She Will Persist

14

Axel

The German was a complete mess.

His hair was loose and was scattered all over his head. His shirt was unbuttoned to his mid stomach, the cufflinks hopelessly splayed out around his hands. One pant leg was rolled up to his knee and he held both his shoes tied together in one hand. His belt was in his other but the clasp was missing. And his neck... oh no. Oh shit. The skin under his chin was peppered in small bruises that twisted down and under his collarbone, flecked with red bite marks. His unfastened shirt collar was stained pinkish with what could only be lipstick.

Adira, James and I stood in complete shock. Out of the corner of my eye I saw James drag handfuls of the bed sheets on either side of him and clutched them tight within his fists.

Before Owen could explain his state or where the hell he'd been all night Adira stood up, marched over to him and grabbed the sleeve of his shirt by his shoulder. She yanked him back towards the open door, almost ripping the once white button-down off his arm. I scrambled off the bed to follow her but James stayed where he was.

Once into the hallway I shut the door behind us since Adira's eyes were verging on white fire.

She let go of Owen's shirt and shoved him backwards, then slapped him straight across the face before he could get even a breath out.

"What the actual fuck is the matter with you?!" She demanded, pushing him backwards again. "How could you do that to James?!" She yelled.

Owen squinted for a moment, before breaking out into a smug and verging on tipsy grin. "Oh Strider?" He chuckled. "Why should he care I had fun last night? The whining bitch said he doesn't want nichts to do with me."

Adira scoffed, then wound up and backhanded him quick as lightning.

"Schlampe!" Owen cradled his cheek.

"Answer me about how you have the absolute audacity to stumble into our room like this!" She yelled again. I looked around hoping none of the neighboring guests were around to hear the chaos we were unraveling. I thought about telling her to calm down but I also valued all ten of my fingers.

Owen huffed moodily in front of us. "James told me to fuck off and that's exactly what I did." He smiled twistedly again. "Literally."

Adira groaned. "You fucking imbecile! Of course he didn't mean that."

The German rolled his eyes, like a moody teenager and not the 26 year-old golden protege of a spy agency. "Well I sure as hell wasn't going to pawn over him anymore and try and figure out the meaning behind his words like he's a frau, so he'll just have to deal," Owen said matter-of-factly. "He said he was done thinking about me, and now I'm done thinking about him."

Adira glared up at the man about a half a foot above her. "Wow. I thought you cared about him, I really did. I thought -hoped- that you would have the common sense to realize that that genius redhead in there?" She jabbed a thumb back at the door. "Is one of a kind. That he is fearless. That he is the strongest person you will ever meet, and that he is kind and genuine beyond belief, even after everything that's happened to him." She paused to swallow and grit her teeth some more, still with her fists right at her side. "James is my friend. He let me stay with him every moment of every day for the past month because I was too terrified to be alone. He never complained once with having been ladled with me. He taught me how to survive a place where nobody wants you."

My heart twisted at her last line. I still delved in guilt at how hard it was for her to re-adjust into society again, after being an experiment, barely a human, for so long, and how I wasn't there to help her.