeks grow way too red. He didn't say anything after I said "you're welcome" though. It's fine though, I understand. I wouldn't exactly want to speak when I was in extreme pain either.

"Look, there is the portal back to our time!" Cate shouted, interrupting my much-wanted fluff moment with Alois. Ah well, this is only the foreword of the story, so I'm sure they'll be more "aww" moments later. "Come on, before that damn Claude catches us!"

"Oh, but I already have."

Nonononononononono! Not now! Anytime but now! "C-Claude!" I yelled as that cursed butler stepped out from the woods, right next to the portal.

"Yes, I am aware that my name is that, you impertinent child." Claude said, looking extremely bored with us. "Now, hand over my pawn. One cannot play chess without all of the pieces, no matter how insignificant they are."

Wow, this just became No Game No Life rather quickly. That or Claude was having a midlife crisis and wanted to be exactly like Ciel…for some reason. "Claude, we are not fighting you. I will never give you Alois!"

At my (not really) amazing hero speech, the spider butler only shook his head. "My, my, you have willpower, I will give you that. As you have porbably learned in life, sadly, willpower alone only drives your heart. It does not win battles and it does not give victory…Anyway, I am here to strike a deal."

Oh great, this won't end well… "What is it then?" I asked him, squeezing Alois's hand as tight as I could.

"I am allowed to come to your time too."

"Like hell we'll let you!" Gabby yelled, looking like she was about to unleash her inner monster. "Just stay here and rot like the (&$# you are!"

At her unladylike language, Claude made a TCH noise. "How unpleasant, miss. However, there is the fact that if you do not agree to my terms I can just follow you all into that portal and kill everyone in your families…"

"No way!" I said all too quickly.

"Then you'll have to let me come with you…" Claude said, a giant smirk on his face.

Hannah took a step forward, like she was going to challenge the butler to an Ag Ni Kai. But as she did I noticed that she was bleeding much more than before. "H-Hannah!" I took her hand and shook my head. It would be useless to have her try to attack him in the state she was in.

"B-But we cannot allow him to follow us!" Hannah exclaimed.

"Well we can't have you die on us either." I said, sounding more sure about what I was saying than I actually was. "Look, let's ju-"

"HEEEEYYYYYY!"

"Now, run!"

All was chaos. Grell lunged out of nowhere at Claude, whom he was now in a heated battle with. As much as I wanted to watch Claude to get his butt whooped, I was pushed by who I can only assume was Hannah. In a few seconds we had all leapt right through the swirling vortex thingy.

As expected, like the last time, my mind began dizzying. Expect, something felt different. Not good different, like when you get a new flavor of ice cream though, The different you feel when you have to buy newly shaped earbuds and they hurt your ears. But as I tried to figure out what the heck that metaphor I just made meant, my sight left me. I heard screaming too, but soon that was drowned out with white noise. It was only a matter of seconds before my mind was overtaken by this otherworldly darkness.