Hope

14

"Shaylee... Shaylee... Shaylee..."

Shay follows the whispers and runs around the DEO like a gazelle, trying to figure out where the whispers are coming from.

"Shaylee... Shaylee... Shaylee..."

The whispers continue get louder and louder the faster she runs. Finally, she recognizes the voice and tears start to form in her eyes. She slows down a bit and traces the voice to the jail cell room.

"Mum?" Shay asks, walking over to the glass cage.

"Shay Shay, help me... please." Imra begs, clutching her side. Shay takes a closer look and finds her mother bleeding all over the floor.

"Okay Mum hold on."

Shay scrambles around the room trying to find the key pad and enters in as many codes as possible. After going through dozens of codes, Shay finally gets the door to open and runs inside running to her mothers aid.

"Mum. I got you, I'm going to help you. I promise." Shay cries. Imra's eyes slowly start to close and her breathing gets longer and longer by each breath. "No Mum! Mum! Stay with me! Stay with me!"

"Shay... why did you do this to me?" Imra asks.

"Mum. I didn't mean to I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you just listen?"

"I'm so sorry. Please don't leave me."

Shaylee let's out a gasp and immediately, sits up with tears sliding down her cheeks. For the last few days, Shaylee's been having dreams of whispers and being trapped in the DEO. Shay would usually wake up irritated that she could never figure out where and who the whispers were coming from. Now she wished she hadn't figured where they came from. It was her mind's way of reminding her of all the horror she has done to her mother.

Kara's eyes flutter open as she hears the light cries coming from the living room. She gets out of bed and makes her way to the sofa, where she finds Shaylee sniffling.

"Shaylee?" Kara asks, getting closer to the girl. Shaylee looks up at her and tries her best to hide the tears but she couldn't help it. They were spewing out of her like a waterfall. Kara immediately wraps her arms around her and Shaylee melts into the embrace, clearly needing it. Rubbing the girl's back, Kara holds onto Shaylee until she can feel her breathing steady a bit.

"I killed her..." Shay whispers.

"Killed who? Shay what happened?"

"We were under attack. She told me to stay at the ship but I didn't want to. I wanted to stay and fight. But she was so busy telling me to go that she wasn't even thinking about the fight. Someone came up behind her and... and..."

"Shay honey, I need you to calm down. Breathe." Kara adds, getting Shaylee to take in deep breaths.

"If only I would have listened, she would still be here."

"Sweetheart, who are you talking about?"

"Mum..."

"Shay, your mother's death is not your fault. You were not the one who pulled that trigger. It is not on you."

"Then why does it feel like it was?"

Kara looks at the girl sympathetically and holds onto the teenager as her sobs continue to get louder and louder.

"Honey, look at me." Kara states, lifting the girl's head up. "You did all you could in that situation. Sometimes we don't always have control over things and it's better for us to accept that than blame it on ourselves. You didn't do anything wrong and this is not on you. Do you understand?"