Outnumbered

“You’re going to be fine,” I tell her. “Hang on a second.”

I hobble over to the bathroom and get my first aid supplies. Iris stares up at me blankly as I clean up her shoulder and apply gauze to the wound.

“Not that bad at all,” I say. I try to smile, but I’m not very successful. The gash needs stitches, and going to the clinic will mean a whole lot of questions that I won’t want to answer. I can pull of the wound from my leg as an accident, but I’m not sure we can come up with a plausible story for a knife wound like this.

“It’s okay, Bish.” Iris reaches out and touches my arm. “I was supposed to die a while ago.”

“You aren’t going to die, Iris. I know it hurts, but it’s really not that bad, so stop saying that.”

“You’re not fucking listening!” She rolls her eyes and winces again. “Shit’s just…just too much.”

“Hang in there.”

Iris closes her eyes. When they open again, I see Netti’s calm, emotionless stare.

“This is how it was supposed to end,” Netti says. “This is how it was supposed to be at the riverbank.”

“For fuck’s sake, you are not dying! None of you are dying!”

“Iris is,” she says. “Without Iris, I am no longer needed.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” I can feel a well of panic building in my gut. “None of you have to go.”

“Don’t worry,” Netti says, “you’ll still have Seri. That’s the way it ought to be anyway.”

“Netti,” I whisper as I stop working on her shoulder and look into her eyes. The tension in my stomach increases as I start to understand what Netti is telling me. “You and Iris…you’re…you’re a part of Seri, too.”

“Yes,” Netti says with a nod. “She understands that now.”

“She understands? You mean, Seri knows?”

“Yes,” Netti says. “When Kyle attacked us, there was no time to transition properly. The barrier was removed, and she could see us. It was the only way to protect her. Seri would have hesitated to use the knife, and that might have killed us all.”

“Iris stabbed Kyle.”

“Yes.”

“And Seri…Seri knows this?”

“She does.”

“Is she okay?” I ask quietly.

“Surprisingly, yes.” Netti’s eyes soften. “You were right about her, you know. We always assumed she could never know. We thought if she realized the truth, she would retreat. She would cease to exist, and if we were compromised, there would be nothing left but an empty shell.”

“You can all be okay now,” I tell her. “Iris doesn’t have to go anywhere, and neither do you. If Seri knows and she’s okay, you can all be…well, you can all be okay together.”

“No, Bishop.”

“Kyle is dead now!” I raise my voice. “Iris isn’t in danger anymore!”

“It has to be this way.” Netti smiles at me and then raises her hand to touch my cheek.

“No, it doesn’t!” I grab her wrist as her hand starts to drop back to her side. Her eyes close for a moment and then open again with a darker, anguished look.

“Yes, it fucking does, Bish.” Iris pulls her hand away and shakes her head at me. “Just get used to this shit because this is how it’s going to be. I’m dying, and nothing you say is going to change that.”

“Iris, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”