Destruction - The Oasis Project Book 2 (Complete)

Forty-Six - Ira

I was a strange combination of seething, detached, and heartbroken when Stuart collapsed on Yulian at the bottom of the stairs. I was there faster, having almost rolled my ankle leaping down to the ground floor, but my arms were still handcuffed behind my back. Yulian's cheek was still bleeding from when I struck him with the handcuffs like I'd learnt from Doctor Nita. A thin stream of blood ran down his face like a tear as he propped Stuart up.

I gaped at the two of them and it didn't occur to me to follow until they were already halfway up. My head was still pounding and dizzy from earlier, and I was having trouble telling the passing of time. "What did you do?" I whispered, to myself, to Stuart, to Yulian for bruising my arms to hold me back from a fight that I'd started.

"Ira, coming?" Yulian called from the landing. He looked concerned, and Stuart was shaking like a leaf against him, his exposed hand bright red.

I walked up the stairs, and it didn't take much of a look to make Yulian reach into his pocket while still propping Stuart up. He threw me a set of keys which I caught behind my back. I was relieved when the handcuffs clicked open.

"Ira, I-" Stuart began.

"Don't speak," I said a little too forcefully, but he nodded and drew in a deep breath. I remembered that I didn't want to speak to him after he pulled a gun on me, but as I helped Stuart to the room where I was a prisoner for a grand total of fifteen minutes, I wasn't sure what I was feeling anymore.

Yulian lowered Stuart onto the bed before wiping the trail of drying blood off his cheek. "Water?" he asked, but Stuart weakly shook his head before turning on his side and burying half of his pained face in the pillow. When Yulian couldn't get anything out of Stuart, he turned to me. "Ira, say something," he commanded in Russian. "Do something." When I stood frozen where I was, he sighed and left the room, accidentally telling Stuart to rest up in Russian before closing the door on us.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds before forcing my legs to walk over to Stuart. I sighed and traced his burning cheek, pushing all other thoughts aside. "What happened?" I could barely push a whisper through the shock. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I think..." His eyes fluttered open. "It worked..." They shut again as Stuart drew in a shaky breath.

"What worked?" I got some of my voice back. "You were screaming."

"Linkin," Stuart said, shuddering. "She was so brainwashed and wanted to reprogram you, so I showed her everything the Oasis Project did in the labs..."

His hand found mine and clenched around it, weak and trembling. He must have relived so much trauma on top of enduring Linkin's touch. Stuart had been screaming for what felt like minutes, and I was sure that Linkin wasn't the one who kept holding on. Grinding his teeth, Stuart started to shiver under the covers. "Are you cold?" I asked, ready to go downstairs and ask Thierry for more blankets. Maybe not Thierry. Maybe through Yulian.

"Just stay here please," Stuart said with a sigh.

"Of course." I kissed his brow softly and tucked the covers around him, before sitting on the floor next to the bed. Absently stroking his hair, I watched as he relaxed and eventually drifted off to sleep.

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"Hey, hey, wake up." I was shaking Stuart's shoulder as forcefully as I could without scaring him. His eyes were screwed tightly shut and his breaths came out uneven through quiet sobs.

"Nellie?" he finally mumbled, sighing and rolling onto his back.

"Nellie?" I echoed, my heart jumping to my throat. "It's Ira."

Stuart opened his eyes and tried to find me in the dark. His eyelashes were damp and he was certainly awake now. "Did I call you Nellie? I'm so sorry. What happened?"

"You were crying in your sleep." I sounded like a robot. "I woke you up."

He sighed and rubbed his eyes, and put a hand to the damp pillow. "Oh." He sounded like he was holding back something. "I don't remember dreaming about my sister."

Nellie? "Maybe she woke you up a lot when you were younger?" I tried.

"Yes," Stuart said, his voice pinched. He pulled the covers close around his chin.

"Do you want to talk about..." I was cut off by Stuart sighing heavily. "Where are you going?" I asked when he sat up and pushed himself off the bed.

"Cover your eyes," he said, and when I did so in confusion, he flicked on the lights. "Sorry, I needed a reality check." I couldn't keep up with what Stuart was doing as he held out an arm for me to sit next to him on the bed.

He hugged me hard but said nothing. "Are you alright?" It was a pointless question, but I didn't know what else to ask. I'd never seen him so spent.

Stuart's head was heavy on my shoulder. "I think what I did with Linkin, thinking of everything I tried so hard to bury..." He squeezed the air out of me and all I could do was tell him it was okay and rub up and down his back. "Just all at once. I haven't thought about Natalie in a long time."

"Why?" I didn't know if he wanted to keep talking.

"S-She jumped off a bridge when I was seven. She was twenty."

I wasn't expecting that. "I'm so sorry."

"That was when I knew I was going to be a psychiatrist," he murmured. "Look at me now."

"You've done more than any psychiatrist would have," I reassured him. "You've helped so many people."

Stuart unlatched himself from me. His shoulders were slumped. "I'm so sorry, Ira. I should've never given you that gun. I should've known... Linkin said they tried to reprogram you six times." I froze. My mouth hung open. "I had no idea it wasn't loaded. I was so busy thinking about Linkin. Of course, Four would've planned this in advance, but I didn't know..."

I thought about turning the gun on myself at the airport and shivered. My heart fell to pieces; that might have been why he thought of his sister. "I'm so sorry. I-I'll never do that again."

"It wasn't your fault, Ira," Stuart said. He sighed and swung his legs onto the bed. "Anyway, we'll talk about it in the morning. Try and get some sleep for now."