Gears and Steam

Confrontation

Theo

I didn't think I had broken anything. With how many times I had crashed, I had learned to look for broken bones first. As long as I hadn't broken anything, I could walk away from the crash. My neck hurt a tiny bit, but I hadn't bumped my head, which was good. I was more stunned than anything. I was definitely bleeding in more than one place, but I wasn't too banged up. The pain was bearable, at least. I didn't think it was the worst crash I'd been in.

Before I knew what was going on, Freddie was by my side, asking me questions. "Theo! Are you okay!? What happened!? Can you hear me!?"

"I can hear you, Freddie," I groaned. "I think I'm okay."

"Your head is bleeding!"

"I think my everything is bleeding."

"Can you get up?"

"Maybe." I winced, trying to maneuver out of the wrecked car. Eventually, with Freddie's help, I managed to climb out of the wreckage. My left leg was pretty banged up, but I could still walk, though it was with a heavy limp. I would heal up soon enough; it wasn't like this was a devastating injury.

Freddie helped me into our alcove where she let me down on the bench. I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. My entire body ached from getting bumped around in my crash.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Freddie asked, sitting next to me. She started bandaging a few of my wounds with bandages we kept in the alcove.

"I'm fine."

"That's good. Too bad we lost the race. Raven Key came in first by a long shot with us out of the race."

I groaned out some incomprehensible response. I didn't move again until I heard movement from the mouth of our cave. I wasn't going to pay it any attention, but Freddie gasped, so I opened my eyes to find out what was going on.

Edmund was standing nervously just outside of our alcove with his arms wrapped around his chest. I had never seen him look so miserable. Scratch that, Jules leaving left him in about the same level of miserableness.

I was about to say something to him, but he talked first. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, his voice breaking. "I'm sorry I wasn't here, I'm sorry I couldn't fix whatever the problem was..." He took a shaky breath. "And I'm sorry I can't be here now."

He was gone before Freddie or I could respond to him. He would be going back to Floyd now. Floyd was hurting him, I was sure of it, even if Edmund didn't realize. I needed to find a way to get Edmund away from him without hurting Edmund more.

"Well, at least he came to talk to us," Freddie sighed. "I thought Floyd would keep him away."

"I assume he tried," I mused. "Edmund does still care about us; Floyd's just messed with his mind."

"You know," Freddie said. "I know we haven't had a mechanic in a week, but I find it hard to believe that we broke something bad enough for the car to crash like that."

"You think someone sabotaged us?"

"I'm more than sure."

"Who would do that though?" I asked.

"It obviously wasn't Crystal Queens, and Kismet would never do something like that, they're too honorable. That leaves-"

"Raven Key," I growled. "Luther sure isn't below that."

"Neither is Floyd," Freddie said darkly, crossing her arms. "Edmund was alone for a bit earlier, we should have known something was going on."

"We're not sure of anything yet," I muttered, though I knew that this theory had a very high possibility of being true.