Queen Of The Beasts

12| Painful Pasts

"I brought Chips!! " I burst through the infirmary doors to see blood dripping down my best friend's nose.

Emi quickly wiped it away and looked away at ceiling like I didn't just see that. I sighed and closed the door behind me.

"Aren't you, like banned from the infirmary?" Emi said, when I plopped on her bed and handed her her chips.

"That incident was two years ago plus that squirrel was dying! " I protested.

She narrowed her eyes and opened her chips. "You know how Mrs Jensen can be, she'll take your soul."

I squirmed on the bed thinking of our short, pink faced nurse who looked more like an angry cherub than a health worker. "Hey, I'll take on any angry shinigami nurse for my best friend."

She laughed, spit and chips flying all over her bed. "I appreciate it."

"No problemo."

We fell into a comfortable silence. Emi's not one to talk about emotions, especially her own. She breaks a leg, "it's nothing". She gets bullied, " Haha, those suckers" She looses something, "life happens". I try as much to make her feel comfortable, as her best friend but sometimes she's a tough nut. If she doesn't want to talk about it then, I let her be, as much as it pains me to see her in pain.

"Aldo, " She said. "He was a friend." There was so much pain in her voice I expected her to break out into tears that second. But that's not the Emi I know.

I nod, silently.

"He grew up into this, " She continued, "I got interested, asked him about. He brought me along one night, and after that he's been trying to pursue me into going back. "

"What did you do, that night? " I asked.

She shook her head, and wiped the crumbs of chips on her chin with the back of her hand. "I drove him there, he did something, the next I heard screams, and then he runs out with blood stains all over him. I asked him what happened, and he just told me to drive and I did. I swear it was only one time. Mom and dad were being pushy, I got mad, Aldo was around, he told me about it, said I'd get paid and I did it. I won't ever go back." Her eyes brimmed with tears. I pulled her into an embrace and rubbed her back.

I released her only when she eased away and watched as she wiped a stray tear.

"But he helped you, didn't he? "

She nodded, and let out a shaky breath. "He did, but he had to leave when the heroes showed up. Rayne, I wanna ask him about it, I swear, but he's gonna want something in return."

My eyes widened. "No, no, no. At least we know now that whoever is doing this is desperate enough to ask gangs for help. This shows that it isn't an organization, maybe someone, or a small group is behind this"

"I'm sorry, Rayne."

"Don't be. If you don't want to then that's that. Besides, I don't feel comfortable around him either."

Emi smiled, living up to her name— Smiling child. "What happened after I blacked out? "

"Oh you know, the reporter found out shiny tights was lying and called him out on live TV. " I smirked and shrugged.

Her face brightened too quickly. "Really!?"

I burst out laughing at her face. "Of course not. The hero, basically did a body builder routine on the news, gave us a lecture about crime, justice, and honesty—blah blah blah, then we walked to school, bringing you along the way, because I know you wouldn't want to go home or to the hospital. And turns out we were an hour late, for school. Sweet huh? "