Irradiated

Chapter 2: Promise?

I leaned over and hung my arm over her shoulders, pulling her close to me. She tensed slightly, almost as if expecting me to hit her. Her shoulders shook with her sobs, and I only squeezed her tighter. She was so close to me, that I could feel her warm breath as she cried in broken gasps. All I could do was watch what I caused.

"Angeli, I'm so sorry... I really didn't know what was running through my mind when I said that, and I definitely didn't mean it." I rubbed her back gently, in an attempt to calm her. I liked to think that it did, because she slowly stopped crying until she finally looked up at me.

"I never wanted to become a Dodger. I just didn't have a choice, if I wanted to survive. They were my only chance, and I had to... to..." She looked away again, but still lay against me. I felt a bit awkward - mostly because I wasn't much for the romantic type - especially because she was a Dodger, but what she said next completely threw me off track.

"Would you consider letting me be here, with you? I really won't be of much help to you, but you would to me. I just... don't want to go back to them."

I finally noticed three deep slashes on her right cheek. Through my fury, I couldn't see what was clearly standing in front of me. I took her chin and slowly lifted her head to face me. "They did this to you?" She nodded sadly and I sighed exasperatedly. I searched her eyes for some sort of hint that she was lying to me, or that she was trying to take this moment to her advantage, but all I could find was the sadness and loss that was destroying her on the inside.

"I'll consider it, but I can't say I can trust you just yet. When I can trust you, I promise, I'll try to do what I can. Until then, I suggest you stay with them and be careful. I know what to expect if they've already hurt you like this." She nodded silently, but didn't seem to have the energy to argue back. It was clear to me that as long as she wouldn't come back to them at some point, she would be perfectly fine with it.

"I promise." I spoke gently, a complete change from my previous voice. At first, angry, but now calm.

"Thanks." She replied back, taking one last look at me before standing up and looking down at the fire again. "Where will you sleep?"

"Here, I guess. There's not many places I can go to." I glanced back at Trevor, who looked up at us with a curious gaze in his gleaming eyes. "But we'll be fine until then." She seemed to want to say something more, but remained quiet. She contemplated over something for a while, but soon gave up.

"I... Just, thank you. I was starting to lose faith in humanity, but you might have just sparked up a bit of hope in me. I'll see you around. I hope you won't have to sleep like this for long." She stuffed her hands into her shirt pockets and stared down at me with an apologetic look on her face.

"Yeah, so do I." I replied, rubbing the space between Trevor's ears on his head. He liked it when I pet him, and he sure needed the extra comfort. Angeli smiled softly, turning away from me and heading off towards the place she appeared from. I stared after her, wondering whether I would keep that promise or not.

That night, I couldn't sleep at all. I only sat and stared at the fire. Trevor hadn't noticed me awake when he fell asleep. Honestly, I felt bad for him. He was used to our RV and the hard ground would be a drastic change.

It was something about the horrified look in Angeli's eyes that tore me apart. We both had lost something we knew we'd never be able to recover and were trapped in a place we didn't want to be in. It would have been a matter of time until I lost absolutely everything I had, except for Dog Trevor and whatever was still left of me.

And so, the next morning, I was a mess. I completely dozed off when I tried to go do something and my feet dragged behind me like stone bricks when I attempted to walk. It all resulted in failure. I just didn't have enough energy to keep me going. That's when the advantage was taken.