Even Angels get hurt

Chapter 12: Burnt

What could have prepared Irene for what she had just seen? Nothing. At the very second the video had stopped, her heart and her mind whispered the same obsessive thought... "Forget everything". She whish she could have...

It seemed to Irene that her world had stopped spinning. She couldn't feel anything anymore. Every cell of her body wanted to forget about this USB key... But that wasn't like that that traumatic amnesia worked.

-Irene!!!

Sharleen voice sounded even deeper than her usual one... She was upset. And the pain in her voice sounded so important that Irene felt like she could forget hers.

Sharleen opened the door on the fly... And she appeared her eyes full of tears. But she wasn't crying... She looked broken, but not like she had lost her brother. She also looked furious.

Lydia was there, standing next to her friend. Her eyes had kept this protective and furious glimmer that Irene had seen a few minutes ago...

Few minutes that had been enough to tear down Irene's life. Too stunned, she didn't get up, and just turned the laptop in front of Sharleen. The girl stopped shouting.

Astonished by Irene's abnormal behavior, Sharleen looked at the laptop.

On the screen, the video was playing.

At first, the whole screen was black. But after a few seconds, a glimmered appeared, lightening a dark bus stop. A boy was standing there. The glimpse was apparently coming from his turned up phone. A cap and a grey sweater on, he was definitively looking suspicious...

Sharleen's breathe shortened. What had this person to do with them? And why did his build look so familiar to her? When he turned his face, she understood. He was one of the boys who had attacked them.

Behind her, Pi and Lydia were staring at each other. Pale, they were looking as shocked as Sharleen.

And there in the darkness, a bike stopped, its headlights off despite the night. A tall man got off it. Hoodie with the hood and mask on, he sat next to the other man.

He put his hand in his jacket and took a pack of cigarette out of it and lighted the last one. And there, under the spot of the phone, he turned the pack upside down. A sachet filled with a white powder...

Pi concealed a gasp of surprise.

-Is this some... illicit products, she muttered? Sharleen didn't even bother to make her shut up. She was too stunned to waste time.

On the video, the other man nodded, and the second one put the sachet back in the pack and gave it to him. The other one handed him a wad of banknotes. He counted them and put them in his pocket. As he was getting up, the phone lighted him... the mask prevented his face to be seen, but the light got up as he was getting back on his motorbike... lightning his light brown curls.

Irene bitted her lips. "Don't cry"... She looked up at Sharleen, who was still up. Irene desperately wanted to see pain in her eyes, just to feel less alone... But Sharleen didn't even sight. Irene didn't understand. She wanted, she needed to see her suffering with her...

Of course Sharleen felt broken. But she didn't want to look like it. She wasn't going to show that side of her because of him... "He isn't worth it." Seeing Irene, the personification of the strength, broken because of him was already disturbing enough... She didn't want to look like her. Not in this moment.

She wanted to look like the strong and haughty Ira... She wanted to stay in character. She raised an eyebrow... That's Irene who had taught her so. "Keep your voice cold"...