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We’d been confined to keeping our identities hidden back then, not able to draw attention to him. People knew his name and face.
Regardless of little bubbles of hope, Ransom had declined every day since the moment I’d met him. We watched him lose pieces of himself before our very eyes, begging us to help him keep them. Begging us to remember when he didn’t.
But I would remember it all for him so I could give it back when he returned.
There had been another flash of life from him today. We were so close. So fucking close to a breakthrough, I could feel it.
And even spending time with him like this wasn’t something I’d been able to do for a while. He got vicious when around others for too long.
But for the first time, we were in rewind. Every step he’d tumbled down over months and months, they were reversing.
That was the gift Shatter offered, the breath of hope I’d never had. Because not once in the time I’ve known Ransom, was he climbing back up those stairs.
There were so many steps from which he’d slipped, when I hadn’t known the value of what I had on each. I hadn’t known that just sitting by his side even when he was silent, was something I would miss one day. At the time I’d hated it, because he hadn’t spoken. At the time, I hadn’t known how much more would be stolen.
I wouldn’t make that mistake ever again.
There was no end to what could be stripped from me if I didn’t fight back. If I let the world take and take.
It would never stop.
I’d learned the hard way, twice over. With Ransom, second.
Umbra, first.
They’d broken him.
Umbra was a shell of himself, held together by instincts and a vicious aura that kept seeping into the room like poison at unexpected moments, shaking me to my core.
He’d turned on me.
Where before, he forced me to eat his food, he now took mine, becoming violent if I argued. Then, one night when I was weak with starvation, he’d attacked me in a fit of rage, his aura out of control. I could have reached the emergency button, but I didn’t even try.
I wouldn’t let them take more from him.
I gritted my teeth through a scream as he’d pinned me to the bathroom floor, the blunt end of that broken plastic fork digging into my back. Even when he’d left me curled up and bleeding, my tears were silent.
Iwould never forsake him. Since the experiments had started, I’d had everything violated: Mind, memory, body, and soul. He was my only anchor.
I had to be chosen next. It was the only peace I had. I knew what this was: he couldn’t take another round of experiments.
Last time, they’d chosen Umbra for being the weakest. This time, it would be my burden to bear.
Always one step behind, even then. Because after everything, it had been Umbra they’d come for.
I’d let it happen. Not fighting hard enough.
Never again.
I opened the texts on my phone and fired one off. Decebal was our main contact. He’d been working with us since the beginning, trying to help us get to the bottom of this mess. He was the one getting the feed from the Lincoln pack apartment.
Me: Anything, yet?
Decebal: Nothing major
Decebal: They’re exactly like you said. Pricks, but they haven’t said anything useful.
I considered that. It was to be expected. The kind of information we needed from them probably wasn’t part of everyday conversations. I would have to be patient, like I had to be patient with Ransom.
