Finished You're Either With Me or You're Against Me

When Uzza knocked on the door to Jackal's apartment, she had no idea if he would actually be there. But going for anyone else in the family felt too risky. Chloe could be there. Chloe might have already talked to them. She and Jackal weren't on such good speaking terms, so they wouldn't have talked.

Uzza was knocking on Jackal's door too much, too vigorously. She mostly looked like Chloe, if Chloe had violet irises and pointed ears. She looked like shit. Her clothes were all disheveled, and in places her shirt and jacket seemed to have melded into her body. She wasn't used to this yet. She wasn't sure she would ever get the chance to get used to it.

Every few knocks she would look over her shoulder, like she was scared the wrong person would see her.

He was getting out of the way and inviting her in, so she went in immediately. She would feel safer inside.

"Jackal, have I talked to you at all over the last couple days? Like when... Fuck." She rubbed her eyes, and found a place to sit down. "Either something really big was happening over the last couple days or it was just me freaking out. You would know better than I do."

She sighed, then muttered to herself aloud: "I should have picked up a newspaper or something."

"Beer might be nice." She didn't even know if it would make her drunk, in this body. There were a lot of things she didn't know yet. Under different circumstances she might be excited to learn how it worked, what it could do, how it felt.

"Thanks."

She took a sip, and she took a moment to push down the growing panic she felt about revealing what she was. He didn't answer her question, but he was also acting like he didn't know, so that was a good sign.

"So... actually. The island was cut off from more than just the narrow reality. It was cut off from hell, too. I've actually been extending part of my soul across the barrier between our world and hell, so I could do stuff survive death on either side. But when the island got cut off, well," she made a chopping motion with her hand. "... It created me. The rest of me is still in my body at the penthouse, and I'm pretty sure she wants to kill me."

Uzza shifted uncomfortably. "I guess that's a useful analogy." It made her feel like less of a person, but yes. It wasn't that far off. "Except I'm pretty sure a starfish wouldn't try to eat its lost arm to reclaim part of its soul. Or whatever her reason is for wanting me dead."

She took a long swig of beer. "I don't even get why she'd do this though. Was I always some kind of... psycho murderer? Because you'd think I would remember something like that."

"Well..." Chloe sighed. "I modified some underwear last Valentine's day for Malara. It was set up so I could make portals in there." She was a little flustered talking about it.

"When we were cut off I found a way I could make a body and leave hell. Just in case. There were... a bunch of things that could have been going wrong here." She'd considered the possibility that the planet had been destroyed and most of her soul lost. But she didnt have time to be relieved that this wasn't the case.

"But yeah, the portal to Malara's underwear drawer was the only one on the island that she wasn't pointing a divine weapon at when the connection came back up. So I crawled out through there and jumped out the window."

She felt awful about it. Even when she was whole, she wouldn't go into her room with the circle bed without Malara's permission. It was one of Malara's hard limits, and she violated that. Even though it felt like a matter of life and death. Hopefully Malara would understand that if they ever got the chance to speak.