Lucas came storming up to me. Furry in his eyes. I had been a little hurt that the girl had pulled him away but seeing him know, whatever she had told him made me worried.
"What's wrong Luca-" he grabbed my hand, gently pulling me along. We travelled through the halls, down to embers room. When she didn't answer his persistent nocking he tried his mums. When Lucia opened the door Lucas barged in ahead of me. I gave a small apology to her as he continued into the room. "Is Ember here?" he heaved.
"Right here, just having some tea-" she sat at Lucas's Mums small table in her room, going silent and cold faced as soon as he saw him. "You know."
I heard Lucia close the door quietly and beckon me to sit with Lucas at one of the seats at the table. Lucia's grave face unchanging as she poured Lucas and I some tea.
"You knew as well." He said to his mother.
She sighed then sat the pot down. "I had guessed but I never asked. No one has ever asked"." She said, her voice frail, she looked shaken.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I don't know what's going on."
Ember gave a little laugh. "Yeah, it happened. Everyone knows..."
Lucas was breathing through his clenched teeth. "How?"
"When you were exiled he took me in by force. I would have been sentenced to something worse if he hadn't jumped at the opportunity. They tossed Mum to the ground. If it hadn't been to Helga and the other old folks looking after her when I was gone..."
"That guy, the obsessed one?" He asked, his voice growing more aggravated. I slowly became aware of the situation Ember had been in. Bruce the officer, obsessed with those glowing eyes, how Lucia had told me of consent, how Ember had refused the man so many times. It all clicked. I gasped a little. A grabbed Lucia's hand, seeing the tears welling in her eyes, seeing how hopeless she felt as Ember told her story with cold eyes.
"Two, maybe four weeks. I couldn't count because I was kept in a room. I had to wear this yellow nighty. He would say how he loved how the colour matched my eyes. Then he would laugh and say how he could never say that about any other girl, that I was special." She turned away and Lucia tighter her grip in me. Lucas took a sip of his tea, trying to calm down, I could feel his need to control himself radiating off him.
"When he thought he could trust me he let me go out on an errand. I bolted straight away, no way in hell would I go back to that god awful room. I found myself here in the Western Sector. I ditched the dress immediately. Walked around in a blanket I had snatched from the line of someone's home. That's when Duke found me. Took me in. got me in contact with mum. Bruce could never find me. I had hidden in the rebellions first base for weeks, only exiting when I managed to get a hold on some glasses and dressed as an elderly women. Hunched as I walked the streets, scarf around my head."
We sat in silence. Until she gave a little sob. "It's all my fault." I watched as Ember broke down. The strong independent leader became fragile and vulnerable within the seconds of those words. Lucas got up taking his older sister in his arms. I watched how young he looked compared to her even though he was allot bigger.
"Don't blame yourself." She sobbed in Lucas's chest and Lucia joined them in their embrace. I quietly exited and let the family have their moment privately. Later that night Lucas came to bed. I could tell how angry and sad he was. I cuddled with him as we had done on the last night, before we had left on our journey.
"I should have been there for her, to protect her." She mumbled into my neck.
"You couldn't help it Lucas."
I let him play like that for the rest of the night, his last words playing on my mind. "I'm going to kill him."