The Obsession

Chapter 7

Her mother looked at her with a gaping face. Cress looked at her in disgust then rose up with a proud smirk. "Oh and just to let you know, I have enough money to keep me going for at least the next few years, so I don't need your filthy money."

Cress exited out of her own house with her fists balled to her side. She really wanted to punch the life out of her mother, but she needed to control herself. She would be no better than Zero itself.

Cress let out a frustrated scream, running her hands run wildly through her curls. She looked back up at her balcony window.

Cress quickly climbed up a tee and jumped through her window silently. Cress rummaged through her stuff without hesitation and changed her look completely. Then after that, she left. But not after grabbing some money in case.

*****

Cress ducked and did an uppercut to her opponent. He doubled over and got distracted by the few seconds of pain. Cress saw that as an opportunity and quickly did a roundhouse kick to him, knocking him down on the floor.

Cress looked up to see Xander, giving her a bright smile. "Great job. Looks like you won this round again. Here's your money."

Cress silently mumbled a thanks to him and took the money, leaving the arena.

Crescent headed off into the bathroom where she looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and her face had bruises all over. Her lip was even busted.

Cress rubbed her sore muscles and took a quick shower, changing into some sweats and a sleeveless white jacket. She stuffed her cash in her pockets and left the underground arena.

Cress rubbed on her bloody knuckles softly. She needed to get it bandaged.

Before taking another step, Cress slumped down against the wall, too tired to walk any further. It wasn't the opponents who had beaten her up, it was herself. She pushed herself too hard.

Cress sniffled and curled up into a ball. Her life was horrible. All she wanted to do was to have a normal life, she was about to go off into college, but now everything changed when Zero came back.

She softly cried. It had been years since she last cried, she thought she would never cry again.

"Crescent?"

She tilted her head upwards and found Nicholo, standing in front of her in all his glory. Or whatever it was called.

Cress sniffled and wiped her tears away. She got up and felt the soreness on her legs, her muscles aching.

"Do you need anything?" She asked, her voice dull.

Nicholo looked her bruises and frowned. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Nothing happened." Cress gritted out.

She tried to walk away, but limped a little bit on her right leg. She cursed quietly.

Nicholo grabbed her shoulders and helped her. "Did someone beat you up?"

"It was more like myself." She muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing." She leaned on him for support. "Do you have a car?"

"Yeah. I parked it around here somewhere, I needed to go get some cough drops for myself, but looks like I'll be needing to buy you some medicine."