in the absence of light, darkness conquers

A creak.

A squeak.

A groan.

A scream.

“Hey, if you stop moving maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much,” the guy grasps the exposed sides of the girl’s torso, trying to keep her from squirming away from his touch.

The girl doesn’t back down. Instead, she attempts harder to breakout from him. “Hey, if you found a way to make it less painful maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much,” she mocks.

“What?” he shakes his head, incredulous of the childish act he never expects to be done by this girl, out of all people, “Then should I stop?”

That shuts her up and stops her from moving about. “God, no,” the girl grits her teeth, “Okay. I’m sorry. I won’t do that again. Please don’t stop.”

The guy raises an eyebrow, but of course the girl doesn’t see it with her back facing him. He grumbles to himself before he applies more pressure to the girl, causing her to start thrashing and groaning again.

The door to the room where the two of them sit suddenly opens wide with a bang, and on the doorway stands another guy with blond hair and dichromatic eyes. His left eye is a warm shade of oak while his right a glaring crimson orb, and above them are eyebrows creased in worry.

“Have any idea how you two sound like to the rest of the house?” he asks, expression amused when he spots them sitting cross-legged on the bed, “Like both of you are fu—“

“Shut it,” the black-haired guy scowls, and if the blond guy was honest, he’d admit he was a bit taken aback by the gesture. That’s natural; the guy is huge and his muscles look ready to snap a person’s neck with a single touch.

The black-haired guy lets go of the girl and stands up, wiping his hands with a towel. “I think it’s enough for today. I’ll continue tomorrow.”

“What?” the girl whines, “You can’t leave now! Not with this here,” she points to her side, where red lines etch her body from the edge of her sports bra all the way down to the hem of her yoga pants.

“You’re getting better, your nerves are waking up,” he informs nonchalantly, “which means you’ll feel more pain as I continue. You need to rest too.”

 “I’ll see you soon,” he says as he shuffles through the door and sidesteps the other guy, all the while completely ignoring the girl’s continuous whine.

“Hey, Shownu” he feels a friendly tap on his shoulder, and he turns to meet the mismatched eyes of the blond guy, “Thanks for doing this.”

“No problem, man,” Shownu nods. He exits the room, closing the door quietly.

The dichromatic guy skips towards the girl who is still inspecting her wounds. He pats her head as he slides to sit next to her on the creaking bed.

“How are you feeling?” he asks, eyes and voice soft.

“Like i just got hit by a train?” she scoffs.

“That’s good,” the guy smiles. 

She definitely looks — and acts — much better than when he brought her home after that night. Her condition then was so awful, unconscious and all charred. The mental image of her struggling to breathe still haunts him, even though the girl is awake and back to her usual gutsy self now.

“Shownu really could use some training with his healing methods,” she complains, stretching her limbs and letting them make cracking sounds.

“He’s studying his powers,” the guy says, “You know how he likes to disappear randomly? I followed him once and he actually went to the public library in the city. He greeted people there, so I think he must be a regular.”

The girl doesn’t say anything for a moment. She just sits there with gaping open. “For real? But how? How did he enter the place?”

“He still has his ID card from the Academy,” the guy explains lightly.

The girl snickers, “Don’t they update their students’ database? That’s quite an amazing feat in the airhead department.”

“Can you imagine Shownu in a library, though?” he wriggles his eyebrow playfully, “A huge bear reading a tiny book.”

“Hey, don’t be mean,” she nudges the guy’s shoulder, “He’s just a big softie. Sometimes I wonder why he chose this kind of life.”

“Aww are you catching feelings for him?”

The girl nudges him again, harder this time. “If you’re here to annoy me I suggest you go bother someone else instead.”

The guy laughs, jumping out of the bed.

The two of them falls into a calming silence as they watch heavy clouds drifting on ominous grey