AUGUST IS A FEVER

20

The next thing you heard was brain-melting. It was a sound you'd heard all too many times before back in the camps. It was a loud ringing that caused Clay, George and you to crumble to the ground. All three of you let out sounds of pain and agony. Clay groaned and tried to claw at his arms to relieve the pain that he felt deep in the back of his skull. He failed, his gloves softening the clawing. His nose began to bleed and he cried heavy tears.

George screeched a high pitched scream that definitely damaged his vocal chords in some way. He fell to the dirt and was digging his fingers into his hair and tugging at the root of the follicles he managed to grab ahold of. Tears spilled uncontrollably and he was drooling from his mouth being open, screaming, for so long. Blood began to prick inside his eardrums, clogging his ears until all he heard was muffled.

And lastly, you. As you fell to the ground, teeth clenched, holding in groans that fought alongside the screams to escape and crawl out of your mouth, your mind wandered. Even in this amount of pain, you still managed to fit in room in your thoughts to think about the boys. They wouldn't last one day in Thurmond, you thought. If they were bleeding from this decibel of sound, they would be miserable back in Thurmond for sure. Not that you didn't want to tear out every strand of hair on your head, but you at least had developed some sort of a mental calluses. This wasn't worse than the treatment that you would receive at Thurmond, but not the worst you've ever gotten.

The sound was a loud blaring ringing. You managed to open your eyes that were previously shut tight. Though your sight was blurred from the beginnings of tears coating your eyes, you could see who the person was who was doing this to you - to all of you. And before you all was Lady Jane with a megaphone in one hand, and a small device in the other that blasted the high pitched and painful ringing sound. She stood, unbothered, a wide toothy grin spreading on her face from ear to ear. It looked as if she was trying to show as many of her teeth as she could. As you locked eyes with her, she laughed in an almost maniacal way.

"You're fucking crazy!" You managed to yell out at her. She just giggled again, her eyes gazing at you. It was unsettling.

"Oh, isn't it great how there are just some frequencies that only children could hear?" Lady Jane laughed and walked over to you, kicking you in the stomach.

You coughed out blood and you had trouble keeping your eyes open any longer. They kept trying to shut tightly in a way to relieve the stinging pain you felt in your head. It felt like your head was throbbing.

"Don't fucking hurt her!" George screamed out desperately. Your heart practically melted, even at a time like this.

A couple days ago George wouldn't have given two shits if you had died. Now here he was, crying for you not to be kicked. To him, he suddenly felt bad from how he had been treating you for the past few days. You had been nothing but nice to him (besides the playful teasing) and he had been nothing but dismissive and even rude at times. To him, seeing you being kicked by Lady Jane felt like watching a puppy who followed him along his journey home, even if he tried to get rid of it, be suddenly stolen and being forced to watch it be kicked.

You guys had made progress.

As Lady Jane and George and screamed at each other and Clay groaned in agony, bleeding from his nose, you got an idea. While George was distracting her, with you being the silent one, you thought maybe you could try and crawl over and attack her. You set out for your goal, laying on your stomach and sitting up on your elbows. As you tried to crawl towards her, you groaned as sticks and small rocks scraped your elbows and forearms as you pushed yourself forward and towards Lady Jane.

You crawled closer and closer to her. Looking over your shoulder momentarily, you saw Clay lock eyes with you. His were squinting from pain, tears rolling down his cheeks that were covered in dirt. Somehow through it all, you still managed to see the warm green in his irises. It was the small bit of courage, the look in his eyes. The hope that laid within them was enough to keep you going for your attempt for escape from Lady Jane.

Pushing yourself forward once more, you determined the distance between you and Lady Jane was close enough to where you could grab ahold of her. You saw red - literally. Your hands reached over and grabbed onto her legs and with the power within them, they glowed a bright yellow, slowly fading into a blue from the amount of heat you pressed into the gesture of fire. Lady Jane screamed and dropped the megaphone, it clattering to the ground below.

With the ringing gone, you regained strength. Standing up as quickly as you could, you finessed behind the woman and held her head in your hand, your other hand clamped onto her mouth. Lady Jane tried for her gun, but with George now regaining his abilities and strength, he tossed her gun off to the side, clattering it to the ground like how her megaphone had just moments ago. She was left weaponless. Vulnerable and with your hands on her kill points. With the abilities you had, any point on the body could become a kill point.

"You're going to listen to me Lady, okay?" You sneered as you brought heat onto her mouth, slowly rasing the temperature as you spoke. "If you come after me and my boys again, I will not hesitate to kill you right there and then."

Lady Jane either tried to say something or scream. You couldn't tell since all you heard from her was muffled with your hand. The sound of her skin cooking the bottom half of her face alive was almost overpowering her silenced pleas.

"Understood?" You whispered into her ear. A muffled scream was all you got in return. You took it as a response just to move on. "Good."

You through her to the same ground you, Clay and George had been clawing yourselves on earlier. She was panting. You kicked her in the pit of her stomach, her hands covered her mouth to hide her injury.

"That's payback for earlier." You said as you walked over to the boys. "Let's go."

"(Y/n), you are fucking ruthless." George gawked.

"That's my girl." Clay smiled at you. Your face scrunched, cringing.

"Don't be weird, Clayton." You joked, earning a laugh from George.