From The Ashes [#NaNoWriMo16]

Chapter Twenty Two - Quinton Mattos

But he had to head back eventually, because – apparently – they still needed him. So he made his way back to their camp with his head down and his bow tucked over his left shoulder. He had managed to ignore the pain in his other one since Issey got hurt, but it was slowly going away anyway, so he didn't have to worry about not being able to defend himself. He just had to worry about what the others were going to say when he got back.

"You were on watch last night!" Quin heard Ryia's voice exclaim in the distance, and he jumped slightly at the suddenness of it. So he was going the right way, amazingly. He was kind of hoping that he'd get lost and fall in a ditch somewhere or something. But this was a close second.

"Exactly," Issey's voice shot back as Quin got closer. He could see the faint flickering of a campfire in the dark, since it was just about nine o'clock. "Nothing attacked us, right? That means I did a good job. Let me take this watch."

"You're injured, Issey," Ryia snapped. "What happens when a troll comes bumbling along, but you can't fight it off because you got shot?"

"That's completely illogical," Issey argued. Quin could see their silhouettes in the distance. Issey was leaning against a tree, and Ryia was standing in front of her. "Trolls don't exist, and you're just making excuses."

"The troll part was bullshit, sure," Ryia muttered, "but the rest of it was spot-on; you can't fight! You'll get hurt even more if you try. Plus, you look like shit. You didn't sleep last night; it's time you did."

"Thanks," Issey growled, and lifted her head as Quin approached, twigs snapping beneath his feet to alert the girls of his presence. Ryia glanced at him, and Quin braced himself for an attack.

"You alright?" she asked instead, and Quin hesitated.

"Yeah," he replied finally, pursing his lips. Issey cleared her throat.

"You should go take your post," she announced finally, and Ryia smirked a little, nodding at Quin.

"See you guys in the morning," she sang, skipping off towards the campfire with her short hair flying out behind her head. Quin watched her go, not questioning her motive at all.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Issey asked after a while, "or are you just saying that?" Quin moved to sit on a large rock a little closer to the campsite, resting his elbows on his knees. After a few moments, Issey joined him.

"I almost killed you," he said finally, and basically heard Issey rolling her eyes at him.

"You didn't," she shot back. "I'm alive. So are you. You shouldn't feel guilty; I don't."

"Why would you feel guilty?" Quin grumbled, his dark eyes scanning the dirt at his feet as he rolled his shoulder around to see how much it hurt.

"I forced that change on you," she admitted, and Quin glanced at her. Her golden hair was glowing against the fire that was burning a little ways in front of them, and her lips were pressed tightly together as if she didn't want any more words to escape. "I know I had to, but still... I don't know what it feels like to have someone else in my head constantly, fighting over my body. I don't know what that's like. But I can't imagine it's something you enjoy."

"It's not," Quin admitted softly, fiddling his thumbs together anxiously. "I never know what he's done, and I never know when he does it. I just know that he's got no sense of life. He just wants to kill. I can never have people in my life; he'll just take them away from me when I'm not looking, or he'll scare them so much that I'll think it's my fault they're running away. That's why I don't have friends. Because they're dead before they even know me."

"That's not true and you know it," Issey said with a frown. "I've not run away, have I? Neither has Hallee, or Ryia or Kida. Arlo's even managed to stay; we're not scared. We're just... conflicted. There's a big difference."