Chapter Sixteen
Told by Max
I rush out of the room, ready to see Ella. In Main Hall, I see a group of Sentinels, Ella in the middle of them, a medic checking on her. She catches sight of me and exclaims, "MAX!" Then her eyes flick behind me. "Iggy!" She starts running toward us. I open my arms, awaiting her hug, when she runs right past me. I turn as she wraps her arms arond Iggy.
Great. My own sister chooses the blind kid over me. Wonderful.
Then she turns to me. She hugs me. That's when I notice she's soaking wet. She looks small and frail compared to what she was before. Then she pats Gazzy on the head and hugs Nudge. Someone wraps a blanket around her shoulders and hands her a cup of still-steaming tea. She mumbles a thank you and sips it as she's pelted with questions.
I hear Rese come up behind me, see her looking for someone.
"Where's Callun?"
*.*.*. Rese POV .*.*.*
"I'm sorry, Rese. Callun... he was killed by them."
I can't move. Can't breath. The words hit me like a physical blow to the chest. The words swirl through my head.
I finally start breathing again. Deep, quick breaths.
"NO!" The words is ripped from my chest as I turn and run.
Callun is dead,
I fly swiftly up the stairwell, not even knowing where I'm heading.
My little brother was killed.
I find myself on a balcony on the eigth floor.
My little brother is dead.
It is raining. How fitting.
Callun. Is. Dead.
*.*.*. Ratchet POV .*.*.*
"We should split up. Try to find her." Kai says. "If you find her, don't try to force her to come inside yet. She needs time to adjust." Kai says the last sentence softer.
We all set out to find her.
As I make my way up the stairs, I remember her wings snapping out. The first time I've ever seen them. A dark brown with grey, yellow, and red speckles. The speckles are barely noticeable, but there.
I also wish that more than anything that I had wings at this moment. Stupid endless stairs.
Long story short, after wondering around the mostly empty eigth floor, I see an empty room with a door at the back. The door is slightly ajar, as if someone was in a rush and didn't stop to see if the door was closed all the way. So I open it and step out onto a balcony, into the rain.
The rain fall heavily, but through the rain I see Rese, knees pulled up to chest, arms snaked around her legs. Her hood is down, for once, and her hair is down instead of the odd buns at her shoulders that she usually wears. Rese's long, wet hair is plastered to her, so long is reaches past her waist, ends up scraping the floor beneath her. She looks... vulnerable, curled into a little ball.
She doesn't even bother looking up as I come to sit beside her.
"What are you doing out in this rain?" I eventually ask.
She is silent for a long while, making me doubt she heard. "It's hard to tell if someone's been crying when they've been in the rain." Her voice is weak, small. Very unlike the Rese I know.
The complete honesty of it surprises me, though.
"Truth." I agree.
"I just don't know what to do." Her voice has a hopeless tone to it.
"I don't think anyone does." Even though I'm sure she was talking to herself, I had to answer.
Suddenly her head is on my shoulder. I lift my arm and wrap it around her shoulders. I don't know what to do or what to think.
"I had a sister once." I say suddenly, surprising myself. I have no clue why I said that.
Rese pulls back enough to look me in the eyes. "What?"
I attempt to not get lost in the piercing gaze as she stares at me wit her green eyes.
"Well." I pull my gaze away. "We were both taken by the white coats. One of the experiments on her went wrong. They said she was probably going to dies, so they scheduled her to be put in the field where the white coats' personal army trained. She was bait for them. But she started to recover. They didn't care enough to check, but she was. That was the inspiration for me to escape. On the day she was taken to the field, I made my move. We got out. We were almost safe. If not for the bullet. right through her neck. I held her as she died." I swallow at the memory, forcing it away.
I don't even know why I'm telling anyone this. Or why it's Rese, of all people.
"And saying sorry changes nothing." Rese states.
You're optimistic today, Rese. I think.
~You know it.~ She projects into my mind.
"Why are you out here?" Rese asks after another silence.
"It's just... I wanted someone to be there for me when Lyla died. You can't be strong all the time, Rese." I say quietly. She lays her head on my chest and cries. I wrap my arms around her. She isn't crying hard.
"It's all my fault. I was supposed to protect him." Rese whispers.
I put my hands on her shoulders and position her so that she faces me. With one hand I lift her chin to where she looks me in the eye.
"It's not your fault. No matter what, it's not your fault. There was nothing you could do." I tell her.
She looks at me. There she is. A breath away. We're getting closer, slowly. Closer. Closer. Then...
"I never knew you had green eyes." Rese says suddenly.
"Wha-?"
Oh, yeah. My sunglasses got destroyed last training session.
Both laughing, I stand up and offer her a hand.
"What do you say to getting out of this rain?"