Aer II

47

Daisy knocks on James' door, he got one of the huts by the farm, Daisy presumes it's because of Ryan. It wouldn't be fair to have a baby in a noisy house where people are constantly coming and going.

'Come in,' James answers the door.
Eilish is sitting in the kitchen with Ryan, she excuses herself from the room and goes outside.
'Eilish decided to stay in the big house, I told her she could've stayed here and I would've sorted her a bed,' James sits down 'but I get she probably doesn't want to be kept up all night by a crying baby'.

'Who's the mam?' Daisy asks.
'A girl I was friends with, she was my age, Evie was her name,' he says, his expression doesn't change, his voice doesn't change 'we'd doctors in the town, well kids who read books, but we knew there'd be complications, she was having a lot of issues. Ryan just wasn't coming out so she needed a c-section, she died of blood loss during it'.

'The poor girl,' Daisy says 'must've been hard'.
'I was scared that I was alone with a baby, but the town stood up and every person possible helped me,' he says, he's either good at hiding his emotions or he's become so blocked off from this world.

'What happened with you?' He asks 'you know when you thought I was dead'.
'James you had no pulse, you were out for hours,' she says 'I couldn't stay there so I left, I just kept walking until my legs gave up. I woke up to Aaron sitting across from me'.
'That asshole?' He frowns.
'Yeah,' Daisy laughs, knowing James doesn't know the half of it 'his parents had a bunker'.

'Fuck off,' he scoffs 'of fucking course they did'.
'There was only a few of us in the bunker but overtime more and more people came, anyway Aaron got mad one day, kicked me and....my friend...out of the bunker, that was the start of everything. Some shit happened, we found a group and that's when we discovered the cult and the horde they had. We destroyed the horde and it started a war for four years. Met Nix and his group...you know what happened then. We stormed the cult's island and I found Arawn, he was taken from us and that's why we're here,' she sighs.

'Fucking Hell,' he looks at her 'why did you kill Sam and Mikey?'.

Daisy takes a minute to answer, she's not going to tell him the truth, she doesn't want to relive those memories. Not anymore.

'I thought Sam killed my friend, you know with the burnings? He burnt down the hut my friend was in. I spent four years tracking down every lead I could find, and when I found him he'd joined the cult, he tried to kill Nix and his men took Arawn. So I killed him, because the man I cared for died when Sam burnt down that hut, he wasn't the man I'd been searching four years for,' she says, realising she sounds just as cold as James.

'Eilish killed all of us Nix's friends didn't she?'.
'Yeah,' Daisy nods.
He sighs 'I told her it was a bad idea, but I couldn't let her go alone, I was so angry when I found Mikey's body, so angry but I knew revenge wasn't the answer. I knew that killing was done out of revenge. Eilish is just....young. She acts like she's tough but she doesn't get it, she doesn't get this world'.

'She kind of comes across as a bitch,' Daisy smiles.
'A sulky bitch,' James laughs 'but I do care about her, she just takes awhile to warm up to people. I do appreciate Nix not holding it against her'.
'He's not that type,' Daisy says 'he's stronger than all of us'.
'When all of this is over I'll give him a proper brother interrogation,' James says.
'Good luck with that,' Daisy laughs as she stands up 'look you know where I am, call over with Ryan sometime'.