“Hahahaha- ouch” Eve laughed for more than a couple minutes. At the end she held her side with her hands, caressing the spot where she got stabbed. Tears appeared on the corner closed eyes, both from joy and pain.

She opened her eyelids and looked with clear brown eyes at the one in front of her, that little and heroic guy, he’s still a kid, right? She studied the young boy in front. He appeared so innocent at this moment, his cheeks rosy with shame but he didn’t try to excuse his mistake nor did he aske her compensations. She wasn’t used to this kind and shameless act, people seldom did so in the city and she shared the thought.

She compared his current bashful behavior to his previous act, and found the contrast amusing. Remembering how he woke her up and didn’t try to take advantage of the state she was in, she felt the name she gave him was well founded.

He acted like a hero of the stories she saw on TV or in books! He had such an awesome face when he woke her up, when he drove away that pest, when he rescued her from, from...

Eve knew how trivial this kind of assault was. It was something normal, really. She heard of similar cases from time to time, someone gone missing, someone was found death, or someone had been rapped and left to rot in the street. Two years ago, she heard of a lady of the House of—- was kidnaped near her mansion and found with dead eyes a week later; they had exacted their vengeance in a most cruel way. There was no exception to the misfortune in the city.

And it almost happened to her. Her parents would have been sad for a while but would have continued on with only sorrow in themselves, maybe her mother could fall in pregnancy again and finally deliver a boy. That's how it happened, that's how her best friend's parents had done with her long dead big brother.

She felt a hand on her back and looked back, her eyes opened once more and her body trembled, drops went down her cheek, her shoulders hugged by her hands with too much strength. She saw Hiro’s brows were turned upwards and his mouth moved, sound wasn’t going in her ears.

"I-I'm alright." She said after some minutes of being comforted by him.

“You can sleep if you want, c’mon, you can use the bed.” She nodded, walked to the bed and tumbled on it. She closed them tightly and started to try to sleep, not for long though, as her body trembled once more, only to feel her back being massaged again.

On the third try, she finally fell asleep. So troublesome… Isn’t something I can say.

Charlotte kept moving her hand on Eve’s back while her eyes darted on the ceiling. I could be in a similar position, no?

She sat on the bed’s edge, and five minutes in she stood up and went to a corner where she left the bag. She sat beside it and felt cold on her back, so she explored it and took out her gun. Her hand didn’t tremble, it was as steady as it could get. She explored it and held it as if she was to fire it to different places of the room. She then looked through her bag and took out the tools to make the maintenance of the gun, one had to do it after each use.

After she put the gun together, she realized the girl, Eve, had her eyes open.

“You’re awake? Should’ve told me before.”

“Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt you.” Eve sat straight up on the edge of the bed

“No problem, I could always finish it another time.”

Eve stood from the bed and strolled through the room. “Where did you learn to do that?” She looked at the gun with her hands behind her back, interest written all over her face.

“Someone taught me.” Charlotte brought it to her back without amusing the curious girl.

“Can’t I see it?” Eve tilted her head.

“No, it’s dangerous.” Charlotte shook her head and got on her feet.

“… Alright.” Eve’s shoulders lowered. “Hey, do you live here?”

“I’m looking for a place to stay, so no.”

“Oh! Then come to my house! You can stay there!” Eve brought her hands to her chest as her eyes started to shine.

“Really? I don’t want to bother you.”

“Totally! Like, we can go now, my folk’ll love you! They always wanted a boy, and you’re so small!”

“Ah, well,” Charlotte looked around the room, “I just paid for the room, I don’t want to leave just like that…”

“It doesn’t matter! After I tell them what you did today, they’ll pay you back, I swear it’ll be more than what you just paid for the room!” Eve approached her and went for the hands, moving them vigorously.

Charlotte tried to free them but the girl wouldn’t bulge, her face expecting a positive answer. She sighed and shook her head slowly.

“… Alright. I’m looking for a place to stay permanently, you know something?”

“Oh? How’ll you get something like that! I said, you can stay with us! Also, you’re so little, I don’t think you’ll get a room like that.” She nodded her head and finally freed her hands.

“I’m… Sixteen, you know?” She said with a pout, even then, that was not her real age, she was way older than that! And the previous age she pretended to be was too young for her likings, she’d need to act carelessly and without worries, something she wasn’t used to…

I, acted like that? She realized, trying not to open her eyes wide.

“Really?! I don’t believe you! I’m younger… Even if you’re so small! Hehe, then you’re like a big brother to me?” The girl said as she touched both of their heads, she was around five centimeters taller than Charlotte.

“Eh? Yeah, wait a sec, my head is hurting.” Charlotte brought both hands to her head, her face went white and her unfocused darted around the room.

That time, and that other time… Even there… Why, why no one told me that? No, well, some people did say that but… Yeah.

Her hands closed on her hair, pulling it with more for after each passing minute.

“Y-you alright? D-Did I say something wrong? I’m sorry! Y-you don’t have to go if you don’t want to!” Eve backed away, she didn’t know what to do so she looked around for something to calm Charlotte down and stood rooted once she was on the bed.

Charlotte covered her head with her shirt. Eve sat on the bed and waited for everything to be alright.

“…Sorry, really… Hah…” Charlotte unwrapped her head, her face calm once again.

So what, I’ll keep behaving however I want. Hmph!

“If, you say so…” Eve didn’t know how to answer or how to feel. “Let’s go to my place?”

“Yeah, let’s.”

“Yes!” She jumped out of the bed and went to the door.

“But first, let’s do something about you.”

“Me?” Eve looked at herself, she wore the ragged hoodie and her tattered, bloodied clothes. “Oh! Yeah, what do I do!”

“Just take a shower.” Charlotte pointed to the bath and walked to the door.” I’ll buy something for the stab, try not to touch it.”

“Ok!” Eve nodded enthusiastically and entered the small bath.

Charlotte went out of the hotel and looked for a pharmacy to buy disinfectants and things to cure Eve.

When she returned, she saw how Eve waited on the bed with only her bra on her top. She had her hands over a red towel she had over the stab, her face contorted with tears around her eyes. They weren’t falling, yet.

“I’m sorry…” Eve said when she heard Charlotte had closed the door. “I… I touched it and blood started coming out and out. I made a mess of the bad and it isn’t stopping now…”

“Don’t worry. Lie down.”

Eve did with some difficulty, Charlotte had to hold her back once more to make her lie on the bed.

“… We should go to the hospital.” Charlotte said once she was able to remove Eve’s rigid hands from the wound.

There was blood gushing out of it and she had already tried to make it clean some times.

“I can’t, it’s too costly…” Eve’s face contorted once more to which Charlotte couldn’t help but shake her head.

“We won’t be going to your house until it’s better… Wait,” she clasped and nodded once, her eyes opened wide as an idea hit her, “I’ll try something, just close your eyes.”

Eve nodded as they were already closed, Charlotte saw her with the corners of her eyes and took one of the things she just bought.

“Here. Bite to it.” Charlotte put the bed’s sheets on her mouth and untapped the disinfectant. “It’ll hurt a little bit so bear with it.”

She sprayed the wound and heard air being sucked sharply, blood strong on its way out. She then closed her eyes after she cleaned the wound again, her hands tightened on her own clothes while she stood crouched beside the bed.

“Prism, EP asap. Compare her body to the previous one, no, compare only the zone of her wound.”

Prism showed her the comparisons and Charlotte wanted to bite on her nails strongly. Eve had ruptured veins all around the wound, possibly from moving too carelessly without treatment.

“Can it be placed as it was before?”

An image appeared and went away. Charlotte nodded and told her to do it.

She felt for the first time energy being extracted from her, it felt alien to her. She felt like a balloon being squeezed from all the air inside it. This air wasn’t in her lungs, but on the Crystal Stone of hers, the CECS which stored this fifth force of nature. When the sensation stopped, she realized she wasn’t tired nor hungry, but still lacked in other area. It was the same as she had been the last few days and she thought it was because of hunger and malnourishment.

“I see, so it was because I had this new thing in me…” Charlotte nodded and decided to explore this thing at a later date, now she had more important things to do.

She opened her eyes and cleaned the wound once again, now there wasn’t much blood coming out, only the remnants of previous wound.

“You stay like that until I tell you so it can heal properly, I already sprayed with something to make it somehow stop. Just don’t move, no matter what.”

She covered the wound with the red towel and decided to also take a shower. Fortunately, there it was only the hand towel she used. As she walked, she saw how the floor was bloodied and feared for the spectacle inside. The girl’s blouse was on the floor and the bandages was over it, blood came from the toilet. Charlotte wondered if the girl had wanted to use it.

She cleaned the bath with toilet paper and used everything but a bit for herself. She then took a quick shower and went out to check on Eve. She lied in the same position as before, but her breath was steady and less rough.

Charlotte felt troubled as she wanted to do other things during the day, and now she had to wait for the girl to recover enough and then send her to her house, without anything else to do.

She studied the girl again, her long black brows and clean forehead were the only things in her face which were out of wounds. Both her cheeks were bruised, though the right had a clear protrusion and its skin had cuts on it, some blood came out long ago. Her nose was scratched, maybe by the ground or some similar object, and her lips ruptured. Her hair was a mess and she could see how the man aggressively pulled from one point that lacked a bit of hair above her left ear.

She sat on the floor and put her back on the bed’s frame as she entered the Crystal’s Space once more. She tried to cure the girl but it was difficult as she was not an expert on body tissues and Prism was even worse than her. At the end, she had exhausted three fourths of the total stored energy trying to come with methods inside a memory of White Prism. At the very least, she could keep the wound from worsening when they walked if she stayed near Eve. It would tire her a lot, but it was better than nothing.

“You up?” She said as she came back.

“…”

“C’mon, I know you’re awake, it’s been three hours already.”

“… Sorry.”

“About what?”

The girl didn’t answer and Charlotte didn’t question about it either, she just waited for some minutes before she got up and looked at Eve. Her face was a little better but still had bruises over it. Charlotte cleaned it before with the towel she used to dry herself. Eve’s face was turned to the other side, to the wall and away from her.

“We’ll stay here for another couple of hours and go to your place.”

“Why?” Eve turned slowly but couldn’t maintain eye contact, giving Charlotte quick glances.

“You need to recover and moving isn’t a way to do it. Don’t complain.”

“I don’t mean that, I mean, well, why’re you doing so much to me?”

“I can’t?” Charlotte tilted her head and waited for Eve to look at her.

Eve didn’t dare to look at her directly, she kept on the bed with her hands at her side closing and opening constantly. “I, don’t know. No one does it here. You, you’re not from here right?”

“No… Could it be you wanted to be left alone?”

“Of course not!” Eve finally put her sights on Charlotte and saw how she was smirking at her, she bit her bruised lips and looked down. “I don’t know what to say about what you did…”

“Relax, just thank me and help me here, I don’t know anything around, you know.” Charlotte extended her left hand and caressed the girl’s head. “Just, don’t tell anyone I’m not from here.”

“Is that all?” She brought her hands to her chest as her cheeks dyed in pink. “You don’t want anything else?”

“Not now, I’m gonna ask other things later I guess.”

Eve snickered as she found the tone of her reply weird but reassuring, at least the teasing helped her relax a bit.

Eve stayed in the bed for another hour and a half as she was told when Charlotte came back with food in her hands. She brought four sandwiches along with two dishes of pasta and a box of rice with various kinds of meat and vegetables.

Eve stared at all the food on the floor without doing anything. There was too much food she didn’t know what to do!

“T-that’s a lot…” She mumbled as Charlotte took out plastic cups to serve a lemon-flavored carbonated drink.

“You can eat whatever you want, don’t worry, I’ll eat the rest. I’m hungry.” Charlotte said as she brought the first sandwich to her mouth. “Chicken and cheese ain’t that bad.”

As Charlotte kept on eating, Eve wondered where all that food went to, her belly stayed the same as before without any signs of bloating. After she finished the first dish of pasta and went on to serve herself half of the rice, Eve’s stomach grumbled. She looked down and her cheeks went red with shame.

“You can eat, c’mon, it’s tasty.” She said before she started to eat her rice.

Eve reached for the sandwich and gave it a small bite before starting to gobble it up like a hungry dog.

At the end, she ate the sandwich and all the rice left. She was hungrier than what she thought she’d been. Charlotte finished everything else.

“I can still go on.” She said as she patted her normal looking belly.

“…you always eat like that?”

“Yeah, well, my body needs a lot of energy, you know. Something about a growing body and stuff? I can’t handle this at all, though.” She eyed the only thing that wasn’t even at half, the carbonated drink.

She felt wrong just drinking it, as if it didn’t do anything to her body, just air coming in and out of her lungs. Like the last cigar the night before. She was never a fan of them, but didn’t dislike it at all. She always liked juices or tea over it. Now she just didn’t want it in her system.

“I quite like it.” Eve said as she sipped her cup, making sound with her tongue and lips, and closed her eyes as her face softened.

“Yeah, well, the taste is good but the feeling I get, well, I don’t like it at all.”

“I don’t get it.” Eve opened her eyes and eyed her drink, sniffing and tasting it with only the tip of her tongue.

“It’s the same as when you smoke for the first time. Ah.” Charlotte said without thinking and looked at Eve.

“Oh, that… I get it.” Eve nodded her head slowly before she felt a stare on her face. “What?”

“You smoke?”

“Well, no. But I’ve tried it before, twice? It’s awful, never will do it again.” Eve scratched her cheek before pausing, her fingers then caressed it slowly.

“You’re so young and already smoking… Whoa.”

“You’re not much older than me, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Ah, well. I only did it yesterday. I’ve my reasons, you know.” Charlotte lied, Though it’s been so long it just reset to cero.

“Oh! Yeah, you told me you’re not from here, right? Why did you come here?” Eve said as she remembered that pretty important point.

“Nothing, really. I was brought here against my will and now I was left to die. Nothing else on the matter and I won’t tell you more than that.”

Eve asked nothing either, she saw how Charlotte’s face turned cold and sharp, making the girl feel that she’d lose this new friend if she asked more things than necessary. “Alright, sorry.”

“Don’t fret it.” Charlotte shook her head as her thoughts came back from James. He was the one who put her in this city and he’s going to pay, somehow, one day, Charlotte swore to herself. “How are you feeling?”

“Huh? Ah, uhm.” Eve was to touch her wound when her right hand was slapped down, she eyed Charlotte as she rubbed it with her left.

Over her wound was a gauze and some clinic tape which kept it from falling. Around it and below it was a yellowish ointment she had used to clean it and some white one which could improve the regeneration rate of body tissues. At least that was what the pharmacist had told Charlotte.

“Lie down, I’m gonna see it.”

Eve did as requested and closed her eyes. Charlotte opened the gauze with caution and closed her eyes for a second and then studied the wound. “I guess you can move again, but without much movement or it’ll open immediately.”

“O-oh, you look like a doctor.” Eve snickered and looked away.

“Hush it. I think we can go now… Wait, you didn’t take a shower, right?”

“Eh, uh, no.”

“Hmm, right, wait a bit.” Charlotte got up and went to the plastic bag where she had all the stuff to cure Eve, she had bought five different ointments, a package of 20 gauzes with a 10 cm diameter, the body tape and bandages for herself. She touched her chin for a minute and then tore up the plastic bag with her hand. She surrounded the wound with it and attached it with the tape. “Try not to touch it while you shower, and immediately come out if you feel you’re bleeding… No, if you see something is red. Ok?”

“O-ok.” Eve nodded and went to the bath.

Charlotte sat beside the bath’s door and closed her eyes. She only focused the projection on Eve’s wound and kept it healthy, or at least kept it from opening once again. When Eve finished the shower, Charlotte came out and started looking around the room. She then got up and tied up the place, she stored everything she needed in the bag and put the rest beside the door. She felt guilty by the bloodied sheet and towel but when she thought back to the impoliteness they showed her, she didn’t mind it at all.

When Eve came out, everything was ready and they could part. Except she only had her bra on her top. Charlotte had her hoodie on herself, even if it was bloodied on the inside. She rubbed the back of her head as she took it off and gave it to her, she forgot the girl’s blouse was even worse than the sheets.

On the reception desk, she tried to get some kind of compensation, but the man just eyed her strangely and denied all her efforts. She was fuming from her ears when she decided to give up or else she would start flying things around. The street was dyed orange and the surplus of people was as intense as before, if not worse for the time.