Julia Lelieveld and the battle with the underworld

I woke up in Renzo’s dark bedroom. I automatically checked the clock and saw that it was 4:30 in the morning. I moved slowly. I could immediately feel that my wounds were healing. The pain was already less, so the medicine had done its job, even though I was so skeptical about it. I tried to feel the fifth element and it came up without difficulty. Fortunately, the medicine hadn’t affected it.

As stupid as it is, but I really had to pee. I tried to get up. Slowly I raised my head and leaned on my forearms and followed with my upper body, I immediately felt the wound in my side pulling painfully. I pressed it with my hand, hoping that it would hold everything in place and hurt less. Once upright, I breathed in and out a few times and let the blood flow to my head for a moment, because I was quite dizzy.

With my teeth gritted I moved my legs, the wound on my leg was deeper and bigger, I felt it immediately. This one still hurts quite a bit. I automatically gasped and started to feel nauseous. Shit, that felt terrible. With great difficulty I came to the edge of the bed with my feet on the floor. Everything felt unstable. I sat like that for a while, trying to get used to the pain.

I got up from the bed as gently as possible, I didn’t want to wake Renzo. I thought he was sleeping on the couch because he wasn’t here.

Fortunately the bathroom was not far. With a few painful and slow steps I stood at the door. I immediately grabbed hold of the door handle for support and closed the door softly behind me.

I clicked on the light and immediately saw myself in the mirror of the small bathroom. I was shocked. I looked bad. White and pale with black circles under my eyes. I had streaks of blood on my face and my shirt was mostly saturated with blood.

The nausea intensified at this sight. Painfully I took off my shirt. Immediately I saw the bandage, it was already soaked with blood. I automatically looked at my leg, where the bandage also saw red. It covered almost half of my left thigh. I grabbed a washcloth and let the tap run until it was warm, how good that felt. I washed the dried blood from my hands and face. Carefully I did the same around the bandage on my side and leg. Fortunately that looked a bit better.

I put on a Renzo blouse that hung on the door hook. That felt better, clean clothes.

After I peed I went back to the bedroom. I turned off the light and opened the door gently. And as I turned to the bed I saw Renzo sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked at me lovingly, his hair tousled from sleep. He got up and grabbed me. Glad I had support, he helped me back to bed.

“How are you?” And he looked at me inquiringly.

“Better, the pain seems less,” I said in earnest.

He nodded in satisfaction. “Come on, I’ll take a look at your wounds. I think your bandages need to be changed.”

“They’re pretty saturated,” I said affirmatively.

“I thought so.”

He clicked on the main light and picked up the first aid kit.

Reluctantly, I lay down. Afraid of the pain, last night it hurt quite a bit, it’s that I was allowed to squeeze Lucas’ hands to get my attention away from the pain, but now I couldn’t.

Probably Renzo could read my gaze. “I try to do it as gently as possible.” I nodded in response.

He slowly unbuttoned the shirt and removed the bandage from my side. I immediately felt the stitches pulling. I gasped again. Shit, it still hurts a lot.

“Sorry,” Renzo said sadly.

I shook my head. “You can’t help it, go on, it has to be done.” And with those words he cleaned the wound well. When he patted it dry with a piece of gauze, I looked up. It was weird to watch. As if it wasn’t me. The wound was at the height of my navel on the side of my abdomen. I think it was about 4 inches. The black stitches held my skin together. I saw that scabs had already formed, gosh, so fast?

“Where did you learn that?” And I nodded at my wound.

Renzo looked at me for a moment. “I already said that, in prison.”

“Sorry, wrong question. Why did you learn that?”

He sighed briefly. “Remember when I told you my father had ordered people to take me out? I often ended up with the prison doctor. While I was there I saw a lot and learned a few things from him. He said I had talent and I was allowed to help him. I grabbed everything just to stay away from that courtyard.” He raised his shoulders.

“I’m glad you learned, otherwise we’d have a lot to explain.”

“I’m afraid you do. You can’t go to school yet, while they expect you to attend your first lesson in more than 3 hours.”

I nodded, that had already crossed my mind.

“I think we should call Rob.”

Renzo looked puzzled for a moment, but finally nodded. “I think so too.”

Renzo bandaged the wound from my side and unwrapped it from my leg. As I thought this one was bigger. That would be an ugly scar. After the clean bandage was on, I had to honestly say it felt better. The bandages didn’t pull so badly anymore and it felt nice to be clean.

“I’m going to get dressed, will you call Rob?” Renzo asked.

“Okay.”

I picked up my phone and looked at the display, Dad had texted back saying it was fine that I had stayed with Sara. Good thing, too.

I went to my contacts and called Rob. Only after he had ringed 6 times did I get a confusing Rob on the phone.

“Julia? Is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

He sounded immediately alert. “What happened?”

“I was attacked last night by two men, they were possessed. I’m with Renzo now, can you come here?”

“It’s better if you come here, they don’t feel you are here because of the earth boundaries.”

“I know, but I’m afraid I can’t do it yet?”

“How so? Are you hurt?”, a concerned Rob sounded.

“Yeah, they got me right, but Renzo took care of the wounds.”

“I’ll be right there.” And he hung up.

I was hoping Rob had a solution. How could I not go to school without Dad finding out?

About 20 minutes later the bell rang. Renzo rushed to the door and opened it. With big steps I heard Rob coming up the stairs.

“Renzo, how is she?” he asked, concerned.

“She’ll get over it.” Was Renzo’s answer.

“She’s in the bedroom.”

Rob rushed into the bedroom and stopped next to the bed, he looked at me searchingly. “You look bad,” he said.

I nodded. “I’ve lost a lot of blood, but I’m feeling a bit better,” I tried to say confidently.

He nodded briefly. “Are your wounds big?”

I shrugged my shoulders. I showed my leg in the bandage and also my side. “They’re already healing, but they’re still hurting quite a bit. I’m still not good at it. I can’t go to school like this.”

Rob nodded.

“I’ll call you sick. Then no one will ask and your father will not be informed. Hoping that you do recover so quickly that you can go home this afternoon or tonight.”

I nodded.

“And I? Are you also reporting me sick?” Renzo asked Rob.

Rob looked doubtful. “I’m afraid that if you don’t come to school either, attention will be paid to it. Not by the teachers, but by the students. And the teachers will realize that. So I’m afraid you’re going to have to go to school, hoping no one else will ask about it and you can get on without a hitch.” And he nodded at me.

“But she can’t stay alone, can she?”

“No, I don’t think that’s wise either. First tell me what happened, then we’ll see how we’re going to solve this.”

I told Rob everything. Except that I had seen Eva kissing her coach. How the road was closed and I wanted to go home via the old industrial estate. That I had been trapped and cornered by the two men. How they attacked and how I was able to defend myself through the elements. And with horror in my voice I told them that I had stabbed the men. It still made me nauseous just thinking about it. I looked the other way for a moment. I found it hard to think about it.

“Hey, you couldn’t help it,” Renzo said, taking my hand.

I nodded.

“How did you end up here then?” Rob asked.

I looked at Renzo for a moment. And told Rob that Lucas had found me. How he wanted to take me to the hospital, but that I couldn’t make it. And that’s how we ended up with Renzo. And that Renzo stitched and bandaged my wounds.

Rob nodded again.

“We shouldn’t put this on the line. We can notify the members of the circle as soon as you feel better, but I don’t want to tell them now, for fear that they will draw attention to you unnoticed. I think we should ask Lucas to watch over you today.” He looked carefully at me and Renzo.

It didn’t sound logical at all. Even though he had saved me, I still didn’t feel safe with him. But when I looked deep into my heart and followed my gut feeling, I knew Rob was right. I looked at Renzo, his mind working overtime. And to my surprise, he nodded. “I’m afraid you’re right Rob,” he said cautiously.

I knew this was difficult for Renzo. If anyone had a grudge against Lucas, it was Renzo. But on the other side. He had proved last night that he also had a good side. Would he have changed after all?

Renzo got up and picked up his phone. “I’ll call him.”

“Okay, I’ll be off to school later and call you and Lucas sick, hoping not to draw attention. Renzo, I’ll see you at school soon?”, he asked Renzo. He nodded.

Rob turned back to me. “If there is something you can always call, I just have my phone on.”

I nodded. “Thanks Rob.”

He said goodbye to Renzo and walked out the door. Renzo sat down next to me and looked at me searchingly. “It’s going to be okay,” I told him.

He leaned over and kissed me passionately. And I was only too happy to allow it. My body filled with the blissful feeling again. I enjoyed the moment, but Renzo cut off the kiss far too quickly for my liking. I looked at him uncomprehendingly. He laughed a little at my expression. “I’d love to be here with you all day, but unfortunately I can’t. Everything for your safety. I’m going to get ready for school. You try to sleep again. You know you heal the fastest when you sleep.”

“You’re right.”

I tugged at his shirt and he smiled at me. I kissed him and then tried to lie down comfortably, closed my eyes and focused on the fifth element. I felt it flow through my body and it felt good. I should have done this sooner. I sent the fifth element to my wounds. And with that thought I fell asleep again.

I blinked, the autumn sun shone through the curtains, sending a beam of bright light across the room. I felt rested. I felt better physically. Renzo had been right, sleeping had done me good. I moved carefully and could feel my wounds hurt less. I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked sideways at the clock radio. It was already two o’clock in the afternoon. Geez, I had been sleeping for a really long time.

For some reason, the dream I had of Mommy came to the fore. I felt tears prick my eyes. That feeling when she fell was stuck in my heart and head. The sadness. How my heart broke. Then I could feel better physically, but I had had quite a push from that dream again. As nice as it was that I could hold her for a while, smell her. All the more difficult it was to lose her again. The pain and fear in her eyes. A shiver ran through me. I had to try to get this off me. This would slow down my healing process. I let go of the fifth element and tried to calm down, tried to make my heart a little whole again. I had to move on.

Cautiously I got up. To my surprise it went a lot smoother than last night. Could it really be through the fifth element? That could hardly be otherwise. Without the element, I could never have recovered so much in a few hours of sleep. I walked to the bathroom and saw in the mirror that the circles under my eyes were less and that I already had more color. The look in my eyes looked different. I saw sadness in my eyes. No matter how hard I tried to hide this. I just couldn’t do it right now. I unbuttoned Renzo’s blouse and examined the bandage. It hadn’t leaked anymore, still a neat white bandage. It was the same with my leg. Of course it still hurts, but not nearly as bad as before. I stepped back into the bedroom and to my surprise Lucas was in the bedroom.