Around me the entire day and into the night, more discussions and strategies were coming together. Preparations and weapons. An agenda that we would aim for.
Stepping into the house, I took a deep breath. Inhaling the familiar scents. Clean and fresh was always the base, but there was that electric charge that hung on the air, too. The one that said ‘this house belongs to fucking storms’ loud and clear.
With a content smile, I headed into the kitchen, raiding the fridge to see what I could snack on. I was famished and couldn’t remember the last time I ate something. I pulled out a food container and popped the lid, not caring what was inside. It heated in the microwave for a few minutes as I pulled off my hoodie and pants, dropping them on the floor by my discarded shoes to take care of later.
Hot container in hand, I grabbed a spoon and headed into the TV room that we rarely set foot in. I dropped onto the sectional and pulled the cover off, letting the red sauce and cheese aroma fill my lungs. My stomach clenched with hunger, and I dug in, ignoring how it burnt all surfaces of my mouth. Well worth it, even though I barely tasted it.
After a handful of bites, I reached for the remote and clicked on the television. Flipping until something remotely interesting came up, I inhaled the contents of the container. I was just finishing when a shadow stood in the door.
Kohara looked spent. He smiled at me, blinking sleepily.
“Hi,” I said, sitting up. “Want something to eat? There were more of these.” I held up the container as an indication.
“No,” he said, his voice exhausted. He pulled off his suit jacket and dropped it at the end of the couch before sitting down beside me and pulling me against him. He sighed into my hair, burying his face in the side of my head. “Just sit with me a while, hm?”
I nodded, shifting so we’d get comfortable laying together on the couch. He wrapped around me, draping his leg over my hip. Pressing his face to the back of my head. His arms holding me securely like a harness.
Kohara took a deep breath and settled.
“Are you okay?” I asked quietly.
“Yep. Just need to rest a while.”
I smiled, nodded, and snuggled back against him letting this perfect moment of peace envelope us.
“Missed you,” he murmured.
My smile widened. I reached up behind him and pulled the blanket down, letting it fall over us how it fell. Kohara sighed again and I could already feel him falling into sleep. His muscles relaxing. His body becoming heavy against me.
Once, we used to cuddle like this weekly. Just spending time together. Talking. Playing video games. Unloading whatever was on our minds. With the excitement of Hadley and then the upheaval of our peace because of Silence, it’s been a while.
And yeah, I could feel the absence of these moments loudly now that he was here. “Missed you too,” I whispered, closing my eyes.
I sent out a silent plea to the universe that this wouldn’t be our last.
Bronte
By the next morning,Kohara and I were both back in the conference room, though we attended to different things. Koh was deep into gathering as much information as he could, making sure we went in with all eyes wide open. And me? I was obsessively memorizing the layout of the building.
The magic sonar, or whatever it was, had finished scanning in the wee hours of the morning. Akello and Plum had gone home when I left. This morning, it was Seneca here.
“There are still some black spots,” she explained and pointed out a few as she shifted the screen around. A three-dimensional image floated between us and she walked us to the first shaded room that we couldn’t get a read on. “I wouldn’t say avoid them, but definitely go in guns blazing.”
“With the safety on,” I said.
She looked at me, raising a brow. “No. Keep the safety off, Bronte. Just don’t get trigger-happy.”
The layout gave us a good look at what we were going up against. It showed bars where there were clearly cells. It even gave us approximate furniture. Cabinetry, toilets, desks. It was all stupidly useful information.
While the rooms were just empty images, the toilets and cabinets and whatnot jutting out of the floor or the wall as if they were part of it, we could almost imagine what was going on in the rooms. It also left a sour taste in my mouth when we focused on the rooms with what were unmistakably hospital beds.
More than anything, we knew that they weren’t there to nurse someone’s injuries. They were there to cause trauma beyond your imagination. Ady and Cobalt would be the first to tell you the kinds of things that happened within those walls. The things they’ve seen and been through are enough to give me second thoughts.
I’d rather die in those walls than be trapped alive.
Although there were a dozen other things that I could be doing, I spent most of the day virtually moving through the building, room by room. When I finished one tour, I took another. Then another. By the fourth complete circuit, I was anticipating what I’d see around the next corner. Without realizing, I was also imagining what those rooms were used for based on the furniture in them.
“Office,” I murmured, turning in a slow circle. I’d blown the 3D image up so it was lifelike and let the rooms move around me as I shifted the screen forward or back. This wasn’t an important office, though. It had three desks and a bunch of filing systems.
