Who: Layla, Teja....anyone can join though! Is there a doctor in the house? What: Cliches. With an EDGE. Where: Starting en media res of something very difficult outside of MordLand When: NOW! Warnings: Allusions To Rape.
Layla knew she could do it; she knew she could fight for her life. However, it never once occurred to her that she'd have to have it proven outside of the Haus. That eminent day she had been given her brand was the only time she needed to ascertain the approval of one man alone, and she had accomplished it with skill and grace. Sure, she had to kill a few here and there to keep them from getting up again, but that was part of the process. As the words went, she did not fear her mortality, but she did make a damn good physical argument against having that taken away from her.
Maybe, this was her punishment. The thought, "I'm not safe outside of my home," ran through her head over and over and over again. There was no function out here, it was just a dirty, cruel place. Let the critics say that MordLand was a place of hell and demons, fire and brimstone because those people had no idea what they were talking about. It was beyond the perimeters that hell existed, and she knew this because she was laying in it right now. Just on the borders, she went for a walk, and look at what they had done to her, these people. They made her prove her worth and left her in a ditch to die, broken and bleeding.
Those men went away with what they wanted and a little of what they were never expecting, either. She was positive on the ambush that she had broken three noses, possibly fractured a hand, and the one that left the mess on her cracked cheekbone lost an eye and three good strips of his face and a chunk of the second one's scalp that she had under her fingernails now. Layla wept when they were done, after they were gone. She wouldn't cry in front of them and give them her dignity along with everything else. There was blood in her mouth, she could feel it warm down her face, and could even count the ribs that were broken when she feebly tried to make her watch work and send off a signal to Charles, Teja, anyone.
And then it was black. Sweet, comforting, warm black. Funny that it was warm, because half of her clothes were gone.