Chapter 2
"Aw hell."
Those were the first words that came out of Ryn's mouth when she opened her eyes, instantly recognizing her surroundings. The sterile, whitewashed setting of a hospital was one that she had seen several times. She turned her head to see a male nurse staring back at her, a smirk on his face.
"What are you lookin' at, bub?"
"Just glad to see you're alive and kicking, Miss Katheryn," the nurse remarked. "You've been under for a day now, but you seem to be healing just fine. It was a big enough emergency that we had to bring in some of the continents best healers. Consider yourself lucky; not many others survived."
Ryn's eyes widened. "My first mate! Have you seen her? Small, dark hair, Ionian?"
The smile quickly disappeared from the nurse's face. "Yeah, I've seen her. She came in before you. Anyway, I think you should get some rest, so I'll leave you alone," he said, turning to leave.
Ryn reached out, grabbing him by the arm. Thanks to the healing magic, her strength was already returning, something that would have taken much longer had she simply gone through surgery. "Where's Yu? How is she?"
The nurse moved to pry Ryn's hand from his arm, surprised at strong her grip was. "She's in intensive care. She got it a lot worse than you, I'll be honest. She's currently in a shock-induced coma."
Ryn felt her heart jump up into her throat. Please no. "She'll be fine though, right?"
The nurse shook his head. "Sorry Miss Katheryn, I can't say anything else right now. At this point, only time will tell."
Ryn sat up and swung her legs over the edge of her hospital bed, trying to calm herself. "Who did this?"
The nurse looked at her tentatively. He spoke slowly, carefully picking his words. "Nothing official has been released yet…but most people seem to think that it was Jinx."
Jinx. It was a name that was familiar to Ryn, though only vaguely. Jinx had become a feared name almost overnight, a criminal who suddenly showed up on everyone's radar. Nobody knew where she had come from, but everybody sure as hell knew where she had been; the girl left a wake of death and destruction.
Ryn had only heard of the chaos the girl had been causing. Having not been to Piltover in more than a year, she hadn't witnessed any of Jinx's handiwork until the previous night. Standing, she pulled the IV line from her arm and began to walk towards the door. This appeared to startle her nurse, causing him to reach out and grab her.
"Hold on now, you're not fully recovered yet!" he exclaimed.
Ryn ripped her arm away from his grasp, continuing on. "Back off. I'm gonna go see my first mate."
"Miss Katheryn, please lay back down!"
Ryn rounded on the nurse, gritting her teeth. "Shut it, bub! I'm checkin the hell outta here. Now tell me where my first mate is!"
The nurse seemed taken aback. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't deny Ryn the right to leave. Faced with an angry woman, he let his tongue slip. "She's recovering a few rooms over, but I honestly don't know if it's a good idea to go see her." His words seemingly fell on deaf ears as Ryn tore the door open and stepped out into the hall. Going door to door, she peeked in the windows until she caught a glimpse of something that made her heart nearly stop. It was Yu, unconscious and on a bed. She was hooked up to several machines, with tubes and lines running all over her body. She looked pale, and it looked like she was moments away from death. Reaching for the handle, she slowly turned it and entered the room, as silent as a wraith. A nurse who hadn't seen Ryn enter turned and nearly dropped her clipboard when she noticed the fiery-haired woman.
"Ma'am, you can't be in here!" she cried. The poor nurse tried to usher her out, but Ryn refused to budge. All she could do was stare at her injured comrade. It all seemed wrong. To see her friend, so strong and bold, laid out on a bed like this. Her fist clenched, her teeth ground. This was too much. Yu didn't deserve to be fed through a tube.
The nurse continued to try to herd Ryn toward the door, but the arm's dealer just brushed her off. When it became clear that Ryn wasn't going to leave, the nurse closed the curtain around Yu's bed. "If you don't leave right now, I'm going to call security." Still, Ryn didn't move. "Is she going to make it?" she muttered.
"We're doing our best, but right now you need to leave!" When Ryn continued to just stand there, the nurse reached for the phone on the wall, quickly dialing a number. "Fine. Now you can stay here for security to pick you up." Only then did Ryn move, briskly turning and walking out of the room.
Jinx. It was the only word that reverberated through her mind.
The nurse shouted after her. "Where do you think you're going!?"
Ryn turned and shouted over her shoulder with steel in her voice. "I'm going to fuck a bitch up."
