"GET OUT!"
25
Sabine
The door closed behindthem with a click that felt like a cattle prod. I stood frozen in the center of my bedroom, suddenly aware of the invisible eyes still watching me. Where was it hidden? Behind the mirror? In the light fixture? I couldn't destroy what I couldn't find.
I lunged for my clothes, yanking them on layer by layer. Jeans. Sweater. Socks. Even a jacket, though the room wasn't cold. Each piece of fabric felt like armor, though pathetically inadequate.
Again, I paced the length of the room, five steps one way, five steps back. My jaw clenched so tight my teeth might crack. My hands trembled, but not from fear. This was rage, building like ice in my veins, cold and sharp and dangerous.
"Protocol," Kara had said, like that explained everything. Like that made it okay.
Every moment since I'd arrived replayed in my mind with sickening clarity. When Ellie touched me at the bottom of the stairs, her hand lingering just a second too long—had someone been watching through the camera? When Cam leaned against my bathroom mirror while I... God. Had they all gathered around some monitor, watching me touch myself?
My skin crawled. I needed a shower but wouldn't give them the satisfaction. Not now. Not ever again.
They'd seen everything. Every tear I'd shed thinking I was alone. Every moment I'd let my guard down. Every time I'd changed clothes or stretched or scratched or just existed, thinking I had privacy.
No wonder they always knew exactly what to say, exactly how to calm me down. It wasn't intuition or empathy or whatever bullshit connection I thought we were building.
It was surveillance.
I stopped pacing and stared at the invisible camera I couldn't locate. My heart pounded in my chest, but the rest of me felt ice cold as the violation settled into my bones.
A gentle knock interrupted my silent fury. Three soft raps against the wood, hesitant.
"Sabine? Dinner's ready."
I didn't answer. My jaw ached from clenching it so hard.
The door opened anyway. Ellie stood in the doorway, her eyes widening slightly at the sight of me fully dressed, standing rigid in the center of the room.
"You need to eat something," she said, her voice soft in that way that had once seemed caring. Now it just sounded calculated.
I stared at the wall behind her left shoulder. My silence filled the room like concrete, hardening between us.
"We can talk about this," she tried again, taking a half-step into the room. "Please, Sabine."
"No." The word fell from my lips like a stone. "Leave me alone."
I turned away from her, arms crossed over my chest. The fabric of my jacket rustled, too loud in the quiet room.
"I'm not hungry," I added, my voice flat and dead.
Ellie lingered in the doorway for several seconds. I could feel her eyes on my back, assessing, analyzing. Probably reporting everything back to the others through some hidden earpiece.
"Dinner's on the table when you're ready," she finally said. The door closed behind her with a soft click.
My stomach growled, betraying me. I pressed a hand against it, furious at my own body for its weakness.
They wanted me to stay here, trapped in this room like a sulking child. That was exactly what I wouldn't do. I wouldn't hide. I wouldn't cower.
I straightened my spine, squared my shoulders, and walked to the door. I would face them on my terms.
I stepped into the hallway, heading for dinner and the confrontation that waited there.
I stepped into the kitchen with my spine rigid as steel. Kara looked up from her seat at the head of the table, her expression carefully neutral. Ellie and Cam exchanged a quick glance that spoke volumes. They didn't think they'd done anything wrong.
