Is it wrong to stop the long night

Purity

Bell awoke with a start. It was that same dream again. Dreams of darkness and cold. He focused on his breathing to stop his racing heart. The dreams didn't bother him much, but this was the body's reaction to being woken up like this.

Once he got his nerves under control, he could hear Cruz snoring from his bed. Raul was dead asleep on his bed, his right arm hanging from the side.

Bell yawned and looked out the window. It looked to be noon, but everyone had been up all night fighting, so a huge majority of the Loki familia in Melen was asleep.

"Man, I'm thirsty," Bell thought, feeling his dry throat. He couldn't remember the last time he had a drink of water.

Wanting to quench his thirst, he got out of bed, careful not to wake anyone up. He silently shut the door and, went to the kitchen and got himself a glass of water.

He took a sip, feeling the cool water refresh his dry throat. Once the glass was empty, he put it in the sink as to be a good guest.

He was about to head back to his room to get some more sleep but heard soft cries coming from the common room.

He went to investigate and arrived at the common room. It wasn't anything grand or lavish but had a more homey feel to it.

It was littered with multiple couches and chairs. There were tables with chess or checkers. There was even a poker game set up as well. In the back of the room was a couch by the fireplace.

Sitting on a red couch was Alicia curled in on herself. To Bell, it looked like she was trying to make herself as small as possible. Like she wanted to hide from something. Or someone.

He slowly approached her and gently called out her name. "Alicia. What's wrong?"

Alicia jumped, startled by Bell's presence. She wiped the tears from her eyes and turned to face them.

"N-nothing, I'm fine," She sniffled.

Tear stains marked her cheeks, and her hair was messy. Her clothes were wrinkled, and her eyes were red and puffy. She was anything but fine.

Bell calmly made his way over, noticing a small look of apprehension in her eyes. He sat next to her but made sure he was far enough away so she would have her space.

"You crying tells me otherwise. What happened?"

Alicia scooted away from him, trying to keep as much space possible between them. Bell frowned and sighed but didn't move.

"The blood on Met's jaw. Who did it come from?" Bell asked.

"Where were you?" Alicia deflected.

Bell knew what she was doing. She didn't want to talk about what happened, and that was alright. It was clear to him she didn't want his help.

He simply didn't care.

"I was on a secret mission to go and find Kali's ship. My job was to locate it, sabotage it. Then signal where I was so backup could get to me."

"So, those fireworks?"

"Yes, those were me. Although I didn't need them in the end, it didn't hurt to have them. It was a good thing I did what I did. Or else you would've lost three friends."

Alicia didn't fail to pick up on his choice of words. But Bell kept talking, so she didn't have a chance to point it out.

"So I answered your question. Can you answer mine? Whose blood was on Met's jaw."

Alicia shakily sighed as she remembered the previous night. How that amazon had her pinned. How no matter how hard she tried or struggled, she couldn't break free. How that amazon would've raped her had it not been for Met.