As Izzy extended her hand to Mikey, the boy merely looked at it, looked down forlornly and crossed his arms over his chest. A defensive posture. He didn't seem receptive to the idea. It had already taken a lot from him to accept Izzy and go with her, and he was barely even tolerant of Holden's presence. He would probably need more thorough persuasion to go see Riley, unless they could come up with another idea.

"Izzy," Holden spoke up, a thought having occurred to him, "If we try to take him to Riley, what's to say that whatever is afflicting him won't get in the way of us getting back to the abandoned school? The aberration is 'the lost calf,' right? If its purpose is to be 'lost,' then the destination doesn't matter, only that we never get there." He gestured back to Izzy's bike, which was sat nearby as they had circled back to the park to have a familiar place to collect their thoughts. "Why don't I borrow your wheels and go talk to Riley? I'll call you when I get there and we'll see what he has to say." Before Izzy could respond though, Holden stepped closer to her, placing his face just by her ear and whispering so that Mikey could not hear. "[i]Don't[/i] leave me alone with that [i]child[/i]. [i]Please[/i]."