"I hated him!"
"Because you loved him and that made you weak."
Velda screeched and slammed another tentacle down in an attempt to crush Spender. He dodged her with little-to-no issue and jumped back a few feet, readying his spectral energy. "I did not love him! He thought I did but I was faking it! I was never under his control!" Her hands rolled into fists at her sides, purple spectral energy flaring around her dangerously. "He was in love with me!"
"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" Spender soared at her, narrowly missing an appendage that went flying past his head. His golden fist made an impact on her stomach and she bent over, coughing. It was a very wet cough. She sounded sick, like something was threatening to spill. He brushed the thought off. Clearly, she didn't want whatever was coming up to come up. He'd just have to aim there for the remainder of their fight. "It's too hard to admit that just that one time can break every resolve you ever made. You'd rather pretend he was the fool- that some part of him cared for everybody he used- than admit you were the joker's puppet."
He raised his elbow to bring it down upon her lower back, but she moved just in time and smacked him across the face with a tentacle. It hurt, as he'd been slapped by an arm full of suction cups, but he wasn't thrown off by the attack. Velda jerked backward, almost stumbling on her way. Velda pointed an accusing finger his way, sharpened nail coming within inches of his face. "And who are you to talk?! You're the consortium's doll!"
He gasped when an arm wrapped around his waist uncomfortably tightly and yanked him into the air. She glared up at him, eyes filled with venom he hadn't necessarily meant to invoke. "What is so important to you there that you must be their toy?! Why do you follow orders blindly? What is your excuse?!"
That was the most awkward moment Spender's ringing cell-phone had ever caused.
Velda's anger visually disappeared, her scowl becoming an expression of annoyance and curiosity. "Are you… are you going to pick that up?"
Spender winced uncomfortably. "We are kind of in the middle of a battle and I don't want to be rude."
"It's fine, really. Answer it." She laughed under her breath. "You know, it may be the last thing you ever do."
"It won't be."
"Are you sure about that?" Velda cocked an eyebrow and set her arms on her hips sarcastically.
She gently sat him down, giving him the chance to reach for his phone. Just as he did, it stopped ringing. They both groaned. "See? You should have just answered it. Now we were interrupted for nothing!" Velda crossed her arms.
Spender shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, it usually rings a little longer than that."
"Who was it, anyway? It's like, midnight or something."
Spender pulled his phone back out to check. It'd been Isabel. "One of my students, it seems-!" His eyes widened and his hand went slack. He shouldn't have said that.
"Students?" Velda was very serious again, her voice like a violent whisper on his ear. He moved to the side and avoided eye-contact. "You mean those children that took one of my tentacles clean off?" She gestured with said tentacle, half of it gone. It swung wildly, madly showing off its ripped appearance. "I heard from my ghosts that it was a girl that did this- a little angry girl with red energy."
Isabel…
Spender turned his head even further away. "Ghosts?" Velda smiled behind his back and purred into his ear, malevolence in her voice. "Let me show you what my call can do, puppet."
- Beach Square -
How large was this beach, exactly? Because Ed had been walking around looking for Isabel for a little under an hour and he still hadn't found her.
He let out an exasperated sigh.
"Izzy, where are you?"
He trudged along the greenery, stepping over vines and avoiding what looked like poisonous spirits like the plague. He was starting to really regret leaving his cellphone at the house; no matter how broken the glass was it was still probably useable for calls. He could have called her like a billion times by now and she would have eventually answered out of sheer frustration. Several times he thought about circling back, but the thought of Isabel all alone on the beach at midnight where spirits and ghosts weren't the only danger to a twelve-year-old girl (she could only do so much without using her spectral energy) was enough to stop his heeled turn in a heartbeat.
"Izzy! Come on! Just talk to me, will you?"
He received no response. Clearly, he was going to have to try harder than that. Ed sighed and ran his hands along the trees, careful to not touch anything that was living and might kill him.
All he wanted was to find Isabel and tell her everything he'd been thinking all night. He wanted to tell her he understood and that he wasn't angry. He just had to see that look of relief on her face after all that happened. Ed cupped his hands over his mouth.
"Izzy, do you hear me?!"
Unfortunately for him, he'd temporarily forgotten that he was walking in a concentrated area so full of trees and animals and vines, he'd tripped on some slick slime left behind by a snail's ghost.
With a screech of horror, Ed went sailing through bushes, then more bushes, until eventually he crashed face-first into a tree. Both living and dead birds that'd been resting in the tree started to squawk and scream, terrified by the disturbance. Ed pulled away, rubbing his nose to make sure there was no blood. The birds flew away from the tree, flying around the area in circles. The noise rallied the other birds that resided in the canopy, and soon all the birds within hearing distance were crying and screaming furiously.
Ed covered his ears, wincing at the level of sound shaking his eardrums. The headache that was starting to come, be it from knocking straight into the tree or the racket, was nearly unbearable.
"Would all of you cut it out?!"
- Beach Square -
Isabel looked around, nervously rubbing her arms. She had no idea where she was.
Isabel stood in the middle of the beach, nothing to see but hills and sand for yards away save for a large staircase leading up on of the mounds. She didn't think she'd been to this area before. The shore was silent- oddly silent. Of course she knew it was nighttime, so not a lot of people would be out lurking around, but it was still slightly chilling. What was she going to do?
Exhaling, she took her phone out of her pocket and pulled up Spender's number.
"Please answer. Please, please answer."
She didn't know who else to turn to anymore. She hated bothering Spender with her problems, especially with how he'd been recently. After the train incident, she hadn't really had the opportunity to speak with him. She'd avoided telling him anything- about the bite on her shoulder (which was almost done healing) or the situation with Ed.
It would have been nice to have one of them by her side when her grandfather was chewing her out.
The phone started ringing and Isabel wiped furiously at her eyes.
"Crying is for babies. Come on, Isabel. Grow up."
Maybe that was scaring her the most: if Ed left her behind, she'd have nobody. Spender had other things to worry about besides her, and now Ed did too. She'd have to worry about herself, and that meant not leaning on anybody for support like she'd been doing for so long.
She was a strong girl. Yes, everything hurt right now. Yes, she felt like she was snapping in two but she could make it. It would be hard getting used to not having Ed around as often and it would be really hard not looking to her teacher every time her grandfather wanted to spew coarse language at her, but she could do it.
She dropped the call before he answered and put her phone back in her pocket.
With a deep breathe, she was ready to move on- or at least start the process.
Then she heard what sounded like a sad, soft tune. Frowning Isabel instinctually listened in to figure out what the noise was. When she realized what she was doing, it was already too late.
- Beach Square -
When the birds had finally quieted down, Ed adjusted his glasses. "That took like, ten minutes. Great." If Isabel was around, those sounds wouldn't have been any suggestion to come anywhere near his location. Ed frowned and started back on his route, being more careful to check his surroundings before taking a step anywhere.
Eventually he saw a light at the end of the greenery.
He hurried over to it with a sigh of relief. "Thank god, I thought I was going to be lost in there forever!"
He found himself at a nice clearing between the restaurants and the water, nothing but sand and stairs.
Oh yes; and Isabel standing directly in the middle, facing the sea.
Ed gasped and ran toward her. "Izzy, I finally found you!"
He stood beside her unresponsive persona, breathing heavily out of excitement and fatigue. "Did you hear me calling for you?" When she didn't respond, he frowned and shrugged, turning to face the water, too. "That doesn't matter anyway. We need to talk, Izzy- about Cindy."
She still didn't say a word.
Ed's frown deepened. "By talk I mean you have to say something." Isabel didn't even move. Ed sighed and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you listening to me?" With just that touch, he realized her shoulder was awfully stiff and it wasn't just his touch.
Breathe catching in fear, he ran around so that he was in front of Isabel.
His suspicions were confirmed.
Isabel's eyes were devoid of any and all emotion, casted at the sea behind him. "Oh no, Izzy, no!" He grimaced and shook his head. She'd saved him and broken him out of it. He could do it for her. He shook her shoulders softly, careful to not hurt her. "Izzy? Izzy come on! Wake up. I know there's some part of you that can hear me. There has to be."
Isabel didn't change. She didn't blink or smile or give him any sign she heard him, but he knew she did.
"You're one of the strongest people I know. Heck, maybe you're the strongest! Whenever there's a battle, you're always rushing in right next to me to take them down." She didn't answer, but he continued anyway. "That's' how I know you can beat this. And when you wake up, we'll take this ghost down together, okay? Mister Spender is already on her tail. He needs our help, Izzy! You know he thinks he can handle it, but he really can't. He's as bad as we are about biting off more than we can chew."
Then he got a signal: her eyes closed.
Ed gasped and smiled, hands tightening at her shoulders. "Izzy, are you awake?! Oh, man that's awesome! I thought it was gonna take a lot longer to-!"
His stomach dropped as she started moving forward, pushing past him and walking directly out to sea.
She was still asleep.
- Rental Home -
Everything was silent. Every light in the house was still turned on- just the way the Activity Club had left it.
In the quiet of Isabel's and Ed's shared bedroom, Ed's cellphone started ringing.
It rang and buzzed in place, his screen lighting up when it would move.
When nobody answered, the phone stopped ringing and everything was still again.
