Children of The Fallen

Chapter 25: bloodied knuckles

Chloe Whitlock

I spent the last two hours in the compounds gym on the punching bag trying to avoid the anxiety attack I was on the verge of having. "Hey."

"What?" I snap. Victoria walks towards me with a raised eyebrow and a lit cigarette hanging out of her mouth.

"Don't what me." She says removing the cigarette from her mouth.

"Sorry." I immediately apologize. I don't know why or how but Victoria has this presence that shuts people down. She enters a room and she doesn't have to say or do anything to intimidate everyone.

As she nears, she looks down at my hands. I follow her line of sight to the already healing tears in my knuckles along with the blood coating my hands, sliding down to my forearms. "Interesting." She says and I hide my hands behind my back.

"Is your phone working now?"

She flashed me a confused yet bored look bringing the cigarette back to her mouth. "What are you talking about?"

"I assumed your phone was broke after I got no response to my many texts and calls." I remark.

She huffs, taking a quick drag of her cigarette. "I texted you and said I had her. So I had her." She takes the cigarette between her pointer and middle finger lowering it. "Your calls and texts were excessive and unnecessary."

"How else am I supposed to react to a text in the middle of the night saying 'with Grayson and Morgan. I have her.'?" I recite the text back.

"Trust that I have her and go to bed." She responds blankly. "That's not what I came here to talk about. I wanted to say that Morgan didn't do anything wrong. She was under control."

"I know." I squeeze my own hand still behind my back. "But she was out in public- or in a private room but humans talk too."

"Right, so I made all of the humans she was feeding on and the bartender forget the color of her eyes and literally anything that was said or done in that room." Then she throws in. "Would've been easier if Dane would just teach her how to do that herself."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?" Ignoring her last comment. I know that Dane is opposed to that and since it's their thing I'm not touching it.

"I'm telling you now." She raises the cigarette to her mouth and inhales. "Just..." she breathes out, the smoke coming out of her nose. "Give her a break. She did well. She had a good time."

I lightly nod, accepting that I may have overreacted last night but that's on me. "So you actually hung out with your sister." I gush, my lips curving into a smile. A welcomed one distracting me from the stress consuming my whole body.

She flattens her stare. "Okay, goodbye." She turns and starts walking away.

"Victoria it's cute. Being all sibling-ish."

"Goodbye and clean your blood off the mats." She shakes her head as she exits the room without looking back. Bringing my hands back out from behind my back I stare at the remaining blood from my now healed tears on my knuckles. With Victoria gone, I'm left alone once more with my thoughts. I want to continue working out but since my knuckles and by extension my hands and forearms are covered in my own blood I decided it's time to stop. I cleaned the mats, then took a quick shower to cool down and give myself some time to think some more.

I shouldn't have gotten that angry with Morgan. Was the overwhelming thought in my head.

As I walk downstairs to go apologize to her the sound of Kellan and Morgan arguing gets louder and louder. I stood, listening to this get progressively worse. I probably shouldn't have but in my defense I'm not even listening in they're just that loud. After he uses the word monster with her I wait for violence to ensue. I walk closer ready to intervene if anything should happen.