Forty minutes was a long time to be on the run from anyone, even with four extra skeletal arms that never got tired as support.  The girl's feet hurt so abominably that she could feel the beats of her heart pumping blood through them, and her every breath tore through her throat.  A while back she had thrown out the idea of taking on Grumm in a fair fight.  It wasn't that she couldn't win, no—simply that she had never been very good at tackling her problems head-on.  Town bully got her down?  Fester with resentment.  Envious of older sister?  Plant bones among her things to get her ousted as a witch.  Infested with the parasite Thanatos, siphoning the emotions of her and those around her in exchange for freakish abilities?  Let it happen.  It was all that easy.

Breathing, though...breathing came hard now.  Belle Osburn stumbled a few more steps and fell into a bench, half sitting and half sprawling.  Thanatos had wisely retracted the arms -his 'fingers'- into her back now, hidden beneath her blue hoodie.  The bench sat on the edge of a walkway along the edge of New Meridian's resident bay.  There were not many people around, but those who saw her recognized the look of someone being hunted, and hurried on their way.  Who was doing the hunting mattered not.  As she panted, Belle stared at the water, glinting with the day's sun in places, obscured by the long shadows of the city's highrises in others.  She wondered how it would feel to allow the water to swallow her up.  “A nice swim...” she rasped, thinking of how cool it would feel.

[color=gray][i][b]Thoughts like those are unbecoming of a young lady.[/b][/i][/color]

Belle buried her face in her hands.  She loathed her parasite, and didn't mince her words about him, but he didn't seem to care.  Thanatos was a proud and quiet being; he only spoke when he was in danger or to make sure that Belle was doing his will, and even then nobody but his host could hear him.  Since he thrived on human emotions, he required her to seek people out near death and be present at their departure, for no event but death could hold more feeling.  The hatred, the sorrow, the loss, the insanity, and even the feelings that came afterward were savory to him.  Naturally, Belle had seen a lot, but even still, she was hesitant to meet her own end at the hands of some gruesome ghoul.  Water would be a much kinder fate.

[color=gray][i][b]If you were to drown yourself, I would put you into a coma to sustain yourself.  Your dreams would keep me alive until I could escape, but until then it would be very unpleasant for both of us.[/b][/i][/color]

A surge of anger and hatred caused Belle to scream into her hands.  “Wouldn't being hacked to bits by an axe and thrown in the sewers be more unpleasant!?  Tell me how to beat him!”

Now, the illustrious 'Hand of Death' was silent.  No doubt he wanted her to figure out her own earthly problems and build character.  The injustice of it all made the water seem all the more appetizing.

A few moments later, he appeared.  Grumm lurched onto the scene from between two buildings.  He was every inch a horror meant to creep in the shadows, but he didn't seem to have any hesitation when it came to stepping out into the open.  His own breath was thick and wet, dripping bile from a brazen mouthplate to sizzle on the marble tiles.  Leaning upon his axe at intervals, he approached.

From the bay there came a noise like a wave crashing.  Over the edge of the walkway came something very new and unexpected, and she did a flip as she landed on the ground.  Her skin was very tan, her wet hair a dark blonde, and her garb decidedly piratical.  Interestingly, she also had a mouthpiece, though this one seemed more like something a soldier would wear, rather than a science experiment.  She also wore elaborate knee-high boots that appeared to be made of wood.  

With no further delay, the woman threw a sidekick Grumm's way, and a blast of water erupted from her boot and smashed into him, sending him tumbling away with a snarl.  She quickly turned to Belle, who wore a nonplussed expression.  “Sorry for ya, hon,” she declared in a flighty cockney accent.  “This poor monster's gonna be after ya fer a while.  I'll 'old 'im fer the nonce, you get lost.  'E's got it in fer folks wit parasites.”  Though he was having some trouble, Grumm had pulled himself to his feet and was advancing on the ladies once again.  “If I die before I can fix 'im one way or another, remember that Caitlin Halte did you right.  Now, off you go.”

A clockwork tentacle latched onto Halte's boot and pulled her off her feet.  She did not seem unduly bothered by it.  “Run!”  She advised as she was dragged toward Grumm.

Slow and exhausted, Belle ran.