The stakes are higher than ever.
It's been months since the four managed to temporarily defeat and escape Laurel, Amber, Kali and the others but the four's problems are far from over. Forced to live with their guilt and still plagued by nightmares o...
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Oliviera's (Livy's) POV:
For some reason, Kalli's words confuse me. Though not that I know why since I remember she'd always been one to stand up for her friends, no matter what it meant she had to risk. All because she was more worried about other people than she was herself. A dangerous quality in situations like this, because it made her reckless and more likely to engage in behaviour that would ensure she ended up trapped.
But part of me is glad she did. Glad that we didn't all end up trapped so someone could find the four of them. I'm no idiot, I know that if not for some of us getting out then no one would have managed to find her, Kessal, Braeden and Dana before Amber finished them off. Leaving them to her mercy for as long as she wanted them with her to be played with. Tortured. Held captive forever.
"Why would you do that Kals? Why risk yourself to such an extreme?" Keri asks the question we all had on our minds, but none of us was brave enough to vocalise aloud. Scared that doing so would end up unleashing something we were ill-prepared to handle. "Why keep yourselves there and have her let the rest of us go? We would have stayed. We would have fought with you!" She sounds mad but I can see something in Kalli's eyes that I hadn't before since she'd been so consumed with pretending it was all ok. She had finally dropped the barriers and shown just how tired she was. "Why Kalli?! We would have fought for you!"
"And you would have lost," Kalli replies tiredly, her eyes seeming to dull over from the emotion almost instantly. Taking a breath I see her exchange a look with Kessal who just smiles and holds her tighter than before. But even that's a tired imitation of his usual expression, the joy no longer there. "Keri I know you mean what you say but she'd rigged that meeting to ensure we wouldn't have won. All you staying would have achieved would be you ending up dead or in some sort of coma. You wouldn't have been strong enough, just as we weren't - but you would have struggled to recover more. So we put you first and just accepted whatever else happened. Because that is what needed to be done."
Keri looks like she's about to argue but then shuts up when she processes what Kalli had said. Because when it was explained like that I got it. I understood why they did what they did, even if I didn't agree with it completely. Because it meant they had our backs, even when Amber tried to break them and failed. They all still looked out for each other. The way we've been doing the whole time. And that showed me more clearly than before how strong our links to each other were. That it was almost impossible to break them.
But that in itself presented a list of other problems. Because I know roughly how Amber was thinking through what she did. She played this game without rules and without, as far as I could tell, genuine attachments to people. She just used them and discarded them as she saw fit and how they helped her achieve her twisted vision. So she had no trouble with ideals like loyalty and honesty. Something we all held dear. So it was a blessing and a curse. Something we'd do well to remember.
Turning to Kalli I see she's already watching me, but with a detached and remote expression. As if she's mentally a thousand miles away where no one can reach her but her body's still with us. Sighing I notice the deep, rippling sadness there and can guess where she's transported herself back to. Though I can also see something equally dangerous hidden just out of sight. The remote expression of someone considering flipping their emotion switch in their brain, but whose mind is trying to dissuade them. A dangerous move since when it's shut off it can be difficult to ever get that person back again.
