Mevia had come out of the closet.
... oh, you know what I mean.
After about another twenty minutes, she'd gathered up enough of her nerve to stand up and open the door. She'd accidentally opened it right as Milo was walking by and made him walk straight into the door.
She was now currently apologizing to him.
"That was– agh. Sorry." Wow. Mevia was clearly very eloquent. There was a reason Hadrian did most of the talking during the Games.
"Don't worry about it, it didn't hurt that badly," Milo assured her, although the way he kept periodically rubbing his forehead or his nose seemed to indicate otherwise. "What were you even doing in the closet?" he asked her, after a moment.
"... I was... uh... taking inventory of the closet."
... there was a reason one of Hadrian's slightly-insulting-but-mostly-joking nicknames for her was 'Pinocchio', honestly– whenever she even attempted to lie, either whatever she said was about as believable as a magical narwhal appearing in the room and doing a tap dance for them (actually, that might've been more believable than what Mevia could come up with), or what came out just didn't make sense.
Milo stared at her. You could get the feeling that he was resisting the urge to ask her if she needed some psychiatric help. "... you were taking inventory of the... closet?"
"... yeah. There's three brooms, a mop, and a chest filled with buckets of water in there." Actually, Mevia was kind of making that up because she had been paying absolutely no attention to her surroundings at the time, but you know what, it wasn't like Milo was going to check.
"... do I wish to know what you were actually doing in there at the time?" Milo finally asked, still looking as if he wanted to ask her if she needed psychiatric help.
"... probably not."
Milo raised his eyes to heaven, probably regretting having even asked her what she was doing right about now. "Okay. Then I won't ask."
"Thank you."
Jesse found herself awake all of a sudden.
It was dark in the room, although she could tell it wasn't her room judging by the size– she could see a long wall in the dim light spilling in from the window, and the door was further away from her bed than usual. Her wrist seemed to be numb, for some reason. She shifted and raised her arm to get a better look at it, blinking blearily. Slowly, it came into focus to show that a white bandage was wrapped around it.
Had she hurt her wrist earlie–
She remembered.
Mevia lashing out with her wooden sword.
The jarring clack of wood on wood as Jesse blocked blows.
A change in tempo.
Her wrist cracking.
Mevia starting to hit her with the wooden sword, a blankly cold expression on her face.
Curling up into a terrified ball because dad was hitting her again, dad was hitting her again and she didn't know why, but it wasn't her dad and it was Mevia and it just didn't make sense what had she done wrong this time–
Jesse frowned now that she recalled that, that had been a bit of weird behavior from Mevia.
Well, not that Jesse knew Mevia well enough to say if it was weird behavior for the blue-haired woman usually, but from what Jesse knew of Mevia, it was weird.
And Mevia had had that outburst before they'd started the practice fight...
... something was wrong with Mevia. Not, y'know, in a rude way– but something had caused Mevia to suddenly start hitting her with what was essentially a slightly sharpened wooden stick, and she highly doubted it was because of her swordfighting skill, although Jesse had improved by leaps and bounds since they'd started the practice sessions. Gabriel had even called her a natural a few times.
But as it was, Mevia suddenly beating Jesse with a wooden sword just didn't make sense to Jesse– not with how Mevia acted around her usually.
Carefully, Jesse shifted into a sitting position so as to avoid waking everyone up, and looked around while blinking the last little bits of sleep out of her eyes. She wasn't all that surprised to see Ivor slumped backwards in a chair next to the bed, his mouth hanging slightly open as he breathed deeply– clearly he was fast asleep.
Which was surprising, because he usually was up at night and puttering around in the dining room making a calming potion.
She seemed to be in a long room that looked like a clinic or an infirmary, with several beds along both walls and a sort of clear area for people to walk down the way and visit the person who was injured. On a nearby bed, Lukas was curled up on the bed– almost like a cat, and this thought made Jesse grin a little bit despite the way her wrist was annoyingly numb– and breathing deeply, showing that he, too, was fast asleep.
Axel and Olivia were curled up on a bed together, which was a little surprising to Jesse– until she figured that they probably did it all the time if they weren't in their own rooms and were probably adventuring. Axel was snoring slightly while Olivia was faced away from him, one arm dangling over the edge of the bed and looking like she might topple off of the bed.
On the bed across from Jesse's, Petra was sitting up in the bed, a shaft of moonlight slanting across her face. Next to her, Jace had his head resting on her shoulder and was also fast asleep, if the way his chest was steadily rising and falling was any indication. Reuben was curled up on his lap, making little snuffling sounds in his sleep.
Satisfied that all of them were asleep, Jesse carefully shifted the blankets off her legs and swung her legs to the floor smoothly. Her shoes made soft sounds on the wooden floor, but not anything very loud, and she was soon making her way out of the infirmary, determined to find Mevia. Sure, it was probably a ridiculous time at night, but she was suddenly filled with the desire to know what exactly was going on.
The door didn't squeak as she opened it, and she carefully let it shut before looking both ways down the hallway. The lack of windows in the hallways made the long walk much darker, even with redstone lamps sporadically lighting the hallway.
It took Jesse a moment of looking back and forth to get her bearings, before she smoothly turned to her left and walked along the hallway, feet padding softly as she made her way to the hallway of bedrooms– over fifty of them total. She vaguely wondered that if this was Ariza's house, how many guests did she usually have?
The moment her mind wandered, she probably made a wrong turn somewhere, because Jesse proceeded to find herself miserably, hopelessly lost. It didn't help that this part of the house appeared to be one that she didn't usually frequent, or that it was so dark that only the occasional redstone lamp lit the hallway.
"You lost, sport?"
Jesse jumped, whipping around at the sound of the voice– and letting out a relieved sigh as she saw Hadrian, standing behind her. "Hi, Mr. Hadrian. Wooooph, you scared me."
Hadrian let out a funny chuckle. "Sorry about that, kiddo. What are you doing, wandering the hallway at night?"
Jesse almost opened her mouth to tell him– that she was looking for Mevia to ask her something, that she was confused about what Mevia had done earlier today, that she'd let her mind wander and then gotten herself miserably lost– before stopping herself.
Something was whispering in her ear. Don't trust him.
He's not to be trusted.
Run.
"I was going to the kitchen to make a calming potion because I couldn't sleep. But I'm not used to going there from the infirmary and got lost."
Jesse was stunned at how smoothly the lie came from her mouth. It wasn't a complete lie, she supposed– she couldn't sleep. And she wasn't used to heading to the rooms from the clinic/infirmary/whatever it was supposed to be.
Hadrian gave a light, friendly shrug, a pleasant smile still on his face. Maybe that little voice had been wrong? "I see. D'you need help getting there from here?"
Well, she couldn't refuse without looking suspicious or rude now, so she just shrugged back and returned the smile. "Sure, that would be great. Lead the way, please."
Hadrian gave her a different sort of smile– not scary, exactly, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant one either. "Right. Come along, slugger." And he started walking down the hallway, making Jesse have to follow to keep up with him– once she recognized a hallway she could probably make an excuse and slip away.
"So," he said, conversationally, as they traversed the hallways, "Jesse... is that your full name?"
Jesse frowned at the question. "Yeah... well, I think everyone's been spelling it with an 'e' and the end's supposed to be spelled with an 'i' for me, but it's similar enough, I suppose."
"Jessi... huh." Hadrian nodded as if that information told him a lot. "So, how's the wrist? I only saw the tail end of what happened with Mevia."
Jessi's eyes fell to her wrist automatically, white bandages cradling it. "Numb," she said truthfully. It wasn't like he could get anything out of that.
Hadrian let out a strange chuckle, one that made something automatically clunk into her stomach– something hard. "Understandable; healing potions tend to do that when you've got a broken bone. Surprised that Mevia would do that, but I suppose there's a reason she's called 'The Enforcer' in the Games–"
Jessi didn't know what 'games' he was talking about, but she found herself defending Mevia all of a sudden. "I don't think she meant to hit me."
A pause. "No?"
"Well– not like that, anyway. Her expression was just kinda... blank. It was like she wasn't actually there," Jessi corrected herself. "She was kinda... not present halfway through it. I do see what you mean by her being the 'Enforcement'–"
"Enforcer," Hadrian corrected.
"Uh-huh. I do see what you mean, though, because she's really good at swordfighting," Jessi finished, giving a small smile.
Another pause. "Hm." That little 'hm' was thoughtful, not at all threatening in any way, and yet it still made Jessi's stomach contract in fear.
Jessi paused again, before giving him a little shrug and lapsing into silence.
Hadrian abruptly came to a stop, which forced Jessi to slow down and come to a stop as well. He still didn't face her. "I've been keeping a close eye on you, kiddo, while we've been watching the episodes."
"... okay?"
Run.
Run.
Run.
"You are... very impressive. Very brave, very insistent on protecting her friends."
Run.
Get away.
You're in danger.
Run.
"But you're also forgiving. Merciful." A strange smile crept across Hadrian's face as he turned to face her, and now the chills that had been tingling on her spine were practically prickling dangerously as they screamed collectively in her ear, unheard by anyone else except the short girl with a numb wrist currently facing off against the man in the purple suit.
Run.
"Even when other people beat you," and he stepped closer to her. Jessi stepped back automatically.
Get out of here.
"Even when they hurt you, hurt your friends," another step forward for Hadrian, another step back for Jessi.
You're in danger.
"You forgave them. You forgave Cassie Rose. You forgave Aiden. You even forgave Ivor." Another step forward. Another step back.
Why aren't you running?
"I wonder if you'd forgive me." Another step forward. Another step back.
Jessi felt like she was walking straight into a trap, but she had to ask. "Forgive you for what?" she asked, trying to make her voice sound like firm red but instead having it come out thin blue.
You have to run.
Another step forward. Another step back, but now Hadrian's hand was closing on her wrist and keeping her from moving any further away. Her heart had started thumping like a jackrabbit. He leaned towards her steadily, mouth mere inches from her ear, hand in a vise on her wrist.
"I wonder if you'd forgive me if I killed your friends."
Jessi stopped breathing. For a moment, her lungs forgot how to work with that statement, air simply resting like a stone in her lungs, in her mouth, pausing halfway in her chest until a tight knot formed.
And then she started breathing again.
"Huh?" she asked, even though she knew very, very well what he was getting at, knew all too well if the way her heart was now skipping was any indication.
"I've decided that you're a threat to me, Jessi." Hadrian's voice was strangely matter-of-fact despite the fact that he still had that strange smile on his face, despite the fact that Hadrian seemed almost happy right now. "So here's the deal, bucko. If you let me kill you, I won't touch your friends."
Get out of here.
Jessi was frozen in place. Even if she wanted to run, she couldn't, not with her unharmed wrist trapped in his hand.
"You're wrong about me," she whispered, but she could feel an ice cube forming in her stomach.
Hadrian's smile didn't falter at all. On the contrary, it widened. "How so, sport?"
"I'm not brave," Jessi breathed, tears beginning to press on her eyeballs. "If I was brave, I would've stood up to my father. If I was brave, I would've stood up to him and fought back. If I was brave, my friend Chris would still be alive."
Jessi, you have to get out of here.
Hadrian's smile grew even more. "Then that makes my job much easier. You won't stand up to me. Not if you want to keep your friends alive." His voice was low but confident, an undertone of victory going through his voice.
Jessi felt tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. Fear was spreading through her, its cold hands squeezing her heart, clogging her throat, dragging its cold hands down her back. She needed help right now. She needed to run. She needed to get out of here, but she couldn't, she couldn't breathe, she was so, so scared, she needed help.
So she screamed for the person she'd come out of the infirmary to look for in the first place, the first name that came to her mind.
"MEVIA!"
Hadrian's smile fell, and he suddenly disappeared. Jessi didn't know where he'd gone, and she didn't care as she staggered backwards and felt her back hit the wall, and she was sliding down, feeling tears beginning to stream down her cheeks as footsteps faded and then grew, and then suddenly she was looking up and Mevia was looking around frantically–
The Ancient Architect's eyes fell on Jessi.
"Mevia," Jessi said, but it came out as a whimper.
A storm of emotions passed over Mevia's face. Fear, disgust, concern, hatred, something Jessi couldn't identify– and then Mevia was kneeling next to Jessi and pulling the smaller girl into a hug. "It's fine, you're fine, you're going to be okay," she said quietly, her voice currently wavering strangely but low and soothing.
You're safe now.
Jessi's mind was such a confused jumble that she couldn't tell if that was Mevia or that voice she'd been hearing earlier speaking, she couldn't tell, even as more voices crowded into the hallway, lights turning on and a jumble of voices hitting her ears, but the only thing she could see was Hadrian's strange smile at the back of the crowd through the blur of faces that had suddenly entered the hallway, even as Mevia was pulled away from Jessi (why were they pulling her away she didn't want Mevia to leave) and someone's arms wrapped shakily around her (who was hugging her right now she was shaking so hard).
You're okay now.
Even as she was being led out of the hallway (was someone carrying her?), even as she could see Ivor's face looking paler than she'd ever seen it, Mevia being told off by Isa in the back, Lukas's relieved blue eyes, Petra's worried but comforting smile, Jace and Reuben just behind Axel who was leading Jessi along (carrying her), Olivia rattling something off, something involving Mevia, and Harper standing just behind Mevia uncomfortably, she could still see Hadrian's strange smile as he watched her leave.
You're safe.
He put his finger to his mouth in a shushing motion, eyes lingering on her friends' backs and then flicking back up to her eyes. His smile grew. (Jesse was shaking so badly.)
But they're not.
A/N: Hadrian tried to pull his move faster than expected... and Jessi was half-ready for it.
But I think if Jessi tries to tell anyone, she's going to find one of her friends dead.
Yeaaaaaaaahhhh, I'll be selling tickets for kicking Hadrian in the nuts for about three dollars each, anyone want 'em? Extra five dollars to play Hide and Go Kill with him.
Mevia's swordfighting teacher was not Hadrian, by the way. And it looks like Nell couldn't explain about Mevia. Either that, or they didn't quite believe her anyway.
Replies to reviews!
LunarTheMooncake: (giggles)
Kairi4ever15: Indeed xD
andie: (grins)
Savannah-the-Caracal: No, I had that planned, just picked a random person that I thought nobody would expect. And I was right! xD
Guest: I can see that 0-o
homeworkoverload: (shrugs) Can't say, sorry. / I can't make sure until later because plot, but sure. x3 / That's nice! xD / (giggles) well, I have tickets. (Waves tickets)
Emily The Avenger: xD Nice, fam.
ItzJaiden: Sorryyyyy xD / Probably / And... what do you mean by why?
Jo the jesus: Nice username. / (shrugs)
CamronXTheXGamer: (pats) Thanks for the tissues, I am no longer sick happily.
AquaK13: xD / Pfffff, now I'm remembering that too xD / She's probably taken more, honestly. / (pats)
ShiningHopeBeast: (grins) Yeah, that was fun to write. / Awww, hope you feel better soon.
KaosRuin: I mean, there's nothing wrong with that xD / Oh, okay xD
Princess of Muffins: Thanks, I feel much better now. x3 / (laughs) Yeah, there's a lot of things I introduced in that chapter that I might never get back to. (Jk, probably'll get back around to it sometime.) / That's good! / That's to be expected xD
Mikaza1498: Yeah, I was sick for a solid week, surprisingly. / Ahhh, that sucks. :/ / I'm never offended xD
Guest: He does. I'm sure he'll redeem himself, he's gotta have some niceness to him deep inside of him. Deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, DEEP down. / Yee x3
Darkbeast Dend: (pats)
J.M.M.: (smirks)
ZenSpider: (laughs) / Sure, if you're willing to look deep down. Deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, DEEP, DEEP down.
SiSiren: I'm glad you like it so far! Doing my best to make good content. (Not doing a great job of it but hey, I'm trying xD)
Welp, that's all for this time! See ya, so long, and g'bye!
x.X. A.L. X.x
