"That's fine, c'mon in so you can get some rest"
Fiore smiled in return.
The next morning, Fiore woke up with a slight yawn, unlike when she woke up last night shaking and trembling from the nightmare.
She raised up her arms in a stretch and glanced around the room. she remembered having that nightmare/flashback and asking Alec if she could sleep with him.
Her eyes narrowed at the light shining through the curtains. she also noticed that she was alone in the room, so she thought it was safe to assume Alec must have already woken up and left the room.
Fiore yawned again and got out of the bed, she flinched when she accidentally made the bite mark on her neck sting again. she decided maybe she should actually look at it, she had never looked at it and hadn't planned too, but she might as well.
She slipped out of Alec's room and entered the room that Alec had said was the bathroom.
Closing the door behind her, she stood in front of the mirror above the sink. she angled her head in a way that made the bite mark more visible and she flinched again when she saw it.
It was red and slightly purple like a bruise, but it had red teeth marks in the center.
The girl entertained the idea of asking Alec to look at it and check if it was infected or not. she knew it probably wasn't, but it still hurt like hell and it was annoying as fuck and it kept bothering her.
Fiore glanced around the bathroom before her eyes landed on some bandages on a shelf. If she didn't want to seem weak and ask Alec for more help, maybe she could fix the bruise herself?
Fiore tried to reach up to the shelf, but she was too short. "Damn it!" She muttered to herself. She scanned the room for her options.
There wasn't a stool to stand on so that wasn't an option. And the shelf wasn't near the sink so she couldn't stand on that. She realized there was no way to grab a bandage without help.
She sighed and reluctantly left the bathroom to find Alec and use that idea she had earlier of asking him for help.
She looked around the upstairs hallway, Alec probably wasn't up here considering the only rooms were his son's room, the bathroom Fiore just left, the guest room, and Alec's room.
She walked down the stairs into the living room, counting the stairs trying to ignore the pain on her neck. She spotted Alec reading a book on the couch.
"Typical Alec" she muttered to herself in a joking tone. Rolling her eyes with a small smile on her face.
"Hey Alec....uhm...could you help me with something?"
"Oh, good morning Fiore, What did you need help with?" Alec replied.
"I tried to grab one of the bandages in the bathroom but I can't reach them"
"Why do you need a bandage?"
"Uhm...for the wound on my neck"
"Oh, shit, sorry I should've put a bandage on that one last night. I guess I didn't see it after we got to the house" Alec spoke.
Alec walked over to the emergency medicine kit he had forgotten to put away last night. He opened it up and grabbed a bandage, making a mental note to go to the store later to buy more cotton pads.
Fiore sat down on the couch and Alec sat down next to her with the bandage, he opened up the bandage and gently put it on top of the bite mark on Fiore's neck.
"Can you tell me how you got a bite mark on your neck anyways?" Alec asked.
"uhm...its uhm.. nothing..." Fiore trailed off as she spoke, her voice becoming shaky and nervous.
Alec didn't want to push her too far and make her uncomfortable, but he needed to know this.
"Fiore, it isn't 'nothing'. I need to know what happened....please"
The girl hesitated, she didn't want to tell him and seem weak and defenseless, but she also wanted to get it off of her chest and not have to keep it a secret anymore.
"Alright..."
And Fiore explained everything that happened. EVERYTHING. Her parents constantly abusing her, the unknown man, and when she ran away to the streets where she was Lost and Found by Alec.
Alec was heartbroken. He knew her parents were shitty people from what Fiore had told him and Grett, but he didn't know they were THAT fucked up.
"Wait... you said that what the man did was different from the 'other times'... Does that mean that's happened to you more than once?!?"
Fiore hesitated and then nodded. It did feel kind of good to have told someone. She didn't feel the need to have carefully guard it like an important secret.
But at the same time, this was kind of making Fiore scared, remembering what those men had done to her and how shitty her parents were to her. she felt herself beginning to cry a little bit.
Alec gently brought a hand up to her face and wiped her tears, he remembered how her eyes had glistened like this after Miriam had won Disventure Camp and he wished he had wiped the ashes off of her face like he was doing for her tears now. He hoped he could make it up to her.
Alec decided maybe it would be good to get both of their minds off of things, he remembered his mental note to go buy some more cotton pads.
"Hey, would you want to take a walk to the store with me? It could be distracting and get your mind off of things, besides, I need to buy more cotton pads"
"Yeah...that sounds good. Thanks"
Alec and Fiore got up and walked over to the front door as they left the house, Alec shut the door behind them, making sure to lock it.
