Lesson 76- Always wash your hands with soap and warm water.
I wake up in Torin’s arms, he’s standing over my bed and seems to be puzzling something out. I groan a bit and shift around, he adjusts his hold.
“Is there a reason we’re standing here?” I ask, still kind of out of it. I have a million things to be freaking out about, but I’m not ready to deal with that so I’m just going to not think about it yet.
“I was going to put you to bed, but you’re… Well, you probably need to wash up. I was trying to figure out what to do.” He explains.
“Oh… Well… You can put me down. I should be okay now. I’m not even sure exactly why I passed out in the first place.” I add. I was probably just overwhelmed. My brain needed a bit of a reset. I wait for Torin to put me down but he makes no move to do so.
“Tori?” I prompt, wondering why he isn’t moving. He clutches me a little tighter.
“You passed out. You can’t possibly be okay. What happened to you? Why are the wards broken? Are you hurt?” He argues and starts asking questions one after the other. His expression and tone are angry, but his words show nothing but concern and he’s holding me so carefully there is no way he’s actually upset with me.
“Two men broke in. They used magic or something and melted the door knobs, then they just walked in. I had nowhere to go… So I jumped down into the basement with Jane.” I explain.
“Did you hurt yourself falling? Where did the intruders go?” He continues to demand information. It doesn’t escape my attention that he still hasn’t put me down.
“Just a few bruises.” I assure him.
“You’re covered in blood, Carina.” He says seriously. Ooh, pulling out my full name. He really must be freaked out.
“It’s… Not mine.” I suddenly realise that the warm sticky stuff that landed on me in the basement was blood. I feel nauseous. I think I did know that one some level, but it’s another one of those things my mind wasn’t quite ready to process yet.
“The blood… It belongs to the intruders… Jane… I think… She ate them.” I shudder.
“Oh.” Torin sounds almost put out. Is he… Disappointed? By what? He seems very distracted by something.
“Tori, can you put me down? I think I need to go take a shower or something.” I shudder, suddenly feeling very gross. Plus my back is a little sore, I probably bruised it when I fell. I’m lucky Jane managed to protect my head at least. I’ll have to thank her for that… But it might take a while for me to get the sound of what just happened out of my brain. The wet crunching and the agonised screaming. Ugh.
Torin still hasn’t put me down… Actually he doesn’t look like he heard me at all.
“Torin!” I say louder, poking at his cheek with my finger. I immediately regret that decision when I leave a smudgey fingerprint of black dust. For the first time I realise that I really am filthy, I definitely want to shower. Like immediately.
“Huh?” Torin zones back in and meets my eyes, apparently a little confused.
“Put me down. I want to go get cleaned up.” I prompt him again.
“Oh, sorry.” He apologises then carefully lowers me to my feet, keeping a hand on each of my arms to make sure I’m steady. Once I’m stable I wait for him to let go, but he doesn’t.
“Torin? I can’t go shower unless you let go of me.” I joke. He frowns.
“I can’t believe they got in. You were supposed to be safe here. In MY territory. I didn’t think anyone would dare.” He sounds absolutely PISSED. Actually now that there’s a little space between us, I can see how tense he is. I’m pretty sure the guy is hanging on by a thread.
“Torin, are you okay?” I ask tentatively. He grumbles and shakes his head.
“Not really. Laura told me the wards were broken. I came rushing here expecting a fight and then… Nothing. There’s nothing I can do, no one I can fight. I almost wish Jane hadn’t eaten the assholes so that I could take care of them myself.” His tone is dark. Woah, yeah don’t break into a demon’s territory. No wonder Catcher was so worried the first time he found me here.
“I want to go get cleaned up.” I ask again. Torin nods and takes a few deep breaths to calm himself before letting me go. I smile and pat his arm affectionately.
I head to the bathroom with Torin trailing along on my heels. He stops in the hallway and stands there with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at the broken back door.
“I’ll have to sort that out.” He sighs.
“It’s nothing that can’t be fixed.” I assure him before closing the bathroom door and locking it. Alone again, I take a few deep breaths then turn to look at myself in the mirror. The girl looking back is a total mess. I have splatters of blood over my face and arms and my hair is clumping together with sticky gunk that is probably blood too. I can see the startings of a nasty bruise on my right elbow and I’m pretty sure every inch of me is covered in a film of black dust that for some reason seems slightly greasy. I try to run my hand through my hair and it gets stuck. I tug it through and a chunk of… Something… Falls from my hair and plops to the floor. That’s it. I’m at my limit. I turn and vomit violently straight into the toilet. When I have nothing left to throw up, I sit up and cry. My chest is aching, my throat is burning and All I want is to be clean. I start to strip my clothes off, I pull my shirt off so roughly that I can hear the seams ripping but I don’t care. I won’t be wearing it again. Not ever. I drop all my clothes into a pile on the floor over the chunk of… Whatever. At least this way I don’t have to look at it. I’m still silently sobbing as I step into the hot water of the shower. The water turns a greyish brown colour as it runs down my and I’m spurred into action. I scrub myself until my skin is pink and raw and I wash my hair three times. When I’m done I don’t make any effort to get out of the shower. I just… Stay there. I’m exhausted so I sit on the shower floor with my legs pulled up to my chest, letting the clean water flow around me.
I don’t know exactly how long I sit there. But my fingers are pruning and I’m starting to get stiff from sitting for so long. I’m completely cried out, I don’t think I have another tear in me. I use the wall to pull myself up and turn off the water. This time when I look at myself in the mirror I look more normal. I’m exhausted, and as I predicted there’s a bruise forming on my right hip that is more than a little scary looking. I feel small and vulnerable as I wrap myself in a towel and stand there with my hair dripping down my back. I don’t think I’m ever going to feel safe here again, or anywhere if I’m totally honest. I take a deep breath to steady myself, then carefully skirting around the pile of gross clothing, I open the bathroom door. I’m shocked to find Torin sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the bathroom door. His head resting on the wall. What in the world is he DOING down there?
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