Sprawl

Chapter Eight

Archer left me at my doorstep, unable to help me deal with the terrors that awaited me behind the front door. It was now dusk, and the last thing I wanted to do was be at home with the people who despised me the most. 

Before I could reach the handle, the door swung open, and Mother Elise stood before me. I smiled meekly up at her, in attempt to appease her. To no avail, of course, as she merely ignored me and moved aside to let me into the house. 

"Go to your room, Olivia." She didn't even look at me as she shut the door and left me standing in the hallway.

No one was around. I assumed it was because they were all hiding away to avoid talking to me, but whether this was the truth or not, I didn't loiter about to find out. I went straight to my room, ignoring the eyes that followed me throughout the hallways, peeking through keyholes and cracks in the doorways. I slammed my own door shut so the whole house knew I was home and locked away, so they could continue to be a family without my presence.

I lay on my back on my bed, staring up at my blank white ceiling. I replayed the events of the past few days in my mind - the first time I woke up, escaping to the field and seeing Archer, recieving news of my pregnancy. 

I balled my hands up in fists and pounded them into my thin mattress. What in the name of the Prophet had I done to deserve any of this, yet what was I to do? Run away with Archer? Though my loyalties had shifted slightly as a result of what happened, I would never be able to merely abandon my family. The people I had grown up with and who had shaped and molded me into the girl that I am today. I would never be able to forget them, let alone leave them. 

Yet being with Archer made me feel like an entirely different person. It made me feel giddy and excited, yet so incredibly scared at the same time. Being with him today made me feel happy and cared for, it made me feel comfortable and calm. He brought out a side of me not even I had encountered before. A side drowning in her own emotions, on the verge of collapse and tears at every moment, someone who needed constant comforting and reassurance, things that he never failed to provide. 

But did I really know him? He seemed to know me better than I knew myself, what with the way he could have me spilling all my feelings to him, only to have him pick up the fragments of my wounded self, and stitch them back together again. But who was Archer to me? I knew of his family's history, and of the way his father, and the rest of the Compound for that matter, treated him, but why didn't he ever tell me of his feelings? Why was I the only one to show that I was hurting, when I knew that Archer hurt more than any other person on the Compound ever had. 

Thoughts like this invaded my mind all night, keeping me up until the early hours of the morning. I eventually fell into a deep and troubled sleep, only to be awoken a couple hours later.

"Olivia." A stern voice called from behind my door. "Wake up. Your father is here to see you."

I sprang up from my bed, shaking in fear. No. No no no no no! I couldn't face my father now. Not after everything that's happened! But of course, that's the only reason he was here. I continued to shake as I rinsed my face and got dressed, unable to think straight as the fear of facing him swallowed me whole.

A pounding thump on my door cause me to jump a foot in the air. "Olivia." This time it was Michael. "Get out of your room now. Father is growing impatient."

I took a deep breath, unable to control my body's trembling. Hesitantly I opened my bedroom door to an empty hallway, and made my way down to the kitchen and dining room. These too I found were empty, and I finally ended up face-to-face with my entire family, sittiing in a crescent moon, in the living room.