Young Writers Society

"We look suspicious," Nathaniel muttered.

I brushed off his concerns with a wave of my free hand.

"We're fine," I reassured him. "You're just overthinking things, Natty boy."

I was actually dismissing his concern with his own hand and voice, seeing that my body was currently an unconscious, bloody mess being slung over Nathaniel's shoulders. We had been, unsurprisingly, attacked by several Nathaniel's enemies. It was a frequent occurrence, these days.

I had lost track of what had happened, but at some point I had gotten stabbed, ended up in some back alleyway of some place that looked vaguely familiar, and decided it was better to possess Nathaniel than stick around in my own body.

"You could have stayed in your body," Nathaniel whispered back.

"And then I would have passed out," I pointed out, fighting back for control over both his mouth and his limbs. "And your lying is terrible, so it's better for me to handle things instead."

Nathaniel frowned.

"Does this place look familiar?" he asked, his breath forming in the air. "I could have sworn I've been here before."

I looked around. It didn't look like anywhere in Arium, but...

"That," I said, pointing at something on the horizon, "looks familiar."

It was some kind of church. I wasn't much of a church goer before I died, and hadn't been to one outside of Lucy's backpack since. But it looked familiar. If I dug back through my memory, I could find some little memory of huddling in a street near there, back before or after my time with Bickerstaff.

Nathaniel came to a stop.

"That's-That's St. Paul's," he said, bewildered. The name rung a bell.

"That's a big church," I said, "isn't it?"

Nathaniel shook his head. "It houses artifacts and minor magicians. It's nothing like Westminster, but..." Nathaniel let out a shaky breath. I had no way of knowing it, but that was somewhere he had hoped to end up someday, too, if Westminster was too much of a stretch.

"So we're in London," I said. I felt around, not in a living way but in a dead kind of way. Just trying to sense out any ghosts in the area. None of the my Talents were picking up on anything at all. "It's not mine."

"Everything seems so..." Nathaniel screwed his face up. "Unsophisticated."

I looked around, suddenly feeling a little offended. Nathaniel's assessment was right. I doubted we were even in the 1900s, much less the 2000s. We were, undoubtedly, closer to my birth year, and it was my duty as a 1800s child to take offense. "Are you calling my time unsophisticated, Natty boy?"

"It's not your time," Nathaniel protested, and then he paused and went, "is it?"

I faltered. I almost dropped my body, mulling it all over. "...I'm not sure. It looks older, but feels...different."

Estella Fay was used to running into odd things when walking the streets of London. After all, she was often the odd thing people would be running into. Saturn and Heliodor Everett walked beside her, their hands tightly clasped. It was dark, so no one would bother them about it.

“This sector has been calm. I think we can head back.” She didn’t quite want to get back to The Mist, especially with Malvis and Cyra, but she had to set aside her feelings about them. There was no reason to stay out.

Saturn nodded. “I think so. It’s cold.”

Hev held out the hand that wasn’t holding Saturn’s and lt a small fire in his palm.

Saturn sighed in bliss. “My hero.”

Estella Fay grinned and looked ahead again, when she stopped. “Hev, put it out.”

He closed his fist without another word, freezing in place.

“There’s someone up ahead.” Estella Fay blinked, letting her eyes see. The person up ahead seemed to be holding something… human-shaped. That wasn’t good. She was about to tell her team when she spotted the dark stain on his forehead. Blood. Possibly someone hurt.

Estella Fay stepped forward. “Take Saturn into the alley, I’ll take care of this.”

"Maybe we're in Nikko's London," I mused, "back before any of the quirks showed up."

"Nikko's from Japan," Nathaniel reminded me, as if I had somehow forgotten.

"Maybe it's her world," I specified, getting an eye roll from Nathaniel in response. I frowned. The disrespect of kids these days. "Or maybe it's..."

I ran through the list of other people from Earth that I knew. It wasn't a long list at all. Maybe this really was Nathaniel's London. There was nothing to say that there wasn't. It was just older. Sure, there weren't any spirits that either one of us could see right now, but that didn't mean anything. Maybe all the magicians were holed up somewhere, fighting off the cold.

"It could be your London-" I started to say, but Nathaniel stopped.

"There's someone up ahead," he said, voice low.

"Great," I replied. "We can ask them for directions."

"While carrying a bloody body?" Nathaniel hissed.

I faltered. That was a good point.

"New plan," I whispered back as we got closer to the other person. "We pretend that we aren't carrying a bloody body, and that we aren't two people sharing one body right now. You let me do the talking."

Nathaniel started to make a noise of protest, but I closed his mouth as soon as the noise slipped out.

As soon as Saturn dipped into the alleyway, Estell Fay calmly approached the two people. If they turned out to be hostile, she could easily turn them around in a shadow so thick, Artemis wouldn’t be able to see in it.

“Excuse me? Are you in need of some assistance?” She walked slowly, just like Malvis taught her. Keep your distance until you now what to expect. Never get in range. “If a member of your party requires medical attention, I can lead you to a doctor.”

The Mist, for its popular stereotype of poor and famished, was incredibly prosperous. Anyone could receive quality medical attention and not worry about paying a single sixpence.

Nathaniel went to keep walking, as if he hadn't heard her, but I made us stop in our tracks.

We were both the kind of people who didn't trust easily. I normally wouldn't have. But even though I loved to mess with Nathaniel with possessing his body, I very much preferred my own. If someone could fix me up so I didn't have to possess him, that would be great.

I threw aside all plans of acting like the body I was carrying belonged to a friend that had drunk too much.

"A doctor would be great," I said.

"Skull," Nathaniel started to hiss, but I shut our mouth and gave a friendly, charming smile that would have given Anthony Lockwood a run for his money. Nathaniel hated it, from the way he tensed, which made it all the better.

"We were mugged," I added, "and my friend-"

Here I gestured at my body.

"-was the one carrying all the money."

Estella Fay hummed, drawing her lips into a thin line. “I was not under the impression that people were still mugged.”

With the existence of the Mist, the violent crime rate had decreased dramatically. Now, people were still pickpocketed of course, but Hunters were careful to never be noticed. Battery was too showy.

She shook her head. “A doctor. Just a a few questions, if you don’t mind too terribly. For the safety of my party. These are… trying times.” She kept her voice vague, in case this person was the exact kind that was making 1838 a trying time.

I snorted at the mugging comment.

I couldn't imagine a time where people didn't get mugged. It was a fact of life, back when I was growing up. Nathaniel tried to hide the snort behind a very loud, exaggerated cough. He, of course, wouldn't get my disbelief. He probably hadn't been mugged before. He had probably been able to stay out of the parts of London where said muggings would occur.

"Of course," Nathaniel said, taking control of our mouth again.

"Ask away," I added. At least Nathaniel was going along with wanting to see a doctor.

Estella Fay smiled. “Thank you. How exactly would you react if I told you I was taking you to The Mist?”

The Mist was something everyone had an opinion on. For most, it was fear born out of misinformation. A sort of slow backing away and stammering of a misunderstanding. To some, it was a deep rage. A draw a weapon and demand to know your business. A messy reaction that.

What Estella Fay was hoping for was wide-eyed hope. A small, “you mean it?” Though, she would take a neutral sort of shrug.

I blinked.

When I was acting, I tried playing off of people's expressions and words. I didn't always have enough background information to be convincing. But I had no idea what the Mist was, and the confusion that Nathaniel was fighting to not show on his face implied he didn't have it in his London, either.

Great.

"I'd say I'm just happy to get a doctor," I replied, hoping that was enough.

Estella Fay hummed. That was a strange sort of response. It was almost as if he had completely missed that she had The Mist. No matter. She nodded. “Of course. How would you feel if this doctor was a non-human.”

She took a calculated risk and spread her wings. They were as tall as the average person and the yellow shimmered slightly. She shook them out. “Would that make you uncomfortable at all?”

I shrugged. Nathaniel stared, which must have given off mixed signals. It would have been hypocritical for me to care, really, seeing that I was a ghost. Maybe this mist thing had to do with her not being human? Either way, I just wanted a doctor.

"Like I said," I replied, "I just want my poor, poor friend here to get some medical attention. I don't care who gives it, as long as he gets it."

I glanced back to the alleyway. “We’re taking them to the Mist!”

Hev and Saturn both peeked from behind the wall. Hev looked completely neutral, whereas Saturn looked like he had his misgivings. “Hey! You missed the ‘will you ruthlessly murder my best friend whose existence just happens to be illegal’ question.”

I sighed. “I trust them.”

Saturn looked up at Hev, then glanced back at the two men. “Fine. I sincerely hope your trust isn’t misplaced.” The two of them rejoined my side and I turned back to our new companions.

“Looks like we’ll be taking you with no issue. I’m Estella Fay. These are my companions, Saturn and Hev.”

Saturn gave them a small salute while Hev bowed his head.

Nathaniel stared.

Nathaniel, of all people, would know it was rude to stare, but he didn't seem to care. I also knew it was rude to stare, and could think of how things could go sour if I did, but I was too preoccupied with trying to wrap my head around the group that was now before us. They weren't ghosts, obviously. From the way Nathaniel was staring, jaw dropped, they weren't spirits, either.

I closed our jaw.

"I'm Nathaniel," I said to Estella Fay. Nathaniel winced a little at that, probably disappointed with how casually I gave his name out.

I nodded. “I would say pleasure to meet you, but that feels a little rude to your friend.”

Saturn stepped forward, narrowing his eyes at the person. “Simple head trauma. It shouldn’t be fatal, but your friend is going to be in a lot of pain when he wakes.”

Hev smiled. It was one of his little half smiles, hard won with months of healing. “Of course you would know that.”

I chuckled. “Alright. Well, the Mist is a brisk ten minute walk from here.”