Fortune Favors the Brave

🩸 Chapter Nine: Restoration 🩸

⚠️ TW: violence, blades, swearing, alcohol use, mention of porn lmao ⚠️

Rae leads me down further into A-Hall. We enter another corridor and stop at a door labeled A7. "Where are we?" She knocks three times. The door creaks open softly. Hands reach out and pull us inside, in one quick fluid motion. I yelp as they hook their arm around my waist and drag me inside.

"Open your eyes," Rae coos, her voice pleasing my ears. As she said, I opened my eyes. Around four people make eye contact with me and without thinking, I draw my spear. "BACK UP! WHO ARE YOU?" I say as I whip around my spear, aiming it at all of them. "Drop your weapon."

I turn to face Rae, "Who are these people? Why'd you bring me here?" She slips over to me, "Drop. Your. Weapon." I stare at her and in less than two seconds she has my spear. "Hey!" I shriek at Rae. "I gave you a direct order and you didn't listen. Now," She twirls the spear in her hands, "You have nothing." She smirks at me and strides over to the boy who dragged us inside, "Put these with the others, would ya, darling?" She drags her hand down his chest softly, then backs away, towards me.

I roll my eyes, "Do you need to be so slutty all the time?" She gives me a sly smile, "Aw, is someone jealous?" She narrows her dark auburn eyes at me while grabbing a silver flask. A golden-yellow liquid pours out of the spout into several plastic cups, "Why do you care if I'm slutty, princess?" My cheeks heat. I brush it off. She caps the flask and hands me a cup. "What is this?" I smell it and gag. "Beer. We found it in some kids' locker," She cheers' me, "Drink up, sunshine."

She passes out the remaining cups to the other people - two boys and two girls. The two girls look similar, probably siblings. They have long, blonde hair braided into a bun, soft hickory tinted skin. Their eyes are sharp, lethal even, with icy blue iris'. The boys are alike as well - short, fluffy brunette hair, light-tan skin. The only difference between them is their eyes. One boy has umber eyes and the other has emerald green. They all take sips of their beer, perfectly fine. "Again, who are these people?" I ask with a stern tone. "I'd tell you but I don't know what you'll do with that information." Rae looks her eyes on me, "So, what will you do with that information?"

She's smart.
Too smart.

"I won't share it with anyone," I lie. She cocks her head to the side. Her face twists into a glare, "Lying, are we?" The shock shows in my face and she snickers faintly. "How did you-" She cuts me off. "Know?" I gulp, nodding. She chuckles, "You aren't a good liar, Rowan."

I gaze at her as she strides over to one of the girls, "Oh, my bad. I've been a bad friend. Let me introduce you." She points at the taller girl, "This is Mercy. She's the older sister." She strides over to Mercy's sister, "This is Angel, she's Mercy's younger sister."

Angel walks over to me and puts her arms out, "BEAR HUG!" She wraps her arms around me, suffocating me ever so slightly. Mercy cusses and pulls her sister off me, "Apologies. She's quite the hugger. She loves physical touch." Angel hops side to side on her feet, arms flapping at her sides like a penguin. She squeals softly, "I love hugs," she whispers.

I smile slightly at Angel, "It's okay, my sister loves to hug and shit." My eyes gloss over. I blink back the tears. I can't show weakness, not around them. "That's Sam," Rae points to the boy with umber eyes. "He likes porn." Sam's eyes widen and he attempts to kick her shins. She dodges and laughs. "I do not like porn," he glares at Rae and puts his hand out, "I'm Sam and I'm sorry for Rae's pitiful introduction." I shake his hand, "It's fine, we all have our kinks." His face shifts from a frown into a mask of embarrassment, his cheeks colored fuschia.

Rae and Mercy snicker softly behind him. Mercy walks up and puts her hand on his shoulder, "Damn, you've got some competition, now don't ya, Sammy." Her eyes flick in my direction and she smiles. I smile back and turn to the last person - the boy.

"And you are?" His eyes look up from the floor and pierce mine. "That's Juniper. We just call him June," Rae purrs. His eyes don't leave me. They scan me, from my head to my ankles. I stare him in the eyes before shifting my attention back to Rae. "You brought me here for a makeover, correct?" She tilts her head, "Aren't you direct?"

"Answer my question." She frowns, "Yes, yes I did." She hops off the counter and inspects me. She flicks a strand of hair. I twist her wrist away from me, "Haven't you inspected me enough?" I snapped at her. The others gasp. June chuckles in the corner. Rae twists to face him, "What are you laughing at?" He looks her in the eye, "Someone's finally putting you in your place." Rae cusses and storms out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"Someone's angry," Sam teases. I look at him, "Where'd she go?" He turns to face me, "Probably to go kill someone, she takes her anger out on others when she's mad. We're just glad it wasn't us this time."

This time.

~~~

I finish my beer and throw the cup into a pile with the others. Rae still hasn't come back and it's been hours. "Should I be worried?" I mumble, looking from the door to Mercy. She looks up from her dreidel. "About what?" I look back at the door again, "Rae." She chuckles, "No, none of us really are."

I look at her, "What do you mean?" She spins the dreidel again, "Rae's very distant. Rarely talks to us about her personal shit. Or anything really. She just drinks all night and leaves to kill," I stare at the dreidel, "She's not around very much."

Mercy lets out a heavy sigh. I hear the despair in her voice as she says, "She watched her best friend die." My body tenses at their words. The others grimace at the memory. "She got wasted that night, sat in the corner, staring at the wall. She left and didn't come back for hours." I bite my nails, my feet tapping anxiously. "Why do you care so much?" June mumbles. My eyes flick to him, "What?" His eyes widen, "Nothing." My feet stop tapping, "No, what did you say?" His stare pierces through me, like he can see every corner of my soul, "Why do you care so much about her? She's a bitch."

My eyes focus on the dreidel Mercys spinning. They catch my glance, "It's a Jewish thing." I look at her, "The dreidel?" She nods, plucking it mid-spin. "The four sides of the dreidel represent the four dimensions of the human psyche - ego, body, reason, and evil." She points at each side. Each side has a symbol and a word - Shin, Gimel, Hey, Nun. "Each word is an abbreviation for a word from Hebrew. Nefesh, Gif, Sechel, and Heh."

She continues, "When you mix the words together it creates 'Nes gadol haya sham' meaning 'A great miracle happened here." She spins the dreidel, its colors blending into one. "In the game of Dreidel, each letter has its own significance. The dreidel is spun and depending which letter is on top when it lands," The dreidel lands, Gimel facing the ceiling, "the player's currency is added or taken from the pot."

"Nun means the player gets nothing, Gimel means the player gets everything, hey means the player gets half, and Shin means the player adds to the pot." I look down at the wooden dreidel, "So it's a game of-"

"Chance."

I get up from my seat. "Wanna play?" Mercy purrs, fiddling with the dreidel. "No thanks, I'm not into gambling." Their brows knit together in annoyance, "Suit yourself." I walk around the classroom, taking in all the small details. Sam's keeping Angel busy by talking, Angel looks extremely invested, kicking her feet from the stool she's sitting on.

There's a small bean bag - patches sewn into it, probably where rips appeared - in the corner. I walk over to it and plop down on it. I mozy into it and rest.