Heart Pangs

Chapter 31 - Consequences and Conditions

Benji barely registers when Felix leaves him alone with Camille in that bathroom. All he can think about is how relieved he is to see Camille again, to hold her. It feels like a dream. He's had so many dreams just like this, but this time, it's real.

Benji only pulls away when he feels Camille shivering against him. He looks into her face and a fiery heat rises in his chest at her burned and bruised face, at her hollowed cheeks and shadowed eyes.

"You're cold," he says.

Camille slides her arms from Benji and wraps them around herself. "I'm fine," she insists. "We have too much to talk about to worry about that now."

Benji frowns. "You're half starved and covered in stomach acid," he points out. "You're not fine. Talking can wait. Take a shower. I'll get you something hot to eat."

He moves to stand but Camille's hand shoots out and grabs his left wrist. "Wait!" she snaps. Then she takes a breath and adds much more calmly, "Please. I— I don't want to be alone again so soon." The last sentence comes out as little more than a whisper.

Benji's jaw tightens in anger, not at Camille, but at how helpless he feels. He carefully peels her fingers off his wrist and gathers her hand in his own. He crouches so he's at eye level with her.

"Take a shower, Camille," he commands ever so gently. "I'll find you some clean clothes. You're safe now, I promise."

Camille looks up at him with her dull eyes, and for a moment, Benji thinks she'll argue. But then she slips her hand from his and gives a single nod.

"Okay," she agrees, "but after this we need to talk. About..." she glances at the bathroom door then back to Benji, "about everything."

"I understand," Benji replies. "And we will. I promise." He stands and makes for the door. This time Camille doesn't protest. "Now get cleaned up. I'll see you in a few."

Camille nods again, and Benji slips out into the hall.

Once alone, Benji lets out a slow breath. He feels exhausted and all he's done all day is sit at home alone, waiting. Waiting for Felix to arrive on his doorstep with a belly full of his sister. Or waiting to get a call from Felix telling him it had been too late, that Camille was already gone. Or waiting to discover that, whatever part of Felix that had once been Benji's friend, was gone now. That he never intended to help Benji or Camille at all. That this was all a ruse to keep Benji in one place while Felix reported his location and the authorities showed up to take him away.

Benji clenches his fists and rubs at the orange band that chafes his wrist. He double checks that his sleeve is still covering it. He'd been so elated to learn Camille had survived, and then so terrified that Felix would change his mind at the last minute and refuse to release her. But all of that is over now. Camille's safe and Felix hadn't betrayed him.

Benji takes off for Camille's room. He hesitates briefly at the door. He'd entered here only once since she'd been taken. He takes a deep breath and pushes his way inside. Everything is as Camille had left it. The blanket and pillows on her bed are rumpled. There's some dirty laundry on the floor. There's a half empty glass on her bedside table, dust floating on the surface of the weeks old water.

He had been too afraid to touch any of it, to desecrate it. But now things have changed. Camille is back and she should return to a clean room.

The first thing he does is scavenge through her clothes until he finds some pajamas. He neatly folds them then leaves them right in front of the bathroom door. He leans in close as he does so, straining to hear Camille over the patter of shower water. But that's all he hears, the water. He eases back and tries to be relieved that she's not crying or gasping in pain.