Quote:
Being bitten by a giant spider is uncomfortable enough, but worse than the sharp pain you feel on impact are the linger effects of the bite. Being bitten can cause nausea, dizziness, fatigue and hallucinations. These symptoms can begin immediately after being bitten or can manifest up to a few hours after the toxins are introduced to the bloodstream. These symptoms may only last for a few hours—or up to 72 hours. You, or someone you know, has the misfortune of being bitten; no medicine seems to help this ailment, so you’re stuck weathering this one out on your own.
She felt pity. Logically, she shouldn’t have. It diminished the fact that the girl across from her had fought back, had survived. Pity was the last thing the girl needed, wanted- she needed help, a shoulder to help lay out the pain of being attacked, of that fear and the need to fight back and not be afraid even when everything in you said to be afraid. Mordred looked at the girl, one year her senior, she had yellow straw colored hair that reached her ears. Short. Almost boyish but too cute to be mistaken as such. Her eyes were a light chocolate brown, hazel but not quite hazel hazel. Her skin was pale but not that healthy kind. Her’s was sickly as her body was fighting in ways she couldn’t. Sickly because she’d been out, being normal. Being human, she’d been attacked. Monsters had come for her and she’d fought back. She’d survived. It wasn’t pity she needed. It was pride. It was a clap on the back. It was the testament she was better than everyone else. That where others might have given up she hadn’t. She fought for the right, the privilege to live and thrive and survive.
She was a fighter, just like Jane had been until Jane had been forced to die to survive. Jane was dead, a cold empty gravestone marking her place in the world with no one to lay flowers over on the impassive stone marker come her birthday. The girl across from Mordred reminded her of Jane. Innocent, until magic had gotten involved, innocent, until marked and made and unmade. It burned the blood in her veins as the girl moaned in pain. The girl was not a risk, the boarding was temporary, just a few hours. Mordred’s previous roommate had been moved due to her father finding out where she was. Her own safety. Mordred said goodbye and wished them well. The Jeffersons. Mr. Jefferson was going to be met later when Spacewatch would be on call but that was months out.
Right now she was left watching Lacie huff and try to be strong as she suffered. Pain and questions, her mother was yelled out the room by her daughter, and Mordred watched it happen impassive.
“It hurts at first.” She said softly to the other girl.
“It hurts but you fight it down, fight it back. Your body does a lot of it, but your mind has to keep it down even more. Once you can though, it gets not easier to do, but more instinctive. You fight it down and you get past it, break past what you think you can handle.” The other girl sniffled, not expecting anything, just listening for now.
“I believe you. What you say happened. They might not, but I know better. A victim knows what they know. Survivors know. We know.” Recognition in the girl’s almost hazel eyes.
“We know and we survive in silence, because they refuse to listen to the truth of what’s out there.”
“Thank you.” She whispered.
Mordred went back to reading. There was nothing else she could say.
