It must have been sometime in the afternoon when I woke up, because I could hear the people talking and running down the corridor past the portal that was my own door.
I felt as if a sheet of velvet had been wrapped around my brain, rubbing and covering my thoughts into jumbles of nonsense; the pain medication from the night before had completely worn off leaving, me in an aching and confused mess curled up on my bed.
I remember sitting in my bed at the orphanage when I was seven, kids in the city had been throwing rocks at me and I laid covered in bruises. Thinking that I deserved to feel the intense pain every time I moved, that I had done it to myself, I never asked anyone for help that day. That same feeling filled my chest as I starred at the wall in front of me, thinking of all of the people here who would have dreamed of finding their mother, let alone her sister.
Facing with my back to the door, I placed my hands onto the wall in front of me and pushed so that I rolled off of the bed with a shout; landing onto the ground in a furl of sheets, pillows, and tremendous pain. For about the next ten minutes or so I laid on the floor, moving inches at a time towards the bathroom, on the brim of giving up, but never quite losing hope.
A knock on the door broke one of my attempts at an army crawl, taking in a deep breath I yelled, "Who is it?" Barely getting the words out before my lungs contracted and sent me gasping.
"It's Kaede," Her voice sent a wave of dread through me, the last thing I wanted was to seem weak on my first day back, "Can I come in?" She offered.
"No, no, I'm good, I'll meet you down in the dinning area later," I did my best to hide the pain in my voice, which seemed to work as she paused a moment, then called a goodbye and left the door.
After a bit more of struggling, I made it into the bathroom, ripping off the old clothes I climbed into the shower and held on to the bar inside for support.
Letting the hot water ease all of the aching in my body I slowly regained the ability to think straight, to think about how the water felt like the finest silks brushing against my skin and how satisfying it was to do something on my own for the first time in a month.
Now standing with a minor head ache and a sore ribcage I pulled on a pair of grey sweatpants and a maroon t-shirt along with the old tattered red sweater that Clary had given me for Christmas a few years ago. Finally, I put on my combat boots and walked out of my room.
Eyes were glued to me as I walked down the hallway, some would whisper, while others would simply walk up to me and ask questions. "Are you going to fight him?" "Why didn't you fight back?" "Do you really have a mom?" "Should you even be here?" "What if he doesn't it again?" "If it was me I wouldn't have been hospitalized", well it wasn't you now was it?, I thought.
I bowed my head down as a crowd of people formed around me, making it close to impossible to move once I reached the end of the hallway. All of my attempts to push past were in vain as more people joined in, "Can I get by?" I yelled, avoiding the questions as people reached out to grab me, one person pinching at my ribcage, "Stop that," I couldn't raise my voice above the headache as I batted hands away from me.
Suddenly a loud voice yelled out behind me, "Everybody move!" A man yelled, "Out of my way now!" Will was shoving his way through the crowd, making a b-line towards me. "This isn't a press conference everybody go do something better with your day," He put a hand on my arm and pulled me out from the crowd, paving his way like a bulldozer with me close behind.
With people grabbing out for my arms or yelling in my face I focused on the curve of Will's hand and the movement of his head as he pulled me through the crowd. Reaching the stairs he began pulling me up them, even as the crowd dissipated people walking down still tried to stop us, but Will was an unmovable force.
Before I knew what was happening we were at the steal door and he was placing his hand over the clear glass panel that glowed at his touch and sent a wave of clicks and moans through the frame. Once it popped open I could feel the breeze lifting me away.
Outside the city glowed bright as the sky loomed over in a mass of angry black clouds rushing towards us like soldiers on a rampage. We both stood there in silence, starring out at the city as the humidity suffocated my lungs of air.
"You're going to have to learn how to handle them on your own, I'm not your body guard," Will's voice caught in the stiff air, sending a wave of anger through the pit of my stomach.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I looked over to Will, of all of the things, shock took over his expression for a mere second, "One second you're helping me into bed and the next you're telling me I need to fend for myself, could you just pick a side?"
Recovering, his face glossed over to a passive expression, almost looking amused, "This isn't me picking sides it's me picking when to be your trainer and when to be your friend." Thunder cracked over head, the sky was now almost completely overtaken by the dark masses that surged forward.
"I never asked for your moody personality," I shot back, contemplating how fast I could run down the mountain side. But where would that get me? Landed back in another orphanage, or dead before sunrise? We sat next to each other for what must have been an hour or more, just starring up at the clouds.
The storm that was coming in was nothing compared to the ones I had seen before, it was as if all of the anger, rage and sadness that had built up in me in the past months had finally been thrown out and landed up in the sky.
"Well you're stuck with me now, come on lets get inside before this storm starts," He glanced at the sky, slightly worried as the clouds churned.
I shook him off as he placed a hand on my arm, "I don't need a body guard," My moment of defiance was short lived a I walked ahead of him, and then waited at the door as he took his slow time reaching me to open it, a small smirk forming on his features.
The second we walked back into the compound I could hear the commotion even from two floors up, with a glance at Will the pain in my head and ribs no longer mattered, we sprinted to the stair and down towards the screaming crowds, raging louder than a stadium.
At the top of the compound I stood shaking at the scene in front of me. Death never seemed to bother me, I always thought it would come when it needed me most. Growing up in Chicago I was aware of how often people died, but starring down three people. Their bodies empty of life as they swayed from the ceiling, I realized how prominent death really was.
Rope held a tight grip to their throats, strangling the life right out of them, naked and blood covered hung two boys and a girl, all in a perfect line with the girl in the middle. All three where covered in whiplashes and bruises, but something else showed me death would soon be breathing down my neck. On each of their stomachs was a word, forming a threat enough to make anyone worry; She. Doesn't. Belong.
As I felt the nausea swell in my throat, I realized that the storm outside was nothing compare to the hurricane that had just been released.
Edited 6/2/2017
YOU ARE READING
The Girl And The Mafia
Teen Fiction"When will they understand? When will they believe us?" I looked up to him, the heat in the small room building up. "When they're all dead," Lights blazed into the room as the chaos began.
