Jason heard the first chime of the bells as he was preparing the exit the store.

He'd spent perhaps a few minutes longer than he'd originally intended, but Gerald had requested his assistance. Reasoning that it was a quick task, Jason had agreed, making efficient work of reorganising the clutter that Gerald's special brand of loving chaos tended to leave behind. Once the workbench was set, Jason exited the back room, removed his apron, ensured his clothes were immaculate, and had stopped to assist a customer when the bells first rang.

"Those sound close," said the customer, all thoughts of the orchids in her hands gone as she turned her gaze streetside.

"Central Sylrael," said Jason. One of the few things he'd been competent at was determining the pitch and volume of the skyshrine bells. He was yet to be wrong. "Within a few blocks of our location, if I am correct."

The customer clumsily placed the orchids back on the bench and scrambled for her handbag. "By the peak, I haven't been this close to a Manifested in--oh, it'd be years! I knew coming to Central Sylrael today was a mistake, my husband--he's a Wishspeaker, you know--he said he had a bad feeling but I assured him that--"

"Miss, I'll need you to calm down," said Jason. "Collect your things and move in a calm manner away from the Manifested location at a minimum of three blocks."

"Three blocks, three blocks, of course," said the customer, bobbing her head. "I just--I get so flustered--probably the Spellheart in me, you know? You're so calm for one so young. You must have a lot of experience with Manifested."

"I am yet to see one in person," said Jason, opening the door for her when she proceeded to push the door marked 'pull'. "I have been soundly educated on the protocol concerning both Manifested and Luminaries."

"Then your parents are lucky to have such a well-mannered son such as yourself," said the customer, giving him a smile and a tap on the cheek. "Are you coming?"

"I have to ensure someone else is evacuated first," said Jason. "Please don't feel inclined to wait for..."

The customer was already gone.

Having wasted enough time already, Jason headed into the back where he'd last seen Gerald. As expected, the florist was making a new disaster in the greenhouse, attempting to clean up some potted soil that he'd spilled. The second chime of the bells rang through the air.

"Jason!" said Gerald. "I thought you were leaving!"

"I came to ensure you'd evacuated safely."

"Evacuated? Whatever for?"

"The Manifested is close," said Jason, attempting to press the urgency of the situation. "Did you not hear the bells?"

Gerald squinted and tilted his head up. "I could have sworn those were a district or two over." He shook his head. "But I guess my hearing isn't what it used to be. I'll take your word for it, lad. Let's go."

Together they exited the building, joining the small crowd of people that were rapidly filing out of the surrounding buildings in various degrees of panic. It wasn't hard to spot the Manifested. Everyone was moving away from the larger, humanoid figure that was herding a group of civilians into what Jason knew to be a deceptive dead end.

Jason was shoved by someone as they ran past, but he barely recognised Gerald's steadying hand on his arm. All he could focus on was the herded civilians. They'd be trapped, far too easy targets for the Manifested to cut through if it were so inclined.

He knew protocol. It was the one thing shining through his mind--a clear, straight beacon about the correct actions. He had a duty to ensure it was followed, and none more crucially than the moments when panic wiped it from the minds of most civilians.

"Go to safety, Gerald," said Jason, his eyes still on the Manifested stalking towards the civilians. "I need to ensure everyone else is safely evacuated."

Part of him expected Gerald to argue, but Gerald only reached up and squeezed Jason's shoulder. Their eyes met for a brief, solemn moment that reached something buried deep at Jason's core.

"Do what you need to do. There's no better lad than you for the job."

With a final tap, Gerald joined the flow of the retreating crowd, leaving Jason standing alone on the sidewalk as the final trickles of fleeing civilians moved past him.

It left him exposed, but it gave him a clear view of the situation.

The Manifested was crouched over a civilian, who made a feeble attempt to push the Manifested away with little effect. The Manifested itself didn't appear to be anything particularly malicious, made out of uncomfortable looking slime and grease that left an oily slick in its wake. That was something. Sharp teeth and spines often meant anger, and an angry Manifested increased the risk of civilian casualties.

The group of civilians were indeed cornered in the dead end. They huddled close, with the exception of one man who, with the Manifested distracted, was attempting to make an escape. He moved slowly along the starstone wall, holding his hand out to a small girl in the trapped group, trying to encourage her to follow.

Jason was familiar enough with the dead end to know that there was a side door in the building that adjoined it. It was always locked from the inside with a deadbolt, but if Jason could get inside, it would be an easy task to open it and evacuate the civilians inside. All he needed was the chance, the Manifested's attention in another direction for a moment.

The third chime of the bells rang out, the third minute since the civilian had Manifested, and still, there was no sign of the Luminaries. A bright flare of light at the top of a nearby building raised his hopes for a brief moment that DragonFae was near, but the following afterthought quickly scolded that hope--it hadn't been violet.

The Manifested stood. The civilian it'd had pinned to the ground was convulsing beneath it, and Jason had absolutely no idea if they were healthy, conscious, or in the process of choking to death.

It was somewhere in that thought that Jason realised he had no idea why he'd stayed, why he thought he could ever do this. He'd never even seen a Manifested up close--he'd been within a few blocks of one before and minorly assisted in the evacuation, but he'd never actually seen one with his own eyes. What made him qualified to stay behind, to even think for a moment that he might be anything more than a burden to the situation? No recordings, guides, or anything else he'd studied over the years had even come close to preparing him for this.

This--whatever this even was. This went beyond protocol. If he intervened, if the Manifested caught him, his mother would know he'd disobeyed her by taking a detour to the florist. He could hear her voice in his ear now, asking him exactly what he'd planned to do, why he thought he could help, that he should have just stuck to protocol and evacuated with everyone else.

A flash of movement dragged Jason's attention away from his panic. The trapped girl dashed for the man who'd been beckoning her out of the dead end, but it'd been too fast, too sudden. The Manifested's head whipped around, and in Jason's mind, its oil-slicked gaze was already engulfing her, choking her, drowning her, leaving her as little more than another convulsing body on the street.

But before the Manifested could move, someone else had.

*+*+*+*

"Hey, jerk face!"

The words were out of Olivia's mouth before she could stop them. Her heart hammered in her chest. Her head felt like it might float off from the adrenaline at any moment.

She really wasn't sure how she'd ended up in the middle of the street at a distance that could definitely be classified as way too close. She'd just moved. Followed some instinct that constantly annoyed her from the back of her mind.

Really, the only thing she was sure of was that her parents were never going to let her out of the house ever again after this little stunt.

But right now, all she could hear was the screams of a terrified little girl.

"Over here!" Olivia called again, but the Manifested wasn't interested. It continued to prowl towards the kid who'd darted out, utterly fixated on its new target.

Some people might have been relieved to not attract the attention of the superpowered monster currently terrorising the streets. Olivia, however, was more insulted by the fact that it'd chosen to ignore her blatant attempt to get its attention.

Oooooooh no. If there was one thing that no one and nothing could do, it was ignore Olivia Lydiasdaughter.

After briefly considering throwing her shoe, Olivia took her Liaiser out of the pouch and yanked it off her waistband. Then, with maybe about half a thought, she drew back her arm and lobbed the pouch straight at the Manifested.

Direct hit.

"I'm talking to you, slime butt!"

Whether it was the insult or the projectile pouch, it was enough to get the Manifested's attention. Its head snaked around to look at her, its neck elongating in a creepy, exaggerated fashion that made her skin crawl.

Her mouth went dry as under the Manifested's gaze, her thoughts flicked to the conversation later today with her parents.

What'd you do today, Olivia?

Oh, nothing, dad. I just went face to face with a Manifested after having multiple chances to leave the area. Ericka even got a video of it, wanna see!?

The Manifested went down on all fours, its arms extending to make up the height and keep its head level. Its skin glistened, a dark, midnight black with streaks of rainbows tangled in its mass. Its eyes were like whirlpools--deep, sucking, whirlpools from which no detail escaped.

Olivia was vaguely aware of Ericka shouting something off to the side. She couldn't afford to look, to listen, to do anything but devote her full attention to the creature stalking towards her. She pushed back on her rollerblades, keeping a slow, calm roll to counter the distance that the Manifested covered.

"Didn't like being called a slime butt, hey?" said Olivia. The Manifested tilted its head in reply. "Because that's what you look like, buddy. A slime butt. Y'no, as far as Manifested go, that's not a great look. You couldn't manage, I don't know, some cool horns or a tail or something? Wyvern and Harpy are gonna tear you to shreds when they get here."

That was if they ever got here, anyway. It felt like an eternity since she'd bladed out into the middle of the street. The Manifested just kept stalking closer, one slow, calculated step at a time, with none of that terrifying speed it'd previously displayed.

Maybe it couldn't. Maybe it had to match its targets speed. What did she know about Manifested? They usually had a focus. A reason for Manifesting. Themes--there was something about themes, oh Ericka was going to kill her later for not being able to remember. Maybe she'd--

The Manifested launched forward.

Caught in her wandering thoughts, Olivia almost wasn't fast enough. Years of rollerblading practice had her foot shoving her body to the side before she'd consciously decided to do anything. She ducked low under an arm--limbo practice--and focused on getting her speed up, to put some distance between her and this thing.

She hadn't been entirely successful in dodging. A few drops of oil-slime ran down the side of her face. She wiped it off quickly, attempting to flick it off with zero success. It clung to her fingers like glue, and the more she tried to remove it, the more it seemed to stick.

"You'll never live again."

Olivia glanced up, finding the Manifested once more stalking towards her at its slow, creepy pace. It didn't have a mouth, exactly, but she knew it'd spoken all the same.

"Is that a threat or something?" Olivia replied. "Needs work if so. Not specific enough to--"

"You're broken. Fragile. Done."

Her heart skipped a beat. She shoved the doubt those four words had conjured to the side. "Once again, you're really too vague to even--"

"You think you can help anyone? You can't even help yourself. You can't be trusted alone. You might break, blackout, hurt yourself. You have to stay where it's safe, where you won't worry the people still foolish enough to care about you."

Olivia grit her teeth together.

"What do you think would happen if your parents lost another daughter?" whispered the Manifested. "Another piece of the family broken. They'd never recover if they lost their precious Olive."

Caught in the trap of its words, Olivia hadn't realised how close the Manifested was before it was right on top of her. Bells chimed through the air as Olivia did the dumbest, least logical thing she could think of and pushed forward, right between the Manifested's legs. Despite curling into the smallest ball she could manage, the black slime still covered her sides, coating her arms from the shoulders all the way to her elbows and the sides of her skirt.

"You can't run from this truth. You are the embodiment of the words. You hear only what you are, what you know to be true--"

Olivia shoved herself back up straight, covered her ears with her hands, and at the top of her lungs, sang the first thing that came to mind.

"TWINKLE TWINKLE BRIGHT STARSONG, HELD UP BY SKYPILLAR STRONG."

"You cannot--"

"UP ABOVE THAT MOUNTAIN TALL, STARRY NIGHT-SKY EYES SEE ALL."

"I will--"

"TWINKLE TWINKLE BRIGHT STARSONG, GUIDE US THROUGH THESE NIGHTS SO LONG."

With a hiss that sounded like an amplified, distorted version of the water draining from the huge sink in the restaurant, the Manifested launched into its chase.

Olivia knew from the first burst of speed that she wasn't going to be able to outrun it for more than about ten seconds. The black slime covering her clothes was growing with every word the Manifested slipped past her obnoxious singing. She darted to the side, narrowly avoiding a bear-hug from the Manifested, and had launched into her own rendition of 'Ninety-nine Luminaries on the Peak' when her rollerblades, now slick with the slime, slid out from underneath her.

Olivia hit the ground hard, keeping her hands pressed over her ears instead of reaching out to break her fall. She curled her knees up to her chest, pressed her cheek into her shoulder and kept singing at the top of her lungs as the Manifested crouched over the top of her.

"You take one down, Ascend it somehow, ninety-six Luminaries left on the peak!"

The Manifested ran a finger down Olivia's cheek, and she heard its words in her head.

"Childish. Useless. Fragile. Breakable."

The black slime bubbled around her. No doubt the Manifested intended to do something dramatic and probably rather uncomfortable for her, but whatever it was going to do, she wasn't going to know about it.

She could hear the buzzing in her ears. Her head was about to float off her shoulders. Her hands were moving from her ears to rub her face as the tell-tale daze of an approaching seizure began to creep over her.

If this was how it ended, Olivia found herself strangely okay with it. She'd given the others a chance to run. She'd done everything she could. It hadn't been enough--but she'd tried.

Her thoughts slipped, and Olivia blacked out.

*+*+*+* 

A/N - Updates are a little sporadic atm, am in a bit of a rough patch. Still aiming for one a week but sometimes it's more energy than I have to type out a story about the lowest points in two of my favourite characters lives ;-;