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“Vashti, are you okay?”

She wasn’t. Vashti was never okay after coming out of a Leviathan onslaught anyway, but the panicky feeling was amplified by knowing that the people it had just tried to eviscerate now surrounded her weak, shellshocked body. Her response to Claudette was only a rapid increase of her breathing and her hands digging into the mud as Madison approached. She flinched like a chihuahua with an anxiety disorder as Madison reached out to her and drew her knees in tighter, bracing for the immediate hit. 

Only there wasn’t one. Madison was offering to help Vashti up. For a moment Vashti began to feel control return to her body as her breathing slowed. The Coven didn’t seem outright angry with her; they seemed concerned. Perhaps Herik was right about them after all. She owed them all an apology, especially Madison. If they could get through this, maybe they could pave over their past tiffs. Perhaps they could even become friends. Maybe Madison would buy her booze!  She looked up at Madison with bright, hopeful eyes that envisioned a future of water bottle vodka and shitty lagers. 

The look quickly turned to horror as her dark eyes reflected the triumvirate of the Jaws snapping towards her. Her scream shattered and broke into a rattling gasp as the heads began to rip at her limbs. Vashti’s one free leg ineffectively kicked at the ground, trying to push herself away from the woman who was trying to murder her. Goddamn it, why wouldn’t her body let herself blackout? She felt every tooth as it shredded her useless scales and ripped at her flesh. The pain was unfathomable. She had to hit a threshold at some point, but the roof kept rising and rising. For once in her life Vashti wished for the Leviathan, but it wasn’t there. Didn’t it realize that if she died it would too?

Wouldn’t it?

The world went silent and the tearing stopped thanks to Maya’s handy work. Briefly, Vashti thought she was dead, ascending to heaven as she was lifted from the ground, except the continuing pain proved that she was still alive. Alive, but delirious, judging by the giant construct that was playing keepaway with the increasingly miniscule Madison. The not-quite iron giant set her down as the sound returned to her ears, although the noises made no sense and the world was all but fuzz and blobs by now. Something touched her. The Jaws? Vashti kicked at it. "Hey, hey, hey, take it easy," said the blob. Vashti felt a sting and then some pressure on her arm, followed by the same feeling on the other. It wasn’t pleasant, but when compared to being chewed at like an overcooked steak it was delightful. She let the world start to go black.

"Vashti, we're going to take care of you, okay. You'll be alright," she heard Herik say as she began to drift away. He almost sounded like he believed it. In a way, it was kind of sweet. If she was going to be lied to like that, at least Herik sounded genuine about his bullshit. But he always did, didn’t he? He shouldn’t worry about taking care of her anyway. She was a big girl. Rather, he should really worry about how Vashti would take care of Maidson. Dreams of sharing cheap beers with the girl were now dead. New dreams, vivid and dark, began to creep out from the shadow of its tombstone.

Vashti smiled.

And then passed out.