Young God [GirlxGirl]

18: What Doesn't Kill You

*Very triggering content*

If you're hurt, I'm sorry // But that's what I've been through and // I'm lonely // 'Cause I need you // I need you // To help me through it // Hurt, Emarosa

Violet had never considered herself a violent person.

She was tough, sure. Doing what she did for a living, it was pretty much a prerequisite to be tough, and to be resilient. Violet had been toughened by everything she'd been through, from heartbreak to loss to crippling loneliness. Nobody doubted that she knew how to take care of herself. But she'd never been violent. There'd simply never been a reason for it; never a situation which had required any form of extreme aggression on her part.

Until then. Because, after Blake had called her in tears and asked her to come over, all Violet could picture were the million different ways in which she could brutally murder Blake's father. Blake hadn't said much else before she hung up, and the little she did say was for the most part muffled by sobs, so Violet still didn't know the whole story. But it sounded urgent. It sounded bad. The only thing she knew for certain was that her father had done something to her. Again. Violet had failed to fulfil the promise she had made to Blake that night while she'd been sleeping, and if she hadn't been too busy worrying about her, she'd have hated herself for it.

For now though, there was no time for her to claim the blame for Blake's current situation; she was too busy running. She ran from her classroom without a word of explanation offered to her teacher, and then she ran through the empty corridors towards the exit with Ash hot on her heels. While Ash hadn't heard the call, she knew enough to put two and two together and figure out the basics of what was going on, and she found that she was genuinely worried for Blake's well-being.

"Here." Violet burst through a set of doors leading into a narrow and scarcely used stairwell, where she skidded to a halt and turned to Ash. "Come on, get us there. Quickly."

Ash realised with a start that Violet was waiting for her to teleport the two of them. Only, she couldn't. For all intents and purposes, Ash was out of operation, and because she had neglected to tell Violet sooner it was all coming back to bite her on the ass. Ash's heart sunk into her stomach.

"Violet, I... I can't."

Violet narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean, you can't? Blake's in danger. Do it."

"I don't have time to explain right now, but I just can't." Ash said, full of apologetic helplessness. "We'll have to find another way to get there."

Violet was about to explode. God, did she want to explode. But two things stopped her: first, the urgency to find Blake vastly outweighed her desire to tear Ash a new one, and second, Matt. He and Nate, as it happened, had just appeared in the doorway through which they'd entered mere moments ago. Ash wondered how Matt always seemed to be everywhere all at once.

"Is everything all right?" Matt asked, eyebrows knitted together in concern.

"We saw you guys racing down the hallway." Nate added, somewhat less shy now than he had been when he'd first met the girls.

"No, everything is not all right. Everything is the opposite of all right." Violet replied, acid seeping from her every syllable and a fire in her eyes that burned holes into Ash's skin. Finally, she averted her lethal gaze and landed a slightly softer one on her ex. "You have a car, right?"

"Uh. Yes."

"Good, you're driving then." Violet attempted to storm back out through the stairwell doors but Matt blocked her exit.