The Birdcage

Ashes, Ashes

"God, I love that we get takeaway whilst they decontaminate the kitchen." Perry said, tearing into a slice of pepperoni pizza. "Real food!"

Ronnie made noises of agreement. "I swear, if I find out the reason the food tasted so terrible was because it was contaminated with fucking demon-juice, I'm going to be so mad."

"Maybe we'll get a decent chef now." Jayson said, putting one of his slices on top of another to make a kind of pizza sandwich, the toppings in the middle. "Although I'm totally okay with doing this every day."

Ronnie turned to Nyx, who was tucking into her own pizza. "So, you actually saw the fight with the demon? That's so cool!"S

"I wasn't supposed to." Nyx chuckled. "I stayed out after curfew. But you know, I was curious. Totally justified."

"Oh, often break out of your room at night, do you?" Jayson teased.

Well, technically she never broke herself out any of those times... She'd just happened to have been let out.

"It's not breaking out if I don't go to the room in the first place." She joked back. "Got caught by Doctor Hannan though, which sucks."

"Oof." He winced. "The woman's lovely, but really strict about curfews."

"Don't I know it."

"So!" Ronnie announced, clapping her hands together excitedly. "Tell us about the demon."

"Ronnie, you have a weird obsession." Perry said.

"Shush. I'm curious. Go on, what was it like?"

"Well," Nyx started. "It was like this long... emaciated... skeletal- looking thing- like it had been starving and then someone stretched it out on a rack. And it had a wide mouth, like this-" She traced the shape with her fingers on her own face, from ear to ear. "-filled with all these jagged teeth. And it was spewing acid everywhere. It had been going through the kitchen, eating everything."

"Ew!" Ronnie squealed, grinning excitedly at the story. "And they killed it?"

"Chopped it's head off." Nyx said, realising she was wearing the same gleeful smile as she recounted the admittedly quite thrilling tale. Now it was all over, the fear was gone and the event seemed quite exciting.

"Sounds like some kind of scavenger." Jayson commented after a moment's thought. "It's amazing to think that something like that could do all this."

Now that got Nyx. She didn't know why, but it did. How did that demon cause all the havoc the Whisperer did? Because now she was thinking about it, from what she'd seen, she'd observed no evidence of it having any similar characteristics to the creature at all.
Her stomach dropped she realised what that could mean. Unnerved, she pushed the feeling down; trying to convince herself it was nothing, but the seed had taken root and however she tried she couldn't shake it.

"Are you going to finish your pizza?" He asked.

"Yes, get your mitts of it." She said, smacking away his hand.

***

"Where are we going?" Ronnie shrieked with laughter, her eyes hidden behind Perry's hands.

"Nyx might insist you be invited to hang out in our camp, but I'll be damned if you know the way." Perry cackled.

"Ooh, top secret. Intriguing."

Nyx skipped in front of them, making sure the way was clear for tjhe unwieldy duo; it was just the three of them now as Jayson had had to disappear for an appointment. Wanting privacy to discuss the previous night further, Nyx had suggested they all go to the secret hideout, much to Perry's annoyance at having more people in the know; even after Nyx had sworn her to total secrecy.