I Cut My Hand In A Piece Of Glass And I Hope The Scar Last

It Must Get Lonely.

Valkyrie wakes up to a buzzing, she opens her eyes, baffled for a second before realizing it is her phone that's buzzing, someone's calling her.

She looks out of the window. It's still dark outside.

"Hello?" she mumbles, sleep caught in her voice, still tired from the night before. She reaches out to turn on the light of the lamp on her desk. A soft, warm glow illuminates the room.

"Steph?" her mother voice comes out of the speakers. "You didn't came home last night for Xena, is everything alright?"

She shuffles around, turning onto her back and stretching.

"Oh shit, yeah, sorry about that mum, was just really tired and fell asleep," she lies.

"It's fine sweetheart," she says reassuringly. She falls silent for a second. "You are okay right? Nothing happened?" Valkyrie can hear a hint of worry in her voice.

The girl groans and folds her arms over her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry ma, nothing happened yesterday." the girl mumbles. "We just had to gather some information from a guy."

She decides to get out of bed. She's not wearing a shirt at the moment. Muscles shift beneath her pale skin, muscles she's rather proud of.

She has a lot of scars. Battle scars, training scars, torture scars. Angry marks on pale skin, snaking from the waistband of her pants up to her stomach and chest, one licking her collarbone while others curl around her ribs towards her back. Others start from the base of her spine, cutting up her back.

"He lived far away, it took us a lot of time to come back home. It was really late so yeah, I fell asleep, sorry," the girl hopes her mother can't tell she is lying.

"That's good, I'm glad you are okay."

"Yeah," Valkyrie goes through her wardrobe to find her black shirt. She shrugs it on.

"You'd tell me if you weren't okay right?"

"Yeah," she finds her trousers. "Of course I'd tell you" the girl says softly. With a grunt, she sits down on the floor, putting on some socks and her sturdy boots.

"Are you coming by later to get Xena? I was hoping we could talk."

"Why?"

"Because it's been ages since I last saw you. I miss you, Steph. Your dad misses you too. Alice too."

Valkyrie frowns as she pulls at the laces of her boots. There is no way she'll tell them how much she is struggling lately. They can't bare hearing that her child is out there getting hurt, risking her life everyday. They don't need a reminder that everytime they see her daughter coud be the last time they see her.

"I don't know if I'll have time ma," it's always difficult seeing them. Hard to look at them in the eye, hard to keep to herself that she had to kill their other daughter just because she wasn't able to give up.

"Steph, please. Just for a while."

The girl sighs as she gets to her feet, rolling her shoulders in an atempt to ease the usual morning stiffnes, muscles shifting beneath skin.

"Maybe. I'll try," she answers, because she has been running away from anything good, like an escape artist daughter.

"It's going to get better okay?"

"Yeah," she puts her jacket on.

...

Skulduggery has made her breakfast. But that's not the most baffling thing, she's perplex that he actually stayed the entire night with her. Just in case she had another anxiety attack he says.