𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Chapter 77 | Peril

                                        LEVAI

"I'll be right back. Do you mind helping him with the balloons?" I was touching her for the first time fully in a while. I didn't want to let go, but I knew I had to calm the others after seeing Miri's experience.

Theo most of all.

"Course not," she stood up, releasing herself from my embrace. "Need all the weapons we can get right?"

My war analogy was catching on.
We were always quite serious about the games we played, and Samael always amused us even when he wasn't taking part.

Getting up from the floor, I entered the backyard, making sure to close the door behind. They were all sitting on the grass, not returning to the game.

"How is she? What the fuck happened?" Renny practically yells into my face as Oliver holds them in his arms. "She sometimes gets panic attacks, and she had one just now."

"She wants to play, so please don't make a big deal out of it," I ask, and they all seem to agree. "Poor thing." Reid threw out, and they all shared their small sentiments of remorse.

All except Renny who was deep in thought.

"She was happy... she only got that way when she saw you." Renny shot Theo an accusatory gaze, and it wasn't as if they were wrong.

Seeing Theo triggered her anxiety, through no fault of his own.
Sandrine stood near Theo, ready to redirect anything Renny had to say. "Get the fuck away from him."

"No, it's fine I'll go." Theo suggests, seeming completely beaten up. His voice is strained with so much fucking guilt that it squeezes at my heart.

"He hasn't done anything! If anything, he fucking saved her." Sandrine let out, and now everyone's gaze returned to me.

"Saved her from what?"

"Saved her from fucking what Levai? What the fuck did Miri need saving from?" Renny's voice was laced with poison. I hadn't realised they had gotten so close.

Theo walked to the entrance where I stood, ready to slide the door open to leave. "Come with me." I tell him.

Reluctantly, he follows my footsteps as I walk to the upstairs bedroom. "I'm so sorry man, this must be fucking horrendous."

"It is, but I deserve it. If I knew she was coming, I would have left I swear, please I'm so sorry." His facial expressions are no longer hide the tears that he starts to shed.

"Renny has no idea what-"

"Oh please if they were the reason I-I felt like this, I'd be a moron. I'd of slit the throat of whoever caused Miriam to act in that way by now." He has a slight smile at my naivety, and I feel ridiculous for suggesting that Renny was the reason why he was crying.

"I-It happened to me too. I was r-raped so many fucking times as a kid." My heart clenches so fucking hard against his disgruntled words and I'm unable to speak.

"I promised myself, once I left the place I was in where it happened that if I couldn't smile, then I'd always, always put a smile on the faces of the people I loved."

He covers his face with his sleeves, as we sit at the edge of the guest bed.

"Now I'm the direct cause of wiping that perfect smile off of her face."

"I-I failed.." His voice cracks against his supposed failures, and I can't do anything but hold him as he cries. He leans on his knees as I wrap my arms around him, feeling his chest lift and collapse against his sputtering.