Welfare and Warfare

Chapter 17

"I could have tried not to do that, though." Oscar shrugged. "Tried to be myself instead of breaking up."

Ivette frowned at him. "I know you have tried, you wouldn't be getting back together all the time if you were making the same mistake as before."

Oscar's nose scrunched up at the accusation, knowing it to be true.

"Anyway, in my personal opinion, I think it is best to leave him alone," said Ivette, then she added quietly, "let him work out who he is too just as you have done."

"So far, he's worked out that he likes to cause trouble." Oscar folded his arms.

Ivette chuckled slightly. "Yes." She stared at the table for a while, before finally returning to look at Oscar directly. "But in all seriousness, speaking from... experience, though it may be painful and difficult, you need to stop trying to help him."

Oscar swallowed, unable to retain eye contact for too long, as if he could not give her that unspoken promise not to.

"I think you realised for some time now, that it just makes things worse."

"So, I should just abandon him?"

"He will find someone else to help him." Ivette caressed the pages of her notebook. "He can make a fresh start with someone new."

Roughly Nineteen Years Ago

Not a bad haul today, Ivette thought as she zipped up her rucksack and slung it on her back, wincing from the weight and the awkward shapes almost poking out of the fabric. She glanced up at the enormous mountain of discarded items that was the Land of the Lost and wondered how long until she had rummaged through it all. How long before she would get bored down here what with the length of her prison sentence, counting down no longer felt like progress. Maybe she needed a hobby, something crafty as reading books was not for her with her attention span. Or a goal of some kind that was more beyond basic survival. She needed-

Ivette turned as she heard approaching footsteps, slow and lumbering. She reached for her knife at her belt, about to strike when she saw it was a young woman, her clothes absolutely drenched and clinging to her tall and skinny frame, her dark hair covering half of her face, only showing one of her impossibly radioactive green eyes.

The woman was heavily panting, clearing having done some sort of extraneous exercise, tired and depleted of energy as she made another dragging step of her foot closer. "Excuse me," she mumbled through chattering teeth. "Sorry, I-" She noticed Ivette's knife finally, and retreated back, her arms wrapped around her waist in retain warmth unfolded and raised in surrender. "Sorry, I just... I just got here and there were monsters in the water and I almost drowned and I'm so hungry and tired and scared and..." She swallowed, gazing at Ivette with large pleading eyes. "Please, can you help me-"

"No." Ivette returned her knife to her belt, sensing no threat, and walked off.

There was a delayed reaction before the stranger called out again, begging for help and expressing her fear of being in the Eternal Abyss and her loss of memory.

"You're on your own, dear!" Ivette groaned back, walking faster. "Rule one in the Abyss, don't trust any other prisoner! I know a trap when I see one!"

"But-" The woman finally started walking after Ivette, though keeping a respectable distance so as not to be stabbed. "We could work together! Two people have better chances of surviving down here than one!"

"I have done fine by myself all these years! Not going to jeopardise that now!" Ivette huffed, feeling the weight of the backpack slowing down her powerwalk and how she might not escape this stubborn woman. She didn't want to have to resort to transforming, not when the blood moon was so close. "Keep following me and I'll bloody shiv you!"