10 Ben

Before the gargoyle had appeared, Ben was thinking about what Ivy had told him. She seemed awfully satisfied with the information, and right after she announced that Lily was her sister, Ben knew it was true. He already felt oddly familiar with the name Lily, though he wasn't sure why. And it made sense that she wasn't some stranger who had decided to help them. He had privately wondered if he had any siblings, or family in general. He was fairly certain he didn't have anyone like Lily in his life.

Then the gargoyle appeared, just like it had on the card. As soon as he saw it, Ben froze. Fear quickly set in, just like when that weird monster attacked him when he met Lea and had his flashback thing. He watched in slow motion as Lea and Ezra both shouted in horror. The few other people on the train started screaming too.

Ben couldn't move. He was so scared, beyond scared actually. Any sense of being or logic escaped his head. The gargoyle seemed to laugh at them as it launched forwards, towards Ben. Still, he couldn't move. Ivy shoved him hard, making both of them fall to the floor at last second. The gargoyle smacked into the wall, hitting a woman instead. She shrieked and fell to the floor, blood seeping from a cut on her head.

"Get out of here!" Lea shouted at the few passengers. They didn't seem to hear her.

Again, the gargoyle tried to attack Ivy and Ben. Ivy rolled out of the way, simultaneously shoving Ben. The monster clawed the floor instead, crying out in annoyance.

"Ben, you need to move!" Ivy screamed at him. "Run that way!" She pointed at the door that connected the carts, "and I'll go this way!"

Ivy didn't waste anytime to hear his response. She ran the opposite direction, just as Lea gave him a solid kick in the back to get him moving. Ben started to run towards the door, unsure of who the gargoyle was going to follow. Of course, it followed him. Locked with fear, Ben frantically opened the door and jumped into the next cart, which was luckily empty. Lea and Ezra were close behind, and Ivy must have changed her mind about running away, because she too jumped into the next one, slamming the door closed behind her.

"Ezra, help the woman in the other cart!" Lea yelled. He nodded and moved back to the other one, closing the door firmly.

Ben didn't know what to do. He had fallen onto the cold floor and was hurriedly crawling away from the monster, who was eyeing him up like candy. It howled and dove down towards him, but something stopped it.

Ivy.

In a flash of strawberry blonde, she had somehow managed to get in between Ben and the gargoyle, but at a great cost. The things talons slashed deep into Ivy's soft stomach. To Ben's utmost horror and disgust, blood spurted forward, quickly soaking her as she staggered and fell backwards. She sputtered and coughed, more blood staining her teeth and running out of her mouth. Ben screamed, actually screamed as she landed next to him. Her eyes were unfocused, unblinking. She was completely blank.

Dead.

Lea shouted, pulling a knife from her back and stabbing the beast between the wings. It shrieked and flapped trying to get away from the pain, but Lea held fast. With a disgusting ripping noise that Ben would never forget, she sliced the whole thing wide open. It exploded into ash, coating everything in a fine powder.

Ivy still wasn't moving. She was laying on her back, staring at the ceiling. Not blinking. Not breathing. Lea bent down next to her, using two fingers on her neck, checking her heart, trying to stop the blood -

"No pulse. No breath. No heartbeat," she gasped, staring at Ivy, then at Ben. They stared at each other in horror for a long a time. Ben grabbed Ivy's hand.

It was getting cold.

Feeling sick and dizzy, he turned away from his only friend, vomiting over his side. No. This couldn't be happening. Could Ivy really be... dead? As he forced himself to look at her again, at her unseeing eyes, he knew it was over. She was gone for good.

How could this be happening? How could he have let the monster hit her? Why couldn't he move or fight back? With a sick glance at Ivy, he could see that the talons had completely ripped open her stomach, shredded it even. There was nothing there left. He felt another bout of dizziness and bile rise in his throat. This couldn't be happening right now.

Ezra walked in, his hands also covered in blood. Clearly, he had helped the lady with the head wound in the other cart. Upon seeing Ivy, he stopped short.

"Is she - " he was cut off by a shake of Lea's head. Ben slammed his head down on the floor, laying flat on his back just like Ivy was. How could a human life even be over so fast? The sorrow and loss started to set in, and tears streamed freely down his cheeks. The disbelief was still there, but it was overshadowed by the depression that came right after it. How could he let this happen?

Silence mixed with time and neither made sense to him anymore. Ivy was gone, Ezra was still, and Lea might've been crying, Ben wasn't sure. He felt sick to his stomach and he couldn't move. Ivy... she had so quickly been reduced to a body. Too quickly. And it was his fault. If he had moved...

"Ben," Lea gently put her hand on his shoulder. He forced his eyes open, looking into her deep brown eyes. "We need to move her, okay? And clean all this up. If someone finds us, it's going to look like we killed her. We need to avoid that. I'm going to call the agency, okay? They'll come get her and clean this up. We need to leave as soon as we can. Okay?" She whispered gently, rubbing his shoulder in a comforting way. He nodded, still feeling too sad and sick to speak.

He closed his eyes again as Ezra and Lea started rustling around in their bags to contact the agency. He didn't really care what they did. In fact, he didn't even care about finishing the levels or getting his memories back. Actually, he more wanted to erase his memories now. Erase the last few days and with it, the pain of losing his only friend.