Just an Echo in the Darkness

~Chapter Twelve~

Ambria stood wide-eyed. Even with bruises on their faces, bed head from the scratchy bags they put over their heads, and dirt that covered their faces. There stood Hudson, Harper, Sky, Carson, and her least favorite, Julia.

She looked the worst. She had puffy, red eyes, dirt all over her face, and her brown hair was sticking up all over the place. Her normal brown eyes looked more greyish than Ambria remembered.

Carson's normal orange hair looked more brown then the last time Ambria saw him. His usual friendly smile was twisted with anger. His eyes were filled with emotion. Pain, anger, sadness, relief, and so many more emotions Ambria couldn't tell what they were.

Harper's black leggings were torn as though she was thrown on the asphalt. Her eyes were a darker green than normal, and were full of the competitive look she always had when she was chosen as the captain for dodgeball. Her short black hair had one single twig sticking out of the top of hair like a horn.

Sky's blonde hair looked as though it had a darker shade of highlights through it though it was just streaks of dirt. Blue eyes were slightly filled with tears though they were filled with hatred too. She held tightly to a book, how she managed to keep it, Ambria didn't know.

Hudson looked surprised. The moment the blindfold was taken off, his eyes found Ambria. He looked shocked, and had a look of relief in his sea green eyes. He then looked towards his twin sister, using eye contact to create a conversation. Once she had told him she was okay, his eyes turned and found Ambria again.

Once they discovered their cells, Julia was sent into Ambria's cell because they had an extra bed. Harper and Sky were sent to a cell, a couple places down. Hudson and Carson had been directed to a cell a bit farther away.

Once Julia got into the cell with Ambria, Brielle, and Harlee she sat on the lower bunk, beneath Harlee. She didn't lay down, she just sat on the edge of the bed staring off to space. Eventually, she looked up to Ambria with watery eyes.

"I'm sorry," Julia said, a tear slipping down her cheek.

"I know," Ambria said, as a tear fell for herself. Ambria was surprised she felt so understanding, for the whole situation.

"You know what happened?"

"Yeah, I was there. Plus, the day I got kidnapped Bryce confessed it to me."

"When you all disappeared, everyone was in tears. Though you were only gone for a couple days before I was gone, they were about to hold a funeral for you."

"Why? It took them multiple years to declare Jax and my dad dead."

"Well, they found nothing to make them believe you were alive. All they found was a pile of blood."

Brielle- listening to our conversation- started to sob quietly, finally realizing the difficulty of the situation.

"Same with you Brielle, and Br-" Julia cut off his name before she started crying again. "Him."

She nodded her head to the sleeping cell on the other side of the wall.

"Yeah," Ambria said, understanding that she meant Bryce.

"Sooo..." Julia urged the conversation forward, "Are you and Bry-. Are you two a thing now?"

"What?" Brielle said, jumping away the tears that were on her cheeks a second ago. She was jumping up and down excitedly, waiting for the answer.

"No..." Ambria started, hating lying to her friends.

"Awww. You two are so adorable!" Briella squealed, Julia didn't look sad but she didn't look excited.

"I just said no."

"I can tell when you are lying," Brielle sang as she danced around the room. Harlee just ignored us. She obviously thought we were weird.

"I'm not lying," Ambria said, annoyed, leaning over the edge of the bunk to look down at Brielle. It was getting late and she couldn't think anymore.

"Of course you aren't. Just this morning you gave him a sweet hug, last night he basically spent all night in the infirmary with you. ADORABLE!"

"Okay, Brielle. Good night."

Ambria wasn't going to just give up trying to convince them otherwise but she was tired and done with the argument.