Long time no update! I stumbled on this file while cleaning out some things on my computer and reread it and thought I should at least give it the old college try. Resurrectionnnnnnnnnnnn! Bear with me as I try to find the voice again haha.
In which regret is not allowed
For the few days following Evangeline's initiation, the members of the Fraternity of Assassins walked around as if the floor were made of glass. Nobody said a word about the events of the previous day and Evangeline wasn't sure if she was thankful or resentful of the fact. All she could manage was to wake up every day take a few steps out of bed to go relieve herself and swallow a few meager bites of food. There were moments where she felt so unbearably weak and sick that her hands would tremor uncontrollably. Cross would come in every once in a while and sit at her bedside, occasionally stroking her hair, but more often than not holding her cold hands in his.
Sloane accepted this for the first three days and tolerated it for the fourth. By day five, however, he had had enough. The day had barely began when he walked into her room, pausing ever so slightly at the door to survey the girl lying on her side, buried under covers for a moment. Evangeline barely noticed the light sag of the mattress under the added weight of Sloane as he sat down next to her. "Ms. Chang. I hope you understand that I've been very… liberal with you the past few days." He stops and lets the words sink in. "But I'm afraid this has gone on long enough." A hand comes to rest on her shoulder. "Come. You have work to do.."
As Sloane gets up to leave, he is stopped by the sound of a voice. It was croaky at first, rusty from disuse. "I don't cry anymore. I can't. What's wrong with me?" By now, Evangeline had hoisted herself up from the bed and was sitting pitifully with her pale white legs dangling over the edge. Sloane walked back to her side and stroked her hair in a rare gesture of tenderness.
"You're just learning to understand. Evangeline-" At the sound of her name, she buried her head in her pillow.
"Please. Don't call me that." Evangeline's voice was garbled and muffled by both the pillow and the onslaught of tears.
"Come, my girl. Our little Seraph" He stroked her brow, a simple motion that seemed to give rise to a baptism of sorts. Evangeline seem to become fainter while a new presence slowly pulsed in to take her place. The two figures in the room rose and walked out.
It felt like she was back at day one again. Facing the Butcher, a blade in her hand, Evangeline stood in the warehouse bay tremors running through her arms as the rest of the Brotherhood looked on with obvious concern. The Butcher, in his standard dirty apron and machete like knives stood opposite her. Though he had been told to go at her without abandon, he couldn't help but think that he simply didn't have it in him.
Any question of "taking it easy on the kid" though evaporated from his thoughts when without the slightest warning, Evangeline charged him first. Had it not been for the battle cry on her lips, the Butcher would have never managed to deflect her first potentially fatal strike. Everyone watched in shock as the girl they took in locked into a vicious stream of attacks, landing hits and sending blood spraying across the floor. When the Butcher finally lost his footing and lay panting on the ground, arms up to protect his face, it seemed to extinguish something in the machine that they once knew as Evangeline. Her face was pale and a thin sheen of perspiration coated her body. The clothing plastered to her body was flecked with blood. For a moment, the entire hall was filled with the sound of her panting.
Her muscles gave out and she dropped to the floor, the knife she held in her hand crashed on the ground with a thin clattering. For the first time in months, Evangeline could feel the back of her throat closing up, her peripherals pulsating around her, and her entire body flaming up. It had been so long that she thought it had been trained out of her, but here she was on the ground, covered in blood, experiencing another anxiety attack. As the Repairman and the Exterminator rushed forward to carry the Butcher to the Recovery Room, Cross knelt down and took Evangeline in his arms, applying steady pressure on her body.
"Comon, kid. You did good. Comon" With enough coaxing, he managed to get her to the stoop where Fox was waiting with a bottle of water. As much as he hated to admit it, Cross knew that the Evangeline they once knew was gone, leaving Seraph in her place. Indeed, Sloane's test had not broken her, but it had managed to leave some scars that had no chance of healing.