Red Moon Rising

33. broken

Chapter Song: Unfucktheworld - Angel Olson

XX

"What now?" I hate how often I've come to ask that question. Reiner helps me off of the snowmobile near the school and frowns down at me.

"Now you go apologize."

"He won't buy that."

"Then you better be pretty damn convincing." He turns me around, hands pausing on my bound wrists. "Layla if you try anything, I'm going to hurt you. You understand that, right?"

"Yes. Just get it off already." I feel the pressure of the zip-tie lifting from my wrist, and then all at once it disappears. I hold my hands close to my chest, rubbing my wrists as Reiner gives me a wary look.

"Why are you trying to help me?" Aside from tasing and abducting me.

"Doesn't matter why. The point is that I'm right. Now go." He gives me a little push on my shoulder, and I walk on unsteady legs toward the front door of the school, slipping the edges of my sleeves over the red lines on my wrist. I glance back to find Reiner still watching me intently, following a short distance behind. The urge to run rises once again, but I shove it down and push through the heavy metal door.

This hallway felt foreboding when I left it to follow Isaac into the woods, and it feels even more grave now. In the distance, I hear the soft murmur of voices from the cafeteria. If Isaac's is among them, I can't tell yet. What if I could slip back into my room without Isaac ever knowing I was gone? Is that really the kind of olive branch that Reiner would offer me? And what's his incentive to lessening whatever consequences are coming my way?

I think he knows Isaac even better than I do. I think he doesn't want to let Isaac give me an even better reason to run. But why is it so important that I stay here? When I step from the hallway into the cafeteria, I catch Sam's eyes burning fierce and horrified into me until his gaze drops to his food once again. He isn't the only one to stare with that look of knowing; I think my chances of slipping back in unnoticed are gone. They all know that I tried to escape, and they all know that I'm going to pay for it. That's when my eyes finally find Isaac. He sets his fork back onto his plate and swings his leg over the table bench, seeming to see past me when he approaches.

The sickness in my stomach threatens to overwhelm me when his hand slips gently over the small of my back, and I stare at the cracking tile floor as he guides me to where Reiner is waiting at the entrance to the hall.

"Where was she?"

"Five miles west, right off the road."

"Did she take anything?"

"Just food."

"Did she fight you?"

"No."

Isaac is quiet, and his hand slides up the back of my neck. I'm going to be sick here in front of everyone. The urge to collapse or vomit or both saps the strength from my legs. "Don't ever lie to me again, Reiner."

He tugs me by the neck, away from Reiner, away from the cafeteria, back toward the room I swore I'd never enter again.

"Isaac," I whisper, but his fingers tighten like a vice.

"Shut up, Layla," he says, too evenly. "Just shut the fuck up."

I listen to the sound of our footsteps on the tile floor as my heart tries to beat right out of its cage. We pause outside his door long enough for him to to force it open before he shoves me roughly inside. At least Isaac is a private man. At least nobody else has to witness this. I steady myself against the footboard of this bed and finally look at him. Isaac's gaze is so intense it's difficult to hold. I watch him take in my soaked clothes and hair, his jaw clenching and releasing and clenching again. A wash of red creeps up his neck as his chest shudders, and his lips twist into a cruel smile when he meets my eye again.