VICIOUS (II) : peter pan ouat

How to Stab

Chapter 19

Warning: This is the chapter that contains sexual violence. At the bottom, if you do not want to read it, I will place the chapter's summary and explanation.

Only today left until a war, and instead of preparing, or even making up with the people I'm on poor terms with, I'm choosing to sit on a log, glaring down Gregory and his friends in between the tents.

"Did you hear about the heart?" Elizabeth asks, and her voice shakes as she sits down next to me.

I nod, wiping my hand across my chin. "Yeah, what about it?"

She seems taken aback. "Isn't that freaky?"

"Sure, I guess," I shrug. Am I supposed to be freaked out by that? It's still pretty much an empty handed threat.

She glances at me out of the corner of my eye, before lifting the sleeve up of her pink sweater, and the white bandage beneath it.

It takes me a second to realise she hasn't been self-harming, and that it's actually a word spelt out on the inside of her wrist. RUN.

"It happened to me last night." Her voice warbles, and I can see how wet her eyes are. Shaking fingers put the bandage back, and pull her sleeve down. "I didn't want to freak the other girls out, so I just-"

"Jared's going to think you stole those supplies." I tell her, looking at the bandage.

It's well covered, but it's not the way Jared would've done it. He prefers to wrap things over and over again so if one layer tears the others remain. It's awfully annoying, but it works. Elizabeth seems to prefer the non-invasive, practical bandaging. She's not one for war, but one for treatment in a hospital.

She bites her lip. "I didn't want to upset him."

"Aren't you a noble one?" I chuckle.

There is a war coming up, and sooner or later people are going to have to get used to that. She can't keep secrets from her superiors, especially not Jared. Those two have to work together for everyone else's safety.

I look her up and down. "Pan told you you're going to need a new look of the war, right?"

She nods. "I've been putting it off. I like my hair."

Her fingers brush through the giant curly strands. It takes up so much space, but it is lovely. Shame it'll all have to be cut off.

"Pan can make it grow back as soon as the war is over." I tell her. "He did that to my hair while I was asleep. I was shocked when I woke up."

"You had short hair?" She asks.

I nod. "When I was pretending to be a boy."

"Isn't that rude he made it grow back without your permission?" Elizabeth asks. "I mean, you cut it off, and it was easier for you to walk around with, right? I see you fiddle with it and tie it up all the time, like it's quite the hassle. Shouldn't he ask for your permission when changing your body?"

I never thought about it that way.

There's a screech across camp, and I leap to my feet. That is the screech of a girl, one who is helpless.

Shit.

I jog forward, and Elizabeth follows after me at a safe distance. My feet approach the woods, my ears trying to search for the source of the sound. Green bushes shuffle together as someone moves through them. Within seconds I push through them, diving through on to the other side.

There's a hand over Blaize's mouth, and her eyes are crinkled, angry tears silently spilling out her eyes. They throw daggers at the boy who has her pinned against the tree, and is leaning against her. Her matches are sprawled out along the forest floor, and her can of hairspray sits on the ground, dented in.