"Liar!" she spat, tears cutting tracks through the grime on her face. "You timed it! You left, and the drones came! You set it up!"
The accusation hit me square in the chest, winding me.
"We didn't," I choked out, my voice thick. "We saw the leak. We drove back. We broke the speed limit."
"It's content!" she screamed, her voice cracking, raw and terrible. "It's all just content for you! Fix the broken girl! Make her beg! Then sell the footage!"
She grabbed a rock from the path. A jagged piece of slate. She held it up, her arm shaking violently.
"I won't be the clip," she hissed. "I won't be the meme. Get out of my way, Daniel. I swear to god, I’ll hurt you."
She meant it. I could see it in the way her muscles bunched, in the desperate set of her jaw. She was fully regressed. She was the cornered animal, trapped in the loop of her worst memory.
My heart broke. It didn't crack; it shattered into dust.
I looked at the woman I loved, yes,loved, the realization terrifying and absolute, cowering in the mud, holding a rock because she thought I was selling her pain.
I couldn't fight her. I couldn't reason with her. Logic was gone.
Be the floor. It was the only thing that stood a chance of working, so I sank down.
I ignored the mud soaking into my jeans and the cold rain plastering my shirt to my skin. I went to my knees in the dirt, right there on the path.
"Throw it," I said.
My voice was low. A rumble beneath the wind.
Tessa froze, the rock trembling in her hand. "What?"
"If you think I did that," I said, locking my hazel eyes on hers, "then throw it. Hit me. I won't stop you."
"Don't! Don't do the voice," she sobbed, shaking her head. "Don't manipulate me."
"I'm not manipulating," I said. I lowered my head, baring my neck to her. The ultimate submission. The stance of a wolf offering its jugular. "I failed you, Tessa. We left you alone. We promised two hours, and we let the world inside the gate."
I took a breath, inhaling the scent of the storm and her soured blackberries.
"That is my sin," I rumbled. "I left my post. But I did not sell you out. I would burn the entire internet down before I let them hurt you."
"Then why are they here?" she wailed, the rock lowering slightly. "Why does it sound like the gym? Why won't it stop?"
"Because the world is ugly," I said, lifting my head slowly. "And because we were careless. But we’re here now."
I didn't move toward her. I stayed rooted. A statue in the rain.
"You're trying to leave," I observed softly. "Where are you going, Tessa? The woods end at the cliff. There's nowhere to go."
"I can disappear," she whispered. "I did it before. I can do it again. I'll change my name. I'll stop writing."
"You can't stop writing," I said. "It's your blood."
"It's my curse!" she threw the rock. It went wide, clattering harmlessly into the brush, but the motion made her sob harder. "I just want to be invisible!"
"I know," I said. "I know you want the quiet."
I shifted, sitting back on my heels.
"But if you run down this hill," I told her, pitching my voice to be the only stable thing in the chaos, "you run alone. You run cold. And you run hungry."
