Falling like Leaves

Jo's eyes widened at that.

It was one thing to see the signs of abuse on Heliodor Everett's arms. It was another thing to hear how carefully he spoke. But it was the belief that he wasn't deserving of friendship that made what Heliodor Everett had been through tangible. Jo really could see how terrible his life had been if he believed that.

"You're not below friendship," Kyle said. "No one is."

Jo gave an enthusiastic nod in agreement.

"Everyone deserves friends," Jo said.

Heliodor Everett shook his head. “I can forgive your misstep due to you not being aware of the status of alis. Alis, Ms Taylor excluded, are not to be befriended. Ms Taylor is… an enigma.” His voice wavers. His voice isn’t supposed to waver.

Estella Fay sighed. “Heliodor Everett. Please, don’t do this to yourself.”

He shook his head. “Ms Taylor, you of all people have seen just how worthless I am. So please, don’t intervene on my behalf.”

Some of the fight left Jo then.

It was still there. Heliodor Everett's words just made her pause. They made Kyle pause, too.

"...That's the kind of thing people say about mutants, too," Jo said. Her voice was a little quieter now. "That we're monsters, and abnormal, and muties. They're how people justified what was done to us during the..."

Jo faltered. They hadn't really mentioned the Dark Year to the two alis with them right now. It felt too heavy, and too much like something Jo wanted to avoid thinking about.

"...Dark Year," Jo finished.

They looked back at Heliodor Everett.

"It's not true," she said. "If we have worth, and mutants are our world's version of alis, then you have worth, too. You can't let them ever take that from you."

“They?”

Heliodor Everett remembered the day he found out his worth. There wasn’t a they involved, just a he. He was his father, a proud man, the first Lord Lee. He came home one evening when Heliodor Everett was twelve, finally becoming a man. He had his usual stern, proud face, but it was marred by a bruise across his cheek.

Heliodor Everett was foolish, naive. He had the gall to demand why he had this bruise. He was foolish enough to persist when his father told him off.

And he was worthless enough that he deserved the shove that came. The sharp crack, the dragging.

The basement.

He didn’t react to those memories. He didn’t give a sign he had thought of anything at all. “I was born worthless. If anything, I made myself a coward.”

Jo shook their head.

"You weren't," they insisted. "Everyone is born with worth—and you haven't lost your worth. I promise."

Kyle nodded in agreement.

"The people who try to take your worth away from you," Kyle said, voice quiet, "are the ones who are scared they've lost theirs."

Heliodor Everett looked between the three of them. His heart was pounding and he felt sick. Nothing was working. All of his pretty words. All of his bows. All of his everything.

Estella Fay gave him a soft smile. “It’s alright. You aren’t worthless.”

Heliodor Everett felt so small. None of that could possibly be true. He needed to go. He couldn’t stay here anymore. He couldn’t bear it.

So, he ran.

He turned around and sprinted as fast as he could. Because that’s all he could do. That’s all he should do. Not entertain any ideas of being better than he is. He didn’t care if Jo and Kyle caught him. He needed to try.

"Wait-" Jo started to say, but Heliodor Everett was already gone. They doubted he would stop even if he heard them shouting for him to come back.

"Shit," Kyle said, eyes wide.

He moved to run, but Kyle wasn't as fast as Jo was. Jo booked it, mutation kicking in so her legs were far more built for endurance and speed. There were some mutants who were fast runners on Mutopia. She couldn't replicate the mutation, but she could get the general build of the legs.

"Jo, wait-" Kyle shouted, but Jo was gone, too. He groaned, then chased after her.

Heliodor Everett ran until the road curved and then rushed into one of the houses. The door was unlocked, thankfully. He leaned all of his weight against it and that’s when the tears started.

It was wrong, but he couldn’t help it. He cried because he wanted them to be telling the truth. He wanted to be safe. But he wasn’t. He would never be.

So, he curled against the door and cried silently. That’s the only way he learned.

There was a sharp puff of hair and something pricked his shoulder. He froze, looking down at it.

There was a thing stick jutting out of it. He blacked out before he could investigate.

Jo saw Heliodor Everrett duck into one of the buildings farther up the street. It didn't take her long to reach it.

At least, she didn't think it did.

But when she opened the door and stepped through, he wasn't anywhere to be found. They walked a few feet into the house, eyes scanning for any sign of him.

They couldn't find anything.

Then they felt something prick them.

They looked down and saw something sticking out of their shoulder, and they felt a quick wave of panic right before they passed out.

Estella Fay landed on the ground beside Kyle. “Both Heliodor Everett and Jo entered one of the houses.”

Her heart pounded in her chest. She felt so, so guilty. Heliodor Everett was hurting and they had made it worse. She knew that look of fear. She knew exactly what Heliodor Everett had been afraid of. She had worn a face just like that too once.

She turned to Kyle. “We can do this. We can make Heliodor Everett feel better!”

Kyle nodded in agreement.

He slowed his pace as he continued down the street, keeping an eye out for any indicator of which house they had gone into. He could have just asked Estella Fay, but he could make out a few footprints undoubtedly left by Jo leading up to one of the houses—she would have made her legs more muscular to run faster, and would have undoubtedly picked one of the mutants with a slightly heavier muscle mass.

Kyle opened the door.

"Jo?" he called out. There wasn't any response. The house was dark. It left an unsettling feeling in Kyle's chest. "Jo, are you in here?"

The house was eerily silent. Estella Fay walked in behind him. “Heliodor Everett?”

Her wings fluttered. “They’re not in here. I swore they came in through this door.” She picked at a stray thread on her gloves. “I swear.”

"Jo's footsteps are leading up to the house," Kyle added. They should have been here. Maybe there was a secret passage that they didn't know about, or maybe Jo and Heliodor Everett had stepped out. But at least Jo would have responded to their calls—they wouldn't have heard silence in response to their questions.

"Something's wrong," Kyle said, and he could feel it in his gut.

Heliodor Everett was used to waking up from unconsciousness. Usually that feeling was much more painful, but he would take his solace. It was cold wherever he was and he couldn’t move. His limbs felt restrained.

He blinked his eyes open, already expecting the raging headache that followed. He slipped back into that neutral state. Don’t show anything. Don’t react to anything. Nothing is happening. Nothing is happening. Don’t feel anything.

He was in a cell. That was… fine. Whatever. He could handle that. He looked around and spotted Jo. That wasn’t surprising. That wasn’t anything. It just was. Everything just was.

Jo opened her eyes.

They were laying in a cell. They weren't the only one in the dungeon they were apparently in, and weren't the only one in the cell, either. Heliodor Everett was next to them. And while she was relieved she had actually found him, she was met with confusion when she realized she didn't know how she had gotten here.

She had been knocked out, she vaguely remembered. She didn't know by who. All they had encountered so far was ghosts, Heliodor Everett, and Estella Fay. There was someone else here.

Someone not good, going off of them being put in a cell.

"Kyle-" she started to say, out of habit, and then came to the horrible, horrible realization that Kyle wasn't here, too. Kyle was back where she had left him before she had gone running off, and he didn't know there was someone else here.

Jo took in a very, very shaky breath.

"No," she whispered. Heliodor Everett was next to her right now, but she felt so alone. She felt like she had on that terrible, terrible day during the Dark Year, back when-

Jo tried to banish the memory from her mind, but it was so vivid. She wanted to pull her legs tight against her chest for comfort, but her limbs were restrained. She couldn't.