Enslaved To A Flame
Chapter 14
Revelations
Scalding hot water drew a low hiss out of William's lips. He eased into the stream, reaching up and ripping the bandage off his shoulder. Puss dribbled out, the wound burned, but it needed to be cleaned out.
William turned his shoulder towards the shower head. As the water hit pain flared anew. He snarled, gritting his teeth before he focused on the feeling.
Roman had taught him how to ignore pain. But the sensation was different, and it took William longer to block the pain in his shoulder than it should have. By the time he did the wound was clean, revealing the pink and red tissues.
William let out a tense breath, leaning against the wall. Another moment and he shifted, putting his head under the water and letting it trickle down.
He swore suddenly, clenching his fist and hauling it back to hit the wall. He caught himself before he did though, and instead returned to letting the water pour down on his head.
He had been vulnerable. Asleep in a lobby waiting for someone. That never happened. Roman would skin him alive if he ever did that on a mission. What had changed?
Company, naturally. Ozpin wore on him quickly, but he could manage for short discussions and could even manage to swap snarky comments with the man. Victoria was different. She drew out the pain, pulled at his guilt. It made him want to be honest.
And he'd just offered to be her partner.
"Idiot." William whispered.
"You think you deserve a girl like that?" His father's voice hissed in his voice.
William gritted his teeth, closing his eyes and willing the voice away. He was too tired, too done to deal with hallucinations.
Thankfully that was all. The floor didn't shift. The water stayed water. And William's thoughts stayed his own.
He sighed, reaching out and grabbing the soap. He washed quickly. Victoria would be waiting for a shower. She didn't look willing to wait long either. Certainly not long enough for William to deal with any more visions.
He lathered and washed it away, careless of his shoulder. The soap burned just like venom, but he didn't care enough to move when it seeped into it. He stepped out, toweling dry and wrapping the towel around his waist.
Victoria was on her bed when he stepped out, curled up in her combat gear snoring peacefully. He snorted, heading to his lockbox and grabbing a few things out of it.
He'd asked her to be his partner.
The thought made him freeze, his boxers in one hand and pants in the other. He turned, starting at her form for a moment longer.
She looked fragile. Not weak per say, but certainly mortal. Another body William could easily add to his ledger. The thought scared him. He'd already ruined her life. He wasn't sure, but those violet eyes were proof enough to say she was the daughter of his first kill.
He'd read her file, for the connecting details. Abusive mom. Not a good school life after. Poverty. Struggling to make ends meet. He wasn't sure about what else happened, but he was sure her abuse didn't stop with just a few scars. And her father had died around the time William would have first started operating. IT all lined up.
The daughter of the man who tormented William's dreams. And he'd asked her to watch his back.
He pulled his boxers on, shoving his legs through holes and securing them around his waist before letting the towel drop. The door opened behind him as he hurried to pull pants on.
"Seems you'll have another scar."
William paused, holding his pants up with one hand and using the other to balance on the bunkbed. Victoria had woken up at the door, her eyes lingering on his shoulder.
"Sandra's in the infirmary for tonight." Leo interrupted, seeming not to notice the air of the room. "They'll be taking blood samples and doing their best. She seemed afraid, but assured me I should come back."
"See her in the morning," William suggested. "It would do her good to interact with someone normal." He was glad for the topic change. He wasn't sure he was ready to face those violet eyes again.
Leo hummed but didn't answer that suggestion. He kicked off his boots, taking a seat on the bottom bunk as William secured his pants.
He drummed his fingers against the frame for a moment, giving William time to move about the room, putting away dirty laundry and setting his sword by the window. Finally, William took a seat at the window, sensing Leonardo had something on his tongue.
"Sorry." The word caught William's attention. "I was being an ass earlier. You might have been crude, but you were doing it for the team." Leo pursed his lips, nervous sparks crackling down his arms and settling in his fingers. "So, I'm sorry. I'll work on it. You just took me by surprise."
William nodded, putting his back against the cool glass. Two of his scars itched. The bullet holes at his collar, and the one under his arm he got from Roman. He idly scratched at his collar, mulling his next words over.
They deserved some answers. It would keep his cover. Let them trust him. If he could let them in and keep them from digging too deep, it would be a better cover. But dangerous. He had already struggled to keep that fine line with Victoria. Asking the worst possible person to be his partner.
"You deserve to know some things as well." William huffed, settling on a decision. "I'm sure you've guessed it already. But I didn't have a normal childhood. Not when I lived with my parents, nor when that transitioned to my uncle." William's fingers clutched at the windowsill.
Leo repositioned on the bed, giving him his undivided attention. Victoria rolled over in bed, kicking off her boots and scooting closer to William on the bed. She sat up to lean against the post, her violet eyes tired. William's eyes glanced over her, settling on the scars on her wrist.
She shifted her hands, covering them without looking him in the eye.
"My father inflicted some of the more mundane scars I have." William hesitated, then held his palms out. "These two are from the same knife." He paused, then continuing. "Once I moved to my uncles, he insisted I was put to work. My father collected a debt. And the only work I could do was dirty work. Negotiations gone south in my uncle's dirty business. Acquiring certain goods not exactly legal." William trailed off. "All before I turned thirteen."
For some reason, he left out the murder. He wasn't sure why. Leo already knew. Or could at least guess it. Why couldn't he tell Victoria then?
"So, you know the ins and outs of the underworld." Leo pursed his lips at his own words as if the context of them hadn't hit him yet.
"More than I would like."
Victoria grunted, apparently having decided that his revelation didn't require a verbal response.
"Would you say your uncle is a bad person? Or a cruel businessman?" Leo furthered his question. He crossed his arms, leaning back more against the bed frame. It took William another moment to realize his great sword had been put away.
Sloppy. He should have noted that as soon as Leo walked in the door.
"Is there an option C where he's a horrible person and all of the above?" William shot back. "My uncle is a criminal running under the radar." Dangerously close to the truth now. Careful. He reined in his next thought. "But he's legal. For the most part." William shrugged at that notion.
"So why did he send you here?" Victoria asked her first question of the night.
William shifted his gaze from Leo to her. She had sagged against the post, a yawn perched on her lips, moonlight glinting off the moisture on her lower lip. A charming dusty rose color that reminded William of the time his mother had tried to grow roses in-
He squashed the memory with a clench of his fist.
Question.
"He deemed it would be a good measure of my skills. And hunters with questionable morals are always wanted in his line of work." Too close. Recruitment. William dug his nails into his palms. Hard.
Victoria cocked an eyebrow. "Right. Send a sixteen-year-old to recruit." She paused, considering his statement, then shrugged, sliding off the bed and heading to the showers. "I'll be back."
She forgot clothes. William had noted that far sooner than he thought he would. How she strolled across the room and slipped into the bathroom, her hands empty.
He snapped his attention back to Leo. "What else?"
Leo seemed to be chewing on his cheek, mulling over something else. Silence grasped at the room for a moment, until the shower in the bathroom turned on. A moment later Leo's lips parted.
"The splicing. What's the process for that? How much do you know?"
William knew all of it. He knew how the genes were distilled, though not the procedure, he knew the theory of it. How the injection was supposed to work, though Aura often deterred it.
"I know that it gets messy. And even when it comes out right, the result isn't pretty. Sandra is the most complete, normal splice that-"William almost said 'that had ever existed'. "I've seen." He finished with barely a pause. A subtle shift. A pause. Leo didn't need to know he had been there at the startup.
Leo pursed his lips. "If she's the latest victim, then they've likely refined the process, right? So, she should be…" He trailed off, almost looking hopeful.
William found himself annoyed. Leo couldn't possibly be harboring feelings for Sandra. "Stable. Yes." He calmed himself. Perhaps Leo had a concern for the team he'd be working in. William did nearly state Sandra would be on the team. He'd jumped to conclusions too quickly. "Try not to flirt with her if Ozpin assigns her to us. I don't fancy sleeping with a siren."
Leo started to protest, but William spotted the color on his cheeks. Ah. So, Leo had considered it. Perhaps not to that degree. But there had been a thought.
William stood, stretching his sore limbs and moving to the bed. He slid into the bottom bunk, pushing the blankets off and getting in.
Leo took that as a sign William was done talking and busied himself finding a change of clothes. William lounged on the bed, calmly tapping his fingers against the sideboard running below the mattress.
"Something else on your mind?" Leo asked suddenly.
William paused, considering the length of time that had passed for Leo to ask that. The shower was still on. But the moon had shifted ever so slightly, the light dipped, casting a darker shadow through the window.
"Waiting." William finally replied.
"For?"
A soft knock on the bathroom door interrupted them. William couldn't help the wolfish grin that pulled at his lips. A touch of arrogance, a bit smug. But he was simply too amused.
"Um. I might have left a few things." Victoria's hesitant voice called from within. "Would you mind uh… Handing them to me?"
Modest.
William rolled out of bed before Leo could respond. "On it partner."
Leo cocked an eyebrow at him. "And I'm the one who's flirting." He shook his head and snorted.
"Just amusement," William replied, casting his semblance out.
He didn't feel like bending over to pull Victoria's clothes out of the footlocker. Besides, he'd seen her packing it. He knew she kept everything neat and tidy. A simple matter to collect her necessities in a bundle.
He looped a wire around a pair of shorts and a tank top that were on the top, a separate wire picked up her underwear. With a flicker of his wrist, he had it bound together in a bundle, underwear on top. He spared it a cursory glance as he noticed the tag. He noted the measurements if nothing else for his own knowledge.
"Take a step back," William said, moving with the door.
He heard Victoria's bare feet patter on the tile. He grasped the doorknob, taking a moment to lengthen the string the bundle was on. He popped the door open, tossing the bundle through and shutting it. He felt the tension on the string go out as Victoria caught it. He released his semblance, heading back to bed.
Leo gave him another look, but this one wasn't curious or accusing. It was smug. Like he was…
William connected the dots.
He rolled his eyes and got back into bed, rolling over and turning his back on Leo. "Shut up sparkplug."
Leo didn't seem to retaliate to that.
Sleep tore William from the waking world almost before he had shut his eyes. He hadn't realized he had been so tired until the next time he opened his eyes to the see the sun shooting through the window.
William didn't shift in his blankets, finding that in his sleep he had coiled them around him like a thick cocoon. Most importantly, due to that, it was warm.
He closed his eyes again, feeling the warmth. It soaked into his bones, driving out the lingering cold that sometimes took root in his joints and knuckles. It swept over the scars, turning the cold William felt in them to a soft warmth.
William opened his eyes, pursing his lips in annoyance.
The blankets had shifted from soft felt to sticky blood. A heavyweight on his chest as a body dropped onto it. William gritted his teeth, shutting his eyes again, willing the vision away.
The weight held, the warmth lingered. William heard someone breathing heavily. He focused on it. They were practically gasping for air, wheezing it in and out of their lungs before it could even be processed.
"William!"
He snapped his eyes open. A corpse was staring at him. Twisted and pale limbs gripped his shoulders, shaking him. He moved to throw it off, but found his arms bound, thick coils of chain and wire binding them to his side.
William thrashed, even as the corpse assisted the chains in restraining him. He started at it, a look of horror slowly tearing into his blank expression as more detail appeared.
Feminine. Pale lips, shriveled up like dried worms, or rotten fruit. Crusted blood coated the right side of her face, melding her eye shut. The other bore into him, a black sphere. It tore into his soul, diving into his eyes.
At the thought the darkness extended out of it, a torrent of ink pouring out and surging towards him.
William thrashed against his chains, feeling them loosen. He gritted his teeth harder, reaching for his semblance as a last resort.
Ink lapped at his skin, pouring over his face. He felt a dozen tiny hands pulling at his skin, tearing at every orifice that was open to intrusion.
The dark cold liquid poured in.
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't see.
It filled his mouth and nose.
But somehow a scream still tore out of his throat, past the liquid and into the air beyond.
Electricity was the response. A shot that had stood William's hair on end and left him shaking and twitching.
The vision had vanished. Victoria hovered over him, her hands on his wrists, restraining him. He'd torn a hole in his own blanket something. Or something. His semblance?
Leo stood at the end of the bed, his hand around William's ankle, his knuckles still crackling dully. As William watched a spark jumped across his fingers, sending a faint tingle up William's spine.
"William?" Victoria's voice was soft. "Are you here?"
William slowly took a deep breath, closing his eyes again as he pulled his hands out of his blankets. He kicked them the rest of the way off, and then to the floor. He'd need to get a new one anyway.
He pulled his palms to his eyes, kneading them into the sockets before letting them trail down his face. It didn't help the lingering sensation of tiny hands grasping at his eyes, but William supposed it was the appropriate response.
"I'm fine." He whispered softly. "Simply…" He paused, unsure of what to call it.
"PTSD," Leo replied, coming around the bunk bed. "A hallucination. You had PTSD."
William couldn't have given Leo a more confused look if he tried. PTSD wasn't something that appeared. William would have known if he had symptoms. And hallucinations weren't a symptom of it anyway.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"William." Victoria's voice was hard. "He's serious. We looked up the symptoms when you went to bed. You have all the signs."
William stared at her for a long time. "What are the symptoms?" He sat up, putting his feet on the ground and getting up.
His flesh felt sticky. He wiped at his chest, feeling cold sweat collect on his hand. He grimaced. Another shower then.
"Anxiety attacks." Victoria started.
"Don't have them." William interrupted immediately. He felt her gaze harden into a glare. He grimaced. "Sorry. I'll wait till the end."
Victoria seemed satisfied with that and continued. "Flashbacks, or other nightmares related to the experience. Withdrawal or struggle with social interactions. Or." She stressed and if he had been facing her she might have given him a pointed look. "Seeking out dangerous activities. This is accompanied by avoidance of things. Areas. Thoughts. Terms. Or an emotional numbness. Which you have plenty of."
William scowled openly at that. He headed to the bathroom, stopping at his footlocker to pick up a change of clothes. He paused, realizing that he was running out of normal clothes. In fact, he'd have to wear the dress pants from his uniform.
"Anything else?" William asked, shrugging the symptoms away as he stepped into the bathroom.
Leo's hand slapped the door. "Guilt."
William paused at that. Guilt. He had plenty of guilt. Guilt. Hate. Shame. Self-loathing. Self-destructive behavior.
"Point." William admitted, stepping further into the shower. "But I'm not getting looked at by a quack just because I have issues with guilt." He cast out his semblance, looping several lengths of wire between the doorknob and the bed frame in a crude pulley.
He pulled, retracted the wire violently. The door slammed closed. Leo yelped on the other side, apparently not expecting that exact reaction.
That might have been crude. And rude. And brash. But it left William alone. Alone with his thoughts, which might not be a good thing.
Still. It was better than wondering what else Roman had done to him over the years. PTSD of all things wasn't very high up on that list. William wasn't particularly sure it even made top ten.
He took a cold shower, letting the cold water freeze whatever other thoughts he had running through his head. It let him calm down, sorting through his thoughts and getting them collected for the day.
He stepped out, drying off and heading back into the room. Leo had left, leaving Victoria. She was at the window, peering out it which suited him well enough.
He grabbed a change of clothes and retreated to the bathroom. When he returned Victoria had moved to the bed, picking at the strings of her guitar idly. She looked up as he approached.
"Leo left to pick up Sandra. Ozpin wanted to see her this morning." She informed him, assuming that was what he wanted.
"I know." William paused, noticing a sliver of skin, where her shirt has risen. It shouldn't have registered, even Roman didn't need William that attentive, but somehow William had spotted it.
Along with the pink scar that slashed through it. William hummed. "Come on. We need to go see someone."
Victoria frowned but got up, leaving her guitar on the bed. "Who?"
William headed out the door, letting her follow behind him. Coco's door would be on the floor above if he recalled. And it was a weekend. Unless she and Fox had run off she'd be there.
"Coco Adel. She's a local fashionista and the leader of team CFVY. I was hoping to talk to her about combat uniforms since you and Leo don't have one."
Victoria hummed but didn't protest or elaborate on her thoughts. They made their way up in silence, giving William plenty of time to sort through the rest of his plans. He needed to go to town. Possibly pick up a stress reliever. He had the money and time to afford it now. Perhaps he could indulge.
William knocked CFVY's door, the scent of coffee burning in his nose assuring him he'd gotten the right door. Coco answered, giving him a confused look.
William explained himself quickly, including his need for a new jacket and shirt. Coco gave Victoria once over, then dragged her into the room, leaving William out in the hall.
A minute or two passed before Victoria stumbled back out, clutching her chest and waist.
"I feel molested," Victoria muttered.
"Calm down honey. I don't swing that way for just anyone." Coco replied, making Victoria jerk.
"Good to go?" William asked.
Coco nodded, "Of course. Me and Fox will be headed to Veil later today. I'll text you when we're headed out and we can get cloth and a few other things. What do you want?"
"Little bit of armor for everyone. Nothing much, bracers maybe for Victoria. She uses her wrists heavily. I don't need any though. Leo might need something." William shrugged, running out of ideas. He hadn't the faintest idea what Sandra would use or wear.
Coco nodded, then paused, fixing William with a hard stare. "Take care of yourself, William." Then she turned, fixing that same look to Victoria. "Make sure he takes care of himself."
Then Coco shut the door, leaving them to their tasks.
"What was that about? Take care of you?" Victoria glanced up at William, who had already started down the hall.
"She knows about some of my scars. And she knows I don't really fight defensively." William replied. "She knows a few things. But trust me, you and Leo already know more."
Victoria accepted that, following William out of the door and towards the cafeteria. They got lunch, and William texted Leo to meet them. A few minutes passed before he got an answer that he was eating with Sandra in the infirmary.
"You should meet with her too." Victoria commented, "You don't need to pawn her off to Leo since you saved her." She pursed his lips, focusing on spearing a stalk of asparagus that was too springy to comply.
"I haven't. Leo accepted her completely." William replied, glancing across the hall, measuring the distance between him and the fruit bowl.
"Do you think that's a wise idea? She's not completely stable?"
William flicked his Aura off, carefully measuring out a length of wire and weaving the end into a series of loops with one hand. He shrugged with the other.
"Sandra can handle herself with her voice alone. And I don't think Leo would take advantage of her." He snapped his wrist, sending the loop across the room. A few tweaks as it crossed the room and more movement than William would have liked and he hand coiled the threads around a trio of oranges.
"You're showing off right now aren't you?"
William didn't reply, looping the wire on an overhead light, pulling it up and letting momentum swing the oranges across the room.
He dispelled his semblance, catching the fruit and pulling out an Aura Blade. He peeled one, popping the small orange slices into his mouth to chew.
He rarely got fruit when he worked with Roman, but Beacon had a plethora. He was truly starting to enjoy the commodity.
Victoria's watching him, and he doesn't have to look up to feel the weight of her violet eyes on his hands as he peeled and slices the next orange.
"Yes?" He doesn't look up, pushing the knife halfway through the orange, then pulling it out and slitting the top so it will unroll.
"No one cuts oranges like that."
"My mom did," William replies without looking up, pausing as the table changes.
Suddenly it's a soft heartwood, a deep purple with a dark stain to compliment the wood. A shaft of sunlight that shouldn't be there. The oranges look bigger, his hands smaller. And the knife in his hand is steel instead of a pulsing blue. He blinks and it's gone.
"Sorry what?" He looked up, absentmindedly plunking the slices off the peel.
Victoria shook her head, reaching across the table and swiping two of the orange pieces. "I didn't say anything." But William can tell from the purse of her lips and the small glance at him that she had. He'd missed it in his daydream.
He lets it slide, finishing his orange and saving the third for later.
"Come on. I have something I want to work on." William got up, heading out the door again.
"Such as?" Victoria cocks her eyebrow at him, a flicker of concern playing out on her lips and in her eyes.
"Your weapon. Let's tinker with it." William replied, smiling as she blinked, confusion lighting her delicate features, spreading her thin lips into a soft 'O' and furrowing her eyebrows.
He paused, realizing he'd focused on her appearance again, the draw of her face natural and overpowering. That was becoming a problem.
Especially for when he killed Ruby Rose and fled. Especially if he had to kill her and Leo and Sandra when he ran.
Hey guys. So I finished up this chapter, and I hope it's sufficiently long and has content that's worthwhile. I realized a while ago that not every chapter can have a fight. And I'm trying to keep it interesting and involve plot points and interesting banter, but I'd appreciate feedback on how well I'm doing that. Or if in these drawls, they get incredibly boring and dull.
Furthermore, due to my expansion and rewriting. These chapters are getting… more. This was originally Chapter 12. And yet they keep expanding, and portions I feel like I should cut and push off in order to expand upon Victoria William, Leo and Sandra's character development. I hope you all are alright with that.
This story was originally an experiment for me to better grasp using emotion and trauma in stories. I hope that I succeed in that as well.
Read and review. I hope you'll enjoy. Furthermore, typos should go down since I'm using Grammarly now. Yay.