Her eyes remained trained on the misty form before her, still listening but her eyes did not dare wander away from it in case this Callisto decided to vanish or worse, start getting closer to them. She watched as it made its way to near where Finn was gesturing, obviously moving towards wherever this other ghost man was.

Callisto shot his friend an exhausted look as he laughed. “I think you’re both mouthy.” He chimed in, carefully looking over the living beings. They looked well enough. Although, soon enough the man was going to be in for a not so pleasant surprise. Lily on the other hand, could go either way. He had seen people manage quite well, others lost their cool and frantically pranced around and eventually straight into the arms of the god. He hoped she was one of the former.

“Towels, why towels?” She shook her head, the sandy blond strands flowed with the movement. What on earth are towels going to do for them? She could hear a faint mumbling other than the syrupy male voice that she had heard so clearly before, or perhaps she was imagining things. Finn gave her little more information, turning his attention towards escape from the cellar rather than the towel situation. Her dark eyes trailing up to the few broken rungs, they were near to the bottom of the ladder, the ones up top still intact.

Lily cast a glance towards Finn and his larger frame and then back to the rungs again. If he tried to climb up there, the whole thing would be destroyed, no questions about it. But she hadn’t broken any rungs when she had made her way down, only slipped.

“Can you lift me so I can reach those?” She pointed up towards the higher end of the ladder, half of it was still in decent enough condition. She could go and find something to get Finn out with, maybe rope? But then how would she pull his weight up on her own? “On second thought, I can’t pull you out on my own.” Her hands that clasped the blade shifted slightly. One thumb was rubbing the small engravings, feeling the dips under her fingers. “Do you have any bright ideas?” As she spoke, she glanced around again, trying to locate her new foggy friend. He had moved, now near where the letter opener had been, close to the ladder.

Callisto stole another look towards Xevon, expecting him to elaborate to the poor man. At least if he knew what was going to happen, then it would be less panic and more simple. He held his tongue, not wanting to take over Xevon’s role in all this. But he kept his eyes pointed to his companion, obviously expecting him to do something.

Callisto kept his lips sealed as he watched Xevon have a little fun, he hovered near his companion and watched the cogs turn in the living’s heads. Anticipating the sudden arrival of Xevon’s blessing upon Finn. It was incoming whether the man was prepared or not.

Lily turned her body to face Finntello as he paced in a small circle. She wasn’t sure how she would accomplish getting him out first to instead lift her up second, he was too heavy for the ladder apparently. Yet, the man proclaimed that her idea would be fine. She was less than sure. “But how would you get out? I don’t want to be wandering around alone with whatever those ghost people are talking about, and being down in this cellar is far too creepy for you to stay.” She shook her head, her lips flattening as she tried to whip up some other brilliant idea. But she could not think of anything, her eyes scanned around the room, there were only shelving units and the occasional ageing barrel. No spare ladder or rope. Resigned, Lily looked back to the expectant Finn.

She pushed out a sigh. “If you think you can get up there after me, then okay.” Lily nodded her head towards the space of light where the trapdoor loomed above them.

Callisto cocked his head, blinking slowly. “It would be rather helpful for it to kick in right now.” He hummed, keeping her voice lowered, speaking directly to Xevon. However, the slight twitch of Lily’s eyes towards his form let him know that she had heard him clearly. Perhaps the presence of both talismans in such close proximity to each other was hastening the process, soon enough she would be able to perceive him properly.

Lily’s head refused to move to look towards this Callisto man, he was an afterthought. A very strange and creepy afterthought, one that she would deal with later. “Lift me up there.” She solidified her decision. Lily planned to keep herself very close to the trapdoor, even leaning into it, or dangling an arm so that the heavy door couldn’t slam down and separate them. Or at least, if it did, she would be knocked down there. Or there was the chance her arm would be crushed, she didn’t want to think about that one.

She waited patiently tucking the small silver token into her back pocket, her eyes focused on the rung of the ladder she was aiming to grasp when Finn lifted her into the air. Slightly surprised as he did, her hands ended up meeting a rung or two above that one. He had longer arms than she thought, quickly she grabbed a hold of the old wood, immediately wincing as she felt something sharp poke into the palm of her hand, near the webbing of her pinky finger. She tried not to focus on the pain as she scrambled her way up the remaining ladder and pulled herself onto the floorboards of the bar floor. Lily turned straight away, peering back down into the cellar, she heard the sickening drag of the shelves before she could work out what Finn was doing. Her face crinkled tightly at the sound.

At the sudden commencement of the dragging, Callisto jumped out of his skin. Literally, he poofed with a small amount of blurry mist before appearing on Xevon’s shoulder. Except he was not himself, instead he perched on Xevon’s shoulder with his tail sticking straight up in surprise. His paws gripping the clothing and perhaps some skin tightly. His whiskers brushed the side of his companions head as he sucked in a deep breath to recover from the sudden sound. Callisto’s white fur was pointed up on its ends, hackles drawn the highest. His scars remained the same, cutting through the stark snow fur. His eyes still a bright contrasting pink, painting him albino in appearance. After a moment of silence, his eyes flicked towards Xevon’s right beside him, he could see the simmering humour.

“Do not say anything.” He muttered, eyes narrowing. He felt hot with embarrassment. He had been watching his ward, Lily, when Finntello had began to form his makeshift staircase. The sudden sound had drawn him so abruptly from his focus that he had lost composure.

Lily quickly move backwards as Finn popped up at the top of the shelves, trying to avoid his crash landing. She dipped to the side of the trapdoor that the lid was on, her eyes following his heaving form as he brought himself up from the dimly lit room. Still kneeling, she let out a sigh of relief. She did not know what she would have done if he had not managed to drag himself out of there.

“I won’t say it was elegant, but it worked.” She tried to spin a small tease as she drew up to her full height. Her head tilted down to look at Finn’s flopped form on the wooden boards. “Towels, right. Why did he want them?” She peeked down the cellar briefly, trying to make out the figure she had seen before but she couldn’t quite see it. As she moved her hand she winced, having almost forgotten about the small splinter. She pulled her hand close to her face to try and find it, it was in deep, but enough wiggling should free it. Not that it would be comfortable.

Once Finn had recovered from his great escape, Lily began to walk with him back to the room they had slept in, fiddling with her hand to try and relieve the mild discomfort the old sliver of wood was bringing her. Lingering a little further back from Finn as she focused, as they approached the door, she managed to nip the little piece from her hand and flick it away with a scrunched face. Annoying thing. Lily drew the tiny puncture to her lips to try and stop the little drop of blood. It did not take long, as they pushed into the room, she looked at her hand and it was as though nothing was there.

Callisto pinned his ears back against his head tightly as Xevon’s lifted hands. He wasn’t going to say anything now, but Callisto knew he wasn’t going to hear the end of it. Out of spite, knowing he would be teased later, he remained securely fixed to Xevon’s shoulder as they moved after the pair of living. He crouched low, head dipped slightly and tail flicking monotonously, the tip grazing Xevon’s feathers ever so often.

Lily jerked her head up as she realised Finn had spoken to her. Sheepishly, she held her hand up. Her little injury was nothing compared to the apparent blood spill that was about to occur. A spill that required towels to soak up?

“I got a splinter when I climbed up, but it’s gone now.” She mumbled her words a little, she thought she had managed to remove it quick enough to not be noticed. Slipping into the room further, she peered around. Towels were limited, perhaps 4 in this room? If they needed more, they would have to venture into other rooms and sequester them for themselves.

She couldn’t hear it too well, but she could just make out a murmuring voice lulling its way through the room. Lily paused in her movements to look over her shoulder towards the door again. There, a small misty white form floated mid air, a tinge of darker shadow hovering near its edges. Was that the two of them together? Her wide eyes stared at the possible location of the ghosts intensely, trying to figure out if she was simply seeing things.

“Whose blood?” She questioned, keeping her eyes trained on where she thought their poltergeist counterparts were lurking.

Callisto lifted his head, the tip of his ear flicking indifferently. It wasn’t exactly his place to explain, but it appeared she couldn’t quite make out Xevon just yet. “Your friends.” He mused, a paw shifting as he slipped a little on his shoulder. “His blood, but he will be fine.” The consolation was not exactly comforting. Made evident by Lily’s surprised and irritated concoction of an expression. She whipped to look at Finn.

“Your blood? Did you get hurt?” Lily quizzed him quickly, eyes roving over his form to try and see the beginnings of this bleeding event.

Lily’s eyes paused in their roaming as Finn began to spin to try and look at himself to check for any injuries. As he did, she could see no obvious signs of injury. What on earth were these ghosts talking about? He was fine! Disgruntled, she gave a sharp look over her shoulder towards the misty figure, clearly annoyed by the lack of information they were getting.

“I don’t know about you but when they’re talking about blood in such high volume that we need multiple towels, that makes me feel worked up.” Lily flicked her gaze back to Finntello, he was so nonchalant about the situation and it bewildered her.

“A plan?” She cocked her head. “How can we plan for something we don’t know is happening? We only know blood and you.” She raised her hands in a show of dismissal, she did not know what other information would help them in this situation. This was all too confusing. Her lack of memory and her lack of understanding for their current predicament was mixing within her head, she didn’t know what they were supposed to do from here.

Callisto rocked a little as Xevon dipped his other shoulder, he leaned to the side a little and pressed a paw to Xevon’s temple, giving it a small shove. “At least try and sound comforting, they can hear you.” Callisto scolded lightly, his shove more teasing than an actual act of irritation.

Lily shook her head and walked towards the bed to look at the mess of towels strewn across it. She hoped whatever was happening was less dramatic than what it was being made out to be. There was someone here that was looking to kill them. There were ghosts and corresponding little trinkets for them. Herself and Finn had no memories. What those three things had in common, she wasn’t sure at all.