BROKEN

CH.36-the rebirth

*ACE'S POV*

Breathe, Ace. Breathe. Breathe. Calm down.

Water ran down my face as I splashed another palmful of it onto my forehead trying to cool down. The faucet continued to run and I kept splashing water wishing I could drowned or deteriorate or something. Anything to focus and get back what we'd lost.

The last few days were chaotic. The school had been shut down temporarily due to Cam's murder and the rumbling that was later clarified to be an earthquake. Why Weston found it so concerning was yet to be figured out, but he said he'd call me. Anyone involved in the war dropped out of school and Kara got back into the swing of going to her job, but she figured she'd have to drop soon too. School was too much for all of us and so it went as quickly as it came.

Kara went back in for a while after it was shut down to see her old hiding place behind the bookshelves again which was still pretty intact. The earthquake hadn't caused much damage to the school, but it was basically scientifically impossible. It was too sudden and too unpredictable not that the coast was uncommon for earthquakes, but for no one to have picked up on any waves beneath the earths surface before it hit? It was too weird.

I felt something curl around my legs and looked to see Scout's tail wrapped around my ankle as her head nuzzled against my leg. A soft grin curled at the edge of my lips.

"You've gotten bigger," I laughed. Scout had been with Kara's parents since she realized having a cat on top of, well, a war was a lot to handle. I was also staying with Kara and her family since the school was closed for a while so they could repair. The school even wanted to help in holding a funeral for Cam, but he wouldn't have wanted that so they called his "parents" (One of Cora's fake cellphones) and she politely refused for him.

"Ace, you've been in there for half an hour; are you okay?" Mrs. Harrison's voice asked.

"Yes ma'am. Just a little tense is all."

"Okay, dear. Dinner is ready whenever you want to come down. Kara should be home in about an hour."

"Okay, thank you," I said and I wasn't even sure she had heard me until I heard footsteps walking away from the door.

Scout, who had been startled by Mrs. Harrison's voice, made her way out from behind the bottom of the sink and curled up in a ball at my feet as I dried my face with a towel.

I wanted to punch something, but I wouldn't.

I wanted to quit everything, but I couldn't.

I wanted to kill someone, but I shouldn't...until time gives way to answers.

Cloud's people were definitely behind Cam...it was too vulgar to be done by Croatia's group. She prefers a cleaner way of getting things done, for example, the iniquity which we had yet to see since the day it possessed Kara. I dried off my hands and hung the towel back on the rack before scooping Scout up in my arms and carrying her into the living room, sitting her on the couch.

"Ah, ah, Scout. Off the couch," Mr. Harrison laughed. Scout refused by climbing into my lap and curling up there.

"Sorry, that's my fault."

"Oh, don't worry, Ace," he said, "that cat really seems to like you."

I looked down at Scout's green-yellow eyes before smiling again. "She does, doesn't she."

"Thank you."

"I'm sorry?"

"Kara's alive and you don't have to say anything for me to know that you played a role in that."