The silky copper liquid seemed to press against Chloe's senses, her eyes watering as the rough scent moved past her lungs with each breath. The older girl had averted her gaze as she leaned heavily into the desk chair that leaned thickly into the air behind her.
Her feet were propped on the desk itself, creaking as she leaned heavily into the plush back. She refused to stare Beca's way as the girl stripped off her tight-fitting jeans, grunting and groaning against the pain as she pulled them away. The wound had gotten worse, never infected, but painful nonetheless.
"Sweetie, you might want to head to the infirmary," Chloe said innocently, not taking much time to give the brooding woman her attention. She grasped a stress ball that Amy must have dragged in here, her touch soft as she tossed it from one palm to the other.
"I'm fine." Beca winched, pulling out the small bit of gauze that her father had actually suggested she packed. Part of her furious that her dad was right in the first place. He always thought ahead, even if it edged down to sending his only daughter off to an odd boarding school in the middle of nowhere.
"You sure sound fine." You smell fine too. The redhead thought apprehensively. The scent of blood never got to her, it wasn't enticing, but it was one of the more noticeable scents that she had learned to adapt with over the years.
It wasn't always like this, not in the beginning.
She got a ruffed sigh in return and decided to drop the subject. Chloe didn't exactly understand why she was sticking around anyway, her own annoyance starting to get to her. Her mouth dry as she felt the edges of her lips turn up at the corners. It was an act of rebellion, being so close to the alt-girl while Aubrey steamed in the room next to her.
"What the deal with this place anyway?" Beca asked, lowering her teeth to the gauze as she bit into the surface, a rough rip moving through the air as she taped the edge down, putting pressure near the wound but not directly on it.
Chloe snuck a glance at the girl pulled a pair of grey sweatpants over her legs, tying the strings softly as they hugged her waist. She looked miffed but alive, her hair messy as it fell into midnight eyes.
She thought she saw a hint of context in that stare, but again, the ginger let it go as the four legs of the chair hit the floor once more, creaking under her weight. She ran a hand through fiery locks. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know…" She shrugged, "I've only been here for a day and a half and I already know that whatever this place is, it's not normal."
"I grew up here." Chloe lifted her chin softly, rolling the Styrofoam ball against her palms. They had handed them out earlier in the year during finals week- like squeezing a ball would relieve every single problem that they shoveled onto the teens. "There are always the legends that go along with old buildings like this, but it's not as bad as it looks."
"What kind of legends?" Beca asked curiously.
"The normal kind." The ginger tried to cut against the edge of the subject.
"Well, Atum means snake." The girl said, shifting her position on the bed as she lifted herself all the way up to the wall where the twin bed was resting. She crossed her legs in front of her, resting her hands on her knees as she continued to stare towards the only other person in the room. The girl looked jarred. "Well, technically I guess."
"Right," Chloe pursed her lips, staring into midnight eyes. "I suppose."
"He was an Egyptian deity, right? He can control snakes."
"Yeah, that and bulls, Mongoose, even apes. So why did you pick snakes?" The ginger lifted her eyebrow in confusion. Beca was smarter than she looked, putting up a bad girl front instead of actually applying herself seemed to be a special skill at this point.
"I just figured," She shrugged her shoulders "I've seen your tattoo- seen your blonde friends too. What is it, some type of gang?"
Chloe let out an ironic laugh, pulling herself away from the old oak chair. Her shirt rode up against her waistline, halfway tucked into her pants. She squeezed the stress ball once more- lifting her chin. "Well, if it is a gang, then how dangerous can they really be, right? This is a prep school, Beca."
"You're not denying it." The brunette clenched her jaw, quickly lifting her hands as Chloe tossed the object towards her. She caught it easily enough, staring at it with stormy eyes for a few seconds.
"Yeah, well, I'm not confirming it either."
The hot nicotine filled Chloe's lungs, smoke becoming an impasse as it fought against the normal condensation that coated the air this late at night. The moon was large, pressing against the soupy midnight sky.
Chloe had underestimated the cold, but she wasn't about to fall back into the room to pull on a jacket. She wasn't about to give up like that- the lighter heavy in her hand as she leaned heavily against the stone balcony. She didn't' turn when she heard the glass door slide open.
"Your father would murder you if he knew you were smoking."
"Why do you think I'm doing it?" Chloe mumbled, taking in another long drag of the cigarette before she passed it off to Aubrey. She expected the blonde to half-heartedly stomp it out, but instead, she pushed it against her own lips, taking in a long breath.
She was in sweatpants, black as the sky. The white edges of her t-shirt pushed up to her elbows. The edges of the ink burned in with precision was still strong and unforgiving. It had hurt the two of them greatly- the branding that could have been just as easy with an ink tattoo gun, but Warren didn't' work like that.
Chloe remembers distinctly when Aubrey was subjected to the pain, she had put on a brave front until the hot iron met soft skin. She had clenched her jaw and held back tears, but the moment the two of them reached the dorm room… that's when the girl lost it. Collapsing to her hands and knees like her own too feet couldn't support her. She sobbed, sobbed for close to two hours before finally pulling away from Chloe and pulling herself together.
"The girl," Chloe stated, not turning to stare at her fire inclined friend, "She's smarter than she looks."
"Legacy?"
"Beca."
A deep sigh moved past Aubrey's lips, Chloe's eyes dark as the met Aubrey's. The blonde was trying her hardest to keep her thoughts to herself, knowing that she had a place in this system. Warren had trusted her to keep his daughter safe. But even Chloe's right-hand man couldn't break through the stubbornness at moments.
"What is the point of living forever if I can't have any source of joy?" The ginger mumbled, voice hard. "It's not against the rules to become infatuated with… with a human."
"No," Aubrey shook her head. "No, it's not, but it is to abandon the most important girl at this school. We can't forget our place here, not with your mother running around, teeth bared."
"I won't abandon Emily," Chloe said, running a hand through her hair as she watched Aubrey finally got rid of the remaining bit of cigarette. The rest of the ash flickering out to an odd edge. The shorter girl stared at it for a few minutes, parting her lips before speaking again. "It's been two days- Aubs. I promise you my focus won't waver."
"Good," She smiled, happy to break through a thin edge of the wall that Chloe had built around her. She pressed her elbow against her friend's side playfully. "I would hate to see you growing soft."