Dust to Dust

9

I couldn't sleep. Which wasn't out of the ordinary, but it was still annoying. Delilah still hadn't come back yet, Asher had come back without her. He didn't seem concerned about anything, so I tried to ignore the possibilities of where she might be. I guessed she was just out doing whatever, but she didn't even show up to the cabin when everyone else was getting ready to go to sleep. Now there were two instances where I could have confronted Asher about something, and just never actually spoke up. The right word for him was unapproachable. The only issue was, I couldn't figure out why. It was like something was keeping me from interacting with him properly, something just didn't feel right. I would have confront him eventually, I was just constantly procrastinating and pretending like he didn't freak me out a little bit.

I was going to let it go for the night, and if she still wasn't back in the morning, that would be the right time to panic. But just when it all felt hopeless, the front door opened, and relief coursed through my body as Delilah walked into the room.

That relief disappeared instantly when I got a better look at her. It was dark in the room, so I couldn't see it all, but she was trembling a bit, and had obviously been crying. That was certainly odd. I didn't expect her not to have feelings of course, but seeing her so distraught had me concerned.

"Delilah, where have you been, are you okay?" I shifted upwards so she could see me, and her attention was immediately grabbed. She looked terrified of something, but she had only just walked in. Something had obviously happened, and I had a suspicion that it was something to do with Asher.

Stuttering for an answer, she put on a fake smile that I saw right through. "H-hey. Sorry, I'm fine. I just needed a little while to myself, that's all. Asher and I had a talk, and then I was put on hunting patrol. I guess I was just caught up thinking about home, it still hasn't been easy for me. I'm just really on edge, I'll be fine. Just tired."

She was lying. I wasn't going to deny that the trauma of losing everything you knew was unthinkable, and put a person through indescribable pain. But she was shaking to her core, and her legs were barely supporting her. Whatever happened was recent. I couldn't exactly say that though, and as I was trying to come up with the right words, she was already curled up in her bed, facing away from me. No, she was definitely hiding something.

"You... sure you're okay?" I prodded, not wanting to be obnoxious, but I still had to get to the bottom of this. She turned back to me and nodded, same expression as before. "You don't have to worry. I'm fine." and she didn't say another word.

I would have to talk with her more in the morning, because this was just so odd. It couldn't be a coincidence that she lost her usual ecstatic energy right after she returned from talking with Asher. And I don't think it was about something as simple as hunting patrol. Actually, she never even told me what they talked about, just that she went out afterwards. Was Asher pressuring her into keeping quiet about something? Because usually, she would share anything she could think of with the rest of us, that's just who she was. Delilah was always talkative, so to see her become quiet and reserved all of a sudden wasn't normal. Someone had made her like this. There was nothing I could do about it now, so I was forced back into a new spiral of thoughts.

The cabin felt insanely hot, causing me to sweat, and keeping me up for what seemed like hours. One minute, this place felt like the safest place on earth, and the next, I wanted to run away and never look back. But every time those thoughts started, I thought of Delilah and Jasper. I considered both of them my friends, and especially since I just got here, leaving them would make guilt turn into regret, but once I was gone, there was no going back. But if Delilah was suffering from something bigger going on, that was a big issue that I wasn't going to let slide. Therefore, I couldn't leave without knowing she was safe, and getting some answers. My original plan was to focus on survival, and that alone. But then again, I also wanted to find other people to feel a sense of humanity again. So which path was I going to follow? Protecting myself, or putting myself at risk in order to protect others?