Young Writers Society

"He's dead," Jo confirmed. Now that the ghost was gone, she went to Kyle's body and stared down at his corpse. He wasn't breathing. His eyes were still glassy. They kept waiting to see his chest rise and fall, but it still wouldn't happen. "If only I had my phone..."

Heliodor Everett swallowed. “And you are fine with this because…?”

Estella Fay whimpered. Everything hurt and now Kyle was dead and her chest felt tight and she couldn’t breath and- Her head jerked to the side so quickly it hurt. Great. Those were coming back.

Jo gave a dismissive wave of their hand.

"Oh, this is fine," she said. "He gets better. He always does. He's gotten worse injuries than strangling before."

It just took some time. Kyle had been reacting faster to deaths these days, but it was still a pain waiting for him to pop back up. Jo waited another moment, counting all the seconds up in her head, and then grinned when Kyle shot up with a gasp of air.

His eyes were still glassy, and his neck was still bruised. But he wasn't totally dead, so at least there was that.

"That time was faster," Jo said, "I think. I don't have my phone."

Heliodor Everett blinked. "You just..." He shook his head, that neutrality settling heavily on his face again. "How does that work?"

Estella Fay smiled in relief before coughing so harshly she felt her throat bleed. Her head twitched again.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Kyle wanted to say, but his vocal cords hadn't finished healing yet. He coughed. It was a raspy, painful sounding sound. Slowly but steadily, the bruise on his neck finally began to fade. The life began to return to his glassy eyes, too.

Kyle rubbed his throat. Touching it didn't hurt anymore.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Kyle said again. He looked over at Estella Fay. "Are you okay?"

Estella Fay nodded before realizing how painfully obvious of a lie that was. She shook her head. She was no stranger to pain. What lay underneath their gloves proved that, but strangulation was not something she frequently participated in.

Heliodor Everett hesitantly patted her on the shoulder with just the tips of his fingers. "You should be able to speak soon now. Most of the pain fades within an hour or so."

Jo and Kyle looked at each other. It was concerning how certain Heliodor Everett was of that, but they were no strangers to the darker side of humanity.

"...I'm sorry I can't heal you, too," Kyle awkwardly said.

Jo nodded.

"I'm sorry all I can do is shapeshift," she said in agreement. She wished they had a healing mutant on hand right now. Then poor Estella Fay wouldn't have to be in pain when Kyle was perfectly fine.

Estella Fay grabbed Hev's shoulder, and he helped her stand up slowly. "There we go. Slowly. You're going to be a little dizzy."

Estella Fay frowned. "How..." The word grated against her crushed throat. "...do you know?"

Heliodor Everett shrugged, moving as though puppet strings controlled his shoulders. "Experience."

Jo took a deep breath at that.

Kyle didn't say anything. Jo didn't say anything, either. They just watched as Heliodor Everett helped Estella Fay up, and watched as he explained why he knew how being strangled would feel.

...Jo wasn't much of a fighter, but if she met the one who had done that to Heliodor Everett.

Well, they could turn into anyone they had ever seen before, and they had certainly seen their fair share of terrifying and powerful mutants.

Heliodor Everett didn’t seem to notice the weight behind his words, as if that was a perfectly commonplace thing to admit to. Estella Fay didn’t like it, but she certainly wasn’t in any place to say anything. Especially when she knew how awful it was to elaborate when that was the last thing you wanted to do.

Heliodor Everett sighed. “So, I suppose this disproves our theory of those things being harmless.”

Kyle raised a hand and held it over where the ghost had bruised his neck.

"It does," he agreed. "The first one was harmless, but this one wasn't."

"I knew ghosts were dangerous!" Jo announced. She looked over at Kyle with an almost teasing expression. They probably wanted to lighten the mood after the attack and reminder of the abuse Heliodor Everett had suffered. "Kyle's the only undead person I'll ever trust."

Heliodor Everett shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that simple. The first one seemed scared of us. And that one-“ He gestured vaguely. “Is a murderer. Attempted murderer? I’m not well versed in revival philosophy.”

Estella Fay coughed. “You make that sound like a moral failing.” Her voice was nothing more than a wheeze.

Heliodor Everett ignored her.

"...There's revival philosophy?" Kyle said, bewildered. It might have just been a joke, but he also would have genuinely believed their version of Earth had it.

"It definitely attempted to murder Estella Fay," Jo said, "so I vote on it being both. But also, I'm really not liking standing around here talking about it right now. What if it comes back?"

Kyle nodded.

"We should keep moving," he suggested. If they kept walking, they could find something that explained more of what was going on. He glanced over at Estella Fay. "If you feel ready to keep moving."

"I can also carry you," Jo offered. She flexed her currently nonexistent muscles. "I can shapeshift into someone stronger."

“You don’t need to.” Heliodor Everett looked away. “Alis are characteristically light.”

“Hollow bones,” Estella Fay added.

Heliodor Everett shuddered slightly, before quickly schooling himself back into that neutrality. “Right.”

"Good to know," Jo said. "Because that would be weird to discover if I ever shapeshifted into one."

Kyle gave her a look. "...You're planning on shapeshifting into Heliodor Everett or Estella Fay?"

Jo gave an awkward shrug. "Maybe? I don't know. Sometimes the shifting just happens. Or maybe one of them would be extremely convenient to look like at some point."