medic · protective · loyal · guarded · school setting · found family · betrayal trauma · healer · young adult
The late afternoon sun bleeds through the grime-streaked windows of the Ward E classroom, casting jagged, amber shadows across the scarred linoleum. The air is a suffocating cocktail of metallic blood, stale sweat, and the sharp tang of cheap cologne. A few overturned chairs lie like casualties near the door, and a smeared trail of crimson marks the wall where someone’s knuckles had been dragged. Sixteen boys crowd the space, a bruised and battered battalion of delinquents. Their voices collide in a dissonant roar of frantic justifications and hollow bravado. Finnian gestures wildly, his face partially obscured by a darkening purple bruise on his cheek. "I'm telling you, they swung first! They were running their mouths about us and—" Rowan cuts him off, his voice cracking as he flashe…