Chapter 4

The walk was agonising as Sophie trudged one reluctant step after another towards her destination. It wasn't something she wanted to be doing. The temptation was there to run to the nearest hospital and make up any story she liked, but she didn't dare. It would make her way too easy to find. Like it or not, she had only one option. It was a miserable hike, especially since the adrenaline rush was wearing off and the pain from her arm was kicking in. It was right at the elbow joint, too. That meant at best it was dislocated and at worst it was shattered. She didn't even want to think about that right now.

What she was forced to think about however was the door directly in front of her. It was different to how she remembered it. Clearly the family had replaced it with a tougher one. Having your house raided would more than justify that. But it was definitely the right house and now she had to ask for help yet again. But she was somehow on even worse terms with Ali's family than the last time she'd had to come here. Back when Katie was still alive. Back when-

Not allowing the thought to dominate her further, she flicked her head in the direction of the door by way of ordering Alan to knock on it. He'd got her into this mess and he could get her out of it. He got the message and knocked, granting Sophie a view of how bad his injuries were. Yeah, he'd definitely torn his right arm apart again. The bandage was a mess of red cloth now. Luckily, they could both hear the voices inside. It wasn't a long wait for the door to open.

"Sophie?" Magdalene Grace-Garcia's eyebrows shot to her hairline at the sight of the battered teenager on her doorstep before her eyes drifted to the man next to her who wasn't much older. "And who's this?"

"Hey, Magdalene." Sophie said sheepishly. "Uh, yeah... This is a bit awkward to explain, but let's just say that even after seven months there are some people that just can't leave well enough alone."

"Get inside." Magdalene didn't say anything else. Her tone was unreadable as she stood aside and allowed them in. The first ones to notice her were the dogs, who looked up from their positions on the couch and instantly jumped up to mob her. She tried to make a fuss of them as best she could, but that wasn't easy when one arm felt like it was hanging off in the most painful way possible. Still, she was no stranger to pain of any kind.

"Sophie?" Steven looked up from his armchair where he was disassembling one of his pistols on a fold-out table and cleaning it. A broad grin spread across his face as he moved the table to one side and went to help her in. "In the wars as ever, I see! And you've also brought a plus one." He waved the dogs away as he helped her to the couch and sat her down.

"Hey, Steven." She tried to force a grin at seeing him again as she took her pistol from her pocket. "If I can ask a favour, would you mind taking a look at this? It's my dad's and it's just been in a motorcycle crash. Long story."

"Oh, I will most certainly do that!" The excitement on his face was palpable as he took it from her as carefully as one might handle a newborn child or a glass sculpture. "And if I might ask a favour, can you please speak to Ali and find out what the hell is the matter with that girl?" That stopped Sophie cold as the memories of that night at the hotel came crashing back. Brandon and Brian had picked up on it too and turned away from playing Dying Light to glare at her with undisguised fury and revulsion. That, in turn, got Steven's attention. "Was it something I said?"

"I don't think it's a good idea if she talks to Ali." Brandon's tone carried an unmistakably bitter note to it. Sophie could feel their anger. They were going to spill everything.

"Ah, fuck!" she muttered.

"Yeah, we guessed it was something like that at the bottom of this." Brian said. Guessing where this conversation was going, Magdalene clapped her hands sharply to bring everyone's attention to her.

"Right! Brandon and Brian, take our other guest here into the bathroom and bathe his arms just like I've shown you. Steven, I need your help to sort out Sophie." Brandon moved to the door while Brian motioned to Alan to get up. They led him through in what was practically a guard formation while glaring at Sophie the entire way. Once they were gone, Magdalene took a closer look and seemed pleased with what she was seeing. "It's a bad dislocation. I'll have to put it back." Steven nodded and grabbed one of the couch cushions, holding it up to Sophie's mouth as Magdalene took hold of her arm.

"Bite down on this. Trust me. It helps." Sophie nodded and clamped her teeth down so hard she thought they were at risk of breaking. It did virtually nothing as the resounding snap of her elbow re-socketing sent torrents of agony into her brain that put her into a hellish limbo between screaming and passing out.

"Ah! Fuck!" It was still perfectly legible through the cushion and Steven burst out laughing as he got up and took the cushion back. Sophie lay there, panting heavily as she came down from the pain and tried to flex her fingers. There was a tingling sensation in them and the movement was sluggish, but it was more than she had before.

"You were lucky." Magdalene told her. "Too much longer and you'd have suffered compartment syndrome."

"Thanks." Sophie gasped out, trying to get her breath back. Magdalene walked through to the bathroom to go and help Alan. Meanwhile, Steven began dismantling her dad's gun. There weren't many people she'd trust with it, but someone as experienced as him definitely qualified.

"So..." His voice carried a measure of unease as he worked. "Can we talk about what happened with Ali? I know it's tough for you, but you two have known each other since your asses were the size of coat buttons. I'd hate to see that ending just because of one mistake. Now I won't judge. You can be open with me. I don't care who or what started it, I just want it finished, you understand?" It was a fair argument. Sophie nodded, resigning herself to the fact that she'd have to confront this. Sooner than she'd hoped, but then she'd been a fool to leave it a month without even trying to patch things up. Getting thrown out was no excuse. She should have fixed this long ago.

"Okay..." She let out a heavy breath and sat up a bit, trying to work out in her head how she was going to talk about this while leaving out the bits she had to keep secret. "So Ali came to see me in the hotel room to tell me what she'd found out about Harry Prescott and the twisted band of freaks that are his family. We got all the info together and sent it to several sources, which is why you're seeing it all over the news. Anyway, once we sent it off, that was it. We were done." This was the hard bit. She was frantically trying to think of ways to tell him 'I fucked your daughter' without directly saying those words. "Once we hit Send, that was a great relief. And then Ali kissed me... And then I kissed her back..." She stalled out and mercifully Steven prevented her from having to continue.

"I think I can guess the rest." He grimaced uncomfortably and shifted in his seat as he buried his face in his work on the firing mechanism of Sophie's 1911. "So what started her off in the foul mood?"

"Okay, so this is the awkward bit." Sophie replied, looking down at the floor. "When our house burned down, the apartment we got stuck in had only two bedrooms with one bed in each. My parents took one and that left Katie and I in the other. That was our situation right up until that wrecking ball came through our bedroom wall. And so when Ali wished me good night, I wished Katie good night by mistake." She risked a glance in Steven's direction. His hand was holding be bottom grip of the gun and had frozen in place as he stared at her, struggling to process what he'd just heard.

"Well, it's easy to see what's happened here." He set the gun down and sat back, rubbing his temples. "Okay, I'll talk to her. What happened after that?"

"Then I had the stupid idea to tell Mom I was seeing someone." Sophie grimaced. "When she found out it was a girl, she disowned me on the spot. Dad's been supporting me remotely and sending me money." She winced at the clatter of the gun hitting the table. She was about to protest, but Steven was on his feet and was absolutely livid. She knew a rant was incoming.

"She what?" he snapped. His voice was so loud that Sophie felt it through the floorboards under her feet. "You're telling me that she threw you out of your own hotel room? Where have you been living?"

"I got a motel room." Sophie shrugged. "I was getting money from a Go Fund Me someone set up anonymously and then Dad was sending me some every month. And then I lost the lot when Alan- the guy in the bathroom right now- turned up. He got stalked and we had to make a run for it. Hence the motorbike crash."

"Well I will take that away separately to deal with that situation." Steven glowered in the direction of the bathroom. "In the meantime I want to know more about the motel situation. You're telling me that your mother threw you out and you've been having to fend for yourself for a month? How have you been getting to school?"

"Pretty much." Sophie shrugged as best she could. "And I haven't. I had much bigger concerns to deal with."

"But it's illegal!" Steven protested. "You're a minor!"

"Our mom was raised in a very strict, militantly religious household in Japan." Sophie told him. "If opposites don't attract you, you're a sinner bound for hell. That's a direct quote, by the way. Just translated into English."

"Well you'll hear no such talk here." Steven said resolutely. "You're staying here. I insist. And I will be talking to Ali." Sophie felt the blood drain from her face at the suggestion of that. She would have used the Brain Raid right then and there, but she'd already done that today. She was beyond exhausted and only now was her body remembering how little she had left in the tank. She could feel her eyelids getting heavy as she started to loll sideways. Steven had seen it too. "Get some sleep, sweetie. I'll grab you a blanket. We'll deal with all this properly when you wake up."

"Katie?" she called out mentally. "If you can hear me, I think dreaming would do me some good right about now." With that, she closed her eyes and let the darkness pull her under.

Author's Note: Okay, so my usual update schedule is Mondays and Thursdays and that organisation helps makes things easier for me to pace out my updates, but the facts are that life doesn't always want to play the way you want it to. The reason for this update the day after I posted the last chapter and so late at night is so I can inform everyone as to a slight inconvenience that's cropped up. For some reason, my laptop is intermittently refusing to boot up. It's not recognising the hard drive or the operating system and saying there's literally nothing installed. Because of this, I'm going to potentially have to send it in for repairs. I'm hoping it's just a blip and we can sort out quickly, but this is definitely going to throw out my schedule.

I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. With a bit of luck I'll have the issue sorted out soon and be resuming updates as usual. Thanks for all the support so far. You guys have been amazing throughout the time I've been writing.