A little help?

[Ailis-Naithi Quinlan-Maddix]

Ailis-Naithi had been bullied for a little while now and had been slowly getting worse. She still had bruises from the last encounter, most she could hide but not all. One stood out on her left cheek bone a trophy of her experience, dark purple-blue and unmistakably there. She'd had glances and stares and whispers no matter where she went.

She was walking down one of the many corridors alone, as always, when they came up behind her and grabbed her by the back of her clothing. She knew immediately who it was and tried to pull away and continue on her way, but no matter how much she tried she couldn't get away.

The verbal abuse ensued and then the first hit came and she shut it all out, hiding within herself and waiting for them to give up the assault when she refused to fight back. One word escaped her though, barely an audible squeak, "help" she pleaded.

 

[Markov Kalforovich]

Markov put his cigarette out on the outside wall of the school and blew out the rest of his inhaled smoke before entering the building. He walked towards his room and, just as he passed a different corridor, heard a voice. It was a voice he recognized. It was a voice he had confronted time and time again. It was his sisters' old bully.

Markov sucked his teeth in anger and took a step back. He saw a small girl, around his sisters age, being beaten by the. It was further than they had gone with his sister and he was furious.

Markov walked up to the ring leader, he was still at least a year younger then the boy himself. He grabbed the boys' collar as he went to hit the girl again and leant into his ear. "Now now young 'un. I thought we'd spoken about this." He was glad to see the boy freak enough he had let go of the girl. Markov took this chance and pulled his collar hard enough to slam him into the wall behind him. "Run." He whispered to the other boys and smirked as they did so.

 

[Ailis-Naithi Quinlan-Maddix]

It took Ailis a moment to realize that the impact of her abuse had stopped. She looked up to notice the bullies running off and a boy who seemed much older than herself or the bullies nearby. He must have been the reason that the boys had gone. She opened her mouth to speak but words failed her so she closed her mouth again.

The spot where she had been hit caught her attention with the pain it was giving her. It was her ribs this time. She rubbed the spot and winced taking a sharp intake of breathe. She knew there would be a bruise there at least.

She turned back to the rather tall boy and tried to tell him how grateful she was for his intervention " Thank you" It was little more than a whisper. She doubted he had heard her but couldn't speak anymore. Ailis stepped back to the wall and lent against it as tears started to fall. Humiliated was how she felt at that moment and even though he had stopped them beating her up again, Ailis wished he wasn't there to see her like this.

 

[Markov Kalforovich]

Markov felt good about himself until he turned to see the girl crying in the corner. Once he saw her, really saw her, he noticed a bruise on her face. The way she was huddled suggested there were more in places hidden. He felt sick. He had only ever hit a girl once and, well, Shaylah had more than deserved it with that comment.

Markov felt worried about her, an emotion that wasn't often felt by him, and went over to her. "Hey, how much healing do you need?" He, himself, was hopeless at healing spells but Sydney? Well, she was training to be a healer after all and she had managed to heal his broken bones before now. Bruises shouldn't be a challenge.

 

[Ailis-Naithi Quinlan-Maddix]

She noticed the guy come over to her and say something about healing. Someone in this place actually cared how smashed up she was and that someone happened to be a guy who she thought probably wouldn't have noticed her at all in any other circumstance.

"Healing? Um.... I don't know. It's mostly just bruises, well then seems to be all I've got from that lot. Although they got me in the ribs this time. It seems to hurt more than normal but maybe that's just because i'm now just a walking bruise." She noticed then that she'd probably said more than she needed too, and looked to the floor and wiped away the tears awkwardly. "Sorry" She said her voice slightly croaky and uneven from crying.

 

[Markov Kalforovich]

Markov sighed, he remembered how much he had to pressure Ivana to get healed. The older boy couldn't be bothered with that this time so, simply, picked her up. He put one hand under her back, right by the shoulder blades, and the other under her knees. He knew where Sydney was, hell, he'd only just left her.

Markov made his way over to the bench where she was sat on her own and put the girl down. He hadn't noticed if she was squirming or not. She would be better soon and that was really all that mattered. "Heal, now." He ordered Sydney, with a wink so she'd know he was still being nice of course.

 

[Ailis-Naithi Quinlan-Maddix]

Ailis really was not expecting to be picked up and carried around school. If someone told her yesterday that she was going to be carried like Conor or her father used to carry her around as a kid she would have laughed and refused to believe them.

She was too shocked to fight against him and knew it wouldn't do her any good. Compared to this guy she was pretty small and covered in bruises, she was absolutely no use. Plus, by the way that the bullies had disappeared and the fact he had picked her up seemingly with no problem at all, he was pretty strong.

Finally he put her down, and it wasn't as though she particularly minded being looked after and carried around by this guy, actually it was strangely comforting but she wasn't used to people caring about her outside besides her siblings, not recently, and even they hadn't been here to help, not at school.

She found her courage though and looked the boy right in the eye, and with a look of mock indignance asked "Was it really necessary to carry me over here just for a couple of bruises?" She put her hands on her hips and waited for an answer.

Then he spoke to a girl and she thought that he was just a little rude but didn't say anything about it. Ailis didn't want to start causing problems with people who were actually helping her out. "Oh you don't have to do that. It's just a couple of bruises, nothing really. They'll heal up alright on there own." She still wasn't used to this, and she didn't know how to react, so she reacted the only way she knew how and brushed it off as nothing. Ailis knew the dark and incredibly obvious bruise however wasn't going to help her out much with this tact.

 

[Sydney Caine]

Sydney jumped as Markov returned with a girl. He usually had someone but this one looked a little young for his tastes. She raised an eyebrow a his demanding. "A please would be ni...What the hell happened to your face?" She had just seen the huge bruise on the girls face and understood.

Sydney fought the urge to roll her eyes as the girl brushed off the pain and bruises. The taller blonde looked the girl right in the eyes after she spoke and spoke clearly. "That's bull and you know it. Come here." She took out her wand and muttered a couple of spells, healing bruises and checking for other problems. She had cracked ribs as well.

Sydney sighed and healed those as well before turning to Markov. "You wanna explain where you found her and point me to the guys that did this?" She spoke sweetly but, anyone with common sense could tell she was angry. She hated this school, well, no, she hated the people in this school. The school itself was great.

 

[Ailis-Naithi Quinlan-Maddix]

Ailis's face flushed when the girl asked what happened to her face " I um..... Well someone kinda... well they uh... hit me." She turned her face away and put one hand over the bruise as if this would make it disappear.

Ailis looked back to see the other girl looking her right in the eyes and it made her uncomfortable. "Yes alright, i lied. I'm not fine." She turned her face away once again. She knew that the girl was healing all her injuries and only once it was over did she turn back. "Thank you" she said her voice cracking as she tried to hold back the tears.


Ailis listened as it was asked where she was found and who left her in the state she was in but didn't say anything. She understood and knew well enough that this girls sweet tone was not really out of sweetness but of anger.

These two people reminded her too much of her brother and sister in the way they seemed to care for her and she could no longer keep back the tears at all. She dropped to the floor where she held her knees to her chest and let the tears just run silently down her face.