Phoenix's Trial (Dead by Daylight fan story / The Legion OC)

Preserve

It had been a few days of silence. Nights where Riley could sleep and be so well rested when she woke up the next morning that she actually helped the group when they went to earn money.

It was late in the evening. Riley had just woken up from a nap while they were sitting in a bus that was taking them back home from a fast food restaurant. When Riley opened her eyes she could've sworn she saw Frank's mask in the window. She jumped hard and bumped into Veil as she was talking to Markus who was in the seat beside them.

Veil looked over and raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright?"

"Y... Yeah... Yeah I'm okay..." Riley sighed. "I've just been on the edge of my seat for days now... I don't..." She let out another, louder, sigh as she leaned back.

"Hey... It's alright." Veil wrapped her arms around her in a hug. "We're right here. If anything happens we'll pull you out."

"Thank you..." Riley said as she hugged her tight.

When the bus stopped, everyone got off the bus. Everyone being the group that was since this was the last stop of the night for the bus driver.

Riley walked between the group as they all chatted about things. Money, theft, relationships, the home they ran from, so on and so forth... until they got into the hotel room.

Penelope and Tyler had gotten a lot closer in the last few days. They would admit it but Veil, Markus, and Riley all knew they were together now. Veil and Markus were really the only ones that paid attention to Riley now.

Which meant that Riley was down four eyes from her original eight. It worried her but she knew she didn't have a right to step between them. It wasn't all about her. Yet tonight... Markus seemed like he was more pissed about it than her.

Especially when Tyler asked for a cut of the money to rent a hotel room for him and Penelope for the night.

"You realize that if Riley goes under again and comes out with worse wounds than she has had before we're gonna need most of this money... right, Ty?" Markus sighed.

Veil tried to keep Riley's mind away from the budding argument by braiding the ends of her jellyfish styled haircut. Yet Riley couldn't ignore it.

"Come on, Mark. We've earned like almost seven hundred (700) dollars in the last 4 days. Rooms are just 15 a night for two people." Tyler rolled his eyes.

"We both looked at the prices of a back alley doctor, Ty. We're paying thirty a night for all of us, almost sixty dollars in snacks every 8 days to avoid room service costs... and a back alley doc would cost well over seven hundred." Markus sighed. "We can't put Riley in danger like that."

"Fuck her!" Tyler snapped. Markus stood up and backed Tyler towards the door. "She ain't had an episode in days! Almost a week! How do we know she ain't just bluffing now!?"

"Tyler! Shut up!" Penelope yelled in a whisper at him and opened the door as Markus pushed him out.

Riley's eyes fell to her feet as her heart skipped beats. Or maybe it was that her heart was pumping harder. She didn't know all she knew is that she was hurting.

Veil sighed and put her arms around Riley. "It's okay. You know how he gets, he doesn't mean it." She got up and sat beside Riley. "He cares about you. All of us do."