Chapter 12:

Ahiru sat on her knees for awhile, shocked at what she had seen. There was suddenly a clap of thunder that brought Ahiru back to the situation at hand, Fakirs wounds. She looked in all of the drawers, excluding the one with the glass that was still bashing about, in search of bandages. She suddenly remembered that they were in the draw with the glass and were probably in shreds by now. She moved the wardrobe over a bit so she could see out the window. There were no people outside and all the windows had something obstructing their view. She moved the wardrobe completely away from the window and dragged Fakir outside, careful not to cut him on stray shards of glass. Ahiru lugged him into the woods, fighting against the powerful winds, struggling to stay standing, the wind roaring in her ears. A branch snapped off from a nearby tree and hit Ahiru in her side, making her yell out in pain and collapse to her knees.

"I've gotta keep moving," she panted and heaved herself back up to her feet with Fakir hanging limply on her back. The wind had picked up and twigs and leaves were flying at her, scratching her skin. She soon got to Erika's cabin and saw that the windows glass was broken and they were swinging violently in the wind. Ahiru went to the door and knocked on it with her free hand, no one answered. Ahiru looked into the open window and saw Erika, lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Ahiru put Fakir down and ran inside. Suddenly it went silent, the rain literally stopped and droplets where hanging in the air.

"Oh what a mess" Ahiru spun around on her heel. She knew this voice, she knew who it was, but it couldn't be. They couldn't freeze time. It couldn't be them because they were-

"Erika!" Ahiru stood there stunned. Erika was on the floor in a bloody mess, she couldn't be in front of her.

"hi." Erika said casually and went to examine her body.

"W-w-why?" Ahiru stuttered.

"Why am I here? Why are there two of me? Why am I alive? How did I make time stop?" Erika knelt down next to her bloody body, "Oh what a mess." She flipped herself over onto her stomach and ripped the back of the shirt half-way open. She whipped away some of the blood, revealing what looked like a circle inside a square, inside a triangle, inside a circle tattoo and a small ten-pointed star tattoo above it. She walked over next to her bed and lifted up a tiny piece of the floor, revealing a small compartment. Inside the compartment were… live rats?

"What are you doing?" Ahiru peered over her to see.

"Something I shouldn't," Erika plucked a particularly vicious rat out of the hole and resealed the compartment. She put the rat one the inner most circle of her body's tattoo and pressed her thumb down on the middle of the star. Suddenly both she and the rat were absorbed into her body's back and her body began to heal. She began to breathe and color filled her body. The patter of the rain and the moans of the wind could be heard again. She sat up and yawned.

"Wh-what just happened?" Ahiru plopped down onto the floor, her head spinning from what had just happened.

"I believe explanations are in order on both our parts," she stood up and stretched.

"'Both'? What do I have to explain?" Ahiru asked.

"Well for one thing why are you here?"

"Fakir was injured and the bandages were torn up."

"Is he still alive?" Erika asked examining her arms and slapping her elbow.

Ahiru suddenly realized that that might be the case, but she ignored that thought, she didn't want to believe it, "He is. What are you doing?"

"Keeping everything in place," her right eye drooped, as though it were dead. And she smacked the left side of her head and blinked a couple times and the eye righted itself.

"Are you ok?" Ahiru asked as her right hand went limp.

"Well I can't really say yes because of this," she waved her limp hand, "but it's nothing to worry about," she smacked the top of her hand and it sprung back to life.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes, and you being here wasn't the only thing you had to explain," she stomped her foot.

"What else?"

"What happened to your dress?"

A/N: sorry it took awhile I had major writers block and I thought of another story which might be posted here soon.