All Right, Kid...Let's Deal Some Drugs [Finished]

[Bee]

It hadn't been Helena's fault, really. It was just that the nice delivery boy had come over with a package for Mommy and he had been so terribly kind to her, telling her that her hair was pretty and what was her name and where was her mother and would she leave him alone for the love of god and a moment later Helena had attached herself to his leg like a deer tick, squealing with happiness and telling him how much she loved him.

Mommy had yanked her away and told her to stop trying to rape people, but Helena didn't even know what that was, so she had just screamed and wailed in her mother's arms and soon Mommy's long pink hair was wrapping around her muzzle to keep her mouth shut.

Then Mommy was talking to Aiolos, the scary bat-man that Aunt Minh and Uncle Aderlass sometimes played with, using words like "nearby river" and "kindly drown."

"At least get her out of the house before I rip out her vocal cords with a dull spoon. Please." In muttering tones, Mommy added, "And if you happen to lose her somewhere along the way, like in an alley or a ditch or in the Lowlands, don't feel bad, really."

[Dark]

Aiolos had been trying to surreptitiously slip the premise when Mnem cornered him, only to hand one of her brats off to him. It wasn't the first time, and doubtlessly not the last, but of all of her hell spawn, why, for the love of murder, did it have to be Helena?

Aiolos wasn't good with people, and he probably never would be, so why these people kept thrusting their children at him he might never puzzle out--unless they really weren't joking when they told him to 'dispose' of them. (And wasn't that a pleasant thought.) Helena, though--she was an entirely different entity, and Aiolos knew he couldn't deal with her.

He really wished Minh would take his suggestions of moving out seriously, or that maybe he and Aderlass could live together--and be able to maybe coexist in a same space without getting into a fight every five minutes and, in Aiolos' case, getting fucked up against the wall.

Standing in the hall, staring down at her wild mop of blue hair, he couldn't help but consider taking up Mnem's suggestion of drowning.

Because, seriously. The kid was crazy.

[Bee]

Helena sniffed back the last of her tears as the door closed behind them and she was left standing in the hall with Aiolos, who was tall and frightening and sometimes carried sharp objects.

Everything seemed so quiet, like the eye of a hurricane or the dramatic pause right before someone got knifed in an alleyway. Tears sprung her to eyes again; Aiolos was probably going to kill her and burn her corpse and feed the ashes to rats, and then the rats were going to bloat and explode and die because her ashes were probably filled with idiot poison like Mommy said.

She wrapped her long tail--another mark of freakishness, this one from Daddy--around herself for comfort. She wailed loudly. "Don't hurt me," she moaned miserably. "I don't wanna die. I don't wanna."

It dawned on her that she didn't have to wait around sobbing for death to arrive. She could try to outrun it. She gathered her strength and, as fast as her short child's legs would allow, she took off down the hallway.

[Dark]

Aiolos blinked, watching her totter down the hall in what he supposed was some deranged equivalent of running. And blinked again.

He should probably catch her, before she was involved in an attempted kidnapping--'attempted,' because it would take the perpetrator all of five seconds to realize she wasn't worth keeping. If Helena was to be gotten rid of, it would have to be a much more--permanent--solution.

Sighing, he followed--it only took four strides and part of a fifth to reach her, bodily grabbing her and scooping her up into his arms all in one motion, not breaking his stride. As she struggled, he admonished her by shaking her--just a bit--and giving a low, warning growl.

"Behave."

He really wasn't sure what to do with her, and in the end he did go to the river. There was a pedestrian-bridge he sometime walked, and he found himself there now, dropping Helena unceremoniously in order to lean over the railing and look out over the water.

It was almost peaceful.

[Bee]

Helena stared down at the river in mute horror. They were at the bridge, overlooking what was sure to be her watery grave. Any minute, Aiolos was going to grab her and toss her in, and laugh merrily as she drowned. Or maybe just stare some more. Aiolos didn't laugh.

The water rippled and rushed over rocks as Helena continued to watch it. Minutes passed, and still Aiolos didn't murder her. He seemed to be off in his own little world. Maybe he was eviscerating a thousand tiny little Helenas.

I want to go swimming, she thought suddenly. She had never been swimming before. Maybe she would be an excellent swimmer, and people would come from all over to admire how gracefully she moved in the water. Maybe she would be able to outswim the Ace and race her way to freedom.

"Aiolos," she said, hesitantly. "I want to swim."

[Dark]

Aiolos pulled his attention away from the hypnotic ebb and flow of the river below, considering Helena out of the corner of amber eyes. She wanted to go...swimming. It was practically an invitation. And Aiolos didn't feel particularly like arguing with the small crazy-child over what she actually meant.

Completely nonchalant, he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and hauled her up and over the railing. The shriek she made as she fell was rather piercing, but the sploosh as she hit was satisfying enough to make up for a little excess noise. He watched for bubbles a moment, curious, wondering momentarily if she could actually swim, before turning away with an indifferent shrug, hands stuffed in his pockets.

Maybe she'd sink.

He wandered back towards home, sticking to the shadows and infrequently used back streets, and idly wondered if Helena even knew how to get home--if she survived her impromptu-drowning, that is.

Oh, well.

[Bee]

Helena thrashed and screamed in the water, her furious paddling managing to just keep her afloat. He did want to kill her! She was going to drown, and he was just going to walk away and then everyone was going to throw a party to celebrate and--she went under, again, gurgling and choking on water, before pushing to the surface. She flailed her way to the edge of the river, grabbing rock and grass with small paws and holding on for dear life.

She wasn't dead, she wasn't dead! Wait until she told everyone that she had survived a murder attempt. They would be so proud of her. She scrambled up the small hill and back to the street, looking around. She had wandered off before, but she really didn't know where she was. Or how to get back to her home.

It took her hours to find it, wandering through the slummier area of Capital City after dark, shrieking at every movement of shadow. But at last she climbed the stairs to the apartment they called home--they pretty much had the floor to themselves, now, and the one above it, because Mommy and Auntie Minh had long since frightened off the other tenants.

She threw herself at the door and pounded loudly.

"Mommy! Auntie! Anyone! Let me in! Lemme in, please!"

The door opened moments later. Mommy looked down at her for a long moment, sighed (though for what reason, Helena couldn't tell), and moved aside so let Helena in.