Beck somehow thought that the door being open seemed less threatening now than Marlene walking towards him. This was the second or third time she came to the hospital and nearly got him fired which was more than he would've preferred. Beck felt nerves prickle at the back of his mind and every thought urged him to leave and find another room to hide out in. Perhaps he would get lucky and a healer would find him on the floor first. Beck forgot why the blonde hated him, thinking it had something to do with making her friend feel unsafe, but he counted that as her insecurities that were not his fault. "I was hexed last night," he ground out, trying to orbit as close as he could around the truth without giving himself away. "I slept without treating it. It's doubled in pain." His face felt like it was paling by the second. Beck felt like a manticore backed into a corner and was lashing out in pain. "Now, leave before I return the favor of a hex to you."
Her expression shifted almost imperceptibly, the playful curve of her mouth flattening into something harder to read. Marlene stayed rooted where she was, arms folded loosely now instead of in defiance, as though she wasn’t entirely certain what ground she stood on anymore.
“Hexed,” she echoed, her voice level, but not quite as steady as she’d have liked. The witch tilted her head, studying him like she could weigh the truth from the strain in his features. When the question finally slipped out, it was quieter, the edge dulled though not absent. “And who exactly did that to you?” A pause hung between them, the faintest flicker of hesitation in her eyes betraying that she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer, but she’d demanded it all the same.
