Nepenthe • Something that can make you forget grief or suffering.
Never feeling like they belonged was a feeling that Lissa Dragomir lived with, even with her family and life long best friend, although they aided in that feeling not being so strong...
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Kate's birthday and her family's passing passed without much excitement and without the rest of the school knowing of her whereabouts, unless one counted Lissa, although even she was no entirely sure where Kate was located on campus.
However, when she showed up to her private training with Dimitri on November 6th, a wednesday, Kate looked worse than when she faced the strigoi. Her eyes where brimmed red, almost as if she was becoming one of them, her features were hollow and lifeless almost and her knuckles with bruised and split open, and her fingertips looked like she'd been rubbing them on hot coal the previous days.
Other than that there were no signs that she'd been harmed.
Dimitri Belikov, the Russian Guard himself, almost didn't train her out of worry that she would harm herself severely, unfortunately, no matter what he decided, and before he could voice it, Katherine Alistair was already punching training dummies with her bare hands in the proper stance without needing guidance.
It told Dimitri all he needed to know, despite having already known the girl's background. Katherine Alistair was a broken girl who was forcing herself back together so that she didn't lose anyone else in her life.
He'd seen the look on her face before, he knew the path that she was on, he knew that story because that story was his own. His loss was what drove him, his best friend. And he had not that long ago been exactly where Kate was.
It pained him to see someone so young going through the exact same feelings he was going through, and he couldn't help but wonder for how long Kate had been dealing with her guilt the way she did.
"That's enough." He called out to the brunette, who ignored him completely in favour of continuing to punch the dummy. "Alistair, I said it was enough!" Dimitri called out as he approached her.
As he did, he saw how her knuckles were raw and bloody, more than he'd thought, more than how they'd been when she arrived at the gym. The look on Kate's face told him that she wasn't there, or rather that she was but her mind wasn't, she was imagining someplace else, placing her in a location in which she needed to fight.
No matter the effect it had one her.
Dimitri wondered momentarily if the Princess knew of this side of her best friend, if she knew what went on in her head with their bond. He wondered how deep their bond went and how it affected the other.
"Katerina!" Dimitri started as he grabbed one of her wrists, pulling her away from the dummy, an ill plan of his because Kate's other fist came flying in his direction, faster than he expected and alerting him to the fact that he had placed himself in her radar as her enemy, or at least the embodiement of the enemy she was conjuring in her mind.
