“Life would be easier if everyone were,” she mused. But in her experience, most people weren’t. “I do say so. And the fact that you’re hiding out here seems to back that thought up. Don’t you get lonely?”
He shrugged, not really caring one way or another. “Still wouldn’t make me want to be around them. And how could I possibly be lonely when you bring me food?”
She hated predicting death, hated more to be unable to change it. What was the point of knowing if you couldn’t stop it? This was exactly what had turned her into the mess she had become. She set the deck aside, rubbing tired eyes before replying. “I don’t know if that makes it any better. You’re pretty young, dude. Easier to find reasons to live when you’ve been around longer.”
He gave another shrug. At least this way he knew for sure that it was a suicide mission. It gave him a little time to get things in order. Well, what little he had to get in order any way. “When you’ve got nothing, it’s easier to just let the pieces lay where they fall.”
“Just my arm but I don’t think anything is broken,” she answered, a bag slung over her back with the few things she needed or wanted to take with her as she came back into view and approached Chance, carefully assessing the state Jeri was in and seeing that he was still conscious.
He turned to actually face her, his touch far more gentle as he looked her arm over. She’d heal fast enough, so he wasn’t really worried about it. But it did earn Jeri another sharp kick.
Lifting his head, Jericho glared as best as he could with his face already beginning to swell and bruise. “Don’t you fucking touch her, Chance. You don’t give a shit about her!” he rasped out, still enraged.
“And yet I never had to drug her. Sera, we’re going.”
Sera scrambled backwards away from Jericho as soon as he let go of her.
She didn’t entirely want to admit it for the moment but she was relieved Chance had put a stop to things, and she was even a little glad that Jeri was getting some payback for keeping her isolated.
It took a moment or two after the struggle for her to realise her wrist felt sprained from where she’d been dragged by it, and she cradled it close to her body as she got up and went back to her room to get her things while Chance dealt with Jeri.
By the time Sera returned to the room, Jericho was a heap on the floor. He was conscious, but he wasn’t getting up easily. If Chance could have managed it, their brother would never be getting up off of the floor, but there wasn’t a lot he could do there.
“Did he hurt you, Princess?”
“Stop! please, Jeri? Please don’t make me take that stuff. I don’t want to be drugged. I’ll be good. Please? I promise.”
She’d tried to use her own bodyweight to slow him down by dropping to the floor, but she was still somewhat underweight anyway so it did very little but make things more painful for herself as she slid roughly over the wood flooring.
“Please… you’re hurting me…”
“It’s for own goo–” He never got the opportunity to finish before something was colliding with his face. The force of the hit was enough to knock him on his ass, his grip on Sera suddenly gone.
“Fucking drugging her, Jericho? I never even had to stoop to that low,” he snarled, making sure to put his body between him and Sera. Without letting him answer, Chance landed a kick to Jericho’s ribs, rather enjoying the sound of a couple ribs breaking.
“Sera, go get your shit. You’re not fucking staying here.”
“No! Please?” she begged, trying to pull away from him.
There was nothing she hated more than the feeling of being trapped in her body, unable to do anything but lie there, or the sickness that followed if Jeri gave her too strong a dose. It reminded her of the hell she’d gone through trapped in her own nightmares while in an induced coma after Chance was locked up the first time and it had taken her so long to learn to trust her own mind again after that.
He all but dragged her from her room, not listening to her pleading. He had always been smart enough to keep the drugs locked up to where she couldn’t get into them for a reason.
“It’s for your own good since you obviously don’t care about your own well being.”
“Nothing. I-…” she sobbed, sagging against the wall.
She had other bruises that were hidden from immediate view, but the pressure from being pinned reminded her of their existence and she tried not to show any visual indication that it was causing her some discomfort since it would only drive Jeri’s rage all the more.
His grip on her tightened for a moment before he stepped back and grabbed her wrist instead. If nothing else, the drugs would keep her in the house.
“You’re leaving me no choice, Seraphine.”
She was in tears by that point, backed against the wall and getting smaller by the second.
At least with Chance, any threat of violence was immediately followed through on. Knowing if or when Jeri would hit her was much harder to gauge and was always bookended on either side by guilt-tripping her and making threats of taking away her agency by leaving her drugged and defenceless until she became completely dependant on him again.
His hands went to her shoulders and he pressed her against the wall, face inches from hers and the puppy brown of his eyes consumed in black. It was the only keres trait he really possessed, but it was enough.
“What were you doing, Sera? Do not make me ask you again.”
“I tripped and fell. I’m okay, really.” she faltered, feeling a small flash of anger and heartbreak that Jeri wouldn’t even call their son by name, even in accusation despite him being way off the mark about her whereabouts.
“I-I told you…. I just…”
“Liar. Those marks don’t come from falling,” he hissed, jabbing his finger against her chest and he stared down at her.
“We had a deal, Seraphine. No more drugs if you stayed in the house.”
“No. Why would I lie? I didn’t even go that far, just around the block.”
As always, she sounded too exhausted to argue with him, but she knew when he wasn’t about to let things lie so easily.
“Look, I’m fine. I just wanna go to bed, okay?”
“Then why do you look like you were attacked?”
He was in the way of her getting anywhere near her bed, hands clenching into fists at his sides. She had to be hiding something and he was damn sure going to get to the bottom of it.
“Where. Were. You? And it better not have been seeing that kid.”
ofviolentdeath 