THEM

Chapter 8

Aithne turned over under her covers and huffed. She couldn't sleep. Again. Though she now got a good five hours of sleep on a regular basis, some nights were still a struggle. Like tonight. She had woken up from one of her less intense nightmares, but now she couldn't go back to sleep. She was too hot, then too cold; thirsty, then needed to pee. It was an endless cycle of small inconveniences keeping her from the hold of sleep. She turned again. She wasn't even tired anymore. Pulling her sheets off, she sat up and slid into a pair of sweatpants. She had to go somewhere, do something with her limbs that were craving release from the confines of her bed. There was only one place she could think of going.

She pushed the door and the cool air hit her face, whispering its soothing song in her ears. She walked out and was about to sit against the chimney jutting out from the roof, when she spotted a figure sitting with his legs dangling over the edge. He didn't look like he was going to jump, but the precarious position still made her heart skip a beat, bringing back flashbacks of where she had been a few days ago. Her body battled between the need to get as far away from the edge as possible and the need to make sure she was near the edge with the person. She could do nothing as her legs brought her instinctively towards the figure. She bent down and sat criss-crossed next to him, not trusting her legs to be over the ledge. If the person noticed she was there, they didn't make it known and kept on staring pensively out into the night. After what seemed like forever, he still hadn't budged from the dangerous position, and Aithne had to slow her hammering heart and ease her nerves in some way, so she spoke up; "I'm sorry about what I said, about your family."

The silence stretching between them was endless. Aithne had forgotten she had even spoken by the time V's voice broke through the night. "You were right. They don't come." He paused. "They never did."

Aithne turned her head to him and suddenly his outline against the dark sky appeared small. He didn't look as scary as he usually did, but rather like a lost, broken boy. She didn't know what to say. She spoke the only two words she could, even though they seemed so insufficient, barely breaking through the air as they came out of her mouth.  "I'm sorry." She wanted to reach out and hold his hand, if only to keep his body anchored to the roof through a means other than himself, but the look of repulsion on his face when he had pulled his hand away from hers flashed through her mind and was enough to still her hand by her side.

They stayed on that roof for an eternity, but Aithne couldn't find it in herself to leave him there. Finally, V stood up and took a few steps towards the door. Still facing the door, he paused in front of it, as if waiting for something. Aithne scrambled to her feet, relieved that she could finally put some distance between her and that looming drop. When she got to the door, V opened it.

~~~~

Aithne was lying down on the grass in the courtyard, alone for the first time in a while since Isadora had left her a few moments ago to go to an appointment she mysteriously hadn't given any details on, when it happened. At first, she just spotted one of them and didn't think it was that out of the ordinary. It was just a man, dressed from head to toe in a white suit made from a shiny material that stuck to him like a second skin and walking briskly as if he had somewhere important to go to. He could have been one of the instructors or trainers from the facility, but Aithne had never seen anyone like him around before. The way he walked and scanned his surroundings was almost robotic. His eyes paused on Aithne, and his perfect steps faltered for a moment, before he looked away and kept on walking. Aithne's breath hitched. He was unfathomably handsome and his icy blue eyes had pierced through her as if seeing straight to her soul. He stopped in front of a door leading to a part of the building Aithne had never been in, took out a badge, swiped it in front of a small black square, and opened the door. And then there were more. They crawled in like ants, all with the same mechanical movements and eyes that seemed to capture and imprint everything they fell on. They passed through the courtyard and as quickly as they had arrived, they were gone, disappearing through the same doorway.