Our Friend

She emerged from the thicket of vines in a burst of fury, plowing straight through them as Ayano worked to re-entangle her. Evi ripped and tore through each one as it neared, pulling them up by the handful with her many, many, hands.

I brought out the sword. 

But in all honesty, I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

I could attack the monster. But not Evi.

The eye monster wasn’t here yet. It was somewhere caught up in the vines, being slowly poisoned. Evi was here. And she clearly wasn’t happy.

I have a sword.

What do I do?

I can defend. I can protect.

But in this situation…

Hmm.

I think… I think the best thing to do would be to find out why she’s like this right now. Why did this happen. Maybe we could reverse it? Get Evi back.

Yeah.

Yeah that would be good.

Because this… this was just… scary. And sad.

She screamed and screamed, a pair of glowing red eyes in the darkness.

Horns slick with blood.

Desperate, searching hands, balled into fists, pounding at the ground, clawing at vines, twitching in agony. Ayano and I looked at each other.

“What do we do?” she asked me.

“…I’d like to talk to her.”

“Hey Evi?” I called out.

Shrieking, she dodged through Ayano’s vines and lunged at us.

I blocked her with the sword. Pushing her back.

“Um, are you okay?” I asked.

Okay, maybe not the best start. Something clearly isn’t okay.

She pounced again, this time getting tangled up in vines.

“We can talk this out alright? Evi?”

In mere moments her many hands had pulled the vines apart.

“It’s us! Your friends! Rin! Ayano! Akira!”

She roared.

“Just tell us what’s going on and we’ll help you!”

“Hello!” Ayano interjected. “Aki-chan would also say hi right now but she’s resting!”

“I-I’m up! I’m up! Hi!” Akira had apparently been awoken by the noise.

Evi snarled.

Her teeth were like fangs.

“We’re the Paranormal Research Club!" yelled Akira, "I know we just formed but I thought we were having a lot of fun!” 

Evi leaped forward.

Ayano wrapped her in vines, “I admit it! You’re better than me at karaoke!”

Evi broke free.

I blocked another hit.

“We have lunch together every day!” I pleaded.

She jumped onto the sword; clinging to it with three arms, ready to break it with four. Since the sword floats, I pushed it back further in order to regain some distance. 

She shattered it and I stumbled. I brought out another sword.

“Evi, you’re our friend!” I screeched it loud enough to make my throat hurt.

There was silence.

And then she ran forward.