Renegades: KotLC

Scars- 20

The second Sophie's feet touched the roof of the apartment, her legs caved and she fell to her knees. A normal fall might've been fine; no more than a couple bruises. Even if she'd been riding a bike or skateboard would only, at the most, leave her with some scrapes. However, this wasn't the case. Sophie had been running faster than any normal human could, and she'd skid across distances she could barely remember. The world spun around her as she tried to regain her strength, though that wasn't happening any time soon.

Through heavy breaths, Sophie found support from the small wall that divided her from death. She gripped it with all the strength she could muster, finding it stupid how it'd been the first time in forever since she'd injured herself without the help of the Neverseen, and it still amounted to the same severity.

"Stupid," Sophie choked out. "Even if the storm explained the thunder, and the clouds were able to hide me, he definitely noticed someone running out into the rain." In the end, Sophie's pain was all for naught, and it had only made things harder. Knowing the Neverseen, it was likely they'd make a move as soon as they heard of Sophie's infiltration into Baron's mind. With Sophie's broken and bloodied state, and the rest of the Renegades' obliviousness to the gravity of things, they were in trouble.

Keeping weight from her right foot, Sophie tread down the stairs and into the girls' room. Her prayers were answered when she found it to be empty, though the voices downstairs told her she wasn't alone. The stinging throughout her body worsened as she rushed for the closet, grabbing the biggest hoodie and baggiest jeans she owned. She didn't forget the towel, before she shut the door to the bathroom.

Wetting the towel, she erased any and all traces of blood from her face and arms, removing the now shredded shirt and tossing it into a corner to inspect the damage---she nearly gagged. She could utter not words, able to do no more than stare at the large purple and bleeding gash on her left side, bits of gravel and pebble sprinkled across the wound. Sophie barely remembered falling, but this? This was a fall??

Tiny footsteps skittered across the floor behind her, and, hiding the wound with her towel, Sophie spun around. Her panic calmed as she found a familiar ball of colorful fluff scurrying up onto the counter to meet her level.

"Shh, Iggy!" She scolded in a hushed voice, though Iggy must not have found her serious because of the smile that had creeped onto her face. The imp burped, and Sophie sighed, turning back to her reflection where she sighed a second time, though this time it wasn't amused.

A towel wouldn't cut it this time. As Iggy perched himself atop her shoulder, she dug through the cabinets for anything useful. Bandages, alcohol, plaster? Anything she'd need to properly treat her wound? Where was Elwin when she needed him. No; that wasn't fair. Whenever Sophie was wounded, he was always there. And he always did it with a smile on his face. It was her own fault for leaving the Lost Cities---for good reason---,nevertheless, it was her own fault. In the end, Iggy had pointed out a stash of warm, bottled water in the very back of the tallest cabinet; forgotten.

Breathing was difficult as she strained herself to reach it with telekinesis, but with Iggy pushing from behind, while weakly, the pack fell to the tiled floor with a thud! Her smile was weak, as her side's stinging doubled.

"Note to self," she mumbled. "Telekinesis is not a good idea when injured." That probably applied to all abilities and skills, though Sophie was too stubborn to admit how helpless she truly was while the Neverseen were out there. What were the possibilities that she'd harm her own self just when she needed to protect the Renegades most?

Opening a couple of the warm bottles, Sophie let the liquid wash away the goopy, dirtied blood. Her jeans were stained red and soaked in the process, but what was that compared to a severe injury being treated by an idiot? Rinsing out the wound got rid of most pebbles and gravel, but that didn't stop the blood from flowing.

She sucking in a painful breath as she followed through by dabbing her side with a damp towel, before finishing by pulling a faded, yellow tank over her head. On top of that, she added a second, red tank top, a T-shirt portraying some "anime" reference, and a brown hoodie. She hoped the layers would prevent any bleeding through, and her wound would go unnoticed. Exchanging her bloodied, frayed jeans for the baggiest jeans without holes she'd owned, ensuring they, too, were a dark color, black, to hide any traces of there ever being wounds.

It wasn't the brightest idea to leave the gash without some sort of pressure, Sophie guessed, so she tied one of Koen's flannels around her waist in about the same spot her gash was, and decided that was the best she could do. Iggy approved, as well.

"Let's go find them before they get worried," she muttered, limping towards the stairs. It was noticeable, and painful of course, but Sophie was sure she'd at least be able to mask the injury with high tops or boots.

"Everything's fine how it is now," Kenna snapped from inside the boys' room. Sophie assumed it was Kenna, at least. It was obviously female, and she couldn't imagine Rajni would ever use that tone.

"Stealing is 'fine'?" This time, the voice didn't belong to Kenna but...

Sophie pushed the door open, eyes wide as she confirmed her suspicions right. Relieved tears blurred her vision, and, aware of her ankle, she pulled Evander close. He was home. He was safe. That was good. Once Sophie had learned that the Neverseen knew her location, she'd suspected they might've kidnapped him for leverage or something.

Sophie's eyes widened as she realized just how tight she was squeezing, but just as she'd loosened her grip, Evander returned the hug, squeezing tighter than her. For a singer, he was crazy strong. "Miss me?"

His words were teasing, but Sophie answered him anyway. "A little."

From another side of the room, group laughter mocked her. Sophie aimed her glares towards the source of the laugh, only to find out both Koen and Kenna were red with amusement. Sophie scrambled away from Evander.

"A little?" Koen scoffed. "'Where's Evander?', 'is Evander okay?', 'what if Evander's hurt?'. Evander, Evander, Evander."

Sophie turned red, twisting on an eyelash as she felt Evander's eyes look from her to Koen, and back. "It wasn't like that."

Evander placed an arm around her shoulder, and she hoped he didn't feel her wince. "I'm glad you were worried. If I had died, I swear, it wouldn't even faze them." He followed the statement with a laugh, but Sophie couldn't help feel that there was some truth to his words. "It's nice to know I'm loved for a change."

"One," Koen said. "You're girlfriend just turned a whole lot more red. Two, I'd care."

Sophie ducked under Evander's arms, ignoring his attempts to pull her back as she retreated to another corner of the room, far away from Kenna, Koen, and their jokes. She picked at her lashes, while Evander listed the reasons Koen most definitely would not care if he were to die.

Koen feigned hurt. "I thought we were friends."

"Sorry." Evander laughed. "I'm a big liar."

Sophie watched from the corner, thankful for the excuse to rest her ankle as she watched the two argue for a solid five minutes, before Kenna broke them up.

"Evander, shouldn't you tell Sophie what you told us?"

Squirming from her position on the floor, her eyelashes grew itchy once again, and she didn't bother resist. "Tell me what?"

Evander lit up at the topic. "That's right. I almost forgot. Sophie, we're moving!"