Firewall

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Sky staggered up the winding staircase that led up to the Owl's Nest, his breathing coming out uneven and shaky as his hand skimmed the walls of the tower, sliding over the pale yellow stone with each step he took. Sky eventually stopped and looked up, seeing that he still had quite a ways to go considering that the Owl's nest was the second tallest structure of any kind in the city. He grimaced as he felt the burn of exhaustion spring up from his feet, yet he continued on up the stairs.

He had walked back from the wasteland, by foot, alone. As far as he knew, no one was aware that he had even returned "let's keep it like that... For now..." Sky found himself beginning to limp, his left foot feeling oddly damp and warm against the inside of his shoes.

He looked down to see that one of his blue sneakers had the unmistakable red of blood staining the left side. It wasn't leaving any marks on the stone underfoot, but the injury was obvious. Sky frowned and decided to ignore it, continuing on up the stairs even though a considerate amount of blood was leaking through his shoe.

Eventually, Sky's face was buffeted by a gust of cold wind, and soon after, he was able to see everything Vanoss would typically see. The central spire looming overhead with immense intimidation, but everything else was open to his eyes.

Sky was semi hoping that Vanoss would be up here, but the winged sharpshooter was nowhere to be seen, making him sigh and sit down on the tower floor with his back up against a support beam. He took another look at his foot before slowly reaching forward and untying the laces that held the bloody sneaker in place. There was a brief wave of pain as the sneaker pulled away, making him hiss through gritted teeth as he managed to pull it off and let it fall beside him with a dull thunk.

The white sock underneath was stained as well, no surprise there, and it was equally just as uncomfortable to remove, no matter how quick he tried to peel it off. After examining the bloody mess of his foot for a while, he sighed and sat back against the support beam "cursed 'real world' physics..." he hissed aloud through gritted teeth "nowadays, I can't go anywhere without getting a blister, let alone keep it from bursting..."

"Then again..." he glanced back at his reddened foot "that's a lot of blood to come from a single blister..." he leaned forward and took hold of his foot, getting blood on his hands as he examined the wound even closer. From the deep red something black and hard stuck out, glistening against the moonlight. Sky hesitantly pinched at it, hissing from the pain that followed shortly afterwards "did a rock get in my shoe? How could I have gotten so distracted?"

He frowned "what am I thinking? Of course I know why" he stifled a yelp as he managed to get a steady hold of the rock and tear it from his foot, watching as a steady rivulet of blood oozed out in its place "I know exactly what's wrong here. I always have."

Sky examined the rock, frowning at its apparent jaggedness as well as the surprising size of it "no wonder I'm bleeding so much" he flicked the rock away, listening to the clatter it made against the stone floor as he went down to put pressure onto the wound "why am I even bothering? Who cares if I-"

Sky froze up, his thoughts screeching to an immediate halt "what... What am I thinking?" Sky slapped himself in the face, leaving a bloody handprint on his cheek "get a grip, Sky!"

Physical abuse tended to help realign his mind for some reason. The working theory was that the jarring pinch of pain that followed a direct slap or punch acted as a reset of sorts, clearing his mind for a brief second so Sky had a chance to get a happy thought in while he could. Sometimes, it didn't work. If his fit of anger and frustration was too much, the pain only made it worse for him, but in minor cases like this, it was a decent fix for the most part.