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The creature was making headway, if only a little; those arms looked scrawny, perhaps, but they provided more than enough power to lift one, maybe even both of the unleveraged Fa'e up. However, it was slow and difficult work to get even an inch of the deer Fa'e closer, with the meddling of the woman. Gaping its misshapen mouth open, the face-monster considered its options carefully- then attacked in the simplest and most cunning way it could manage.

A fleshy, lumpy, purple ribbon of a tongue slithered out from between its lips. Its breath fell over the two Fa'e, reeking overwhelmingly of old carrion and heavy decay. With careful precision, it reached down with its disgustingly tongue, oversoaked in a thick mucus, and promptly set about... licking. Both Fa'e would be promptly covered in the horrible muck on its tongue- and, with that, Yani would become very hard to hold onto indeed. Not to mention, be in dire need of a bath.

Oh gods, that was gross. That was worse than gross, that was HORRIBLE. And she'd just had a bath too. That bile that was coming up the back of her throat burned worse now, it was harder to swallow, and it made just breathing hard. Kia couldn't even breathe through her mouth without tasting that goop.

And Yani was harder and harder to hold onto. Kia clung desperatly to him but he was slippery. And asleep!

"Wake up Yani, and ...I don't know, headbutt the tongue!" Kia managed to yell, spluttering and gagging as the taste of the goopy stuff actully went into her mouth. But even if he had woken, it wouldn't have done much good for Kia's grip, her arms were slipping right off him.

Kia had fallen back on her bum, spluttering and spitting out goop, watching in horror as Yani was swallowed hole. He wasn't even chewed, just swallowed! She wondered if he could be alive, but Kia really wasn't brave enough to go find that out. She couldn't see any obvious wriggly bits.

Then the face was gone and all Kia could see was those eyes again. And nothing else.

"...um. Hello? Yani?" Kia called. She glanced around for something she could throw, picked up the glove and threw it hard at where the face had been. "Spit him out!"

Kia didn't notice at first, she was trying to scrape the gunk off. Maybe it'd have been more logical to take the clothing off... but she, all of a sudden, didn't want to take off the extra layers she'd piled on for winter. She felt safer in them.

Then she heard another voice come from the thing that ate Yani, and Kia's eyes snapped up to stare in horror at it. Those eyes and that face, those eyes that had been once hers, and that voice. Kia hadn't heard it many times lately but she still reconized it. It tugged at her badly and another lump that wasn't at all vomit related stuck itself in Kia's throat.

"Make up your mind, are you Yani's baby or mine?" She tried to yell, but it came out more of a croak than a yell. Kia didn't trust it, whatever it was, but she didn't like to hear that voice or see those eyes in it either.

"You can't fool me, I saw you call Yani daddy. I saw your orange eyes!" Kia yelled at the thing pretending to be Nozomi. But still it was saying everything she had always expected Nozomi felt and it wrenched at her.

It wasn't Nozomi! It was just some nightmare thing. Kia climbed to her feet, body trembling, eyes stinging with water. She turned her back on the thing and tried the door.

But it wasn't budging. The longer she tried it, the more frustrated she got till Kia was shaking and banging the door. "Open up, stupid door!"

She hadn't even noticed an eyeball for a doorhandle, not till it started to really shriek at her and mouths on either side of her snapped at her. One of them managed to get hold of a wing and ripped at it.

"Ow!" Kia jumped back fast, glaring at the eye and reaching up to press her hand tenderly to the raw bleeding patch on the edge of her wing. She'd lost more feathers than anything, but it still hurt.

"Well whatever you are." Kia turned around to glare at the eyes. It was so hard to do and say. She was having trouble replacing the sorrow with anger, her voice trembling with the effort of keeping both seperate. "Whaever you are, you are not smart. Nozomi has Mr. Youkochylde, she is not forgotten or lost or a child."

Maybe she could climb out a window instead, Kia turning around to see if there was one open. Or something.

"I know Nozomi is not a child." Kia snapped back. She wanted to get out, get out, find someone else around here. Wasn't there anyone in HQ? And Yani, where had he gone, was he really eaten?

Once she'd decided she couldn't get out the windows, Kia paced up and down, up and down, up and down, throat swollen, eyes still teary and wet, face red. She was so angry, so upset, so ...so...starting to get panicked. How did she get out? Kia's heart raced, her breathing fastened, her head span. She had to get out, had to get out, had to get out, even if she had to touch that eye again, she had to get out. Away. Away from this thing pretending to be Nozomi, away any way she could.

"You are not Nozomi. You know nothing about Nozomi! Now spit out Yani and let us out."As she paced, she glared into those familiar eyes. But for someone who didn't believe it was Nozomi, she did sound rather like she was scolding a naughty child.