Callisto

Let Me

Rain-Born kicked open yet another apartment and stumbled in without much thought about her surroundings. Jespar followed behind with worried eyes. Something was definitely wrong with her.

"Hey, Chief, er -" he tentatively began. "Listen, maybe it's time to settle down tonight."

"No," she breathed, cursing in fury as she found another cupboard covered in cobwebs. "I can go on."

He was trying to work out the problem here. Was it just her pride that stopped her from acknowledging her limitations?

He hopped on top of a dust-caked couch and barked at her. "Hey, you told me you'd listen to me from now on, right?" he asked, trying to make eye contact with the constantly pacing warrior. "It's ok to admit that you need a break now and then. You just performed a root canal on a giant worm, for fuck"s sake."

His tone caught him by surprise. Sometimes, he realized, Nicole's lessons did sink through.

But she still wouldn't stop. She stood now in front of the couch he lay on, having upturned everything else in the whole abode.

"Move, Jespar."

"Nah, Chief, not this time," he said, facing her and meeting her furious gaze. This wasn't her he was looking at. What the hell was happening behind those eyes?

"Why are you being so...so you?" she asked, her hand flying to her temple in consternation.

"And why are you losing it like this?" he asked her right back. He wasn't gonna let up this time.

"Because I don't know what I'm doing!"

Her outburst shook him momentarily, lost in her desperate, bulging eyes. She looked like she was about to break. Then he caught himself. Why should that be a surprise? Who the Hell did know what they were doing out here?

"Rain-Born, listen, just stay here for a bit, and I'll scout ahead. I'll come back lat- hey!"

She had collapsed onto the couch, her breathing coming in raspy, short bursts. Looking at her closer, he saw that she was sweating.

Even in the cold of this desert night?

Above them both, a rusted fan spun with no alternative, still committed to the duty it had been designed for decades ago. It was the only spectator as the dog stared dumbly at the girl who collapsed on the couch next to him, clutching at some invisible wound around her stomach.

"Rain-Born, hey -"

She batted his paw away from her and staggered out to the tiny adjoining apartment hallway. There was one door she had yet to open.

"I will finish this tonight. And then I will find Callisto. I have to. I was chosen."

She panted like some wounded animal, still clutching her stomach tightly. It was like there was something there she wanted to physically tear out of her the way she tightened her grip. Jespar had had enough.

"If you don't lie down, I swear I'm gonna...write you a strongly worded letter. Speak to your parents. Damn it, girl, I'll take this up with the P.T. Fucking A!"

He ran through her legs and rounded on her just as she was about to kick down the door. "I said stop!"

She looked down at him with disgust, gritted teeth and wild hair framing her as an image of pure Deadlands ferocity. In this instance, she was the very painting of those two Tribals who had first muzzled him, thinking him nothing more than spare meat.

But he didn't back down. He wasn't afraid. She was in there; he just had to remind her.

She tried to kick him aside, but he stood stalwart, as stoic as his breed could be.