POV Charlie
3 A.M was that too late or too early? that was the question that rushed through my mind as I hammered on the door of Patrick and Azura's house, I had only been here once when Azura invite me around for an even cup of tea after a stressful few hours in the lab.
I was hammering on the door for a sold minute when something smacked my head. I looked down and saw a tennis ball and then looked up, Hilda was leaning out of the window already holding another tennis ball.
"What the Nether are you doing make that much noise at 3? GO TO BED!" Hilda yelled at me.
"Sorry!" I called. "This is important,"
Hilda threw the second tennis ball at me, this one smacking me in the forehead. "STOP MAKING NOISE OR I'LL FEED YOU TO KYLE'S SNAKE!"
"Kyle has a snake?" I asked. another tennis ball to the face. "How many of those do you have?"
Hilda lifted and aimed another. "Keep talking and I'll keep throwing,"
the door opened and Patrick in a sleeping gown was standing there. "Don't worry Hilda, I have this under control," Patrick called.
"If I still hear him in ten minutes, I'm getting upgrading to a shoe," Hilda said disappearing back into the window.
"Charlie, it is 3 in the morning, my wife is sleep deprived, and has been struggling with the baby for the last few nights...your luck you're one of her best friends or she would of come out here and punched you hard in the gut," Patrick said.
"Tell her sorry," I added.
Patrick just stared at him. "You're also lucky you didn't wake Charlene, or we both would of fed you to Kyle's snake," he added looking very serious
"Okay, what is this about a snake? when did Kyle get a snake?" I asked.
"just get to the point, why are you here?" Patrick asked.
I nodded. "I learned what Crystal and the arcane Knight are looking for it,"
Patrick looked unimpressed. "Charlie that can wait," he then slammed the door shut in my face.
"COME ON!" I yelled. "THIS IS...." I was smacked in the face by a boot, stumbling back, it was a proper boot as well.
"said I'd be back in 10 minutes," Hilda said lifting her second boot. "Now, go away before I throw a piano at you next,"
"OKAY! okay I'm going," I said quickly turning from her house and running.
I got back to my flat and staired to change into something to sleep in and stopped to stare at myself in the mirror, my hands travelled to the two large scars, the one high in my chest from where Naeus stabbed me with the ruby thorn, and the second from the nether assassin, Azura later explained how it was a miracle that I wasn't turned into a netherkin.
I wasn't sure what hurt more, the scars themselves or the mirrors of how I got them, I could still feel Naeus plunging that spear into my chest, the thoughts as I was about to die, the regrets I had at that moment, Kyle's eyes staring at me as I felt death's slow embrace.
I shivered, I was far from the only person here with a scar, in fact not even the only person here with a scar from the ruby thorn, I remember when I first saw the scar on Rain's chest.
the battle was long and hard, me, Rain, Stella and Morgan were caught in an ambush by the nether, an explosion, I was caught off for a moment when a pigman broke through the smoke a weapon in hand.
I was the one who was hit, Rain took the hit to his chest, it was bad and would need to be seen to. the pigman didn't have a chance to attack me as a bullet impacted its head as it fell to the ground, dead.
Morgan blew the smoke off his revolver. "you two good?" he asked.
"Yes," Rain said gritting his teeth through the pain.
"no, he's not, but I'll do my best to get him to being good," I said
Morgan nodded. "okay, I'll hold the line, you help Rain,"
"Now Rain to treat the wound I need you to take your jumper and top off," I said.
"Do I have to?" he asked slightly embarrassed.
"yes," I said.
he sighed and removed his jumper and top, reviling a scar on his chest. "Ouch, what caused that?" I asked examining the injuries.
Rain covered the scar. "Abigail, our fight in the nether, this...this should of killed me, I should of died that day," I looked at the scar as he spoke. "I wanted to die that day, with her," he added. "It still hurt, when I move too much,"
I looked close to the scar. "Here, Rain, use this cream twice a day should help with the pain," I said placing cream in his pocket and beginning work on the new wound, I cleaned the wound.
"I've lost track of where most of these small scars came from, all expect this one," Rain placed a hand on his hip and the top part of a scar. "I was hit with an arrow when I was young, my sister saved my life,"
"You have a sister?" I asked.
Rain shook his head. "I had a sister...she died with the others in Glacierford," Rain explained.
"I'm sorry," I said.
a gunshot. "hey you two? did you finish? we need to deal with the small army here if you care to help," Morgan yelled back.
"Yeah, We're good," I replied.
Rain was far from the only one here with scars, Stella has scars, not as many as Rain, but just as impactful, I was treating Stella for an injury on her admen from where she was got trying to teach William some magic.
it backfired, I didn't know the details, but Stella was hurt and I was treating it, despite being the trained medic of the group we always found it slightly awkward when they had to take a top off to treat an injury.
it was nothing I hadn't seen before, but she still felt awkward, so she was talking, the only thing she could, her scars. "This one, this one was from that time I tripped and stabbed myself with a knife as I fell,"
she moved her hands to the more minor scars along her upper chest. "and these are from that week I was a bandit," Stella explained.
I looked up at her. "You were a bandit?" I asked.
"Yeah, for a week, then I realised you had to steal from people so I left," Stella explained to me.
"And these scars?" I asked.
Stella looked away. "These were from the dagger...the dagger that..." I could see the tears in her eyes. "the daggers that made me a netherkin," she finally said. "that's why they never properly healed, a remain of the infection, like these horns,"
I finished bandaging her. "Sorry, Stella, I'll keep trying to help," I said
Stella was sweet, caring and kind, which makes her almost the opposite of Ciara, what I always thought made it weird how I'm closer to Ciara than Stella, I remember being confused when Ciara randomly lifted her top up one day and started to point at her scar and explain them to me.
Kane later told me that meant she trusted me more than most people here, but still that was weird, so very weird.
I sometimes wonder why I feel Ciara is both proud of her scars and ashamed of them. "So this one is from when I was 12 and fighting a pigman, the pig got me bad, but I won in the end," she point to another higher on her chest. "A stair arrow, still not sure if it was the skeleton or Kane who got me with that one,"
"I can't get any new ones my healing kinda stops that, but I do have this last scar...this was from Abi," Ciara stated.
"Abi? I've never known you to call her Abi before," I said.
Ciara looked away from me. "It's...It's not important," she said. "the nether princess gave it to me, it hurt like hell and pretty much killed me,"
I wonder still what Ciara's history with Abigail was, neither seemed to want to talk about it to me. once when I asked why she trusted me enough to show the scars Ciara said to me something I will never forget. "It's important for a brother to see the pain his sister has gone from and the same the other way, Charlie,"
No matter what anyone said to me or her, even thou we're not related. Ciara is my sister, and she always will be, but I'm not all the family she has, she has Kane, the two were all each other had for a long time.
so when Kane was smacked around the head and slammed into a wall, I saw the scar he had hidden under his hair, it hadn't destroyed his eye but was damaged, the odd shape had me staring at it.
"A piglin, he had a curved sword, I was fighting off two of them when one of them swiped at my eye, I hide it behind my hair when I grabbed Ciara, I didn't want her to worry, it became a habit after that, it healed a bit when I became undead what made it a weirder shape," Kane explained.
"Well at least you've treated it better than most," I said checking him for broken bones.
"Yeah," Kane groaned. "That's not all I had, I have you know my weapon, that retractable clever?"
"Yeah," I answered.
"well that wasn't always mine, I took it from someone I killed after he tried to clever me in half with it," Kane explained. "He got me from under my shoulder all the way to hip, it hurt like nether, but I won in the end,"
the fact Kane covered his eye reminds me all too much of Ceris, she did have a scar above the eye she covers but it's small but she chose to cover it still, despite the fact we don't get along that well, she once asked me to look over her scar as she was concerned about infection, some of them came from a fight, the one where the end fell to the nether.
but she had a few she wanted to make sure were healing. "What caused these marks?" I asked
Ceris looked away. "When Naeus took me, prisoner, he wanted to know what I had done with the ender Crystals," She squeezed her eyes shut. "He would have me beaten, and cut, trying to get information out of me, I never said a word, not even screamed, so he made sure to hurt me, before trying to cut my head,"
"thank god for Morgan then, or we wouldn't be talking," I said.
"yeah," Ceris mumbled.
One scar that looked like it was made with a sword ran from the top of her shoulder to the bottom of her leg, and it reminded me of Azura, it would be safe to say that Azura is one of the people I'm closest to here, yeah there was that thing where she read my journal and told everyone about it, but she's a good friend, so it hurts me when I see her in such pain.
I'd seen Azura's scar because when we were working she needed to wash her hand pulling up her lab coat when I saw it going up her arm, she saw me look and covered it. then sighed. "Charlie, can I talk to you about something?" She asked
"Yeah, Azura, we're friends, right? you can tell me anything," I answered.
Azura took off her lab coat and her top and trousers. I covered my eyes, "Azura why are you taking your clothes off?" I asked.
"Don't worry, it's nothing weird, I want to show you something only Patrick and a few others have seen...Can you open your eyes please?" Azura asked.
I hesitated and opened my eyes. Azura had taken off enough to show a scar that went from just under her neck down her arm and all the way to the bottom of her leg. "When Naeus's lightning hit me, it scarred my flesh, Nostra thinks because of the magic he used, the scar can't heal, it's all ways giving off that small part of the magic...it makes me a freak, I try my best cover it, sometimes...sometimes it's like I feel something there, something in the very scarred flesh," Azura explained.
"Hey, no one thinks you're a freak, you are a smart, wise person..." I stopped as Azura started to cry.
"I...I still feel it, the burning the pain, I failed, I'm scared that if I fail again...I'll...I'll lose Pat or..." I hugged her.
Yeah, I was uncomfortable, in fact, I almost hated it, but seeing Azura, seeing my friend crying her eyes out like this, I didn't know what else to do, so I hugged her for a good solid minute until she eventually calmed.
"Here, I'll finish you for the day, why don't you go spend some time with your husband," I offered.
"Thank you, Charlie...You're a good friend," She said grabbing her coat and leaving.
Azura's husband, good old Patrick wasn't without his scars, well at least one massive scar, on his face, I once asked him about it but he mumbled something about his dad and a sister, I didn't know he had any family, let alone a sister. I got the idea he didn't want to talk about it.
Elite had a few facial scars from the battle at the far plains and serval across his chest, Maya treated them quite well even if she wasn't trained for this sort of stuff, then there was Nether Kyle, the scar that took out his eye, and the broken horn. Or Emo Kyle and the scar from the time he shot himself in the head.
William and a shoulder scar from the arrow, and even Crystal has her scars.
It was a late night and I was getting ready for bed, I was getting into my PJ when Crystal came to get change, she stopped when she took her hoodie off revealing an arm of scars, she froze when she realised she had shown them to me.
"It's all right Crystal, I saw them the day you first ended up here," I said explaining.
Crystal still covered her scars, and I went over to her and rubbed her back. "Who was it?" I asked.
"A lot of people, Herobrine, The Entity, most of the red legion," She mumbled.
"it won't happen again, not now you have me," I said. "Come on let's get some sleep," I said taking her and walking her over to the bed. "the past is behind us, we look forward to tomorrow,"
I stared at the mirror and was ready to cry, I missed her so much, I grabbed my top and turned the light out but I didn't sleep, I stared up at the ceiling as the night went on, My mind focused on Memories, me and Crystal, I seemed to run through everything that happened from the day she was found outside the wall to the final battle against the Controller.