the forgotten story of lily angof ➳ klaus baudelaire ( asoue )

six ➳ bruises

I CUPPED KLAUS' CHEEK and gently pushed his head towards me. He wouldn't meet my eyes, and bit his lip with a look of pain.

I tore my gaze from Klaus' crippled form up to Count Olaf. He stood arrogantly with a look of fierce disinterest pointed at Klaus. Disinterest towards his literal act of child abuse .

Child abuse. He had hit Klaus on the face and wasn't giving it a second thought.

My eyes burned. I bit my tongue to keep from yelling.

Olaf returned my stare and lifted one eyebrow: a challenge.

I'd had it. I lunged toward Count Olaf, swinging my fists wildly and kicking whatever my feet could make contact with. "You monster!" I screeched in his face. "You horrible, horrible person!"

I'm sure he said something in response, but I couldn't hear. My ears were filled with the sound of rushing blood. Limbs were swinging in all directions, and I couldn't tell if it was his arms hitting me or my own. The next thing I knew, a pair of strong arms pulled me back.

"Lily!" Violet shouted. She repeated my name a few times as I gasped for breath from a foot away from Olaf. His eyes were slits and his mouth was pulled in a terrible sneer. He looked ready to pounce.

I watched detachedly as Sunny bit his ankle, and he leaped up in pain-a distraction, and just in time. Someone's hands-Violet's, I thought faintly-pulled me up the stairs and away from the fight.

My thoughts became distant and disconnected, and my vision blurred. It occurred to me that it was probably the fault of some head wounds Count Olaf had given me.

A thought popped into my brain: Klaus. That was why I attacked him, right? Violet must have grabbed him when she grabbed me. Unless he was still back there.

I pulled back towards the stairs as Violet closed the door behind me.

We were in our room.

Violet softly guided me to lie down on the bed, then pushed whatever she could find lying around in front of the door as a barricade. "He should be pretty distracted downstairs, but this will help a bit if he decides to come up here."

"Klaus?" I muttered.

"I'm here." He appeared in front of me, and I let out a breath. His eyes were more focused, but a dark blue and brown bruise was forming on his cheek.

"Are you alright?" I tried to sit up, but Klaus pushed me back down.

"Am I alright?" He asked, shocked. "You're the one who's hurt."

I began to object, but I took a moment to actually pay attention to my body. Many areas screamed for attention. I examined my arms and found scratch marks- clearly from Count Olaf's ghastly nails. My legs were all bruised too. I felt a dull throbbing from my stomach. I lifted up my shirt to assess the damage. Klaus turned away, ears pink. A bruise covered most of my lower stomach. Then I reached behind my head and flinched when my fingers brushed the cut, and I felt blood. I looked back up and saw Violet had also been looking at all of my wounds.

"It doesn't look good," she announced. I nodded in agreement. Count Olaf had really got some swings in while I was on my rampage.

Violet worried at the bruise on Klaus' cheek, but he brushed her aside, insisting he could take care of it.

"Respugall," piped up Sunny from behind Violet, which meant, "I have brought some water to clean out your cuts."

Sometimes I forgot how smart Sunny was, especially when I was surrounded by her two genius siblings.

I took the bottle she must have snagged from the dinner table and whispered a small thank you.

Violet found a rag from the corner of the room and wet it with the water Sunny had brought. "Let's hope this towel is clean." I cringed a bit as she began to clean out the cuts on my arm. They stung, but I knew I could get a nasty infection, especially in this dirty house.

After the blood had been cleaned out, we realized the cuts were a lot deeper than they seemed. Violet let out a dissatisfied sigh. I looked to Klaus who had withdrawn a bit-he smiled weakly. He didn't do very well around blood.

Violet handed me the bottle. "Here. Drink. It'll help with your dizziness."

I took a sip, and it instantly helped. It was no magical healing potion, but it did relieve the pounding of my head.

"I think that's the best I can do," said Violet, pushing herself up from her knees. She went to tend to Sunny, and Klaus rushed over to me.

"Lily," he said breathlessly. He searched my eyes for any sign of discomfort. "I can't believe you just did that for me."

I could feel his warm breath on my face, and I wanted more than anything to reach out and magically heal his bruise. "Of course I would do that for you. I couldn't stand there and watch him hit you."

"I know, I know," he said dismissively. "I just wish you hadn't put yourself at risk."

His words were caring enough, but they made me realize how thoughtless my actions were. I could have gotten seriously injured. Or worse, I could have gotten one of my friends hurt. For all we know, Count Olaf could be heading up the stairs right now, I thought.

No. Violet was right. He was drunk out of his mind and had a theatre troupe to entertain. We were safe.

At least for the night.

"I'm so sorry, Klaus." I let the words fall out of my mouth. "I shouldn't have got so upset. He could have hurt you, or Violet, or little Sunny." I shuddered at the thought of our horrible guardian hurting Sunny.

Klaus lifted my head to meet his eyes. "Don't be sorry, Lily," he said genuinely. "You can't think like that. Thank you for standing up for me, I just wish I didn't have to be so worried about you." He said the last part to himself, and pulled me into a tight hug. He set his head on my shoulder and buried his face in my dress, careful not to bump the bruise on his cheek. I kissed the top of his head softly and murmured into his head, "Don't worry about me. You already have too much to think about."

But I'm not sure he heard me.

A few minutes passed before he whispered into my dress, "This isn't."

"What was that?"

"This isn't better than nothing."

He was right, but I didn't know what to say to that. I just pulled him closer, an attempt to comfort both him and me.