The timing of his appearance and the simple fact that he found my location without this location being obvious at all through sight was a red flag.
And how did he convince Black Hollow to take him in as one of the primary medics? Hell, he called himself the doctor in front of everyone and no one contradicted him or argued which only solidified my thought. It was a position of power beside the Commander in Chief and his second.
“Looks like a good time to be here,” Inny says, breaking my line of thinking.
I looked around to see what she was talking about and saw that the rest of the people in the communal bathing caverns left upon our arrival. Good. Let them be wary of me. They should be.
“Vik, we need to get you cleaned up, even though we just bandaged you. I’ll bandage you again when your friends come back,” Inés mumbled.
I nodded in agreement and let her lead me to one of the raised rocks along the side of the cavern. I watched quietly as Inés went to grab one of the buckets and fill it with clean water from our reservoir.
“You’ll need to sit near that trench over there,” she pointed. There were three that broke off from the main reservoir cavern just east of this one. I chose the closest one and sat on the edge.
Inés brought the bucket beside us and placed it on the ground near our feet. In my seated position my head was to her chest while she stood there staring down at me curiously.
“You’re going to have to take that off sometime, you know?” she whispered, bringing her hand up to my shoulder and lightly touching the side of the mask with her right hand.
I wasn’t ready to let go. I wasn’t ready to face Black Hollow as half the man I once was.
“Vik…”
I didn’t answer. Black Hollow didn’t feel like home anymore. It felt like another place I was held within. Another place we had to use to rest for a while.
“Here’s some towels and fabrics you guys can use to dry off. I grabbed some clothes from some of the residents who were willing to donate. It should fit you both relatively well. You’re out of luck for boots though,” came Carson’s voice from the eastern cavern.
I didn’t move a muscle. I carefully watched as he walked up to Inés and handed the items to her.
She smiled beautifully at him. As if we didn’t just escape from a hellhole where our minds, body and soul were being forcefully torn from ourselves. As if we didn’t just battle beasts and snow to get back to this place.
How did she stay so calm? How was she not raging from the inside for retribution and blood? Because that was all I could think about. That was all my hands itched to do since making it back—that and I wanted to wring my brother’s neck and find out all his dirty little secrets. He was on a secret mission. He had to be.
“Thank you. I didn’t catch your name?”
“Carson. Vik and I were part of the same team. Speaking of—Vik, I spoke with Dean and Ozzy. They want to talk with you when you get the chance. Amir is still filling them in about your wounds. But your story is yours to tell. They’ll have to take it up with you if they want the details.” His eyes became steely and his jaw visibly clenched. “Whatever you decide, bro. Know that we’re still part of the same team.”
He nodded without waiting for my response and turned to leave. Inés waited a few moments after the sound of his footsteps disappeared before carefully placing the items on a different raised rock formation and then returning to stand in front of me.
I didn’t know how tense my body was until her hands returned to my shoulders and they visibly relaxed. It was as if I was constantly in a fight or flight mode, even around people who were my comrades, people I trusted to have my back no matter what.
I didn’t like this change in me. But I didn’t know what to do about it. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in. My ears zoned in on all the noises in the cavern, which was predominantly the sound of water flowing from the reservoir. Voices could be heard in the far distance from the living quarters but it was far enough to not put me on edge.
It was her fingers that pulled me from getting lost within myself. She gently held my jaw and removed the mask. I let out a stuttering breath. Inés had seen me at my worst and seen me when I lost myself to the darkness. I didn’t understand why she was willing to stand by my side the way she did.
Or were you forcing her by your side?
I should. She was the only anchor I had to this world anymore. The only anchor I had to humanity.
My goggles were next. I felt naked without them, despite having not put on my shirt since her medical inspection.
She grabbed one of the pieces of fabric and used her teeth to rip it into a rag size, dipping it into the bucket and began washing my face.
My chest hurt from how gentle she was. Didn’t she understand that she could be as rough as she wanted? After all the shit we had been through…
“Stop.”
My eyes snapped to hers.
“Stop what?” I asked.
