Nebula (k.w) [1]

Chapter 18: The Relief

"What happened?" Mr Taylor demanded "The pictures? What's all of this?"

"I don't know Mr Taylor." Edith shook her head, staring at her tingly hands "They know. What do I do now?"

"Josh. Call me Josh." he said, pinching the bridge of his own nose, deep in thought. Edith felt her anger wash away as it was replaced with fear, she had never seen her teacher like that "You need to get out of here. Tell your parents everything and ask them to call me. If anything happens..." he scribbled something down in a piece of paper "Go to this address, I'll find somewhere safe for you."

Edith held it, reading it over and nodding to herself. The blonde looked up at Josh with watery eyes, wrapping her arms around the teacher in a fast hug.

"Thank you." she said when she pulled away.

°°°°°°

The Boss proved to be hesitant about trusting Edith. He kept her close to him, talked to her more than anyone and made sure to remind her that she was his. And that whatever the blonde was trying to do wasn't going to work. Edith scoffed every time and insisted she wasn't trying to prove anything. And she wasn't, she only wanted to survive. She wanted to help anyone she fought with and get as many draws as possible. Edith wasn't a murderer, and she was not dying any time soon.

The only good thing that happened to her in that week was finding out she had a private room and that Sybil had given Edith's backpack back.

Nevertheless, as one of the fighters, Edith spent her spare time working out in the main gymnasium and sparring with Remy. Everyone did everything together and, though the blonde kept to herself, she found a great sense of companierism among the others. There was no greed. No ego. It was obvious nobody wanted to be there. And that only made her feel even more determined to help everyone.

It took Edith a while to realise the Boss relocated his show to an underground prison and that he had surrounded the whole perimeter where the fighters were allowed (not her room, though, he loved to torture her whenever she was snappy or mean) with a field that kept everyone from using their powers. Except the arena.

"So you can teleport people?" a purple haired girl Edith had never seen before asked the teen, scaring her and making her drop the weight she had been lifting. She looked suspicious ablout Edith's ability, which offended the blonde slightly. Who the hell did this teen think she was? "You can be useful. Pity you took that stupid oath of not using your powers. It's going to get you killed."

Edith opened her mouth, ready to retort. But Remy was faster as she neared the two females, wrapping one arm around their shoulders.

"Chill, mon ami." he said with a teasing voice. By the way he smirked, Edith didn't know if he was talking to her or to the purple haired girl "She's with me. Edith, this is Betsy. A friend."

Betsy rolled her eyes, "Elizabeth Braddock. Psylock. But people call me Betsy when they're not begging for their lives."

Edith snorted.

"We have a plan." came Remy's whisper, his breath hot in Edith's ear "You help us and we help you."

The blonde didn't think twice before nodding.

°°°°°°

Two weeks trapped as a fighter turned out to be much harder than Edith ever expected. No one was really exploited but having to go day by day with no powers was a worse torture than whatever anyone could do to her. It was as if a part of her had been stolen, an essential fragment of her being. And finding relief of all of the numbness just twice in fourteen days wasn't comfortable.