The Forgotten Light

26. Ritael

It's been almost a week since she got to Sedona. Almost a week, and she wondered if several years had passed. Each day of waiting for the rebels from the three camps seemed to drag on forever. She dreaded meeting Usain, his questions about that night, his reproaches as to why she hadn't returned to Florence, letting him think she was probably dead. But on the other hand, she was looking forward to seeing him. She longed for familiar faces and shared conversations.

She didn't feel comfortable in the Sedona camp. Thanks to Sao, she had managed to get to know every corner of the new base, and knew its layout like the back of her hand.

Although the dark-skinned girl almost never left her side, Ritael felt terribly alone. On top of that, the truth about who she really was constantly overwhelmed her. She wanted to tell someone about it, she didn't want to be alone with it.

But who could she confide in? Who could she tell, knowing that if she finally revealed the truth, she would most likely be rejected, treated like some alien degeneration? She had been among people for years, and she knew what they were afraid of. They feared what they didn't understand.

They wouldn't understand her. They wouldn't understand why she continued to live, even though she had died.

Fairlight would certainly stand up for her. She herself was different from the others from the beginning, hiding her secrets, but they knew all along, so she wasn't a freak in their eyes that they would be afraid of. She would certainly have accepted that Ritael was an Aeternal without experiencing some kind of shock. If she were here, she would tell her the truth right away. If only she were here...

There was only one person who knew the truth and understood everything. But that person didn't give a damn about her.

Don't even think about him, she rebuked herself in her mind, hitting the punching bag with her fist, which bounced off the stone wall and fell back to her.

But the thoughts flowed on their own.

Since he turned his back on her back then, he hasn't spoken a word again. Ritael had already stopped wondering what she had done to make him cut himself off from her so suddenly. Eventually she came to the conclusion that he was the one with the problem, that there was something wrong with him, not her. She wasn't to blame for anything, she didn't offend him with anything. In fact, she saved his life, but who would take that into account when the man had an infinite number of lives. So she stopped complaining about her relationship with Kaelen, or rather the lack of it, and tried to forget about him.

If only it was that easy...

She had the impression that the more she tried to avoid him, the more often she bumped into him - whether coming out of a corner, getting up from a table after dinner, or going outside. They crashed into each other every day, sometimes quite painfully. And they pushed each other away every single time. She could see his hands shaking in the process, and she herself felt her heart pounding. And it wasn't because she was startled.

Ritael hugged the punching bag and began hitting it with her forehead, wondering what was wrong with her, why she couldn't stop thinking about him, even though he made her feel so awful!

She slammed her fist into the bag one last time, then bent to get a towel and moved toward the exit of the sizable cave designed for working out. She hoped the bath would get rid of Kaelen from her head.

Curling her lip at the sight of her worn and tattered gloves, she turned into the tunnel leading to her room and suddenly her nose crashed into something warm and hard. She reflexively jumped away and bumped into the wall.