"What in...?" Petra had spotted the bruise by now too. The three of them were leaning over Jesse and staring at it with their foreheads practically clonking together. "Is that a bruise? What's it doing on her back?"
"We should... probably get a closer look at that?" Lukas suggested, lifting his head to look at Ivor questioningly.
(After all, Ivor had turned into the resident doctor, and it wasn't like Lukas knew anything about this sort of thing. Sure, he knew how to handle injuries that were obtained in the heat of battle or during a build or whatever. Not when it was something as out of place as a bruise on someone's back.)
"Well, yes, but..." Ivor paused uncomfortably. "Well, we may need to take off her shirt to..." His face was turning red now. He cleared his throat a bit uncomfortably. "To see exactly what's going on."
Lukas's face felt a bit warm as well. "Oh."
Petra simply let out a grunt and picked Jesse up, flipping her over so she was carrying the much-smaller girl almost bridal-style. She blinked at the lack of weight in her arms- for someone who claimed to be 17, she was extraordinarily light- before dismissing it. "Well, I guess me and some of the other girls can get her shirt off, and then we can decide what to do from there."
Olivia dusted her knees off and stood up, wiping her face. "Yeah. I can come and help, I guess."
Harper shrugged and stood up as well, and Maya gently extricated herself from Gill's grip. Petra waited another minute in case anyone else wanted to come, before briskly walking out of the room, saying, "Just... I dunno. Wait here for a bit, I guess."
The four (five, if you counted the now-unconscious Jesse in Petra's arms) of them left the room. This left the rest of the room's occupants staring uncomfortably at each other, unsure what to do.
Finally, Soren sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "So, um... how are you all doing?"
He shrank back when everyone turned to stare at him, giving him rather flat looks. "I'm not good at starting intense conversations..."
"Oh, trust me," Ivor near-drawled sardonically, "we know."
It took a few minutes, since Jesse was pretty much like a rag doll in this state and getting her overalls off of her was like trying to get them off of a dead fish- actually, getting them off the dead fish may have been easier- and Olivia and Maya excused themselves to go find some pajamas for Jesse- and of course, you had to get over the awkwardness factor of basically taking Jesse's clothes off- when, in short, they'd finally (finally!) managed to get the overalls off of her, Petra frowned a bit.
Jesse was still wearing a pair of shorts under that, so it wasn't as awkward as Petra had been expecting- but her legs were covered in what looked like rather deep scars. Some weren't exactly big, but they were all fairly deep.
"Is Jesse a clumsy person or something?" Harper asked, frowning down at the sight of Jesse's legs.
Petra's lips twisted together, and she paused in carefully trying to pull Jesse's shirt off. "I mean, I know that Jace is kinda clumsy, and since Jesse's basically kind of Jace, that might make sense... but even that doesn't explain the amount of scars on her legs," she muttered, more to herself than anyone else. Harper heard the comment clearly, though, and made a humming sound in comprehension.
Olivia came back through the door first, holding a set of gray pajamas, Maya trailing behind her a bit, the two girls deep in a conversation. Petra hid the faint smile that came over her face at that- it was good to see that they were starting to get along.
Petra returned her attention to getting the shirt off as the two girls came to a stop, Olivia setting the pajamas on the bedside table in her peripheral vision as they came to a stop next to the bed, their conversation dying.
After a moment of pulling, the shirt finally slipped off.
The moment it came free half of the way, Harper gasped and backed away so far that her back slammed into the door, eyes widening in shock. Maya gasped, hands flying up to her mouth as she recoiled backwards a few steps, Olivia actually gagged and turned her head away, and even Petra had to turn her head away.
Not that it really did too much good- the image was still clear in her mind.
Jesse's back was a nightmarish patchwork of bruises, cuts, bandages and scars. The bruises ranged from a deep purple to more of a sickening green, and some of the cuts hadn't been treated yet from their awkward position on her back, and some of these deeper-looking cuts were starting to ooze pus. And now that Jesse's clothes (except maybe her bra and shorts) were off, it was painfully obvious exactly how thin Jesse was. It didn't look as if she were starving herself on purpose or anything- after all, she ate a fairly healthy amount at meals- but Petra could clearly count Jesse's ribs.
With all these facts combined, it was a wonder that Jesse hadn't just up and collapsed on the spot.
"What the hell?" Maya asked, when she could speak again, hands gripping the table next to her so tightly that Petra was honestly a little worried that the table would crack. "How the hell is Jesse even alive?"
Well, it was a bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but Petra had honestly been thinking a similar thing in the first split second she'd spotted Jesse's back.
"Yeah," Olivia said, carefully turning her head back to the screen, but her hand still shoved up to her mouth to keep herself from throwing up, "She looks terrible."
Petra was wincing a bit now that she remembered how she'd literally slapped Jesse on the back several times. It was a wonder she'd been able to keep from actually crying out in pain every single time that had happened."Notch," she muttered, trying to examine Jesse's back and pretend that her stomach wasn't rebelling and telling her to vomit- just a little bit. "Jesse looks as though she's been through hell."
Harper swallowed from where her back was still pressed against the doorway. "Um..." She swallowed again. "Should we go... tell the others?"
Petra swallowed a bit herself. "Yeah. But, uh, first..." She looked back down at Jesse, trying not to keep her eyes fixed on one part of Jesse's back for too long. This, however, just made the whole thing worse, as her eyes roved over one part of Jesse's back to the next, making everyone single specific wound stand out even further. That cut was deeper than the one on her left shoulder. That scar wasn't fully healed over yet. That bruise was so dark that it looked like it had been newly formed.
"We should probably put on those pajamas you guys brought on her."
Everyone was still sitting in the living room, Jace hugging his knees with his head buried in his knees again, having lost interest in the conversation. Reuben was snuffling comfortingly next to him, but Jace was just curled up in a tight ball as the murmurs of conversation surrounded him.
"Ariza!"
Everyone's heads snapped up and looked around for the source of the voice, which sounded unfamiliar. Jace's head came back up out of his knees- and he let out a muffled scream as he launched himself backwards automatically, smacking into Lukas and knocking the both of them to the floor, but Jace was still gasping, trying to scramble backwards, the releasing of his facial muscles allowing tears to trickle their way down his cheeks.
Everyone's eyes went to where Jace was gaping at.
There was a girl crouched on the floor in the corner of the room, arms wrapped around her legs and head buried in her knees. There was a piece of paper clutched in her hand. What was more, her entire body was faintly glowing, pale blue, and translucent. Her short, dark hair seemed to have a streak of different color through it, but with the blue tint the girl was colored in, it was impossible to tell what it actually was. She appeared to be wearing a flannel and jeans.
"Ari- oh, there you are! We were worried sick about you, what are you doing in here?" Another girl walked up to her- one with long, dark, curly hair with a streak of a different color also going through it. She seemed to be wearing a leather jacket, but she was walking briskly enough, and the image was hazy enough, that it was difficult to tell exactly what else she was wearing. Her eyes, however, seemed to glow a different color other than pale blue- it was a dark brown shade.
'Ariza', apparently, just lifted the paper in her hand and held it out to the other girl, head still securely buried in her knees.
The other girl blinked at it, before taking the paper and reading it. It was a long few moments of silence, in which the audience was watching her read the paper and Ariza had just gone back to hugging her knees, before the other girl set the paper down to the side, knelt down, and hugged Ariza. "I'm so sorry," she said, quietly and sincerely.
Ariza lifted her head, revealing a pair of eyes that were clear green. Tearstains were on her cheeks, and a few other tears made their way out of her eyes as she looked up.
"I thought my dad was joking when he first told me," she said softly, as more tears left their damage on her cheeks. "And then I realized that there was no way he was joking. Not about something as serious as this. So then I realized that my grandmother's just..."
There was a long pause, as if she was trying to grasp for the correct word but it wasn't in her vocabulary. "... gone."
Jace stared at Ariza, the now-familiar ache that his chest had gotten used to doubling back, a hundred times more painful. He had no idea who this girl was, or even why she was here, or how she'd just appeared in the room without any of the rest of them noticing.
But in that moment, he got that she'd lost somebody close to her.
And in that moment, he felt for this girl.
He felt for her, because he knew exactly how she felt.
The other girl kept her arms around Ariza for a long moment, before sitting back on her heels and giving Ariza a weak smile. "How about we get you some hot chocolate and let the others know what happened? They're all worried sick about you."
Ariza shook her head and gave the other girl a rather sad smile in return, as if she were trying to force it. "Sure, Gommie. Thanks for coming after me." As she stood up, a stray breeze blew through the room, dispersing the particles that were making up these two girls into thin air.
A heartbeat of pure silence as every occupant of the room tried to process what had just happened.
Not a full three seconds later, the door swung open again, and Petra walked into the library. Jace turned to look at her, and immediately what struck him was the expression on Petra's face.
Petra was uneasy.
Disturbed, confused, rather upset, but there was definitely this uneasy look on Petra's face that made Jace start to worry a bit, his concern driving away that persistent ache in his chest that refused to go away.
Petra was never this uneasy.
"Hey, guys," the redhead spoke as the other three girls poked their heads into the room timidly, "well, I..." She paused and took a deep breath, letting it out in a dragged-out huff. "... I got a good look at her back."
"What did you find?" Ivor asked, almost impatiently, the empty potion flask from earlier sitting in his hand. He still hadn't put it away, for who knows what reason.
Petra paused. "Well, there's... good news, and bad news."
"What's the good news?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow at Petra.
Petra paused again, this supremely unsettled look coming over her face. The silence dragged out, longer and longer, until it was simply just awkward.
Jace had never known that silence could get this loud.
Gill met Maya's eyes, and asked her the question silently with his eyes. She paused and shrugged, looking just as bewildered about the whole thing as Gill did.
Finally, Petra sighed and raked a hand through her hair, nearly ripping the bandana off. "Well, the good news is, if Jesse wants to kill herself, the job's already half-done for her," the redhead said flatly.
There was this shattering sound, and everyone looked round again to see that Ivor had literally broken the flask with the force of his impulsive squeeze, broken glass littering the floor near his feet. There were now half-a-dozen cuts on his hand that he didn't seem to notice, and his expression was no longer impatient, but wide-eyed in shock.
Lukas swallowed, looking as though he were forcing something with a disgusting taste down his throat. "And the bad news?" he asked, sounding as though he weren't at all sure he even wanted to hear the bad news, if the good news was something so bad.
"Her back..." Olivia was the one who spoke up this time, shaking her head as she spoke. "It's a nightmare. I have no idea what happened to make it that way, but... it's definitely worthy of the term 'nightmare fuel'."
Axel was about to tell Olivia that he didn't think this was the time for jokes- least of all jokes like this- when he took another look at Olivia and found her face dead serious. The rebuke died in his mouth.
"What's wrong with it?" Mevia asked, sounding slightly concerned about this. This made Otto blink at her again.
"Besides the fact that it looks like someone essentially threw her into Soren's grinder before throwing her into a room full of broken glass?" Maya said flatly.
Lukas was starting to look sick. For that matter, Jace was starting to feel sick, the unpleasantness of this news driving out the curiosity of that... vision, or hallucination, or whatever it had been that had just occurred. "It's that bad?" the blonde asked.
Harper gave her head a shake. "I'm honestly wondering how she manages to even pretend to be happy with the state she's in."
There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone processed this, before Ivor finally managed to regain his composure and stood up, ignoring the small explosion of shattered glass on the floor behind him. "Well, I think I'll have a look at Jesse myself and try to see if I can do anything. Blonde g-" He caught himself, pausing. "... Lukas. Do you want to come with me?"
The blonde blinked. "I- yeah, sure," he said, getting to his feet.
Ivor gave him a nod before looking to Harper, who happened to be nearest to the door. "Harper... right? Can you show us where Jesse's room is?"
The dark-skinned woman nodded at him. "Sure can. Right this way," she said, although she did still sound a bit shaky about the whole thing.
And she led the way out of the room.
Jace watched them go with a sort of detached curiosity, faintly aware of the pounding ache in his chest as Reuben followed Harper, Ivor and Lukas out of the room to go check on Jesse.
His little Reuben was...
Really, really sweet...
He was brought back to reality when a grounding hand landed on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Petra looking at him with this extremely concerned look. "Hey, Jace, can you come with me for a few minutes?" she asked, in a low voice.
The mocha-haired boy remained sitting on the floor for a moment, staring at Petra as if he was unaware of her question. She had just opened her mouth to repeat it when he slowly climbed to his feet, his muscles complaining from how long he'd been sitting on the floor, curled up. "Yeah, sure."
A/N: Next chapter is when the feels train's gonna make me stop writing twelve times, but it might take me a while to get it done.
(deep breath in) I actually had to physically stop writing this chapter fifteen times and pace around the room, I got so mad while writing it. I also cried a bit, but that may have been out of frustration.
Huh. I make an appearance. Wonder what that's about.
NoItsBecky: Yeeeep.
LegoGirl794: (nods) Indeed he will.
LunarStarsMoons: Ahhh, I'm sorry I made you cry...! / Yes, they did.
CrystalTearsofFaith: I'M SORRY (dives under desk)
sailor . mikuchan: (shakes head) I have no idea, dude. I do sometimes too, but that's only because I like laughing a lot, so my emotions get confused and tell me to laugh when I'm actually upset. Then I realize I'm upset, so I start crying.
Emily The Avenger: (winces)
J.M.M.: Oh, I think I've heard of it!
Kaos Ruin: Oh. Oh. (blushing) Um, I'm sorry I made you cry at work.
the indecisive bird: (laughs) Actually, no. The first time I watched, I didn't actually cry, I was just like "Oh no!" The second time I bawled my eyes out and my mom was so confused. / Jesse's really adamant about that; you'll find out why next chapter. I was putting it in this chapter, but then I realized this was getting too long.
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: (rubs head awkwardly) Ahh, I'm sorry...
LittleAngelbun: Sort of. / Ahh I'm sorry / (laughs) Well, glad to see you like it.
NinaNaranja: It's odd; whenever I cry a little bit while writing a chapter my readers are apparently crying bucketloads... what? / I'm glad to see you liked it.. I... think xD
Darkbeast Dend: Uhm... my favorite YouTuber is Markiplier or Jacksepticye, but that's just because they make me laugh when I'm down :3
Meow Shadow: Trust me, next chapter you're going to see why she reacted that way (grins evilly) / Oh, thanks! I meant to stick the whole thing into this chapter but then all of my ideas started growing and it got to be a bit too much haha xD / Wait, I have a thousand reviews? (goes and checks) OML whhaaaa-
SofiaTheWriter88: Ahhh I'm sorry ;-;
AquaK13: It's not emotional exactly, unless you count making me super mad as emotional xD / No spoilers (looks at ceiling) / (laughs) Don't worry, I'm the innocent one too. Notice that I haven't actually said a swear in the story; it's been censored or simply mentioned. / They were small, it didn't affect the meaning. (They did make my inner spelling nerd twitch, though.)
RapidSammi: You'll see next chapter. :3 And I'm glad to see you're restraining yourself, lol.
homework overload: Oh, no, not at all! I like it when my readers make me feel awkward, because then I can laugh at myself later on xD / Ahhhh, I see. / Congrats, dude!
Rabbits rule: Well, I'm glad you... liked it? I think? / And... yeah, pretty accurate xD
...
Guys.
GUYS.
OVER 1000 REVIEWS.
OVER 1000 FREAKING REVIEWS.
WE'RE NOT EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THE STORY AND WE ARE LITERALLY 20 REVIEWS AWAY FROM BEATING HYBRID.
WHAT THE HOW AND WHY AND WHEN?!
GUYS!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
x.X. A.L. X.x
