Cold Ashes

Chapter 17 - The Beacon Rekindled

Leah couldn't breathe. "No..."

It wasn't him. At least not anymore. The infection had taken him over entirely and he was nothing but a mindless animal, grunting and screaming on a medical table. Surrounded by doctors who were barely able to control him... it.

"Ryan..." She barely breathed the name, the forgotten person that was so full of life two or three days ago. Gone in so little time. Tears were in her eyes and leaked from them. Her grief then switched to anger as she turned to the Viceroy, standing with such contempt that she could barely contain herself. "Why have you brought me here? To gloat? To prove that I've lost?!"

"Lost?" He asked. "To suggest that would mean to suggest that there was a chance that you might've won. Of which you yourself must've realised by now that there's none."

She didn't answer. It was too late, in any case.

"How far did you really think you would've gotten, Leah? After all you saw, all the people you knew, did you honestly think you would be able to hide forever?"

Again, it didn't need any words. She had too much pride to even shake her head.

"I must admit - Boss didn't see your escape coming. Nobody did, who would've thought a little servant like Heather would betray us in such a way. Running off with you and, what, seventeen of those little brats? Put us completely off production. Especially with those small bodies to clear up - quite the inconvenience."

Leah glared at him. Such hate could not be described, because she saw them. She knew them kids names and knew that they died with barely anyone to miss them. Nobody to remember them.

"You cannot escape who you are. Nobody can run from that."

"I could've- I should've run from this city. From everyone and you!"

"But you were too weak. You were looking after those petty orphans, and that witch Heather."

"Those petty orphans can have a future, more than the others you put in the morgue-!"

"They can. Perhaps in Boss' farms or mines, but not where they are now. Lazing away in that tiny shack."

"How can you do that?!" Leah was shouting now, at the world. At the world she wanted to change. "How can you just sit there and allow them to just starve and die?"

"Those children are assets. Investments. They are the reason that you have that tower, the reason there's still a modern society to speak of."

"I don't want that tower! I never wanted any of it-"

"He knows, Leah. He knows that you couldn't take what you were or your heritage, your destiny. So you ran from it. You ran like a coward."

"Fuck-"

"And with the help of that witch you were able to do it. To get away from who you were. At least, for a while."

"I thought... I wanted..."

"What, Leah? What could you possibly want out there which you haven't got right here?"

"Freedom!" Leah cried. "Out there I found a dozen kids who became my responsibility, a woman who was the best person I've ever known and I found Ryan! He showed me... He showed me what living was like." She turned back to face him, she became calmer, suddenly. Braver by the very memory of him. The deadman that was once her friend, her voice becoming a silent breath, of which could barely be heard. "And what I need to do."

For a moment Viceroy listened to the words from Boss. His reactions barely changing except for the occasional rise and fall of an eyebrow. There was something happening, which Leah could tell, but she didn't care anymore. She just couldn't care.