Editing Ghosts of Rage (Warhammer High) (section)

===The Speech===

Like all the daughters, Furia awoke fully rested in the middle of the night. For the following hours, she stared all around her. At Simon, the ceiling, herself. Her mind began to rethink of everything she knew right now. She put all the details in front of her with one object: finding a way out. She knew she couldn’t give into to the medication, and going to jail was not something she was planning on doing.

Still, it drove her crazy as she couldn’t see a way out. She wasn’t a planner. She couldn’t figure this shit out on the fly. She was a fighter when it came down to it, and thinking wasn’t a particular forte for her. Thankfully, she had a good friend that could help her out and keep a secret.

As sunlight streamed into the room, Furia knew it was time to leave. She somehow managed to slip off the bed without waking Simon, a first for her. Putting her clothes on, she tiptoed her way out the door without making any noise. Once outside, she felt a bit calmer as she walked down to the entrance, hoping not to wake anyone else up.

She thought she had made a clean getaway as she walked towards a door, but a small amount of noise behind her signalled her otherwise. She turned quickly, wondering if it was Simon, but instead found a robed Mrs. Henderson staring at her. The two exchanged a long glance, wondering what was going on in each others heads before Simon’s mother broke the silence.

“Do you want some coffee?” she asked. Furia knew it was a trap. She was going to have to sit down and listen to whatever she had to say. The redhead knew she had to owe her that much. She didn’t want to piss off the parents so quickly.

“Uh, sure.” Mrs. Henderson led her to the kitchen, where she moved towards the many appliances adorning the countertops. Furia sat down at the table, waiting patiently as she smelled the coffee brewing nearby.

“Sleep well?” the older woman asked. Furia paused. Simon’s mom knew full well that they had shared a bed tonight. She wondered if it was a trick question, but figured the best way out of this was to be honest.

“Yeah. It was a bit tight but we managed.”

She chuckled at that. “Reminds me of when I first shared a bed with my husband. I had to figure out how to eventually tell him he snored. I hope Simon hasn’t gotten that from his father.”

Furia smiled at that. “No, not that I noticed.”

“That's good,” Mrs. Henderson said. Soon, she walked over with two cups of hot coffee, handing one over to Furia. “Milk?”

“No thanks, I like my coffee black.” She took a sip and enjoyed the warm feeling. It was good coffee, better than anything she got at home.

“So, Furia, I wanted to talk to you about Simon.” Furia saw this coming a mile away, putting down the cup as she prepared herself for whatever was coming.

“Now, I don’t mind what you two did last night. I really don’t. I was about the same age as well,” she started. Furia nodded slowly as she listened, happy that this was going better than what she was expecting. “And in the end, all I care about is if Simon is happy. Since the mugging, my husband and I have just been cautious with him, so it's nice to see him hanging out with someone like yourself.” She sipped her coffee for a second before continuing. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but what are you looking out of this relationship?”

Furia stared at her, suddenly caught off guard by the strange question. The thought never had occurred to her. “I don’t know. To be honest, I never considered it. We were both kind of pushed into this by ourselves.”

“I figured,” Mrs. Henderson commented, “I had this idea that you two started dating because of the emotional duress of the mugging, feeling it would be best to cope with someone who experienced what happened.”

Furia never thought of it that way before. The idea suddenly made sense to her. “I guess?” she said, unsure herself in the end.

“And again, I don’t mind. But I want you to promise me something.” Furia nodded slowly, listening to every word carefully. “If it ever gets hard, and you ever feel that you are hurting Simon in the slightest, I want you to leave him alone. Alright?”

If this was Furia from a week ago, she would have broken something from that comment. She never wanted to hurt Simon, and the very idea made her angry. But the medicated teenager didn’t react as harshly as she would. Instead she nodded, understanding her with recent events in her life. “You want me to stop seeing him altogether. I get it.”

“I just don’t ever want to see Simon hurt. Once was enough,” the mother explained. Furia finished her coffee and stood up.

“Thank you for the coffee, Mrs. Henderson. And you shouldn’t worry. If I ever feel I am hurting Simon, I would stop immediately, no matter what.”

Mrs. Henderson sighed, seemingly happy that it was off her chest. “I hope you understand. It’s a mother thing. Your mother probably does the same.”

Furia paused at that, looking away from the elder lady. “I never met my mom. She died when I was young.”

“Oh,” Simon’s mother blurted out, suddenly feeling very awkward about bringing the topic up. “I’m sorry.”

“It's fine. Goodbye Mrs. Henderson.” Without another word, Furia walked to the door and left. The idea of not having a mother rarely affected her, yet every once in awhile it did. Most commonly seeing some of her cousin’s like Venus or Faith with both their parents made her hate them even harder. She wasn’t sure if she disliked their good fortune or her lack of it.

She was back home soon after leaving the Hendersons. She walked in and initially saw no one, which she was glad for. It was likely that he had some sort of legion work to complete, or was too restless to stay at home. Or maybe he was out brutally destroying some poor scientist's laboratory.

She paused at her doorway, suddenly wondering if there had been a change in her father since he had started to take the medication. He did seem less likely to explode at times, which she never gave much thought beforehand. It might have reacted slower with someone like him, since most of his rage seemed induced to his “upgrades”. She shuddered for a moment.

She didn’t like the butcher nails. They freaked her out in her youth till he had them removed several years ago. Yet its effects seemed to hold his mind to this day.

She was so much deep in thought that she didn’t notice the giant astartes walk up to the entrance. The astartes was easily seven feet tall. He wore what seemed to be ceremonial astartes armor under a brown robe. The armor was a bright blue and white, and usually worn by astartes in civilian population who disliked parting away from the wearing armor in general.

He paused and looked at the daydreaming teen for a moment. His face was hidden behind an astartes helmet as he stared her down with glowing blue eyes.

“Furia. Furia. Furia,” the booming voice of the space marine repeated in the hallway. Still, the redhead seemed distracted she thought about her father. The marine paused, raised one armored foot and slammed it into the ground. The floor shook so violently for a moment that Furia toppled over from surprise, landing on the floor. She seemed puzzled as she noticed the large astartes staring at her for the first time.

“That got your attention,” the marine mused as he walked over to the downed girl.

“The hell is your problem Kharn,” she blurted out, clearly not pleased with his antics.

“Just trying to get a glimpse of your panties,” he said calmly.

Furia instantly covered her groin, but then noticed she was wearing pants, not a skirt. “Asshole,” she muttered as she stood up. The large warrior chuckled at her as she brushed herself off.

“Just checking to see if you are still with me,” he told her. Raising an eyebrow at him, he elaborated without her asking. “I heard what happened. Sorry it came to this. You know, being on drugs.”

“Yeah, well fuck it. First my dad, now me. Guess being the voice of reason around here gets you a free pass from being medicated huh?”

“Only when I’m around humans. I get really friendly with orks though, that's for sure,” the large warrior joked. Furia grinned at that, usually enjoying shooting the shit with Kharn. She rarely ever saw him since he usually ran things for the legion across the galaxy when her father was at home.

“So what are you doing here Kharn? Aren’t you supposed to be out there in the galaxy, employing some ruthless justice?” Furia asked him.

He shrugged, massive shoulders moving ceramic armor plates easily enough. He stared at her behind his helmets eye slits. “Lord Angron asked for my return while the legion recuperated from battle. I’ll be out of your hair soon enough when I get my new orders.”

Furia smiled softly at him. “Well, hopefully not too soon.”

He grunted at her, shaking his head. “I know you are trying to be nice, but it's strange to see you like this. Not the Furia I wanted to come back home to.” He paused for a moment and whispered softly. She was sure he didn’t need to as they were probably the only ones in the house at this hour. “Did you at least kill the bastard?”

Furia seemed a bit shocked by the question, wondering what Kharn wanted to hear from that. She shook her head slowly and Kharn grunted.

“Well, too bad. Guess the justice system will need to take care of him.”

“Do you think,” Furia started, a bit of shakiness to her voice, “that I should have?”

Kharn stared at her through his helmets slits. She couldn’t see them, but she was sure he was scrutinizing her intently. “Afraid, aren’t you?”

Furia didn’t say anything as he kneeled down to her, face to face. The white helmet with red eyes stared at her deeply. She wanted so badly to turn and run away, but she knew that if she did she would never hear the end of being a coward till Kharn died in battle.

“The first kill is always the hardest. I remember it was difficult for me the first time I killed someone, so long ago now.” He paused and chuckled. “But you know what? I don’t even remember how I did it. Don’t remember who it was, how I killed him, how I felt. All I know now is that after the first one, it’s pretty easy afterwards.”

She said nothing for a moment as she stared at him unblinking. She felt slightly nauseous, unsure if it was the medication or the topic. All she knew is that maybe she was lucky not having done the deed herself yet.

She slowly whispered to him as she didn’t look away from him. “You are one crazy fucker Kharn.” He nodded slowly at her, and she could imagine he was grinning in agreement. Silence followed for several moments as neither felt it was worth continuing the current conversation.

“Is Angron home?” she asked him eventually and he shook his head.

“Nope. Told me to wait here till he came back. Not sure where he went.” All Furia could think of is that her father was making some poor medicae scientist’s day a living hell. “Don’t you have school?”

“Unfortunately. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go change it to something more ‘feminine’.”

“How unfortunate,” Kharn muttered as she walked away.

As she got to her room, she ditched her clothes quickly as she began to feel sick wearing them. She realized that she had puked twice and had sex with the same clothing in the last 24 hours without changing. Even she had limits of her uncleanliness, immediately throwing everything she was wearing into a laundry pile.

A quick shower was needed as she felt physically better minutes later. She got out her school uniform, hating it immensely every time she put it on. It wasn’t hard for anyone to understand that Furia wasn’t the most delicate girl in school. She hated the neat and tidy female uniform she was forced to wear every day.

Still, this only gave her the passion to itemize it in a way she would enjoy, usually going with spiked arm bands or belts with buckles that didn’t follow school regulations. Today was no different as she slipped on a large leather belt with her father’s legion symbol as the buckle, a great fanged maw poised to crush a life-bearing world. Instead of the usual armbands she wore, she slipped on fingerless black gloves. Simple, yet to the point.

Kharn was still waiting at the entrance as she made her way down soon after changing. “Have a nice day. Don’t have a rampage,” he told her, and Furia only gave him the finger as she left.

“Fuck you Kharn.”