Tainted Blood [3]

Chapter 22

I punched the bag again, ignoring the pain in my knuckles. Everyone was upstairs, they were cleaning the ashes of the dead leeches, Hunter and Max had buried Chloe last night in a grave next to Damien's, I guess it's better this way, she was out of harms way, no one could hurt her anymore.

I should be upstairs helping clean up the mess I'd made but I couldn't, after I saw Chloe's lifeless body hanging in the tree, blood running down her arms.... I felt useless, like I couldn't do one of the simplest things ever and keep my friend alive. I had shut down and came down here to punch it out, it seemed to be the way I resolved things now.

"Av," Nadia's voice echoed around the spacious room. "Av can we could down ?"

"I never said you couldn't," I carried on my punching as the basement had four extra people in it, the girls all stood watching me for a few minutes before someone spoke up.

"Avalon, talk to us," Raine tried to get me talk, but I carried on punching, although what Dayton said next made me freeze.

"Don't you dare pull this crap Avalon Greene," I turned to her. "I get you're hurting, we all are, but isolating yourself and beating the crap out of the punching bag won't help."

"Actually it's relaxing," I punched again. "I can just beat it and forget about everything for a little while, let everything out through one little punch," I threw a more forceful punch, creating a hole in the bag.

"If that's what you call 'a little punch' I dread to thing what force you use when you want to do damage," Raine eyed the hole carefully.

"I dread to think what she does to poor Archer, using that much force will defiantly bruise," I glared at Dayton and threw my water at her.

"Get your mind out of the gutter Day," she just smirked at me.

"I'm serious though, isolating yourself will do more harm then good," I unwrapped my knuckles and laid down, the others following suit.

"I thought I was done saying goodbye to loved ones," I felt Nadia squeeze my hand in reassurance.

"We know Av, we just have to wait it out, we grieve, we mourn and then we pick up the pieces that were left behind," Raine's voice let on that she was border lining tears.

"That's the thing, I'm tried of the grief and mourning," I shook my head. "Is it selfish to wish that everyone was here ? To wish they were here in this dangerous situation, if it meant they were alive and breathing despite everything else ?"

"No," Vicky spoke up for the first time since they came down. "It makes you human, and honestly ? It's the one thing we have left, once it's gone we might as well be dead."

"She's right," Dayton joined in. "A tad morbid, but she's right," I left out a snort.

"We let them win if we let this pull us down," Raine jumped up. "So I say, we hold our head high, and smile as if we aren't broken and hurting inside," I stood up with her.

"Do you guys want to train ?" Everyone looked at me. "I know it seems like I'm pushing everyone away but this helps, it makes me forget, even for a little while," they all seemed to agree as everyone got up and started wrapping up their knuckles, I adjusted my ponytail and my clothes before starting. Since everyone knew about the scars now I had been wearing my sports bra and athletics shorts when I trained.

"Do you wanna spar ?" Nadia asked as she put her hair into a messy bun.

"No, just work on strength and workout, if I try and spar I'll hurt someone," she nodded in understanding.

"Okay, I'm gonna workout, Av, wanna take a contest who can do the most press ups ?" Dayton wiggled her brows.

"It's on," Raine, Vicky and Nadia laughed as Dayton and I spent the afternoon  trying to out do the other one.