Paths: Changes×Chances

chapter 15

"What was that!" Anna shouted, her hands clutching her hair tightly. She could feel herself losing touch with reality. The image of the black, suffocating fog wrapping around her, tearing at her body, twisted her mind. Her brain struggled to make sense of the overwhelming sensation.

"Calm down... try to breathe," Neferpitou urged, her hands quickly finding Anna's pulse to monitor her heartbeat.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Anna spat, shoving Neferpitou away, her head slamming into the floor. "Shut up! Shut up! STOP SCREAMING SO LOUD! EVERYONE SHUT UP!"

Neferpitou's face tightened with concern. "This is bad." She turned to Binolt in a rush, panic flashing across her expression. "She's likely hallucinating... I need something to sedate her!"

Binolt moved toward them, his voice cutting through Anna's frantic cries. "I don't have anything like that."

"Give me some cloth, anything!"

Without hesitation, Binolt ripped a strip of fabric from the mattress and handed it to Neferpitou. She quickly folded it into a ball, her movements swift and practiced.

"STOP! STOP! GO AWAY, DON'T HURT ME—mfmffmf!" Anna's cries were cut short as Neferpitou shoved the cloth into her mouth, muffling her screams and preventing her from accidentally biting her tongue. Neferpitou used other strips of the mattress to tie Anna's hands, her fingers already stained with blood. If she had hesitated even a moment longer, Anna might have torn her scalp off.

"This will stop her from biting her tongue and hurting herself. Help me get her onto the bed," Neferpitou instructed Binolt.

To Killua's surprise, the two remained surprisingly composed in the chaos. His gaze shifted back to Kayla, still unconscious, lying like a ragdoll on the floor. He knelt down, grabbing her by the legs, and dragged her out of the hole she had collapsed into. He noticed a large red bump at the back of her head as he gently laid her next to the crater she had been buried in.

Binolt and Neferpitou settled the convulsing Anna on the bed, Neferpitou immobilized her by just holding her legs and forhead down, hoping her friend would soon recover, Binolt helped by searching in some lockers for anything helpful amongst the many medicines he had kept for the homless people of his town

Killua watched the scene from next to where he left Kayla. He wondered if he should have just jumped Neferpitou now, attacked her while her guard was down, and finished her for good

Aside from the obvious doubt of even being capable of killing Neferpitou, Killua began to doubt if he should try to begin with

Eventually, Anna's hallucinations began to subside, and the girl passed out practically immediately

Neferpitou finally managed to breathe a sigh of relief and sit down

Binolt took a chair and sat down as well, Killua just leaned against a wall. The three formed a triangle, looking at each other with inspecting looks

"Who begins?" Said Binolt, breaking the ice

"Begins, what?" Asked Killua

"Explaining what's happening....the situation is a bit chaotic, at least from my point of view," Binolt crossed one leg over the other, and waited for either Neferpitou or Killua to break down the last line of events

Neferpitou shrugged and looked towards Binolt. "First off... how did you know I am a Royal Guard?"

"It's my ability...by eating someone's hair, I can gain everything about their biological  information...birth, age, species, potential for diseases...everything" he scratched the back of his head "but your body is a lot weirder than any I've analysed before...it's the first time I find actual words written in someone's DNA"