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Her attention had been on Thackery and the strange Hunters. She hadn't noticed the lumbering shape or even heard the shifting of sand until it was much too late, until one arm was around her midsection, trapping her arms against her own body, and a large hand clamped over her mouth. It cut her cry of surprise into a muffled gasp, and as she was carted off by the unknown assailant the panic began to rise anew.

She was on enemy territory. There were plenty of Hunters who downright hated her, but they had promised - Otto had promised - that she would go home after witnessing the procedures. She should have known that was a lie. Why would they let her escape, after they finally had her? Believing them had been stupid of her...

Despite all this, she couldn't bring herself to regret her decision. She had tried to save a friend - two of them, by the end of it - and no matter what, that was worth the risk. Plus, there was a note back at home warning them of exactly this, so nobody else would make her mistake. Of course, that did not mean that she was just going to accept this, to lay down and take whatever karma this person felt justified in dishing out. She was a fighter, if nothing else, and nobody would ever be able to claim otherwise.

Amrita struggled as hard as her bracelet would allow, and cursed every second she had to wear it. If it weren't for that slim accessory it would have been too easy to escape; all she had to do was push backwards. Shed her patchwork skin for the warm mass of moving flesh at her back. She would have made him regret ever daring to touch her, and would even find a way to make him watch as she forced him to break his own limbs to repent. Knowing all this made her situation worse, and the agony of helpless panic began to grow in place of rage. Her throat began to close and her useless lungs began to ache, the sensation spreading like white noise throughout the rest of her. Her body may not have been alive, but the cells remembered, and in the presence of panicked FEAR they were miming the feel for her now, to protest the danger and urge her to correct it.

Struggling wasn't getting her anywhere, and she couldn't give herself the time to try and see whose arms were around her; she recognized that they were alone now, which meant she was in more danger than she had been before, she could just feel it. The body against her felt familiar, and terrifyingly so. At that point she stopped struggling, but only to concentrate her efforts into sudden movements.

She twisted her head to the side as sharp as she could to try to break free of the strong hand, and she screamed. She screamed as loud and hard as she could, trying to alert the Hunters who had promised her safe trip home. When he inevitably tried to silence her again, she tried to bite his hand. In the process she had moved enough to solidify that familiar feeling, but it wasn't until the almost blurry vision of his hand, too close to her eyes, did she really recognize him. When she did she went shock still all over, her attempted bite failing in the wake of the way her body tensed, and her eye widening in horror as the realization settled in.

Robert.

It wasn't just any Hunter. This wasn't just someone who hated Halloween, who may have tangled with her here and there in the past. This was a Hunter with whom she had history. Violent, deep-seated history. This wasn't the result of a petty grudge; this was practically a vendetta.

It was entirely, horrifically personal...and she was helplessly alone with him now.

The tone in his voice sent chills through her core just enough to make her tremble in his grasp. He released her mouth, and she simply knew it was because she wouldn't be heard if she tried anything. The thought of screaming again did cross her mind, but the thought of him enjoying such a display of helplessness from her kept her mouth shut. At least for now.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" She hissed out, attempting to put on her sweetest voice. She knew that being smart with him wasn't going to help her case by a long shot. The words had escaped her before she could think better of them, and by then it was much too late. His grip on her shifted but the unnatural bend of her arms didn't immediately bother her. He began to press forward, and as futile as the gesture was she resisted every single step he forced her to take. Eventually she couldn't move forward any more, and was forced to press her bone cheek against the unrelenting wall, the trapped air from her useless lungs rushing out of her in a grunt as he still tried to push her further against it.

"You couldn't kill me if you tried, sweetie." She growled out despite how terrified she was, again mentally berating herself for the words she simply couldn't help. He brought out the worst in her, apparently. The truth of it was, she didn't want to die just as much as she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing her beg...but if answering him could spare her some time...

"I only came here as moral support for Aleria. You bastards talked it into-" There she trailed off, emotion and failure choking her words for a moment, enough for an obvious pause and redirect. "-It's the only reason I'm here. I didn't expect to see Mimsy there at all. She came in half way through." Yes. Talking. Good. She wasn't pleading, and she certainly hoped her attempt at prolonging conversation wasn't terribly obvious. "Why would you care anyway? I'm not a threat to her."

She desperately wanted to fight back, but she simply couldn't. It wasn't because she was afraid of dying - after all, she was already technically dead - but she was afraid of being helpless and trapped, and those feelings were being provided to her in spades. Robert had her in a position where she could not easily retaliate, and all she could do was try to hang in there and watch her mouth until help came. The bracelet wouldn't let her do anything else.

His silence was unnerving, and she soon realized why.

Amrita grit her teeth as he began to bend her arm, feeling the pull of muscle and sinew until the strain was too much. When the bone snapped, her eye squeezed closed and she screamed as loud as she could, playing up the very real pain in a desperate attempt to get an outsider's attention. Anyone's attention, really. Even Otto's, so long as they didn't join in.

Her jaw remained locked and her eye tightly closed, putting her mind on anything that wasn't the continued pulse of pain from her trapped arm. A distraction came in the form of his voice, and even that wasn't enough to make her feel any better.

"She's my friend." The patchwork answered honestly, her voice straining to work between the pain and the pressure that kept her to the wall. "I would never hurt her ~ and it helps that we are so alike." The last part was added for his benefit, and again uttered before she could think better of it. Still, the words brought a grin to what was left of her lips, and despite it all she let out a low, dry laugh.

Honestly, Amrita had no idea if they were really friends. Their brief interactions suggested something of the sort, and even more so when Mimsy had saved her from the conversion chamber and kept her from it with hugs and hair pats. Mimsy was the closest thing to a friend Amrita could ever have when it came to Hunters.

The ghoul gave a small cry as he shover her once more against the wall, and then a small gasp of relief as he released her broken arm. "She is!" The patchwork insisted, about to turn around when something slammed into the wall, splitting some of her hair too close to her face. Her breath caught and she went very still, afraid that the tiniest movement would set him off; she wouldn't even dare turn to face him. "You can't-"

The words twisted and warped into a howl of pain as the weapon bit into her flesh, slicing viciously through stitches and skin, flesh and sinew. The force of the blow made her arch against the wall, and as it tore through her she felt her knees buckle under the weight of the pain. Every time she tried to retaliate, the bracelet on her wrist sapped her strength, weakening her shield until simply standing took her strength away. Physically fighting back wasn't an option anymore, and hadn't been this whole time.

"W...What a scareling." She gasped out, clinging to the wall with a trembling hand. Her entire body surged with pain, every slight movement stinging. She had felt this way before; it meant she was on the last threads of her fear shield, a light tap away from dissipating...but she couldn't give up just yet. "Th-throwing a tantrum like this." She was not going to go down pleading, she told herself. She wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. The stubborn ghoul flinched, sucking in a breath as she tried to turn to face her assailant. "I...I bet you think y-" She paused for a fraction of a second, and only to coax her vocal cords into working for her. "-you're a big man n-now. Striking when I can't-" She was not going down quietly. She would never forgive herself for that.

"Robert."

Something had not felt right about leaving Amrita in the hands of someone that she didn't know. Really, Mimsy felt uncomfortable about leaving her with anyone while she was on this island, considering the sentiments expressed during their conversation in the Haunted House, and this was far from preferable. If her interference meant the demise of Amrita's friend, however, she doubted that their friendship would have been sustainable for much longer. So she behaved, and tried to keep her distance.

It was manageable for only a short while. She had understood the circumstances, and couldn't fault the ghoul for following, but she knew that she would fault herself if she failed to ensure her safety. It was that, she told herself, and not the desire for one more hug and a suitable goodbye that made her set out towards the lighthouse to join the group she'd left with.

Amrita was gone, but her canine friend remained with the ones who claimed to have summoned him. That didn't seem right. Amrita followed Aleria here to watch until the very last second. Surely she would not have abandoned this one, who could still come back home. With a frown, she'd set off in search of her, hoping that she hadn't gotten far.

There had been no signs of her until she reached the very edge of the town, when she heard a pained scream and some sort of commotion.

She wished that had not been a sign of her.

Her weapon was in her hand before she even knew who she would find when she shoved the door open. It still remained in her hand when the daylight poured in on the sight of what looked like a very broken Amrita in front of Robert, with Jezebel dangerously close to her neck. There was a clear intent in his expression that she couldn't recall seeing before - one which would have delighted her on most any other occasion - and she fought against staring and smiling to stop him. Just this once.

In spite of the fact that Mimsy stood just short of six feet tall, Robert still made her look so tiny in comparison; she was skin and bones and very little muscle in between, and relied much more heavily on more subtle tactics in favor of avoiding combat with someone like him.

But this was Amrita. Her friend. It troubled her enough to see how pained she was in the moments that followed both Aleria's weaponization and the accident with Thackery - she was not going to allow her to die and potentially fail to respawn. She was definitely not going to allow the only friend who truly understood her to be taken away from her by the man who was supposed to love her unconditionally. There was no other option.

She smacked his hand with the flat side of Svensyl's blade and shoved as hard as she could against Jezebel with the edge of it, managing to secure enough space to comfortably believe that decapitation could safely be avoided.

"Robert. Please. Desummon your weapon and get away from Amrita. Now," she commanded, glare fixed on him, Svensyl still held steadily in his direction. Beneath the anger in her eyes was a hurt and disappointment that might have been newly familiar to him, and she tore it away for just a fraction of a second to glance down at Amrita, before slowly moving to bend down next to her.

The white-knuckled hand that held the hilt of the vorpal sword began to shake, mirroring the fingers of her other hand, which trembled against Amrita's hair as she tried to offer the most gentle touch that she was capable of.

"He won't hurt you any more." Her assurance was an insistence in itself, he eyes narrowing up at Robert as she carefully enunciated every word. This was a dare that she hoped he would not take.

Her taunt did the complete opposite of what she wanted. Her reward for even trying had been a blade too close to her throat and a pressure that forced her to look up at him. She glared at him, hating him even more now than she ever had before. The blade pressed until it broke skin, and Amrita grit her teeth, trying to metaphorically swallow any verbal clues as to how much that small pinch hurt. Everything hurt, even simply standing was becoming a chore. Robert pulled the blade away and she watched it go, trailing the gleaming blade as it pulled back far enough to give good momentum.

This was it, her mind whispered in horrified realization. This was how it all ends.

She had so many regrets.

The blade began to swing and she gasped inwardly, closing her eye as tight as she could; despite her earlier bravo she was still terrified, and nobody wanted to watch the guillotine as it fell. The clash of metal-on-metal startled her into a yelping gasp, her eye flying open just in time to see an unknown blade shift to point at Robert. Her gaze followed the line of the blade and found Mimsy standing there, commanding the giant of a man to get away from her.

"Mimsy..." She breathed out, her voice trembling with gratitude. The sight of her friend, now saviour, seemed to drain all the adrenaline from her body. Her weak, shaky legs gave out beneath her and she slid down the wall to sit awkwardly against it, her descent marked by an imperfect smear of old coagulated blood. Mimsy's words were as comforting as they were strange: a Hunter, protecting her from another Hunter who was also her partner, and who had every right to want to tear her to pieces. "Thank you." The relief and gratitude was still present in her voice, and as Mimsy pet her hair she was unable to resist the urge to tilt her head towards her hand to take advantage of the comfort in contact.

The depth of pain in Robert's voice made her flinch, and she was surprised to realize that because, for a single moment, she actually pitied him. The brief feeling was so easily buried, and though she had a few scathing replies in her defence on the tip of her tongue, she kept silent. Mimsy had saved her life only moments before, and she wasn't about to jeopardize it. She was glad for her choice as Robert's weapon sunk into a nearby wall. After a long moment, she turned her gaze back towards Mimsy, unable to turn her head without pain.

"This is why I'd said no." She said to the other woman, her voice low and hurt. She had a feeling this would happen, but she had expected it right away, not when she had been about to leave peacefully. "I'm sorry." Despite knowing that Mimsy didn't seem to hate her for her violent history with Robert, she still felt the need to apologize for putting her in this really awkward situation.

It was even worse that she remembered. Robert let out the most pathetic sound of despair when she admitted it, because it meant she was doing this regardless of that fact. How COULD she? How was this even possible? How could Mimsy take the b***h's side over him? Was he really that unimportant?

He let out a scream through his teeth as Mimsy tried to tell him Amrita wasn't a risk. She MUST have known that wasn't why he was doing this. Mimsy was the smartest, most brilliant person he'd ever met in his life. She HAD to know. She HAD TO. Of course it was for vengeance, and rightly deserved, because she'd -

"I almost killed you too."

Kill her too, Robert. The voice who almost never spoke to him, said. He roared with anger, turning around to desummon Jezebel from the wall. If he'd been in his right mind, he would have realized that desummoning her would never have shut her up. But he wasn't used to her being so talkative, so helpful before. He screamed in his mind, chanting for her to shut up, and missed half of what Mimsy was saying. When he finally tuned in, she was already starting to sound venomous, and Jezebel nudged him to pay attention. He understood her last few words, and his hand wrapped around her little wrist, pulling it forcefully off of his chest. He held it, refusing to show his anger with pressure, but not in the mood to be touched either.

"You're different." His voice was an unfamiliar hiss of a coiled snake, ready to strike. "Don't you dare compare yourself to her. You don't want me to make that comparison. You don't."

He released her hand, only after making sure it fell at her side, and away from him.

"Somebody ******** explain what the ******** is going on. Now."

As Robert released Mimsy's arm, it fell uselessly beside her, just as he intended. She didn't move it again, once it did - her fingers felt numb, and the rest of her felt shameful. It felt as revolting on the surface as she was on the inside.

"I am here now," she repeated, withdrawing her hand from Amrita's hair, careful to not ruin her any more than she had. She remained next to her, but her posture now appeared more injured than defensive, shoulders crookedly drooping as she thought of each itemized reason she felt they were alike. There was a disappointing lack of reasons that were not predictably 'undesirable'.

Was he finally beginning to see that she was who she told him she was? Had just touching him repulsed him that badly? Did she cross the line of his tolerance by adding her still-clumsy affections to this conflict?

"Am I different?" she quietly asked, thumb anxiously rubbing her wrist where he'd touched it. The feeling wouldn't go away, not even when the skin began to itch and tingle beneath her the end of her finger, threatening to be rubbed raw.

"I can't explain myself, I'm afraid. Because I'm not myself, you see."

The quote was recited in a whisper, following Svensyl's rhythmic prompting. It tickled him pink that she'd lost herself so thoroughly that she actually said something like that out loud, and he burst into giggles that set a very strange mood for her thoughts.

But it did make sense.

"We met when I was Simmy." Best to start with the beginning of the self-that-wasn't-her, she thought. "We shared a mutual concern for one another, I think. The last time I recall speaking to her there, she checked on me to ensure that I was not lonely. I told her about you. She observed that I looked happier after I began spending time with you."

She stopped rubbing her arm and held both hands close to her chest, unable to uproot the steadily sprouting seed of doubt. If Robert didn't want her to pollute him with her touch, she couldn't be entirely certain that Amrita didn't want her to either. Maybe she was simply too injured to physically protest.

"We did not see one another again, until recently, when we had a chance meeting at the Haunted House. No harm came to either of us. I explained that you and I are together now." Purposeful present tense, denying any other word. "I told her about the progress that we have made together. I enjoyed our conversation, so I invited her to visit, but she declined. That is all. There is nothing 'going on'. This is not a betrayal, and she has made no indication to me that her plans were at all contrary to what she has already said."

She remembered feeling so disappointed when she'd thought that Amrita would never come to the island again. In this place, she felt detached and unwelcome among accusatory tones and remarks about monsters. It was like being permanently stuck in a more volatile version of the world she tried to escape through knowledge, and she couldn't blame Amrita for wanting to remain in a place that made sense.

"I don't know who I am. I want to be the person that you love. I want to be the person who is her friend. I do not want either of you to have an untimely demise. Is that an option?"

Her eyes looked anywhere but at him, and she gave Amrita a twitch of half of a smile, before her eyes avoided her too.