Young Writers Society

"Good gods," Queenie said, pushing her curls out of her face, "Do you people know everyone across the worlds?"

Worlds.

She hadn't said it aloud before. She was at least a world away from everything, and everyone she had ever known. The weight of it hadn't hit her before, and now she wished it had stayed at bay.

She tried to control who and what she missed. The food, the servants, she could go for a shower right about now, maybe even the jobs. The thrill of having the life of someone powerful in your hands.

But then she thought about the people.

And she decided that the present issue was her problem. Trying to pretend it was anything other than a distraction was pointless.

She walked over to the newcomer and raised her hands toward his head, indicating that she wanted to look for injuries, "I have med training," she said, truthfully, "If you're hurt I can help."

Nich freaked out again as soon as the giant skeleton tried to approach him, and then yet again when the wolf-man approached and especially when he laid a paw on Nich's shoulder. He flinched away, eyes wide as he looked from one person to the next.

"Who...who are you people?" he whispered, glancing towards the wolf-man, then the skeleton. "H...how do you know my name?"

Grim faltered.

"We've...We've met before," he hesitantly said, noting the fear and confusion. Why was Nich so afraid of him? It wasn't the first time he had seen him like this. And Nich should have remembered who they were - it couldn't have been that long ago for him. "My name's Grim - we met in the abandoned diner, remember? I was going by the name Griffith-"

Before he could finish speaking, Kirux suddenly darted over to Nich and threw his arms around him. Grim got the idea that Kirux was trying to comfort Nich, but something told him that Kirux was also doing it because he wanted to hug someone he hadn't seen in awhile.

Queenie sighed and leaned back. It was clear she was being ignored. She figured she could either change that or use it, and right now, using it seemed like the better option.

She observed. It wasn't usually her job to do so, but Briar wasn't here. What this was beginning to look like was a simple case of memory loss, if any case of memory loss could be described as 'simple'. Regardless of the terminology, the crowding that the newcomer, Nitch, was being subject to at the moment was definitely not helping.

She knew the group didn't like her. She knew it was in her best interest to step back and let them focus on scaring the amnesiac.

But she also knew that she wanted out of NYC, even if she never did return to Kroy, and she needed these people to focus if that was going to happen.

Queenie intervened, "Okay, enough." She pushed the others back from Nitch, gently, but firmly enough to make it clear she wasn't kidding, "How dense can you people be? What part of amnesia makes you think it's a good idea to go crowding around the new guy? Is it the fact that you know him? Because if that's the case then find a better excuse."

She huffed in frustration and thought for a second. These people weren't from her world, they couldn't use anything she told them against her or her family.

"Okay, quick storytime, listen up," she snapped, "Once upon a time, my sister got herself kidnapped. She was held for three days in hellish conditions, probably beaten a few times, you know the drill. When she got back there was nothing in her head but her name and her muscle memory. Now, do you think that it was deemed appropriate to have the staff all crowd around her while I told her about the past from the background?" She looked around, the question was more genuine than she originally intended, were they really that dumb?

"No," she continued, "Of course not. The staff was ordered to keep back and I took her to her room so the doctors could look her over, and even then I didn't talk at her about myself. I let the doctors do their job and I got my sis back in a few weeks. The end."

She hadn't realized she was glaring until she stopped, but she was feeling a bit murderous. That wasn't, by any means, a sensitive tale. She didn't mind telling it at all. what she did mind was the fact that she had to point out the obvious, several times now, to the emotional band of know-it-all misfits.

She sent one last glare at each of the offending members and turned back to Nitch, softening her gaze and stepping back to give him room to breathe, "I'm Queenie," she introduced herself, offering a hand, "and I apologize for that," she inclined her head toward the group, indicating that she meant her lecture, "None of them really have any manners." She shot a pointed look at Ryder.

Focusing on this kid was not what she wanted to be doing right now. She wanted to be figuring out her options and deciding what to do next, or better, actually doing something about their situation. But this was a means to an end. Get this kid settled into the group, or out of it, it didn't matter, and there would be enough headspace in the incredibly small attention spans of her unwitting companions to get things done. Or, she hoped so. She didn't know that she had all that much faith in the others, but she was a little short on options.

Taber pulled his paw back, letting Queenie push him out of the way. Amnesia? Nich couldn't remember having met Taber? And now Nich was freaking out about being in a room full of (as far as Nich knew) strangers who wouldn't respect his boundaries?

"Sorry," Taber mumbled, stepping out of the way. Kendrik and Lunis walked up behind him, each setting a paw on his shoulder. Taber knew they were uncomfortable about the giant skeleton, the amnesiac, and Queenie, but they both looked more surprised at Taber's response. The wolf sighed, but put on a smile - he appreciated the gesture from two people who'd almost gotten into a knife fight a minute ago.

Kirux let himself be pushed out of the way by Queenie, even though he held onto Nich for a little longer than Queenie probably wanted him to. He didn't want to get in trouble, and Nich did seem really upset by what was happening!

But Nich was also his friend, and it made him really, really sad to see that he didn't remember him.

It started out as a sniffle - a little bit of a runny nose, a breath-in, and trembling lip. But then his eyes started getting wet, and it wasn't long before tears were sliding down his cheeks. Now he made a beeline for Grim, who was awkwardly standing off to the side, and threw his arms around him before silently sobbing into his shoulder.

Grim hesitantly returned it.

Nich stared up at the strange girl standing between him and the rest of the even stranger strangers. He was still internally freaking out because THAT ONE WAS A SKELETON and the other one was a wolf-man, and then there was the kid with the glowing eyes which had definitely freaked him out when he'd first seen him. Nich pressed back against the wall and gingerly touched his head again. Man, he had a massive headache.

"Um...hi... Queenie? I'm Nich," he said, hesitantly reaching out to take the girl's hand. "I don't know who I am or where or who any of you people are. I'm sorry..." He pulled his hand away from his head and dug into his pocket again, pulling his phone out to show them all the shattered, dead phone. "And I, uh, can't even check my phone to figure anything out."

Grim gave Kirux a comforting pat on the back.

Nich had amnesia. Now that he wasn't so confused - and so focused on Ryder - he could see that. Something told him that Nich having amnesia was a bad thing, given what he was. It could only end in disaster if he didn't know what to expect.

"I don't know why you have amnesia," he admitted; he had switched from patting Kirux's back to gently rubbing it with his skeletal hand. He only pulled it away to pull down his hood a little more. It didn't truly hide his face, but it hopefully his his inhuman eyes. "But you've met some of us before, so we can tell you what we know-"

Kirux suddenly wiggled out of his grip and went darting over to Nich again, making sure to give him and Queenie more space than before. Then he pulled down his half mask, curling his pointer fingers and putting the fingers in front of his mouth.

Queenie gave Kirux a warning look. One wrong move from him was going to send her over the edge.

She didn't know the sign he was using.

She huffed, running a hand through her curls, definitely ruining them in the process.

With newly mussed-up hair and a barely-leashed temper, she addressed Grimm, "You heald me," she growled, "could you do the same for him?"

If he could fix the internal damage caused by a lead hollowpoint fired at near-point-blank range, he could fix whatever was wrong with Nich. At least, she hoped so. At this rate, she didn't think she'd ever get close enough to her home to reject it.

Nich watched Queenie for a moment with a frown, then glanced towards the skeleton. He'd said his name was what? Grim? Griffith? That was...vaguely familiar, but Nich couldn't place it. He touched the spot on his head again, the one caked with blood, catching a glimpse of the mute kid miming something at him. Nich didn't know what the hell that meant, so he shit the kid a confused look and returned his attention to Queenie and Grim.

"Uh," he said, and cleared his throat when he suddenly had to many eyes on him. "I....uh...think it's... already healed?" He frowned again, poking at the spot. Well, the skin was healed, but he couldn't say much about anything else. His head was still pounding. "I do have a massive headache, though--and you guys are all freaking me out still."

Grim shook his head.

"I don't know that kind of healing magic," he softly admitted, trying his best not to flinch at the growl. "I can heal physical ones, but I haven't learned the spells for things related to memories."

"...I don't have any healing potions," Ryder quietly muttered from nearby.

Grim glanced over at Kirux, who looked very sad and dejected at Queenie and Nich not understand what he was miming. His shoulders slumped, and he stared down at the ground.

It took Grim a second to understand what Kirux had just done; part of him was glad that the meaning behind the miming had been lost in translation - it was probably better to broach that subject slowly and carefully.

"...Nich?" he hesitantly said. "I know what Kirux was trying to tell you. It's...It's a hard truth to swallow, but..."

He faltered.

"...You're a vampire."

"A what?" Lunis hissed, looking up at Taber. The wolf knew Nich; he had to know what Nich was.

"It means he can live forever, he drinks blood, and a few things might kill him, but not anything else?" whispered Taber. The wolf froze a few seconds later, probably because Lunis ducked behind Taber and dug his claws into Taber's jacket.

"Uh, sorry," Taber whispered. "For what it's worth, it's not that bad? And Nich is pretty polite about it." Lunis didn't budge an inch.