How Charon made it to the locker room without passing out was anyone’s guess. She was covered head to toe in blood, her wrestling gear was virtually destroyed and whatever else had happened, she was happy.
She had finally proven to herself and her critics that she could indeed beat Mortismere. She stripped off the destroyed garments and stuffed them in a nearby bin before plodding into the hot showers. She closed her eyes and felt the stinging spray working the clotted blood loose, when she opened her eyes she watched the pink stained water swirl away down the plug hole and took a deep breath, the steam created by the hot water soothed her tired mind. She dropped her head down again and listened to the water dribbling and gurgling its way down the waste pipes.
She turned the spray off and wrapped herself in a large black towel. She could feel her broken ribs grinding and it made her feel slightly queasy, she managed to get some underwear and a sports bra on, how, she had no idea, probably more luck than judgement before she had to sit down again. She rested a couple of minutes before attempting to get up again but her legs weren’t responding any more, they had decided it was time to stay sat down.

“Bollocks.”

She reached over to her bag and pulled out her mobile phone. She stabbed the number one on the pad and it speed dialled Augustus. He picked up before the first ring had finished.

“Charon?”

Charon leaned back against the coolness of the wall.

“I can’t get up. My ribs are busted and my legs have gone on strike. I’m in the locker room, I need a medic to see to my damned ribs.”

Augustus was just outside in the back of a van with blacked out windows and he snapped his phone shut. He strode out of the van and into the backstage area and looked for Charon’s locker room. While he was looking a medic wandered past with a cheeseburger in hand, he grabbed the man by the arm making him drop the burger just as he was going to take a bite.

“Man!! I was eating that!!”

Augustus raised an eyebrow.

“As a medic I would have thought you would have advised yourself against eating that sort of cholesterol inducing crap.”

It was a statement not a question and Augustus was taller than him and looked a bit annoyed, so he shut up and allowed himself to be steered towards one of the locker rooms. That was until he saw the nameplate on the outside of the door, he stopped dead in his tracks. Augustus looked at him questioningly.

“Oh no! Not Charon Death, she’s a nutbag. Didn’t you see what she did to that big fruitloop Mortismere?”

Augustus grinned. His blue eyes seemed to glow and his grip tightened on the medic’s arm.

“Charon requires medical assistance and you are going to be the one to administer it. End of story sunshine.”

Augustus shoved him through the door before he could protest any further, he looked quickly round the locker room, his eyes finally came to rest on a form slumped half conscious on a bench near to the showers. He pointed her out to the medic, the mans training overcame any fear he still held and he rushed to the slumped woman. Charon’s eyes flickered open momentarily and she grinned up at Augustus.

“I think….”

She laughed then spluttered into a cough.

“….I pushed it a bit too far this time.”

Augustus looked down at her, as the medic was busy taking her pulse, blood pressure and checking her reactions. He smiled back but it turned to a frown as he began to notice something far more disturbing, something he realised that he had never seen. Charon’s legs were covered in straight, thick scars, they started on her feet and worked their way right up to just past her knee’s and worse still he could see evidence of some sort of scar on her back as well but right now he couldn’t make out what it was. The medic turned round to him.

“Help me sit her up straight. She has some broken ribs, which will need binding. She really needs to be in a hospital.”

Charon snorted and shook her head.

“No hospital, I want to go home.”

Augustus helped sit her upright, as he did he noticed another mark on one of her wrists. The medic began the job of taping the ribs up as tight as he could, Charon winced a lot. He then began the job of seeing to all the cuts that were still bleeding and then an hour later he finished stitching up the last cut on her head. The medic kept insisting that they go to the hospital, eventually for the sake of a quiet life, Augustus agreed with the man, with absolutely no intention of going near a hospital and the man finally left.
Charon reached out for her gym bag and gasped as the pain from her ribs shot through her chest like a lightening bolt.

“Bollocks.”

Augustus looked at her.

“You know, you say that a lot.”

She grinned at him but he could see the pain in her eyes. Despite all the preparation she’d done back at the mansion, she had still pushed her body to its very physical limits, he knew it would have been different had she been allowed to use her powers but he knew she had requested the wrestlers use no powers whatsoever and he knew why. She wanted to beat Mortismere firstly, using no powers to prove it could be done and secondly, she intended to take him out again using the full force of her powers. He had overheard several conversations between her and the cloaked figures that arrived at the mansion through the portal at weird times of the day and night.

“I say a lot of things. Some even make sense sometimes.”

Augustus shook his head at her and pulled her street clothes out of the gym bag. Between them they managed to pull her jeans on but she caught him looking at the scars, her lips tightened and became very thin. The look she gave him said she had no intention of discussing them with him at this point in time. He grabbed the tee-shirt before she could try getting it over her own head and as she leaned forward he saw the full horror of the scarring on her back, it was a huge pentagram and the scarring wasn’t thin like it had been done with a knife, it was ugly and thick like it had been carved there with the flat edge of a thick dagger. The black tee shirt fell over the scarring, hiding it and she leaned back against the wall again her eyes closed. When she opened them again, her previous good humor had disappeared and she stared hard at Augustus.

“We have a lot to discuss but it’ll wait till tomorrow.”

He pulled her up on one side and grabbed the gym bag with his other hand. She had decided not to bother with socks or trainers and limped slowly and barefoot to the door with him.
Shortly after he got her in the passenger seat and made sure she had her seat belt on, she fell asleep.