A meager second of recognition was all Anita had been given by the dribbling creature but that was all she needed to confirm the monsters identity. She had only met LuLu once but the mischievous frei was not easily forgotten -- and she certainly wasn't like this. Once eye contact was broken, she was gone. The crowd returned to being frightened rather than slack jawed in confusion as she fled and she disappeared quickly among them. Everyone around her was quickly forgotten, save the one who still clung to her but refused to leave the pool of the fountain.
"Are you okay?" it was a weak, almost breathless question that she barely succeeded in asking above the surrounding noise.
Cruz heard her, though. He clutched her arms firmly, staring through the crowd in the direction LuLu had gone, eyes wide, but he nodded. He was shaken, a bit bruised, and globs of ink still clung to his hair and around his mouth but they had started to run thanks to the water. Anita ran a hand through his hair, pulling back once she felt the slick texture. It almost looked like tar but now that it was on her hands and she could feel it, it was definitely ink. Didn't LuLu's essence have something to do with ink? It was so hard to remember.
Taking a minute to help Cruz wipe the ink away from his mouth and get as much out of his hair as she could, Anita plucked him from the fountain pool and pulled him to her chest. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and buried his head in her hair, clinging to her like an infant. His ribbon hung weakly, heavy and saturated but he also made no effort to float in Anita's grasp. Once she was sure he was alright she needed to call Josh, just to be sure. She wanted this to just be some crazy mix up, Gaia was a weird and unpredictable place to live, but the growing pit in her stomach told her otherwise.
Something was definitely wrong with LuLu.
END
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