Young Writers Society

Amy nodded, poking her ears up one more time to try and figure out how far away they were. It sounded like the three were all further down the hall, so they didn't really have a lot of surprise on their side. They'd have to move fast. Amy leapt out into the hall, speeding towards them.

Out of the three, there was one rather stout, rounder dude, a twiggy girl who looked younger than her, and a very tall and large woman who was quite intimidating. Naturally, she decided to uh, leave her to Ari. She jumped at the big dude and konked him in the head with hers.

Fortunately she had a thick skull. He fell to the ground with a blood nose as she hurried to the young girl. She shifted into a human so she could clap a hand over the girl's mouth before she could scream, and simultaneously threw the girl's head into the wall. Maybe a little too hard. She fell to the ground on top of the guy.

Hoss heard a thump from outside in the hall. He'd been waiting in the next room over for Bella to finish, but as soon as he heard the noise he stepped out into the hall, only for the door to push up against two fallen bodies. He pulled his gun immediately, stepping carefully over the two as he charged at Amy standing over them.



Bella's face contorted as she held back more tears.

"That's..." she whispered. "F***in' love me in some way. What's that even mean."

"I'm... I'm only trying to be honest with you Bella," James whispered back, still not looking at her. "I never wanted to-"

Both of their heads turned to look at the door when they heard a thump. Bella instinctively drew he knife, looking over to James with a harsh, teary-eyed glare before she stood up, watching the door.

"If that's your dumba** friend, I swear-"

"He's not dumb," James retorted, voice still quiet, but harsher than even he'd anticipated.

Bella let out a quiet hiss through her teeth. "He is to be friends with you," she spat back.

It was then that Rita spoke up, apparently awake. There was no way to tell when she had awoken, or how much she'd heard.

"Stop arguing with your ex and get out in the hallway," she ordered wearily as she got up out of bed, grabbing a shotgun leaning on the wall.

Ari busted in and tackled the larger woman, punching her in the head to knock her out before she could yell and while she was a bit distracted by the werewolf.

Amy chomped on the guy's hand before he could shoot, and he dropped the gun. But as she yanked his hand down his hand, he fell on top of her, tackling her to the ground. As his arms wrapped around her waist she shifted. In her human form, she was smaller. She pulled away, slipping out of his grasp before he could register what happened and reached around his neck. She had her arms around his neck and grabbed him in a hold. He fought to get back on his feet, but her persistent blocking of his airway worked fast.

As Hoss was beginning to pass out, Bella stepped into the hall. Amy looked up, catching the strong smell of James come from that room as the door opened.

"He's in there!" she whispered harshly to Ari as Bella began to rush them.

"Get him, I'll defend!" he says, facing Bella and readying himself for her attack.

Amy nodded sharply, rushing past Bella into the room as Bella advanced on Ari. Bella swiped at Ari with her dagger, dodging quickly to the side to miss his hands.

Meanwhile, Amy burst into the room only to meet another gun pointed at her face. She leaped to push it up, and a shot rang out through the roof as she bit the gun and ripped it out of the woman's hands. She barreled into her, pushing the woman out of the way before she saw the cage in the middle of the room with James in it.

Really? A cage? She could do a few things, but breaking a metal lock wasn't one of them. She held the woman down.

"Where's the key?" she demanded.

"You really want it that bad, huh?" was Rita's only reply.

"It's in her shirt, probably," James said, pushing his face up against the bars of the door.

"In her what?" Amy looked over at James with confusion. Rita took the opportunity to grab her neck and pin her to the ground while she was distracted.

Ari turned, realizing that he was facing two enemies now that Amy was downed, and if he let Amy be held by Rita for long they ewre going to have a hostage situation. He disengaged with Bella and tackled Rita off Amy, praying that Bella wouldn't be fast enough to attack the werewolf before she had time to recover.

"AIN'T NO 'UN MESSIN' W' ME FRIENDS 'N GETTIN' WAY W' IT!" Ari bellowed.

Amy scrambled away, only for Bella to throw a knife at her. Amy skittered, narrowly missing it as she felt a rush of air brush past the fur on her back.

Rita groaned at getting tackled again, pulling a knife while under Ari and reaching to stab him in the side.

Meanwhile, James eyed where Bella's knife landed, lodging into the wood flooring. It was within reach.

He began to squeeze his arm through the space in the bars. It was narrow, and he had to squeeze his elbow through by twisting it to the side. He strained his fingers, brushing up against the handle of the knife. Just a little more. He got a hold on it. It was a weak grip, but with a yank of his arm back, he pulled the knife out of the floor and brought it towards him. As soon as he painfully twisted his arm out from between the bars again he started making quick work on picking the lock with the tip of the dagger.

Ari was big, and successful at keeping Rita down, but unfortunately his massive size gave him a significant handicap on the maneuverability front, and so he soon found himself with Rita's dagger planted in his side. He responded with a fist aimed at her face.

Rita grunted as Ari's punched her, then spat in his face. Leaving the dagger in his side, she tried to squeeze out from under him.

Amy's eyes widened when she saw Rita stab Ari, but wasn't able to do much about it when Bella came at her again. Since Bella was momentarily knife-less, Amy took the opportunity to tackle her, pinning her to the ground beneath her claws. Bella grabbed and pulled at her fur hard. Amy let out a growl mixed with a yelp and shifted to her human form before Bella could rip her fur out. With Bella still under her, she pinned her with her legs instead and began to punch her in the face, repeatedly. Bella grabbed for her neck. Amy shifted to a wolf again, causing Bella's hands to fumble in confusion around the much thicker neck. Then Amy knocked her out finally with a konk to the head.

It was at that moment that there was a quiet click heard from the lock on James's cage, and he pushed the door open, rushing out.

He growled and put his fingers around her throat - not to kill, but at least to knock out, and his other hand went to his side where his shirt was rapidly turning red.

Rita's was starting to see stars. She struggled to reach for the knife again, in an effort to stab him again, but her blocked airway made for a difficult struggle. She sent Ari a heated glare before her eyes rolled back a little, and she blacked out.

James hurried over to the door of the room and closed it. He could hear people beginning to stir. They only had moments before more people burst into the room. Fortunately, Amy was already on top of that, and pushed a dresser across the wall with one big shove until it was in front of the door. That would give them a little more time. Maybe a few more seconds, because they were still on the second floor, and had to climb down.

James rushed over to Ari, about to ask him if he was fit to climb, but Amy pushed past him, grabbing Ari's shoulder.

"I have healing magic," she whispered quietly. "I can fix this. But you're gonna need to stay still. I need... focus."

He fell back off Rita and glanced down at his side, grimacing in pain as his position shifted. There was a lot of blood. He nodded mutely as Amy approached. She'd gotten him right between the ribs.

Amy knelt by Ari's side and gripped the handle of the knife with one hand while she set another hand right beside the knife where all the blood was.

"This is gonna hurt still..." she said quietly. "But not for long."

She then proceeded to slowly pull the dagger out as a warm golden light spread from her hand to his skin. She was healing and sealing the wound little by little as the dagger came out. When she finally finished, all that was left on the outside was a scar, and whatever blood had escaped him during that time. The whole process only took a minute.

James stepped back as Amy did her work. Healing magic and a werewolf. No wonder Tasha was hunting her.

Wait.

"Where's Tasha?"

Ardeshir gritted his teeth to keep from making any kind of sound as she pulled the dagger out but was surprisingly stoic; most would assume that such a flamboyant fellow would be less used to combat and struggle than he was. His scars and behaviour were proof enough of that. He didn't answer James' question: Amy knew as much as he did and he was a bit busy not cussing the world out due to the pain of a knife being pulled out from between his ribs.

Amy looked over to James with a sharp glance. For two guys who were supposedly good friends, James seemed almost more concerned with the woman who'd tried to kill her than Ari.

"We don't know where she is, but it doesn't matter-"

A slam was heard as someone or something ran into the door, pushing up against their blockade. James and Amy exchanged glances, and James furrowed his brows briefly in frustration.

"Out the window. Now," James said, hurrying over to the side of the room, unlatching the window, and pulling it open. Amy hesitated to follow, putting a hand on Ardeshir's back as she sent one more pulse of magic through his side for good measure.

"You think you can do that?" she asked gently.