Red Moon Rising

45. fate

Chapter Song: My Eyes - The Lumineers

XX

Isaac's bedroom is a dream world, an uncanny vision that I was never supposed to see again. He lets me finish the rest of the water bottle before he begins to strip away my clothes. I let him, careful to avoid revealing the contents of my jacket pocket or the mottled edge of my boot. When I have a chance, I'll have to melt the seam again. It feels stupid now, too dangerous, to have pried it out in the first place. What would Isaac do if he found out? He'd think I was trying to run again. Am I? I don't think I can, not now. I think, right now, in this moment, I have to work with what resources I have. And all I have is Isaac.

Even naked, the warmth of the school sends life thrumming back through my numb limbs. While the ache of thirst is beginning to subside, my bruised skull and broken nose still rock an ache between them, and the twin pain makes my stomach churn. I'm hungry and tired, and my body feels like it is made from soft clay rather than muscle and bone.

"What now?"

"That's for you to decide."

He's still pissed. I can feel the anger simmering around him, a tense energy in the thin air between us. Isaac leaves me alone in the bedroom to run hot water into the bathtub, and I realize that I am meant to follow him—that from this day forward I am meant to walk in his shadow. And if I remain within that shadow, if I stay small and keep quiet, he'll take care of me. It's a place that is meant for me now, when I don't have a place anywhere else.

"I'll be in the room if you need anything."

He keeps the bathroom door open, and I don't try to close it. Instead, I carefully lower my toes into the warm water, which sends a stabbing ache up through my ankle. Still, the sharp contrast of the warm water is better than the way my body slowly, painfully seemed to freeze in the confines of the cage.

"Layla."

I open my eyes, and Isaac is kneeling above me, one arm wrapped around my wet torso. My neck aches from the strange angle of the bathtub, and my head throbs and throbs.

"You passed out," he says quietly. "I didn't think you were going to wake up."

If only. To slip away like that without even realizing it would be so easy, so effortless. "How long was I out?"

"A couple minutes. How do you feel?"

It takes a moment to find the words, like my brain is sorting through my vocabulary a little slower. "Like shit."

He gradually lets go of me and sinks down against the wall beside the bathtub. "Vic can take a look at you when you're cleaned up."

"No, I just—please just let me rest a little while."

"Okay."

I stare at my feet poking out of the water on the far end of the bathtub. I suffered, and now I'm taking a fucking bath, all the while Sam is dead.

"I thought you were dead."

Glancing at Isaac, I find that he can't look at me either. "I thought you were going to let me die."

"I wouldn't."

"But you wanted me to believe you would."

"You don't listen, Layla. I just need you to listen to me."

"That isn't how relationships work," I whisper. "The moment I lost my footing with you, we didn't have a relationship anymore."

"What we have is different." The determined edge to his voice silences whatever words I'd prepared. "We live in a shit world, Layla. You want some kind of fairytale love? It doesn't exist for people like us."