ariadne stitchman (levied) wrote in colosseum, @ 2014-02-09 13:04:00 |
|
|||
Finding her group again was never going to be easy, especially in one day. Her arm was wrapped tightly in the brightly colored fabric from the mutt’s pants, the left side of her face and neck streaked with dried blood roughly the color of her jacket. Amelia was tired, hungry and increasingly woozy from her blood loss hours before. Still she walked, careful to make as little noise as possible as she made her way through the arena. Given how her day was going it was tempting to climb a tree and hope the next day was better, but if she stopped moving she’d have nothing to focus on except pain and fear. That wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t sure how long she was walking before a series of voices stopped her in her tracks. Careers? Mutts? Holding her breath she eased forward, everything in her body telling her to run the other way. As she grew closer the voices became familiar, a painful twist in her stomach telling her it was too good to be true. She hadn’t allowed herself to think she would actually find them and surely it would be the cruelest trick for this to be nothing but a hoax. But it wasn’t a hoax. It wasn’t a hoax! The three of them were alive and together, like nothing had ever happened. Letting out a sound caught between a laugh and a sob she sprinted towards them, no thought to anything else except reaching them before they could slip away. "Amelia!" Cypress broke through the conversation when he saw the girl rushing their way — his alarm had melted into relief the instant his mind registered that the movement came in the form of a familiar figure, and her name burst out of him before he could stop himself. "Goddammit —" He knew that all three of them were happy to see her, but he still couldn't just stand there and wait for her to reach them. Not after they'd searched for her, and that awful feeling had settled in the pit of his stomach as he wondered if they'd missed a cannon while they were inside the Castle of Illusions, if they hadn't seen or heard the anthem, and anything could have happened to Amelia while she was alone and on her own. He didn't bother to hold back for the cameras: Cypress swept his district partner up in both arms and hugged her tightly, turning his face into her messy blonde hair as he made sure she was solid, real. "Thank god you're alive," he muttered, distinctly upset at her or whatever forces had pulled them away for long enough for him to worry about her. When he pulled back to look at her, however, his annoyance turned swiftly back to alarm; the strange bandage on her cheek was clearly hiding some kind of wound beneath. Cypress caught her chin in his hands and turned her head to study the makeshift bandage (was that a bra?), then glanced at the brightly colored bandage around her arm, as well. "What happened? How badly are you hurt?" Amelia returned the hug with all her might, finally allowing herself to believe that this was real. More than anything she didn’t want to let go, convinced that the moment she did they’d be separated again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get separated. I wanted to stay by the building, but there were noises so I -- I’m sorry.” She had been gone for less than a day at look at the mess she had made of things. Were they disappointed in her? What if they didn’t want her anymore? Amelia pushed her fears aside, refusing to believe they’d throw her away. Not with Careers still out there. Amelia winced as he turned her face, wanting to do anything else but talk about what had occurred. Instead she held up her arm, her face a mixture of embarrassment and regret. “Mutt. Don’t worry, Reaper and I killed it. Mostly Reaper, but I helped a little. It’s just a bite.” Slowly her face turned sullen, eyes on anything but Cypress, Ariadne or Alexander as she ran a finger along the bandage. “This was Aramis. He wanted to send a message,” she muttered, unknowingly tightening her hold on Cypress with her good hand. “It’s not so bad.” Ariadne had her injured arm folded over her stomach and a hand on her hip when Amelia approached. And while Ariadne looked absolutely delighted to see her at first, she grimaced when she realized that was blood on the younger girl, and she looked mostly relieved when Cypress was doing all the hugging and obscuring her with his frame. She took a step so she stayed behind him and peer his shoulder, and he could continue blocking her view of any blood. "Don't be sorry," Ariadne said as soothingly as possible while trying to keep Cypress between them. "Is anything still bleeding?" "Just don't look," Alexander suggested quietly, giving Ariadne's arm a squeeze. "Look at something else, think about something else." He didn't want her to faint now - they still had to find somewhere to shelter for the night, now that Amelia had managed to find them again. "You'll be okay," he insisted to Amelia in an attempt to boost the youngest girl's spirits. "...He wanted to send a message?" Cypress interrupted, his voice low in his throat and full of barely suppressed rage. It had taken him a moment to process that information, but as he stared at Amelia's face, it had slid into crisp focus. A message for him, of course. Aramis was using a twelve-year-old girl as a target to send a message to him, just like he'd promised in the training center. A snarl worked its way up from his chest as he drew a deep breath, every muscle tense. His shoulder throbbed and he ignored it. "Where is he? I'm going to fucking kill him." "You are," Alex promised, moving into Cypress' line of sight despite the risk of becoming a target for displaced rage, as a handful of dummies had done during training. The difference was, dummies couldn't talk, or fight back, or run, and none of them had pledged to be allies. "But you're not right now, because he's not here, so we're going to work smart and find them when we have the upper hand, and then - then he's all yours." Alex felt sure that Cypress would now believe Aramis deserved a death similar to the ones dummies had received. He didn't disagree exactly, he only wanted to avoid charging through the arena, calling for the Careers to come and find them (outmatched as they would be) in a bid for revenge. They didn't have years of training on their side; they would have to take a more subtle course of action if they wanted to voluntarily take on the Careers. Amelia hadn’t anticipated the extent of Cypress’ anger. Perhaps Aramis was smarter than he let on, but she wasn’t going to let Cypress die for a wound she had brought upon herself. “Listen to Alex,” she begged, turning her head to the other boy in gratitude. “This is what he wanted. He’s got a pack of Careers with him all waiting for you to storm in. Don’t leave me, okay? I just found you guys and I don’t want to lose you again.” She knew she sounded like a pathetic little girl who was scared of the world, but if he played by their rules he could never win. They had to play differently in order to beat them. To Ariadne, the others had said more than enough. Dread overwhelmed any sense of anger or concern. The biggest thing she pulled from all the emotions was that they were probably going to end up more screwed. "I don't think that really looks good," she said to Amelia, finally stepping from around him. The corner of Ariadne's mouth was tightened and her brow furrowed, and she was still looking at a spot over the top of Amelia's head. Maybe they could try to keep him occupied. "We should get you fixed up better. Come on, Cypress." Cypress looked at Alex, and then to Amelia, and Ariadne, and Amelia again. They were speaking soothingly but urgently, and a part of his brain suggested that he ought to listen, given that they were his allies and they were a team. He wanted to ignore the logic and the rationality; he wanted to shrug them all off and go find the boy who hurt others just to achieve his sick, twisted goals. He wanted to hit something. He wanted to break something. It wouldn't fix Amelia's face or undo what had happened to her. And importantly, it wouldn't get him home to his family, either. Looking at all of them pulled him back, slowly. "Okay." He nodded stiffly, dropping his hand to gently but firmly squeeze Amelia's shoulder, reassuring her. He wasn't going anywhere as long as they could stay all together. Taking a deep breath, Cypress glanced to the west, far away from the direction they'd come. "Let's get the hell out of here and find someplace for the night." |