FALL FROM GRACE , SILCO

3. ballet shoes

(TW: mentions of sexual abuse, prostitution and grooming. Please read with caution, i will put this again on the part when i write about this <3)

Eliza woke up with a throbbing pain on her side, her fingers felt sticky from the dried blood. She gasped, jolting awake. She didn't even tend to her stab wound, she felt her stomach with her fingers, feeling a tightly wrapped bandage over her abdomen.

She sighed, feeling relief, but the shock pumped in just as fast. Who the hell stitched her up?

"What...?" She breathed out, mind hazy. It didn't matter who did it, she was just glad it was done as Eliza collapsed back onto the bed, a ringing pain in her head. She fell back into a deep sleep.

When she finally woke up after 3 hours, she contemplated whether she was actually alive or not. Maybe Silco had already just slit her throat the moment she fell asleep, it wouldn't be surprising. The sun was barely rising above the horizon, as she saw the light leaking in from the half opened window. This is how they must have gotten in, maybe.

Maybe they just bribed or threatened the guy from the counter, who knows? She just wondered why they let her out alive.

The confusing thoughts were pushed aside as Eliza's stomach growled. She held her stomach. Eliza had never gotten a meal from Zaun, she only traveled there for jobs. She never stayed. Going back to Piltover was not an option, she would have been persecuted for many, many things. Including being an illegal mercenary. In jail, she'd get killed from murdering Jericho. She couldn't go back, at least not now.

"Note for you, Miss." the concierge told her, she thanked him. It was a napkin with something written on it.

'Statue, 6:00am, don't be late.'

Eliza tucked the note away in her pocket, running out the door, it was already 5:50! She had no time for breakfast. She ran as fast as her injury let her and finally reached the location, surprisingly it wasn't too far from her lodging.

"Amelié?" She whispered, sitting down on the statue of a bearded man, she didn't know who he was, but she always called him The Statue.

"Shh! Don't talk too loud." An english accent piped in, shushing the girl. Amelié was directly on the other side of the statue, in heavy camouflage.

"Have I missed you." Eliza breathed out, slinking down the Statue's cold, hard ledge.

"I missed you, too."

"How's everything back home?" She asked, picking at her nails.

"Terrible! They're looking everywhere for you." Amelié replied, "How could you be so stupid, El? The streets are filled with enforcers, there's also a bounty with your name on it." She chided her friend, slipping her a piece of rolled up paper. It was a wanted poster with Eliza's face on it for a reward of 10,000 dollars dead or alive. She furrowed her brows, scoffing.

"They could have picked a better photo of me." She complained, earning a chuckle from her friend.

Eliza had known Amelié since they were teenagers.

"Do the girls from the brothel know?" Eliza asked.

"Yes, it's all over the news. Also, Jean misses you dearly." Amelié sighed, "I'll tell her you won't visit for a while. It's really a damn shame."

Eliza frowned, "Yeah, I miss her too. My best option is to stay here till' things cool down."

(TW: mentions of sexual abuse, prostitution and grooming. Please read with caution <3)

"Oh! I must return at once, Mr. Guillard's waiting for me." She heard some shuffling, it was probably Amelié getting up. Eliza felt her heart sink.

"Amelié, you know you don't need to be around that old, fat bastard." She groaned. She knew she was wrong, though. Amelié was too pretty to be a normal servant and the scars on her face was too ugly for her to be anything else. She settled to become a dancer, not the fancy kind.

"I have to pay Pearl back, I can't..." Amelié trailed off. "I must afford new ballet shoes." Eliza paled, knowing what she was going to do.

"No. I'll pay for them." She asserted, rummaging through her pockets and finding the last of what little money she had left.

"Please, El, I already owe you a fortune!"

Eliza refused to listen, sliding the money over to Amelié. She sighed, "Just take it." She tossed her friend few dollars shy of a hundred.

"I love you, El." Amelié did not care if strangers saw her with Eliza, she just needed to hold her friend. She walked around the Statue and hugged her friend, kissing her shoulder.

"Get outta here, Amé, people are starting to notice." She patted the taller girl on the back, watching her walk away.

-

Book after book, after book. Catalogue after catalogue, after catalogue. Silco laid his head in his hands, hair tousled from the lack of care, eyes needing sleep. The only thing that kept his room from being pitch black was the fading fire lit on the fireplace. The firewood no longer present in front of it. He had used them all up.

A knock on the door snapped him awake from his half-alseep daze. "Come in." He groaned, annoyed.

"I-" Sevika paused, raising a brown at the scattered papers on the floor and across his large desk. "I found what you were looking for in the transaction logs for..." She trailed off, distracted by the papers on the floor. What on earth could he be looking for?

"Yes? Get on with it." He insisted impatiently, tapping his steel-toed boot on the ground in an inconsistent rhythm. His finger that sat on the hem of the hard-cover book mimicked the same beat.

She turned back to him, trying her hardest not to read the pages of the papers. "For the next shipment of the Shimmer." She finally managed to say. "It'll be in a different location, so the girl won't be able to track it down." She emphasised the girl. Sevika wondered why Silco wouldn't just off her now, she was quite possibly at the weakest she ever will be.

Silco often wondered why he didn't either. It was a question that had been lingering in his mind since he left her room that night after stitching her up. He chalked it up to wanting to give her a fair fight, not killing her when she's physically weak. He knew that wasn't true.

Perhaps it was the way her brown, wavy hair framed her or maybe it was her beautiful, brown pools of honey that stared up at him. Her cheeks and the tip of her nose was always pink. Maybe it was her accent. She reminded him closely of a deer.

"Sir?" Sevika repeated, the white-noise ringing in his ears halted as he was brought back to earth. He shook his head, "Thank you. That will be all." He sighed, leaning back on his chair as he watched her exit the room.