Page 117 of Uprising

Sofia frowns looking at me then back at him. “Who are you?” She says so quietly.

He smiles, a genuine, soft smile I could barely believe possible. “I was the one who made him pay.”

She binks, her face going from confusion to fear. “Who, who are you?” She asks again but as he takes a step into the room she seems to panic more, and he sees it, he registers it, and he glances at me before walking back out and leaving us alone as if he’d never even been here.

She turns her head away, shutting her eyes and I place my hand over hers. “No one is going to hurt you now.” I say.

“Who is he?”

“His name is Koen. He’s been letting us hide out here. He’s been helping us too. Helping us fight Darius.”

“Koen Diaz?” She gasps.

“Do you know him?” I ask. God, it would certainly explain a few things if she did, though I can’t imagine how their paths have crossed.

“No.” She says. “I mean, we all know of him don’t we? But I’ve never met him, I’ve never…”

“It’s okay.” I say hearing the strain in her voice, the panic too. “You need to rest, you need to get your strength back.” I don’t add that she needs to get clean too. That they injected her with meth. That though she herself is not technically an addict by choice, her body is being weaned off it nonetheless.

“Where’s Ben?” She asks. “Is he alive?”

“He’s alive. I can get him for you.”

She shakes her head. “No, I don’t…” Her shoulders slump. “I just needed to know he was okay that’s all.”

“Sofia,” I begin but she shakes her head cutting me off.

“I need to sleep. I, please.” Her eyes fill with tears, as though she’s in pain and then I see it, the way her body is trembling.

“I’ll get a doctor.” I say quickly.

She nods, biting her lip. “I need to be alone.” She whispers it but I still hear the shame.

“Sofia, you have nothing to be ashamed of.” I state.

She whimpers shutting her eyes. “Please, just go, just go.”

I want to argue, I want to say something, something healing, something that gets through but I can see the way she’s crumbling that right now what she needs is alone time. So I pick Lara up, say goodnight, and walk away.

Once more feeling utterly useless. Utterly helpless.

Rose

It feels like a blur. I know I’m out of the house. Away from him and yet it’s like my mind can’t register it, like I can’t process anything.

A doctor checks me over. Beyond a few nasty bruises and a facture of my arm I’ve escaped relatively unscathed.

Only it doesn’t feel like that.

Every time I blink I see his face, that look, that acceptance. And then the gun goes off and his face is blown away and all that is left is a wound so big and so horrific I keep screaming.

I can’t stop screaming.

They give me something to calm my nerves and though I know it’s meant to help that scares the shit out of me more, that they’re drugging me, sedating me, taking away some level of my control. I fight them, I lash out, sending a drip stand crashing to the ground.

But the needle gets in anyway.

And that awful drug slips into my blood and while I’ll admit I do feel calmer, I can feel that panic still there, that fear that any minute someone is going to come storming in, that Darius will find me and I’ll be too weak to stop it.