Just an Echo in the Darkness

~Chapter Eight~

"Jax?"

"Ambria?"

Both of their voices sounded confused and wary.

"Ambria?" Bryce said walking up, Brielle right behind. Ambria didn't move her gaze from Jax. "You okay?"

Bryce looked back and forth from the two figures staring at each other. Brielle gasped once she got a good look at Jax.

"Jax, is that you?" Brielle asked.

"Jax?" Bryce said, confused. He looked at Ambria. "Your brother Jax? And he's not some ghost that looks like your brother?"

"Yeah, I'm Jax. You can see me, so I must not be a ghost. Though I have felt like one for the past six years, three-"

"-Months, and nineteen days," Ambria said, cutting him off.

"Nice to know someone's missed me."

"Everyone's missed you. And dad," Ambria said, not missing the way Jax's eyes darkened when she mentioned their father. "He's not here is he?" 

Ambria could tell that something was wrong. 

"Dad's... Dad's gone," Jax said. "He died four years ago. When he got too old to fit their criteria."

"Criteria?"

"When people don't fit the soldier's criteria anymore, well," Jax swallowed hard. "They get shot."

Ambria started crying, she hugged Jax holding him tightly, never wanting to let go. They had been far away for too long.

.- -- -... .-. .. .-

They got to work as soon as five soldiers came around to watch the progress. She stayed near her small group of Jax, Brielle, and Bryce.

After multiple of more hours of working, they were sent back to their cells. Brielle somehow still found the energy to make a conversation with Harlee, though she was too busy to say good night to Braylen.

"Brielle?" Ambria asked quietly, trying to not wake Harlee.

"Yeah?"

"What if we found a way to escape?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if you, me, Bryce, and Jax found a way to escape?"

"What about everyone else?" Brielle added. "What about Harlee and Braylen? None of these people deserves this. No one deserves to be trapped here like sequins on a dress, sewn so tight you can't get it off."

"Right," Ambria huffed, annoyed that Brielle actually came up with a good simile.

Harlee snored and flipped onto her other side and both Ambria and Brielle jumped. Realizing that she was just tossing and turning in her sleep, they quietly sat staring at the roof.

"Are you excited to be reunited with Jax?" Brielle asked, obviously trying to fill in the silence.

"Yeah, I mean he's my brother. But he seems-"

"Different." Brielle finished for her.

"Yeah. Different." Ambria said, agreeing. "Though the word I was gonna use was distant."

Jax had acted and looked different. As a teenager he never cared. He would be the one who would push you off the bridge if you went bungee jumping. But he now cared about every little thing.

Instead of the fourteen year old, with sassy snark and cunning comebacks he was the twenty one year old who had dropped all hope and was now living his days on repeat.

Slowly Ambria drifted off to sleep, into a world of running and fear. But this time, Ambria was ready to fight back. To win.