Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been posting. I hit the wall hard and just lost my writing voice, so to speak. Chapters 27-29 are mostly written but I've been going over them again and again until I like them. My original plan was to not post anything until the rest of Phase 1 was completed but since that's taking longer than I would like, I feel it's best to give you something rather than nothing at all. Apologies of course for being away for so long again but I'll try to post more often if I can. Thank you to everyone who's continued to read this, you're all the best and I appreciate it a lot!
"Ties That Bind"
Concord System
Haven
December 3rd, 2698
Olivia awoke to the sound of Vlocke shouting, and what few remaining bottles he did have, shattering against the wall. Things had gotten worse for him since the night he'd gotten into a row with the SRS. She hadn't realized how much he depended on Barker's for alcohol and how much better her sleep had been before. She sometimes thought about getting him some just to help quiet his demons but Barker had made himself clear. No one was allowed to give Vlocke any booze until the final batch had been sent out. It wouldn't matter after that. It was harsh but Barker's decision was a business one. With old and new holidays coming up and the prospect of Harmony joining the Coalition, celebrations were going to be frequent this year. Everyone had to pitch in and that meant not harassing the guests. Something which Vlocke was want to do.
She pulled her feet out of bed sat on her cot. Vlocke eventually quieted, the rage sated for the moment. Olivia checked the time on her watch. Seven. About good as any time to get up, eh?
Rubbing her eyes, she pulled off her sleep shirt and wiggled into her workout clothes for her morning routine. Stretches followed by a jog up the hill overlooking the hamlet. Her sports bra still had the IMC logo and sheepishly she hid it with an old shirt from Sophia. Not that she didn't have one of her own but those shirts also had IMC logos on them too. Despite still believing in the core mission of the IMC, she elected to hide it since everyone here was decidedly ex-IMC.
It had become something of a debate inside herself every morning jog. The IMC had done terrible things to Charlie's family, events she had been apart of. On the other hand, Earth, where her dad lived, wouldn't survive unless it got resources the Frontier possessed. As she ran up the dirt roads leading out of the hamlet, Harper vividly remembered the "ends justify the means" propaganda they gotten at Severn. It hadn't occurred to her just how effective it was at the time. The idea that, "selfish Frontiersmen horded resources to spite the Core Systems," didn't really seem all that true when she'd worked the rice fields along side them.
At the peak, Olivia found the set of trees she'd been using to practice basic parkour moves. Ones she'd done as a teen back in Brighton. It was a good way for her to destress and stay in shape. Though nothing like the training pods and runs around the hanger. Today, the feeling that she wasn't a soldier anymore didn't feel as strange. She was Olivia now, not Pilot Harper.
She groaned and shook her head. Wasn't she still a prisoner of war? According to Charlie, she'd gotten off pretty easy considering how disorganized the Coalition was. Olivia chalked that up to Charlie and Barker who requested her specifically to help, well him. Another frustrated groan. She ran her hand through her hair and sighed.
The wind gently shook the leaves in the trees. Above her, she could see the large planet of Concord with it's big cities. She traced one of the streets, favoring it because it resembled a road back home. A kilometre away from the beach, there was fish n' chips spot, well more vat grown meat than real fish, but she liked it and stopped there after school. It was always crowded in the summer months like the weather was now...
Her heart panged. She suddenly and overwhelmingly missed home. She missed the smell of smoggy summers. The walk home from the tube on leave from basic. How her dad's tired and worn face would light up seeing her at the door. There was the one time, she vividly remembers, when he nearly lost his job because her leave didn't line up with his schedule and he absolutely refused to work. Harper had scolded him but the old man wouldn't listen. Seeing his only child was more important.
She was crying. Olivia only realized it when wet streaks were running down her face. She was never going to see her dad again. Oh how stupid was she? Running off to be here, fighting a war against people she'd never met? It had been for the right reasons. So that Earth could get enough resources to survive. Yet, all that anger and patriotism, had brought her light years away from her only dad in the whole Milky Way.
Olivia sat with her back against the tree and just looked up at Concord. She never thought that she wouldn't be able to go home. Now that she was stuck here, in this miserable mixed up place, she was never going to be allowed to leave. A loud cry escaped her and she buried her face into her knees. A flash of her dad's grin over dinner, came to mind, as she told him about Pilot training. Proud. Encouraging. Olivia feels so distant from him now that her heart threatens to break.
I'm not a little girl anymore. I don't want to cry like this.
It's all right, dove. She hears her dad say.
It's not alright, she tells herself. I'm being ridiculous! I don't want to feel like this.
Olivia tries to calm herself by breathing slowly in and out. To try and keep her bottom lip from quivering. She sniffs and blinks away more tears. After a few deep exhales, she feels calmer but not better. A bitter laugh escapes her. After months of waiting inside that apartment for something to happen, she'd pushed down this feeling of homesickness. Now that she wasn't afraid anymore it'd just come bubbling out.
Feeling a little embarrassed about having a cry in the woods, Olivia decides to keep running until she's calmed down. She followed the curving road from the hamlet that led to the landing dock. Past the trees that encroached on the road until it opened up to the lake that surrounding Haven.
She inhaled a deep breath embracing the sting in her lungs. In her haste to get away from herself, she'd gone too far. Through the trees, she could just make out the tops of the skyscrapers that made up the Haven skyline. Idly, she ran her hand over her hair and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. She was going to have walk back wouldn't she? Harper frowned and stretched her legs.
Sore and exhausted, she finally made it around the curve leading back to the hamlet. A crowd has formed around the only truck as the first of the champagne batches were being loaded. She picks out Charlie from amongst the crowd easily, as he stands a head taller than most people. To her surprise, Barker's out directing people. She can even hear his voice carry indistinctly over the small valley.
Upon reaching her front door, Olivia quickly grabs some fresh clothes and hops into the shower. The prefab shower has just enough pressure to spray her down. Yet it's warm and that's a relief as she massages her legs and shoulders. She stretches next as best she can in the small shower until she hears a satisfying pop from her back.
By the time she gotten over to the hamlet's bar, Olivia spots Nyx. The bartender had a tablet in hand checking and counting the boxes lined up on a hand cart. Olivia gave a wave as she came near and couldn't help but notice Nyx's excellent auburn eyebrows as they caught the light of the afternoon sun.
"Started to think you weren't gonna make it, Olivia." Nyx says simply not looking up from her tablet.
"Sorry," Olivia replied feeling a little guilty about her extended run, "I didn't know we were shipping them out today."
"Yup, Ol Barker got the word about an hour ago." Nyx said craning her head and shouted around the Shoberg. "She's here Charlie!"
"Perfect timin' Harper." Charlie said coming around the truck. "Could use yer help in Haven unloadin' all this."
"Sure, boss." Olivia replies back.
"Good, it's thirty crates of Barker's finest."
Nyx chuckled derisively, "You mean Barker's only."
"It'll have to do," Charlie replied, "not like the coals'll care."
"You say that," the bartender looking up at Charlie, "but have you ever seen politicians drink? Everything has to be the best of everything. Especially when you remember who they used to be."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Olivia asked amused.
"They all used to Interstellar Colonial Authority but left when the tide turned. If you ask me, the Frontier would be better off without them."
"That's enough politics thank ya, Nyx." Charlie said clearly uncomfortable.
Nyx just grinned and finished up whatever she was doing on the tablet. "Okay, we're good here. You can take it to the port now Charlie."
"Alright, c'mon Harper." Charlie waved her in.
For the first shipment of Barker's champagne there was little fanfare. Nyx and a few others waved them off but Barker himself had already left to return to his office. If she hadn't known better Olivia would've thought it was just business as usual.
The pair of them drove around the bend she'd ran earlier. It'd seemed so long ago and yet so recent that she'd come to the hamlet. She had come as a frightened and confused prisoner of war but now felt like she was a part of a new family. Barker's little hamlet was made of good down to earth people living their lives. They weren't selfish, hording crucial materials for the Core Systems at all. They were just decent hard working people. Like her dad.
The realization didn't make everything better. It didn't heal any of the mental wounds she still bore. What it had done, was turn the corner on who she was now. Being here with the Turners was never going to be perfect, but it was good. Away from the corporate propaganda and the toxicity of the IMC, Harper felt that here, she could fulfill her promise to Mayumi.
The rest of the drive to the port was a blur. A Coalition representative was there to meet them. Her and Charlie loaded their cargo onto the Coalition blue colored Crow. When it was all over, Olivia found herself looking over at the tall sky rises of Haven.
"Fancy ain't they?" Charlie said.
"I grew up in a city like it on Earth – Brighton."
"Oh yeah?"
"It was... nice. Once you got used to the smog. On good winter days, you could see the Spines out in Doggerland."
"The underwater complex?"
"Yeah, I left for the Frontier from their space port."
"I haven't seen Earth in, well... a decade? Maybe more?" Charlie scratched his head. "What's the thing you miss the most?"
"My dad," She replies solemnly while looking down at her wrist-comm. My friend too.
"You know," Charlie said, "I remember when that SRS lad handed that off to you. I always seeing you wear it but never using it. Is it broken or something?"
"No," she looked up, "they gave it back to me without a battery."
"Oh. Did you want to get one?" He asked.
She repeated Charlie's words over and over in her head in a heartbeat. If the wrist-comm was working than she could get the only gift Mayumi ever sent her. Olivia's eyes widened as she gasped.
"That'd be brilliant, boss!"
"Aces! I know a guy who deals with those kinds of parts. Helped us out in the past." Charlie said as he got back in the truck. "C'mon then Harper!"
Olivia was on the edge of her seat. Charlie spent most of the drive talking about the good it would do to call her now and then and about war mementos from his service. Charlie might as well have been kilometres away as she thought about getting a piece of Mayumi's life. It was exciting and terrifying. Mayumi's memories were on this unit. It was the ultimate invasion of privacy but also of great trust. Her only real friend had entrusted her with who she had been. A final act of revenge against Winter, who had pushed their squad to the breaking point.
They arrived at the shop and Charlie had to nudge her shoulder to rouse her from her thoughts. The shop was in the Haven Docks. Away from the actual resort town of course. The Docks were where most of the workers and other citizens lived on Haven. The buildings didn't have the gleam that Haven's did, but Harper liked them that way. It reminded her of home.
Inside the shop were loads of equipment of all varieties, from Titan arms to knock off training pods to smaller everyday tools. Charlie made his way to the counter in the middle of the shop. He knocked on the metal post by the desk. A middle aged man appeared from the back rooms, his face worn with thick creases and a head of silver threaded black hair.
"Howdy there, what can I do for you?" He asked, looking from Charlie to Harper and back again.
"Rick, right? It's been a while, we bought some power coupling joints and cables from you months back." Charlie said.
"Oh. Oh! Yes! For the Barker company! What can I do for you? Are the parts holding up?"
"They're fine," Charlie said motioning for Harper to come up to the desk, "we're here for a battery for this comm unit."
Rick eyed the wrist-comm that Harper held up for him to see. "Pretty common item – especially these days with all the turn abouts." The shop owner left the desk and began walking over to a storage shelf of various batteries.
"I'm sure," Charlie said flatly.
After picking up a few and comparing them, Rick returned to the desk and laid them out on the counter. "IMC designs are always built for mass production. Stifler mods makes some batteries that may work as well but, eh, they die faster."
Olivia pulled off her wrist-comm and popped open the battery slot. She inserted one of the batteries and sealed it back up. An animation of the IMC logo played on the screen before settling onto the menu. After all this time she was finally going to be able to see it. Harper quickly navigated to the new files menu and found Mayumi's file: Pilot_MSATO389201066_ and tapped it.
An error popped up stating that the memory for the file was too large to play. She closed the message and hit it again. The same error popped up again.
"It's not working. It's not playing the file." Harper said impatiently.
"Let me see – oh! Where did you get this?" Rick asked shocked and intrigued.
Harper quickly pulled the unit back, clutching it defensively. "None of your business."
Rick looked surprised by her but then recovered slipping back on the salesman mask, "Oh! Of course, of course! I see now, you're a Pilot. You don't look like a Sato to me but then hey – it's the Frontier, right?"
He moved from behind the counter and went over to the training pod in the corner. Charlie leaned over and whispered, "What's he on about?"
"I'll tell you later, boss."
Charlie nodded.
Rick collected a thick cable and hooked it up to a power outlet, pressed a few commands into the pod, then pulled down on a lever, opening it. He bent over and inspected the interior seat and lens, muttering to himself. By reflex, Harper was also giving the module a once over in her head making sure it was maintained, she'd had used them frequently at Severn after all.
When he was done inspecting the pod, Rick waved them over. "As I'm sure you know, those gen files need a higher power rig to see – part of mapping human consciousness – this module right here will let you live your old memories."
"Live?" Harper blurted out.
"Oh yeah, just like you were there. Again." Rick added.
"Really?" Harper stepped forward inspecting the module for herself. "Can I try it?"
"Ohh, sure, be a test run charge of, say, one hundred credits."
"A hundred!" She looked at Charlie to see if that was okay. Her boss frowned. Her heart sank. Olivia couldn't really blame him though, he had only offered to buy the battery. Most of the work at the hamlet was communal with most of the money going towards necessities and other utilities of the Barker Brewing Co. If they couldn't spare the Credits, she reluctantly understood.
"Fine." Charlie said. "Making a face like that. Better be bloody important whatever's on there."
"Yes! Yes, absolutely!" Whatever qualms she had about seeing into Mayumi's past were brushed aside as she got inside the training pod. Charlie gave a sigh as he brought up his credit chit to pay the shopkeeper. Once Rick smiled, Harper sealed up the training pod with the ease of familiarity and let the wrist-comm sync to the pod. The onboard system announced it was playing the file followed by the lens flashing brightly into her retinas and then the world went dark.
Visual Data... received.
Acoustic Data... received.
Tactile Data... received.
The words on display a harsh white against the darkness. They disappeared and a setting began to form little by little. Brief snatches of color and light ducked in and out like a glitchy screen. Smells too came in and out. She felt a hot sun against her head briefly. Heard the sound of ragged breaths. Then more and more of the sounds of several boots kicking off sand.
Suddenly, the whole process came together, and Harper could see she was on a sandy training ground. She could feel her boots dig into the loose sand. The fatigue in her legs and arms, the crawling drip of sweat down her back as the scorching sun warmed her short hair. After a moment she internalized that she was doing jumping jacks.
A realization that she wasn't herself, struck Harper instantly. She was shorter now, around 160 centimetres. Her hair, which was long and in a ponytail usually, was short cropped. Her body felt smaller, thinner then she felt it was supposed to be. All of her entire body, in fact, didn't feel like how she remembered it was supposed to be. A wave of disorientation on who and where she was washed through her.
Then just as quickly the depersonalization passed. Slowly, Olivia accepted herself as inside the simulation and relaxed. She tried to make it feel like she was watching a movie but how visceral everything was made it hard to get over.
Inside Mayumi's memory, the instructor at the front ordered them to halt. Mayumi and other recruits stopped. Mayumi exhaled deeply and stretched herself towards the sky. Olivia could feel the hot rays against the sweat on Mayumi's face. One drop slipped between her nose and tearduct and Harper could feel it irritate Mayumi's eye before she blinked it away.
As she bent back down, hands pressed against her lower back, Mayumi looked over to her left resting her gaze on a man with curling black hair gleaming against the sun. Olivia watched as Mayumi eyed his chest and traced it up towards his face. Even without knowing Mayumi's thoughts, she could tell she liked him. Their eyes met and with a small smile his eyes move encouragingly towards the instructor. Mayumi hesitated a second as did the man before quickly snapping to attention, face forward.
"Good," the instructor declares with an growling drawl, "have we all adapted to our Gen one implants?"
"Sir, yes sir!" Mayumi and the others answer.
"I praise the day that Uncle Hammond gave us, the Colonial Marine Corp, the ability to kill men above and beyond the capabilities of normal men. You bootnecks love Hammond too, correct?"
"Sir, yes sir!" They all replied.
"If you love Uncle Hammond so much I want to hear you say, thank you Uncle Hammond for giving me the tools to kill the Core System's enemies!"
"Thank you Uncle Hammond for giving me the tools to kill the Core System's enemies!" They repeat back.
"And we in the Colonial Marine Corps will bring peace and order by?"
"Force!" The recruits shout.
"Peace and order by?" The instructor yells again.
"Force!" They all shout back louder.
"I still can't hear you bootnecks! Peace and order by what?"
"FORCE!" The entire assembly shouts.
"Out-fucking-standing! Kit up and run to the gun range now! Move! Move! Move! Move!"
They all turn and burst into a run towards a central building. Inside there are tanks and crates stored in the shade away from the blistering sun. The Pilot trainees turn and bolt up the stairs towards their lockers above. As soon as they arrive, each of them quickly peel off their IMC silver colored sweats and snuggle into their Pilot suits. There's small talk, bitching, boasts; the normal between exercises routine. Mayumi quickly grabs the Pilot suit from her locker and pulls it up her legs.
"So when do you think they'll let us handle Titans?" A man says close to her ear.
Mayumi turns her head to see the curly haired man behind her, his Pilot suit's arms dangling from his waist. She shifts her weight to one hip as she sticks her arms into the tight sleeves of her Pilot suit shrugging them up to her shoulders.
"Soon I hope."
The man nods at her answer, leaning in. "I bribed Hyung to give me his weekend pass."
"How much did that cost you?" She giggles, gently bumping him with her hip.
"More than you want to know." He states unenthused. "See you Friday then?"
"Only if you out shoot me Nimr," She says zipping up her suit and grabbing her helmet from the shelf in the locker.
"Hey! But you said!" He quickly pulls on his suit's sleeves. Despite his protests a big excited grin is plastered on his face.
Mayumi leaves with a large portion of the others only looking behind once to see how far behind Nimr is. Olivia hears Mayumi giggle to herself. Despite the strangeness of the situation, Harper enjoys seeing her friend happy. Her vision flickers and turns to blackness again.
File view interrupted by external user. Appears in harsh white text before the bright lights of the lens reappear depositing her vision back into reality. She blinks as the pod door opens revealing Charlie and the shopkeeper. Once Olivia feels like herself again, she pulls herself out of the pod.
"Thank you," She says to Charlie with a grateful nod.
"Course." He replies.
"So, are you interested in buying the unit? An SRS team was through here not too long ago looking to purchase it, but I'd be willing to sell it to..."
"We'll think about it," Harper interrupts him and walks out of the shop. A few moments later, Charlie joins her out on the street. They both stand there for a moment not saying anything. Olivia doesn't want to talk about what she saw just yet despite how mundane it might be.
Charlie strokes his chin and then walks towards the Shoberg. She gets in as he turns the engine over. They drive for a while in silence. It's not until they're back on the country road near the Hamlet, that Olivia finally finds the words to explain.
"Back when I was in the IMC, the squad I was attached to was ran by uh, a real piece of work, yeah? She was absolutely mental about killing that man Ramirez, the one at the bar with Vlocke."
"No shit?" Charlie commented.
"He flipped at some point and she, um, she... buried a lot of our own people at the Boneyard to kill him. It was wrong, yeah? But I don't know, I just couldn't let that go and she hated me for it. She, Winter, um," Harper felt her lip trembling as she knew where her story led, "wanted someone for G-two and was pressuring my friend, Mayumi, to do it."
Charlie says nothing, letting her take her time. She's thankful he's understanding and parses out how she wants to explain things.
"So on the day, she assigns me to die on Persephone... Mayumi comes to my quarters... She was so conflicted and alone. My only friend in that whole miserable mess... and Winter, she just showed up looking for what she wanted. And just like that, she took my friend away and removed any traces of what she used to be."
"I'm sorry," Charlie offers.
Olivia nods, chewing on her lip until she's found her words again. "Except, Mayumi, sent me her memories. Disobeying Winter and she told me to live. I guess in a way we both might have now." She chuckled nervously and the Shoberg settled into a respectful silence.
"I think," Olivia continued after a while, "you're the first person I told this to after the SRS detained me."
"Well," Charlie said after a moment, "I don't know how long Rick there will let you keep renting that pod but I'll talk to Barker about it."
"Boss, no, you don't have to do that!" Harper protested. "I don't even know if I really want to look at them again myself."
"Listen, if I had lost Russ and I got a gift like what you got. I'd do anything I could to hold onto them. It's your choice o' course but if you want that machine, we'll work it out."
"Thank you. Let me, um, think about it, yeah?" She nods gratefully.
"No worries, Harper. Take a sickie tomorrow if you need to process anything. No one will think you're a bludger."
"I'm good. Honestly."
"Right," Charlie brought the Shoberg to a stop outside her house, "then I'll see you tomorrow mornin' at the bridge for inspection."
"Got it, boss."
She opened the truck's door and stepped out into the late afternoon sun. Charlie gave her a little wave and then drove on towards the silo and Barker's office. Olivia entered her house and set about making some tea. Today had been full of emotional experiences and she wanted to sit and process them. She compiled them into a mental list, and sitting there on her cot, Olivia spaced out while looking through her room's window.
Through absent minded sips, she thought about her promise to Mayumi, about her dad, about who she was now, and where she was now. Through all the months that she'd waited in anticipation of some terrible verdict, she'd been given a great opportunity and great place to start again. With the Demeter gate gone, the possibility of seeing Earth again, seeing her father again was gone. It hurt but she had to accept it. Maybe one day, she could send a message back to her dad. Until then, this was her world, a quiet hamlet of people looking to stay out of the war.
A sound at her door pulled her away from her thoughts. She turned and saw Vlocke leaning against her door frame. Seeing his long unkempt hair made Harper for a moment want to get her's cut back to regulation length again. Dark bags were under his drooping eyes. The shirt he was wearing was ripped and sweat stained. His beard full and bristly, a far cry from the style he had had on Persephone. Despite how calm she'd been feeling, her grip on her cup tightened unconsciously.
"Hi?" she said as friendly as she could, while surprised by his sudden appearance.
He hesitated there in the doorway, his lips tightened and he jutted his chin forward. She saw his eyebrows knit together as he settled into a glare. "You shouldnae get to know them."
It caught her by surprise as a ridiculous notion. This was her home now. There wasn't going anywhere else she could go. Home was lightyears away behind the shattered gate at Demeter. She felt her face get warm as she calmly set the tea cup aside.
"Yeah? Why's that?"
His resolve wavered. She hadn't given him the reaction he expected or he was having second thoughts. Yet he shrugged and folded his arms. "Everyone dies, so what's the point?"
"Yeah, sorry, what?" Harper said taken aback.
The morning jog and the visions from Mayumi's memories were still fresh in her mind. Harper didn't want to get stuck in with an argument with her flatmate about death. She felt vulnerable right now and didn't want to get dragged into whatever he was on about.
Vlocke looked to be picking his words carefully now as he took in a deep sigh through his nostrils. "Look, I'm sure ya donnae want to hear this from me," he started again.
"Listen, mate, yeah I really don't want to hear this right now." She said visibly annoyed. "Do you mind?
"No."
"No?" She repeated, drawing out the word.
"No," he said it again, finding his footing standing now in her doorway; arms still folded. "You need tae hear this even if ya don't want tae! Those people out there are gonna die. One day the IMC are gonna come and kill them! It will hurt a hell of a lot less if you just stay away from them."
What an arsehole! She huffed. Standing up from her cot, teeth gritted under her scowl, she gave him a quick shove away from her door. This wasn't normally like her. Normally, she was upbeat and friendly, but this talk about the IMC killing the Turners. Just when she felt she was finally getting out from under the funk she'd been in, Vlocke has to come around and pull this shit? She tried to slam the door in his face
He caught the door with his arm, wedging it between the door and the jam. Vlocke grunted in pain and she saw the bruise forming on his forearm. She hadn't meant to catch his arm. Hadn't meant to hurt him. Now that she had, she thought about pulling back the door a little but she didn't want to give a little. That could mean he could enter.
"Move your arm," She growled.
"No!" He refused. "I'm trying tae help ya understand that getting involved is only gonna hurt!"
"Help!?" Harper pushed firmly on the door, emphasizing her point. "In case you hadn't noticed, everyone here has been hurt! We're all just trying to get past it! You're the one still wallowing in pain!"
That wasn't for her to say but she was mad. He'd never bothered her before. Why today of all days did he have to start now? Her eyes watered again. She wasn't so shiny anymore, she'd survived worse than this. Starred down monsters on a doomed planet, so why? Why did he have to mention everyone has to die? Her dad wasn't dead. He's alone. The thought came unbidden, unannounced. She swallowed it down, her pressure on the door loosening. Mayumi's alone.
"Aye, that maybe." He laughed followed by a sharp painful inhale. "Ya asked me once why I left. I'll tell ya why, really why. I've been cursed, Valkyrie. Everyone I get close to dies. I've survived three squads, right? What kind of person is the sole survivor three times? A bloody fuckin' unlucky one that's who!" His laugh grew louder and that worried her. He wiggled his arm and she quickly reasserted her pressure on the door. "And you went and pulled me out, Valkyrie!"
"Stop calling me Valkyrie!" Harper snaps.
"You can't stop being what you are anymore than I can." He grunts and tries to move the door again.
"That's not true. Just look around this place. You're not the Grim fucking Reaper! Everyone who dies isn't because of you."
"That's right! That's exactly who I am," he growls, "that's exactly what I've been warning you about! I see you getting buddy buddy with him and his family. That's why I stay away from everyone. Especially you."
At the mention of the Turners, Harper grabs his arm pinning it against the door frame. Vlocke winces as she pulls the door away. Angrily, she forces him back into the hallway and into the kitchen counter. It doesn't matter if he likes me or not. He better not bloody hurt the Turners!
"The Turners are good people. I wouldn't let anything bad happen to them. You understand me?" She says sharply.
"Even after all the shit you went through, you're still just as shiny as ever."
She releases Vlocke's arm roughly at the insult letting it hit the counter. The sting of it shows on his face but he doesn't move to clutch it. Instead, he seems more relaxed. She glares at him for a moment before backing into her room, making sure he doesn't try to force his way back in.
He doesn't move and a smirk on his face, chortling. "Bet ya regretting pullin' me oot noo. Eh, Valkyrie? You should just left me there! Aye? Big fucking mistake that!"
She slammed her door silencing him out. Harper pushed her back up against the door and pushed the bangs from her eyes. A tear ran down her face and she realized that she had been more affected than she thought. What an absolute bastard! For a moment, she regrets ever pulling him out but knew better. There hadn't been anyone else there. It was just them and the difference between life and death. If she had to do it again, she would. She had made her friend a promise and she kept her promises.