Save me

Hurt

Crystal didn't make it far.

She had just reached the edge of the hallway when Asha's voice cut through the quiet behind her.

"Where are you going?"

Crystal paused, her shoulders tightening slightly before she turned back. "To my room," she said, keeping her tone even. "I thought..."

"That you didn't need to see?" Asha finished for her. There was no anger in it, which somehow made it worse.

Crystal lowered her gaze, already knowing she'd misstepped. "I didn't think I was needed."

Asha studied her for a moment, her expression calm, unreadable, as if she were deciding something. Then she stepped forward and took hold of Crystal's wrist. The grip wasn't rough, but it was firm enough that there was no mistaking the intent behind it.

"You need to see it," Asha said quietly. "Otherwise you start to forget." Crystal's breath caught for a second, her instinct to pull back flickering and fading just as quickly. She didn't resist as Asha guided her down the hall again, her steps slower now, more deliberate.

The sounds grew clearer the closer they got. The sound of the cattle prod. The sounds of the screaming. The sounds of the guards fists.

Crystal's stomach tightened, but she kept her face neutral, focusing instead on placing one foot in front of the other. That was easier than thinking. Easier than reacting. Asha pushed the door open.

Crystal tried to keep her gaze lowered, but Asha's hand shifted, moving from her wrist to her jaw, tilting her head up with controlled precision.

"Look," she said.

It wasn't loud. It didn't need to be. Crystal's eyes lifted, though not by choice, her focus catching for a fraction of a second before she forced it to steady. She didn't let herself fully take it in, didn't let her expression change, but the tension in her body gave her away in smaller ways. The slight stiffening of her shoulders, the way her breath grew more shallow.

"Good," Asha murmured, watching her instead of the scene in front of them. "This is what happens when people don't listen."

Crystal swallowed, her throat tight.

"Yes," she said, because that was what was expected. Because it was easier to agree than to risk anything else. Asha's grip lingered for a moment longer before easing. She pulled Crystallia in to a tight embrace. Forcing her to watch Peter's beating over her shoulder. 

"I don't want that for you," she continued, her tone softening into something almost reassuring. "And you don't want it either."
Crystal nodded.

"No." The answer came out quieter this time, but steadier. Asha seemed satisfied with that.

"Remember that," she said.

Crystal kept her gaze forward a second longer than she needed to, as if holding it there proved something, before it finally dropped again.

"I will."