Meryn winced and grit her teeth as the man grabbed onto her hand, his weight straining her. She didn't know how much help she was, but eventually he managed to scramble up – just in time for the fairy to shout and throw some sort of glowing dome around the two of them. There was a blinding flash of light in the sky. Meryn blinked, tears in her eyes as she waited for the dark haze of her vision to clear and readjust. Only… it didn't.

The dark haze wasn't because her eyes had been blinded. It was the crystalline, black particles contaminating the air. The monsters were all dead, vaporized by the light. Meryn's eyes widened with the realization.

[i]Don't breathe it in.[/i]

She looked out from behind the mask to see the telltale colors of dreams still rising and moving throughout the city. The people were still alive. And now they were all infected. Meryn was frozen, numb with horror. All these people, her [i]friends[/i] – she tore her gaze up to the fairy, still holding the dome. No doubt, the only thing protecting them from the cloud of crystalline. Emma was somewhere in the black mess. Infected. Marked to die a slow, diseased death. A hard lump formed in her throat and Meryn sat back on her rear. She reached up and yanked Spook's mask off of her face, throwing it to the ground in a clatter. Its glassy eyes stared back up at her.

With stinging eyes, Meryn forced her gaze away and ran a rough hand through her hair. It followed her long, fraying braid, pulling it over the shoulder. Though, perhaps calling it a 'braid' was too generous at this point. More like a loose, tangled mess that was tied off at the bottom. With a sigh, Meryn yanked out the tie holding it together. She'd redo it later. For now, she sat back up and looked around the blackened city, safe inside the fairy's bubble. For all she knew, she was the only uninfected one remaining. Well, her and the man sitting beside her, sullenly looking down at a scratched up hand and a heavily bleeding ank–

Well [i]shit[/i].

Meryn's eyes froze on what were clearly bite marks puncturing the skin just above his foot. The monster had bit him. The [i]infected[/i] monster. She supposed that meant she really [i]was[/i] the only uninfected one. Her eyes, sad and frustrated, flicked back up to his, her eyebrows furrowed. 

[i]What was she supposed to do?[/i]

She looked away and ran a hand through her hair again, her fingers catching in knots. Meryn looked back at him. Maybe… maybe he wasn't infected. What had Spook said to look for? Black crystals. He didn't have any crystals growing on him (yet) so that was a good sign. Though granted, it was a later symptom. What else?… Lethargy. The man was high as a goddamn bird, so that was a little harder to measure. 

Meryn sighed quietly to herself. Infected or not, she felt responsible for him. She had to help him somehow. Resolved, she reached a hand into her boot and pulled out a small knife. She unsheathed it slowly, looking down at herself. She'd ditched her jacket outside the city, so all she had left was her shirt, her pants, and her bag. After skewing her mouth in thought, Meryn finally brought her knife down to the right leg of her pants, cutting a few inches above her ankle. When a ragged cylinder of cloth was free, she slid it over her boot and held it out to the man. She'd seen Emma work often enough to know they ought to stop the bleeding.