Alamort | Troy Otto

1.20

[1.20]

Thena was waiting in the car, her leg bouncing, and hands wrapped around the wheel tightly. Every couple of seconds, she would glance in the rear-view mirror, watching as Nick told Jake about what happened the night before.

Each second passing made Thena's body twitch more and more. Her limbs were itching, her mouth was dry, and her mind was filled with the numerous possibilities of their little paradise going wrong.

Troy might not have been sane, but he never seemed like a person to joke around. He was serious the night before, and even if his eyes seemed to have been covered by something that disconnected him from reality, his words were true. And Thena knew what she heard. She knew what she understood. She knew something was wrong.

She was taken out of her thoughts when the door to her side opened, revealing Jake. His face held a look hard to decipher, but Thena could see the disappointment in his eyes. Before she could analyse him better, he nodded to the backseat and said, "I'll drive, I know the roads better."

With a small nod, the young woman climbed over the seats and let herself fall in the backseat as Jake got behind the wheel and Nick in the passenger seat. Her leg started to bounce again, the fabric of her military cargo pants rubbing against the leather of the seats in front of her. The engine's hum calmed her a little, but not long after they departed, her anxiety rose again.

At the sound of the glove compartment opening, Thena took her eyes off the hills she was watching through the open window to her right, only to see Jake handling a gun. Her body tensed slightly at the body, but her finger travelled to her own guns. Both had now full magazines after Taqa allowed it before he left, and Thena couldn't be more thankful.

"You know," started Nick, taking off his jacket, "Troy could have killed Thena last night."

The woman's eye met her friend's face, a small frown upon her features.

"Why would he kill her?" asked Jake, not taking his eyes off the road.

Thena's frown deepen, and she turned to look at the older brother.

"Well, he wouldn't... but, you know, he could've hurt her. That's my point—he could've hurt any of us—especially her­­—and he didn't."

The woman felt her heartbeat increase and her frown turned into a scowl. "Can you two stop talking like I'm not here," she hissed, placing her arms around both headrests of the front car seats. Her upper body leaned forward, her head in between the two and her beige scarf hanging.

Both men tensed and a silence overtook them before Nick nodded slowly and went back to his speech, Thena still not moving from her place between the two.

"I think he came to warn. Not harm."

"When I was 12," started Jake after a moment, "coyotes were hustling the heard during breeding season, so I went out to hunt at twilight, just over that hill. ...And I find this rabbit... stacked to the ground, skinned alive."

The Grimes woman frowned and tilted her head to get a better view of Jake's face. "What did you do?" she asked, reading Nick's thoughts.

"I put it down, because that's what you do when something's lame or sick."