THEM

Chapter 5

Aithne balanced on the ridge of the roof. She rocked back and forth, adrenaline pumping through her veins. Every rock was a little stronger, a little closer. One of her rocks brought her tipping dangerously forward and she lost her balance. She jabbed one of her legs out to the side, but it slipped on the edge of the roof. Her leg slid over the side and she threw her upper body backwards with all the force she could muster to counterbalance it. She squeezed her eyes tightly, but her body soon made contact with the cold surface of the roof. She slowly opened her eyes, realizing she hadn't fallen to her doom and a surprising sense of relief overwhelmed her. Her hands dug into the surface underneath her, trying to pull her body infinitely closer to it. She wasn't going to slip anymore. She was safe.

After a while, she had the courage to slowly get up, edging away from the ledge as she did so. She needed to get off this roof immediately. She turned around and her eyes met with a pair of black eyes observing her curiously. They were so dark they reminded her of the abyss of the courtyard drawing her in. She was scarcely able to make out the face, but, after a few minutes, she recognised him. It was the boy from the yard, V. He was laying back nonchalantly against a chimney jutting out from the roof. He gazed at her, as if awaiting to see what she would do next. Aithne understood with horror that he had witnessed her terribly vulnerable moment. Not only that, but he had seen her balance her life for half an hour and done absolutely nothing to stop her. Her embarrassment was rapidly replaced with anger. How incredibly indifferent to her situation this boy must be to not even have moved an inch, not uttered a word.

"You... you saw ...?"

The boy continued staring, not bothering to respond.

Aithne could feel tears brimming in her eyes. "You didn't do anything to stop me."

Still no answer.

"I know we don't know each other, but how heartless do you have to be to do absolutely nothing?"

The boy stayed silent, seemingly unbothered by her harshness, and kept his disconcerting eyes fixed on her.

"Are you even going to say anything?!"

Aithne waited for minutes and, just as she was about to walk away from this unnerving boy, he spoke up.

"If that's what you really wanted, who am I to stop you?"

Aithne was speechless, incapable of finding an adequate response to his irrefutable yet abominable reasoning. Traitorous tears rolled down her cheeks as she stood in front of the boy who had seen her at her lowest and didn't seem to care. She made her way to the door leading back inside and walked numbly to her room. As she lay in bed, sobs silently shook her frail body. She realized why the boy's words bothered her so much. She just wanted someone to fight for her since she was no longer able to do so herself. She needed someone to hold her and tell her that everything would be all right. That she would make it.

___

Aithne woke up the next morning feeling numb, but also an odd sense of rest she hadn't felt in a long while. She looked at the clock. 8:50. She jumped up with a start. After getting back from the roof, she had slept through five hours of the night without waking up. Without any nightmares. It was a sensation she was now foreign to, the relief of a fuzzy mind with any memories of what she had dreamt of buried into an abyss that would never see light, a sensation she had so often taken for granted before, but now drank in with unabashed greed. She glanced over to her side, but Isadora was already gone. Probably to her treatment -or maybe training would be a truer term- session. Which she was going to be late to, she realized as she threw on some clothes and rushed out.

B09. She halted in front of the dreaded door and stayed frozen for a few long minutes, as if an invisible force was keeping her rooted to the ground. Finally, the door swung open, breaking her from her trance and making her face to face with Kathy.