"Let me take a look at it." Lucas unhooked himself from the rope and placed his hand on Azura's arm.

"No!" She exclaimed and immediately shook him off, then walked away towards the bar, already regretting having shouted at him that she had the scar to begin with.

"Please." He followed and grabbed her arm again, forcing her to turn and face him. Desperation sounded through his voice.

"Please..." He was fighting to find the words, that much was clear to her as she looked him in the eyes.

Azura was baffled by his behavior, he seemed completely out of his element, struggling with something just as she was about the past. People around them were staring and Azura realized how it must look with him still holding her arm in a tight grip. It never looked good when a man forced a woman to do something against her will. She noticed his lip trembled lightly as he was pleading with his eyes, not asking anymore.

"Fine." She let out a sigh and loosened herself from his hold, giving in to his strange actions.

He nodded and walked to the bar, leaving her alone for a bit. After exchanging some words with Jeff he gestured for her to follow and they headed upstairs to one of the private rooms for a local physiotherapist. She sat down and he closed the door behind them, providing them with the privacy needed.

"Please, Azura," he tried again as he looked into her eyes with desperation, "I need to see it." His voice was trembling, his eyes flashing around as if he wasn’t sure what to do.

"Why?" her voice was soft and insecure yet held a hint of rebellion behind it. "You were there when it happened. You saw me... And up until now you just thought I had no physical scars from it? Why do you want to see it now all of a sudden? What difference does it make?"

She was almost crying, her voice becoming more unsteady with every question that rolled off her tongue. With every word, her mind traveled back further to that day. Bringing back the pain, both the physical as well as the mental. The pain of loss, desperation, and anger.

Lucas buried his face in his hands while his elbows rested on his knees, defeated.

"I... I wanted to forget. Even though you are here now, I would not accept any of it had actually happened. For me... Seeing you alive is something I never could have imagined three years ago. So when you did show up... I kind of..." He stopped and looked at her biting away the tears.

Azura was shocked to see him like this, forgetting about herself for just a moment. He was genuinely in pain and looked so vulnerable. She doubted he could even express himself properly but she understood his needs. A deep breath and some long overthinking was what she needed, but he needed an answer now. She bit her lip and her head softly bobbed up and down.

"Fine."

She wiped some of her own tears away and composed herself the best she could. She could handle this today, what was one more jerk at her brain when it was already mushed and stomped on by Dr. Jensen. Lucas looked at her hopefully as she agreed.

"This may sound stupid but when you showed up, I realized I had never closed that chapter in life." He spoke softly.

She crossed her arms and a bitterness appeared in her voice.

"You need closure. I get it. So by seeing what that monster did to me, you think you'll get the closure you need?"

Lucas hesitated. He didn't know if it would give him what he needed. He had obviously said the wrong thing again and could hit himself in the head for being so stupid.

"I... I don't know."

A silence fell over them. Azura tried to comprehend what he had said. She got up and walked to the wall as Lucas still sat on a bench with his head buried in his hands. She turned to face him and took her climbing harness off. Without saying a word she lifted her shirt leaving her belly exposed. Lucas had looked up when he heard the harness fall to the floor and stared at her as she showed him her stomach. She then turned around to show him her back.

"There’s not a single night I don't hear the lightning crack in my ears." She started to talk slowly and softly while she turned back around. Lucas's face had gone pale. Slender fingers traced the scar that adorned her stomach, following some of the lines to her back and the rough skin there as well.

"Not a single night I don't feel it burning my flesh away. I can almost smell it sometimes, it's the most horrid smell ever. Burned flesh, seeing it turn black, scorching me." A shudder went through her as she relived that moment in her head.

She stopped tracing and placed her hand at the center of it. It was a deep, dark red and purple-like color. Some areas were bulging out but in the center, there seemed to be a big dent of about six cm wide. It hadn’t healed properly.

"Right here is where he hit me. His lightning magic went right through. The rest is branching, damaging as much as possible in and out. Thanks to that stupid bracelet, I was not able to heal in time. I lost a kidney, one ovary and it completely reshaped my uterus. It also damaged my large intestine, but that mostly healed when the paramedics were able to remove that darned bracelet thing." She sounded bitter as she spoke about it. It was still hard to accept the damage that had been done.

"Holy shit..." He had grown even paler as she explained what it had done to her. Azura put her shirt back into place and sat down, then continued on. The bitterness was replaced with sadness, but her face became stoic as if she was just reciting lines from a script.

"I was in a coma for over a month. I should have died. I wanted to die, I just didn't care anymore when I attacked him."

Her eyes met his as she looked up, a harshness had taken over.

"I never intended to save anyone, I only wanted revenge. Before I drove the knife in the guy's throat and he impaled me with his lightning, he told me I was a true killer because I enjoyed it. And he was right... He’s still right..."

Lucas tried to find the words to best match his feelings. He just stared straight ahead for a while letting everything sink in as his mind wandered back to that day.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

*

It was almost dinnertime. Lucas was on the stage with his father after doing the last sound and video check. Azura had just walked back onto it as well after adjusting and programming the lights on the lighting desk. The guy who normally did the lights had already left so she was the one who did the last check. There were just a handful of people left. A few stagehands, the first technician, and Nora, who had been producing the convention.

That was the moment three men with guns entered the auditorium. They fired some shots and quickly took them all hostage. Lucas still had no idea where they had come from and how they had gotten inside. Everybody was given a steel-like bracelet which prevented them from using any power they might have. Lucas could still feel the power radiating from the bracelet. It hadn’t hurt but had made him feel weak and powerless as a regular human being.

The men never gave out demands or tried to converse with people on the outside, they were just keeping them hostage before they started to threaten. Looking back on it, that was one of the tells that something else was going on. To make sure everyone did as they were told, one of the youngest stagehands got badly beaten before their eyes.

This stalemate lasted for an hour before two of the men visibly got bored.

They separated the women from the men and placed them against the wall. The men then proceeded to feel the women up before the leader ended it. He told them to each take one woman and find a room to have some fun and blow off some steam.

They took Azura and Nora, Blackie and Whitey as they had nicknamed the girls. Lucas had wanted to protest, having gotten to know the two girls a few days before, he felt like he had to do something, but before he got the chance, Azura's boss had already spoken up and it had cost him dearly. He was the second person to get badly injured.

It had been around another twenty minutes when Azura had returned by herself. She was wounded, split lip, black eye, and blood pouring from her eyebrows and nose. She was standing in the doorway with only her bra and pants on, splatters of blood covered her entire body as she stood submissive, facing down, her hands trembling.

The leader had enjoyed the sight of her, thinking one of his goons had sent her up like that on purpose. He had urged her to come closer, obviously wanting to have some fun as well. That turned out to be a mistake.

Azura at first slowly approached him, acting obedient and defeated, but as she got closer she stopped. She’d slowly raised her head to meet his eye, a wicked grin spread on her face as their gazes met and she’d suddenly ran forward to knock him down. She had a knife in her hand and jumped on top of him, the man was caught by surprise and the blow knocked the gun out of his hands before he hit the ground with her riding him down. She immediately put the knife to his throat and straddled him in such a way that he was unable to move.

Lucas could see they were talking. It didn't sound friendly but he was unable to make out what was being said. It lasted for only a short moment before she slammed the knife into his throat, the man retaliated with an enormous lightning blast that blinded everyone.

The guy had been a very strong energy caster, one of the most dangerous types around. Lucas knew them as one of his former friends was one. The leader had been smart and had kept his talent hidden till that very moment.

When the light died down, Azura was still seated on top of him. Lucas remembered every movement she made, from sitting up, clutching her bloodied stomach to the moment she fell over and passed out.

*

"I don't really know where to begin." Lucas shifted uncomfortably. "There was so much blood. It was unclear what was yours and what was his. I remember you sitting on top of him, seeing you drop the knife and leaning on your left arm. You were waiting it seemed. That moment seemed to last forever."

"I wanted to see the light fade out of his eyes. Wanted to see him breathe his last breath before I could." she grimly added.

"And when he did you collapsed. It was the most frightening thing I've ever seen. I was convinced you were dead. Some people rushed to your side and the authorities soon followed. Before me and my dad were taken away, the last thing I saw was three people by your side trying to stop you from bleeding out."

He shifted once more and wiped away some tears.

"We never heard the sound of the impact, just blinded by it. It was actually deadly quiet when he hit you as if we had gone completely deaf. Like all sound was swallowed by him. That's actually the reason I hate quiet places. I still feel guilty for not doing anything that day."

Azura swallowed hard. She could clearly see he had his own demons about the same event. She’d never thought that other people could be traumatized by it as well. How could she have been so blind?

"Azu, what exactly happened when those two men took you and Nora?"

"Short version? They had every intent to rape and abuse us. They took us to the dressing rooms and that's where I saw Charlie. He had come back early... Wanting to surprise me. It was a classic wrong place, wrong time thing. His body slumped against a wall, a single bullet between the eyes. Charlie had been killed by their leader when they came up. I was so shocked, I could only feel anger. They threatened that they would do the same to us if we didn't do as we were told, so we did. They cut our shirts off with a knife and then they wanted to force me to watch one of them rape Nora."

Azura actually let out a small misplaced giggle before continuing.

"You know I can have a bad temper right? Well, these guys were about to find out as well and they never saw it coming. I got so angry, I beat one of them down and was able to snatch his knife. He got some pretty good hits on me too, but in the end, I sliced his throat and then plunged my knife into the other one's stomach. I gut him like a fish with one hand while I had grabbed his neck with the other. I kept him standing until he had no more life left in him...and no more intestines. God, it felt good..."

Lucas pulled a disgusted face and tried to hide behind his arm. He could tell she was enjoying this.

"Sorry. Too much info?" she held back a misplaced laugh.

Lucas raised his hand and made a small sign with his thumb and index finger, "Just a little."

He had mixed feelings about her reaction. Talking about the killing she had done, seemed to trigger something in her, a ferocious side that did not match her normal personality, but it all sounded so absurd now that he couldn’t blame her for almost joking about it.

As if on cue they both started laughing to break the tension. It felt liberating for her to talk about this with someone who had been there. She felt he did not judge her for her actions nor how she felt.

"Please! Please remind me to never get on your bad side!" he joked.

After a short laugh together, the reality of what happened dawned back on them, which led both to go quiet again. Azura let herself sink into her own thoughts, reminiscing about all that had happened and what had been said. Lucas had buried his head in his hands again, softly massaging his temples as the whole scenario kept playing in his head over and over.

"Lucas?"

He looked up at her and gave her a small smile with a nod in acknowledgment after she thanked him. He looked at his phone and slowly rose.

"It's almost midnight, we should head out. You go change and I'll close off everything."

Azura quickly changed into her normal clothes and waited outside for her friend to finish closing up. It was quiet, even the crickets were silent. The sky was clear and the stars were sparkling bright. Azura walked in the parking lot and gazed up at the sky. He soon joined her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"You want to get a drink?"

The look on her face must have said more than a thousand words because Lucas replied without even waiting for her to answer.

"A no it is! A firm no judging by that look."

"Of course not, you idiot! I’ve had enough to drink to last me a month! Plus it's not even the weekend, and let's not forget the fact that I don't do well with crowds and loud places. Especially after a day like this! So no, I won't be joining you for a drink in town. I'll be heading home to try and get some sleep and you should do the same before you do anything stupid."

His amused look made Azura stop talking. He had been casually waiting for her to stop her rant and laughed as she finally stopped rambling

"It's so easy to push your buttons! I was kidding. Home it is!"