I Will Always Find You {Archived}

Chapter 2

Dedicated to Affirmation because of all her support and kind words. Also she loves Buffy XD Anyhow show her stories some support. they're really good.

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{Chapter 2}

My eyes slowly, flutter open to the painful, screeching of Lilah yelling at someone outside my door. I groan and roll onto my side, clutching my pounding head. It is mornings like these you wish alcohol wasn’t invented.

With bleary eyes I glance at Jack’s bed, relief washing over me when I find it empty. I suppose the new girl must be an early riser. I sigh and do my best to block out the painfully loud voices in the hall.

"Honestly, if I find out that you’ve been stealing again, I’ll slice your arms off so quick you won’t have time to even scream. You know it’s a crime punishable by death in this house; you’ll be as worthless as the contracts we kill. Now get out of my sight, I’ll think of your punishment later," she yells, sending a mind numbing pain throughout my head.

For a moment I consider yelling at her to stop talking but decide against it. I’d no doubt get an even worse punishment than the poor recruit outside. With a sigh I stretch my legs to the bottom of the bed, wincing as my toes touch the freezing, caribou fur linen.

I hear a thump at the end of my bed and slowly sit up and glance at the floor. Jack’s journal lies open on a random page. That’s right, I went to sleep with it in my hands last night, I think to myself. As I wrack my brain, trying to remember last night’s events I find only hazy snippets of memory.

A knock at the door drags my attention over to the door and I shield my eyes with my hands as the piercing morning light floods through my door. Immediately I recognise the olive skinned girl. Lilah. For an awkward moment we simply stare at each other, her brown eyes burning into mine.

"I thought I told you to clean that last night. It’s going to fester," she finally says, breaking the silence and gesturing to my shoulder. I look down in confusion noticing a bright, crimson stain on my shirt. How did that get there? I wonder, trying access my hazy memories.

"I guess I forgot," I say and Lilah tucks a stray curl of dark hair behind her ear.

"Well you better go get some breakfast before the boys clean it all up. Afterwards I’ll help you dress the wound," she says walking away without a second glance. Her tone was light and her demeanour almost shy or ashamed, which makes me worry. This is a completely different Lilah to the one I know.

Curiosity and hunger pains eventually steal my thoughts away and I cringe at the thought of having to get out of bed. With a huff, I run my fingers roughly through my hair, removing as many knots as possible.

Ever so slowly I take my legs out from under the blankets, facing the merciless cold and climb my way out of the warm confines. I pull my coat around me tighter, grimacing at the tear and blood stain in the shoulder. That’s one more thing of Jack’s slowly being destroyed.

The sounds of people laughing and friendly banter echo through the stone hallway as I make my way towards the dining area, wincing with every time my bare feet come in contact with the freezing, stone floor. As I reach the dining hall, I rub my temples as another wave of throbbing pain passes at the overly loud kitchen nook.

"Finally decided to join us then?" Freya laughs, patting the bench beside her. I give her a small smile and take a seat beside her, inhaling the delicious scents of breakfast. Someone passes me over a porcelain plate and I begin to load it with warm breads, smoky, crumbling cheeses, dried chunks of beef and pork and a pile of warm grain mash.