The Clandestine Six- The Denouement

Chapter 12- 'It'

**KARINA'S POV**

Can I please be honest? Ofcourse I can.

James' strategy was nice but it wasn't failproof, and I knew that well and I cannot blame him anyway since he knew 0 things about that damned Giantepede. I did expect some problems like that ew-y goo to be there but I never expected anything to go as far as getting sucked into the Portal. But heck, it did happen.

Moreover, this pretty human ends up coming in with us who apparently has no idea about what's going on.

"Katie?" James asked. Oh, so now we have Mr. James apparently knowing this new human around here. Wow. Amazing.

"Don't tell me... By any chance are you...?" Katie's face had a horrified expression on.

"James. Are you... Katie Perez? The one I know?" James replied.

"Yeah." She replied glumly.

Suddenly, James gasped and clenched his heart. He bent forward as if he fell on the round which was never there and began breathing heavily and grunted in pain.

I was totally taken aback but I rushed to him and grabbed him before he fell.

"Are you okay, James?! Hey! What did you do to him?" I shouted, looking at the girl who had her eyes wide open in utter shock. Oh, she definitely didn't do anything.

"I-I'm okay... Just... Just..." He trailed off as his eyes closed and he fainted (hopefully, just fainted) and his whole weight was now on me. Damn, it was hard to keep floating while having a whole man leaning in on me. He had a panic attack. Poor boy.

"Ay! Bro! You can't sleep right now! Wake up, and explain." I shouted but ofcourse, he didn't listen. This place didn't even have some place where I could place him on to. Ugh, what a drag!

It took a moment for Kate (I guess that's her name? or is it not?) to realise what happened but as soon as she did, she floated towards me (surprisingly, she had a nice control on her body, unlike most humans) and grabbed James by his waist and helped me with handling his heavy-as-hell weight.

"Who are you?" I asked, staring at the girl while frowning. No no, I wasn't staring at her because she was too pretty (I mean, maybe I was) but because I was curious. HOW THE HELL DID SHE GET THAT FACE? And who the hell is she?

"I'm... Katie Perez." She spoke up.

"Katie who? I don't think we ever met you." I said.

"You didn't but he did. He is James Jio Jackson right? He used to be... I mean, still is, my best friend." She said.

"Best friend? But I thought it was Thomas..." I trailed off.

"Thomas? Oh I guess he made a new best friend after I died. But why is he here? Why is he... in Heavens?" She asked.

"Heavens? Oh right, I guess you humans call Elysium, 'Heavens'. Anyway, he... uh... died so, uhm—" I stuttered. No, I really don't know how to explain a person's death.

"When?" She asked.

"Recently." I replied.

"Oh, this poor boy..." Katie frowned.

"I keep losing best friends, don't I?" James spoke up and I was startled. He urged to stand up (or float up) and at the end of the day, his stubbornness won against my arguments. For the first time in forever.

"I'm sorry, James... I... You must be furious at me, right?" She asked.

"Nope. I was, but not right now. After seeing life for a few more years, I finally realise how harsh it is and I guess, I kind of... know how you felt at that time. So, I don't blame you for what you did." He replied.