Bleed, Patch, And Keep Moving - An Apex Legends Story

Chapter 110 - Shattered Past

**Warning: This chapter contains content related to suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and physical abuse. If you are sensitive to any of these topics please do not read.**

From beyond the threshold of the bathroom doorway, bits of sand flew up and swept against Ajay's body. She dropped her hands from her face and let them hang down at her sides. Her eyes had to be playing tricks on her because it was the only reasonable explanation that she could come up with because there was a desert in front of her. There was a fucking desert where there should have been a bathroom.

The heat that drift in from the desert would have been stifling if she still hadn't been standing in Octavio's bedroom. She wasn't sure if she wanted to step foot into sand or stay in the bedroom. She decided, instead, to pinch her left thigh with her left hand in hopes that she would wake up from this bizarre dream. She closed her eyes and opened them to find herself still looking at the fucking desert. She pinched her thigh again but this time she left a bruise. It was no use, it wasn't a dream.

The desert seemed to go on forever with no end in sight, just endless flatland of sand. The more she stared at the deviation from reality, the more she started to notice that details were appearing right before her eyes. The arid land was no longer just sand, it now seemed to be filled with things that she felt that she had seen before, but she was so sure that she hadn't seen them at all.

A small stream surfaced to form what she thought was water, but the longer she stared at the water, more she began to realize that it wasn't just water in the stream. Parts of the water were red and carrying pieces of flesh that didn't look human. She just couldn't imagine what was littered throughout the water.

She glanced away from the stream and over to a couple of guns that were strewn about in the nearby sand. Blood splatter covered the guns and the immediate area, which led her to believe that some sort of battle had ensued. The guns looked familiar but she didn't know why; she had never seen them before. Maybe if she touched them, held them, "No." She didn't trust stepping into the desert.

"What da fuck..." She whispered to herself as she tried to find a rational explanation for what she was witnessing. Some of what she saw felt familiar but at the same time it didn't and it was getting really confusing. She tilted her head downwards and closed her eyes as her head pounded at the familiarity and the confusion of the whole scene.

"Che..." Her body began to tremble when she heard her name come from and unfamiliar, Latin accented voice. Only one person called her that, but this was not that one person. She almost didn't want to face who was in front of her but she knew that she needed to. She reluctantly opened her eyes and tilted her head back up to find a man standing only a couple of feet from her. 

The man's messy hair was jet black and his face, and shirtless upper body, were riddled with scars of various sizes and shapes; though the ones on his abdomen looked pretty fresh. The abdominal scars were definitely new. Maybe he had been involved in the gun battle but they didn't look like bullet wounds.

"Please Che." She watched as the man extend his hand towards her. Her body froze in place but it was only for a moment. She was then able to take a step backward while locking her gaze with his emerald eyes, which were blatantly grief stricken. Her brain tried to convince her legs to move and run but all she could manage to do was stand there and examine the man in front of her. For some reason she almost felt bad for him, almost.

"Che, please take my hand." Her mouth was too dry to speak so she shook her head instead. She watched as he took a step closer towards her. A tiny part of her wanted to him to touch her but her body screamed for her to turn and run. She took one more step backwards and then made a beeline for the bedroom door. She didn't know who this man was and she would not fall prey to some deranged psychopath.