Burning Slow

I cheated Death multiple times and now, he's filing for a divorce

Nathan woke up in the middle of the night- as always- his stomach rumbling as if there was a monster inside of it.

He walked out of his room, his eyes still half closed.

He heard cluttering downstairs, instantly waking him up.

"Who's there?" He spoke loud enough for the intruder to hear but not to wake up the whole house.

"It's just me, Nathan." He instantly relaxed upon hearing and seeing Rocco in the kitchen, reaching into one of the cabinets.

"What are you doing up, bro?" He asked, reaching into a different cabinet.

Rocco chuckled, although it was more sarcastic than amusement. "Your best friend has no idea what she's doing to me and she doesn't even want to talk about our kiss. God, I get incredibly frustrated at the sight of her but at the same time, I can't even get mad."

Only then did Nathan notice the dark bags under Rocco's eyes as he ran a hand through his hair, giving up on whatever he was trying to reach in the cabinet.

"Well, what did she say?" Nathan asked softly, putting down a cup of instant noodles.

"I asked if we could talk then she said not yet."

"You just gotta hive her time, bro." Nathan assured but Rocco still looked so down. He placed the thermos down gently on the counter, sighing. "Look, man, after we eat, I'll talk to Ember for you. Like me, she's always awake around this time, watching some series."

"Really?" Rocco beamed.

"Yeah, now go get yourself some instant noodles and we eat." Rocco smiled, grabbing the same kind of noodles Nathan is going to eat and sitting across him.

It took them a good ten minutes to eat all the contents of the cup, including the time it took for the noodles to cook.

"Wait," Rocco stopped Nathan as they were walking up the stairs, "are you sure about this?"

"Look, do you want to settle things with Ember or not?"

Rocco sighed. "Alright, fine."

"Alright." Nathan exhaled, the two of them walking up the remaining steps.

"Em, it's Nate, let me in." He knocked on Ember's door.

A couple of minutes passed and they heard no response.

"Hey, she might be sleeping, we should just let her be." Rocco tried to pull Nathan away from Ember's door.

"No, wait." He turned the knob on Ember's door, his face scrunching up even more. "Ember never locks her door. Never." He turned Ember's knob over and over again, pressing his weight on it.

"Yo, dude. Dude!" Rocco blocked Nathan with his arm, pushing him away from the door. "We can grab the key from Greyson. Now come on."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry 'bout that."

They barged into Greyson's room, shaking him awake.

"What? What?" The man grumbled.

"Ember's missing!" Nathan panicked which made Greyson jump out of his bed.

"What? Dude, no! We don't know that for sure. We just need the key to Ember's door to see if she's there."

"Ember's door is locked?" Greyson asked as he swiped the key from the top of his dresser.

The two teens didn't have the chance to answer, swiftly following Greyson back to Ember's door.

He hastily opened it. The sight that greeted him made his heart drop.

"She's not here..." Ember's room was thrashed- of her own doing, of course- bags, clothes and other things were scattered on her floor and bed.

"What's happening?" They heard a groggy voice from behind them.

"Ember's not here." Rocco answered Nick. Astraea, who slept comfortably on Nick's back, broke through the serious atmosphere with her snores.

"What?!" Nick yelled, hearing a snort from Astraea but not waking her up fully.

"We don't know, bro. She's not here." Nathan raced down the stairs, he was about to walk out of the house but Nick was there in a second to stop him.

"Bro, it's a wasteland out there, we won't be able to find her at this hour. We can wait for her here. She will come back." Nick reassured, Astraea still sound asleep on his back.

Nathan refused to let go of the knob, his knuckles turning white. "I already lost Grace. What if I lose Ember too?"

"You won't. If she's not back by the time Astraea wakes up from our ruckus, I'll be the first one out the door." Nick promised.

Nathan sighed, letting go of the door knob. "Where the f**k could she have gone?" He was pacing in the living room this time, seething in anger.

Greyson and Rocco followed down the stairs after searching Ember's room, sitting down on the couch opposite of where Nick laid Astraea.

-

Faith stopped in her tracks upon seeing a seething Ember, her fists glowing green.

"Afraid?" The girl chuckled.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Faith warned.

"If I get killed in the process," she panted, wiping away the blood that rolled over her eyes, "as long as I get Grace home."

Faith blew a raspberry. "You need your years, darling. This is not the final challenge. Go home, child."

"Fuck." Ember panted, her knees wobbling." I won't go home. Not until you leave Grace's body."

"You're going to die at this rate."

"I won't. Death already divorced me." She swung at Faith again- only to miss- again.

"Marvin, get her out. I don't need a bunch of angry teenagers after me when they find out I killed her."

"Right away, Madame." A cold hand grabbed Ember's arm, dragging her out of the house. Ember didn't even have enough strength to fight against it.

The door slammed into her face along with her dropping to her knees, coughing up blood.

She scoffed to herself. "I wasn't even able to land a hit on her."

"Faith, I'll be back. You hear me!" She weakly banged on the door as she tried to get up. "I'll be back."

Ember walked back to their house, her whole body aching like hell, thinking that she could probably hide all her bruises under some makeup.

It took a s**t ton of time until she was able to see her house, just a couple more steps away. She was almost running by now, ignoring the pain of her body, desperate to be in the comfort of her own home- she didn't even notice the droplets of blood that she had been leaving behind since she was kicked out of Grace's house.

She stumbled in the house, everybody startled at the sight of her- include her in the group of being startled.

"Where the f**k were you?" Nathan harshly grabbed her arm, forcing her to look at him.

"I... I went to that cafe at the top of the hill and accidentally slipped and fell down." The lie rolled off her tongue smoothly. She grabbed her arm back from Nathan, hissing slightly at the possible bruise forming there. "If you guys don't mind, falling down a hill isn't exactly a pleasant experience." She started to walk to the stairs only to be blocked by Rocco.

His eyes raked over her whole being, confusion, anger and fear swirling in his eyes. He languidly swept a hand under Ember's chin, his fingers shaking a bit. He tilted her chin up, turning her head gently from side to side, seeing a huge purple bruise forming on her left cheek, a cut on her right eyebrow, a possible broken nose, and her right eye looking a little swollen.

"Please say something." Ember's voice was barely above a whisper as her heart kept beating erratically, it was probably considered life threatening. She knew that Rocco and everyone else saw through the lie she had thought of. It would make sense, who would believe her when she obviously looks beat up.

Rocco remained silent, gently wiping away a streak of blood from Ember's mouth. His green eyes disappeared beneath his eyelids for a moment before they stared directly into Ember's dark brown eyes, making her heart skip a nervous beat upon seeing pure anger in those very same eyes that stared at her with affection.

"Who did this to you?"

Ember stiffened at the sound of his voice- quiet and tense- his anger barely restrained. She was even more afraid of the absence of a curse word from his question. Despite that, she remained quiet, staring into his green orbs, unable to look away as she was forced to look at him, still not being released from Rocco's hold.

Rocco's eyes softened, seeing tears glistening in Ember's eyes. "Who did this to you, hun?" He loosened his hold on Ember, his brows furrowed.

"I told you, I fell down a hill."

"Don't give me that bullshit." She flinched, his anger evident now. "Who the f**k did this to you?"

Ember's shoulders fell, she couldn't stop her tears any longer. They dropped freely from her eyes, still staring at Rocco. "It hurts. Everything hurts."

"Who did this to you?"

"Faith did. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Her knees gave out, Rocco instantly scooping her up.

"What do you mean Faith did this to you?" Greyson stood up, gesturing for Rocco to place her in his seat.

Rocco did just that, pulling his arms away from Ember, his hands, arms and white shirt stained with blood.

"Oh my god, Ember! You were bleeding the whole time."

A line appeared between her brows, her eyes drifting over to Rocco's outstretched arms. "I... I didn't notice." She sobbed even harder.

Nick went to the bathroom to grab the first aid kit and Astraea was still sound asleep.

"I... We... I couldn't... I'm sorry..." Ember was sobbing so much, she couldn't even form a full coherent sentence.

Nick knelt down in front of her, examining her face. "Why didn't you tell us? We could have gone with you." He saw the white couch and Rocco's shirt having red stains, concluding that he had to fix Ember's back first.

"We had... a plan. I needed to... go alone." She was hiccuping between sentences, trying not to cry as much.

"What are you wearing underneath?" Nick sighed.

"A sports bra." Nathan answered before Ember had the chance.

"I need to fix the wound on your back first.." Ember nodded, starting to take off her shirt.

Everybody winced, seeing her body, bruises scattered all over.

"God, Ember..." Nick helped her lay down on the couch, without hurting herself too much, starting to clean up her wound- she was facing down, her arms supporting her body up a bit.

"This is the most stupidest thing you have done. Saying most stupid wouldn't suffice at all." Nathan paced back and forth again in front of the group.

"Where were you, love?" Greyson asked his daughter, holding her hand, kneeling beside Nick.

"Grace left me an address... and Faith and I talked... and we fought... and I lost."

"So it was a trap?" Ember quickly shook her head, Nick internally groaning at her movement.

"Grace knew... of the answers that... Faith could give me."

"Ember, I need you to stop crying." Nick told her as she continued to sob, her chest heaving up and down. Nick couldn't treat her as gentle as possible.

"I'm sorry..."

Nathan groaned out of frustration, stopping from pacing. "God, Em, you could have told us."

"Ember, do you know how long we've been waiting for you? Worried out of our minds?" Rocco asked, Ember staring at him with questioning swollen red eyes.

"It's four in the morning, love. You could have left a note or something. You could have told one of us. We thought you were kidnapped, your room was thrashed and everything."

"I'm sorry..." She hiccuped.

"Can you at least tell me that you beat her up worse than she did to you?" Nick grumbled, gently placing a band-aid over the cut on her brow.

Ember sheepishly chuckled. "I couldn't even land a hit on her."