"We should have stayed with you longer," Sarden told me after I had woken up from my nap wanting to have a shower. I found him folding origami birds and fish by my bed. "Maybe if we had looked more carefully, you wouldn't have been hurt. I'm sorry I didn't stay with you. My girlfriend has been grumpy with me lately, so I was in a hurry."
"I don't blame you, Sarden," I said, getting out of bed. Ugh. My joints were sore. The room whirled. I felt hot, irritable and very bothered although I couldn't say exactly why. "Turn around. I'm going to have a shower and the nurses took away my shirt."
"You've still got a sports bra on, right?" Sarden said, turning his back to me. "It's not like you're naked. Besides, the whole team has seen each other naked before. You needn't be so defensive."
"My parents haven't seen me naked since I was seven," I retorted, walking over to the shower room. "Give a girl some dignity."
"Are your wound dressings waterproof?" Sarden asked.
"Ah."
I'd forgotten about that. The dressings on my sides were fine. They'd been covered with a thin, plastic film. I touched my head but wasn't entirely sure about the dressing there.
"Sarden, can you check the one on my head?"
"I thought you didn't want me to see you?"
"Sarden," I rolled my eyes. "Just look at my head. Not the rest of me. I want to wash the dried blood off and get into some clean clothes."
Sarden turned around to inspect my head.
"Should be fine if you wear a shower cap," he said. "You'll have to wash the blood out of your hair another day."
"No, no," said the nurse coming in. "She'll be fine. "I'll just cover it with the waterproof film and she'll be good to go. Kim, don't rub too hard, ok?"
"I'll go get back to writing my report then," Sarden told me. "I'll see you later, Kim."
"Sure."
Feeling much better after my shower, I felt about for my towel with my eyes shut. I didn't know why, but I always showered with my eyes shut. I had only briefly opened them to make sure I had finished washing the blood off my skin and out of my hair. Not that I could see my head. I could only feel it. I hoped it was done, anyway.
The shower curtain was pushed aside and a greasy presence enveloped me. The cubicle shrank in size and I found it hard to breathe. Rough hands fondled me.
"Don't make a noise. It's only me," Flint's voice said in my ear.
I didn't know why but his hands on me felt unusually good. But I hated him, so refused to allow the pleasure centres of my brain to take over.
"What are you doing, you pervert?" I hissed, fighting him off.
"Here to get a quickie," he chuckled, trying to force me into a vulnerable position. Slippery with water, I refused to allow him to trap me down.
"Get out!"
"Kim?" Big Brother's voice called from outside the bathroom. "Are you in there? Is everything alright?"
"Big Brother!" I shouted and Flint covered my mouth. I bit him and stomped on his foot as hard as I could, fumbling for the door, pulling it open with me behind the door to expose Flint. "Big Brother, help get rid of this pervert for me!"
Flint was yanked out with a yelp and I heard Big Brother teach him a lesson for invading my privacy. I sat trembling on the dressing bench, feeling so furious that I couldn't move or speak. My legs felt too weak to take my weight for the moment. Silence fell outside the shower cubicle I was in. I concentrated on taking deep breaths, trying to calm myself down.
"Kim," Big Brother's soft voice came from the other side of my door. "Kim, are you ok? Did he do anything to you?"
Flint. I was going to cut off his hands and castrate him some day. Yes, I would. I wondered if Big Brother would stop me. This type of thing was a reportable offence but Big Brother had always said that the cohesion of the team was more important. Something about if the team was broken up, we'd likely all be retired. Would he mind if I had had enough of the repeating sexual assaults? Flint was getting bolder and braver these days and yet he still dared to say it was just a joke.
"Kim?"
I didn't want to see or talk to Big Brother right now. He had helped contribute to the problem by trying to deal with it himself instead of informing Mr Holt or reporting it. I was sure Mr Holt wouldn't tolerate Flint's behaviour if he knew about it.
But Mr Holt knew and saw everything. How could he not know about this unless the others covered it up that well? In which case, Mr Holt, my team leader, teacher and boss whom I respected so much was to blame as well.
"Where's Kim?" came Mr Holt's voice from outside. "Is she still in the shower? What's taking her so long?"
I stuck my head out the cubicle door.
"Can you help me check if I've washed all the blood out of my hair?" I asked, not wanting him to notice that I was starting to doubt the trustworthiness of my entire team. So far, besides Big Brother, Sarden was the only person who gave me any respect. His previous multiple attempts to report the bullying had always been blocked by the other three.
Mr Holt examined my head.
"You've missed a spot here," he touched my head gently. "Would you like Mary Belle to come in and help you?"
"No," I said quickly. Maybe too quickly. If Mary Belle came in, she'd half kill me before I could get out and I wouldn't be allowed to make a sound or she'd take me down to the gym one day and give me a 'training' session. If she ganged up with Flint, I'd pretty much be tenderised, molested meat. They'd been promising me a harsher punishment lately too. I didn't want to know what it might involve. "No, thanks. I'll do it myself."
I stuck my head back in the shower to work out the clotted blood stuck to my hair. Moments later, I stuck my dripping head out again.
"Is it gone?"
"Almost," Mr Holt said. "Be quick. Everyone is waiting for you."
Mr Holt's phone rang and his eyebrows went up. I ducked back into the shower. Suddenly, there was the sound of people running and talking in a hushed manner. Something had happened.
I rushed to dry and get dressed, forgetting about getting rid of the rest of the blood in my hair. The moment I came out, I noticed that the sickbay was empty except for Big Brother. He helped me dry my hair a bit more, so that it wasn't dripping and then tossed the towel into the skip.
"It's that vigilante murderer," he told me. "Let's go to the operations room."
On the way to the operations room, I swiped a few pastries from my desk drawer as we passed in case there was a quiet moment later for me to grab a mouthful. I needed the sugar.
When I got to the operations room with Big Brother, I saw Mr Holt talking into a microphone. His mobile phone was plugged into the system.
"Little Bluebird?" Mr Holt looked confused. "Who's the Little Bluebird?"
"I've got her phone," said a deep voice through the speakers that made me freeze where I was. Big Brother squeezed my shoulders in reassurance. "This is Little Bluebird's phone. Of course you know where she is."
"Oh. I see," Mr Holt turned around to spot me standing by the door with Big Brother. He beckoned me over and signaled me to take the mic. "Just a moment. She's here now. Chad wants to talk to you, Kim."
"Chad? You're called Chad?" I drew close to the microphone and tried not to let my voice wobble.
"How's your head, Little Bluebird?" Chad's voice teased.
"It hurts. I've got a concussion. Thanks for asking," I scowled. "Did you have to bash my head into the floor so many times?"
"You kept trying to look at me and escape, Little Bluebird," Chad laughed. "I had to incapacitate you in case I had underestimated your training."
"You were molesting me, you pervert. Why would I not try to escape? Sexual assault is considered a crime too, you know," I huffed, feeling my temper rising. "I don't understand what it is with you people. You tell me I'm nothing to look at and then you touch me. Why can't you all just leave me alone?" I burst out, unable to help myself.
There was a moment of silence.
"Has someone else been harassing you, Little Bluebird? Why don't you tell me his name so that I can get rid of him for you? Give him a permanent lesson?" Chad's voice became hard.
Mr Holt nudged my shoulder with a frown and I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down.
"I - I can deal with it myself," I said, voice cracking a little. "It's fine. You don't need to do anything. Which brings me to ask a question. If you think someone else harassing me is a crime, what about what you did to me?"
"Are you asking me to pay you back with my life, Little Bluebird?" Chad's teasing voice was back. "Sure. I can do that. As soon as I've rid the world of all these other scumbags on my list, I'll come and get you. I did promise we'd spend the rest of our lives together, didn't I?"
"You don't see yourself as a scumbag too?" I replied and Mr Holt nudged me again with another frown.
"I never said I wasn't," Chad replied with a chuckle. "I haven't called myself Chad Thundercock for no reason, you know. All the Chad Thundercocks of the world are scumbags."
"Why do you feel the need to kill them? Why now?" I asked.
"Little Bluebird, you're not bad at this. I'll give you that."
The operator trying to track my mobile signal circled her hand for me to keep the man talking.
"Tell you what," Chad said with what sounded like glee. "I'm certain you're all recording our conversation and trying to track me down through Little Bluebird's phone. I'll message your Teacher-Boss, Mr Holt with a location and give you and your team the chance to come and meet with me for a chat. We can discuss and see if we can come to an agreement, but Little Bluebird, you have to come with your wings clipped. I won't have you fly away a second time. Have you even told them the truth about how you got away? You didn't, did you?"
"What? What are you talking about?" I felt myself starting to sweat a little. "Are you saying you're going to bargain using me as a hostage to exchange for all those other people on your list?"
"Now that you've agreed, I will," Chad said with a smirk in his voice. "Try to keep your cherry intact for me, despite the present I gave you. I wasn't expecting you to run away. It seems I did underestimate you after all, but that just makes me even more interested in you. See you soon, Little Bluebird. Don't do anymore flying across the gulf in the meantime. I'll be devastated if you accidentally killed yourself."
There was a click and the phone tone beeped the end of a call.
"Did you get him?" Mr Holt asked the operator.
"No, sir. Sorry," the operator heaved a sigh of irritation. "If he had given us just a few more seconds, we'd have had him. Look," she gestured at the computer screen. "He's somewhere in the vicinity of our office. He was using the same tower as us."
"Nevermind," Mr Holt shook his head. "You finish up. Kim, come with me. We need to talk. Big Brother, you go and keep an eye on the rest of the team and make sure they're actually writing up their reports."