Devotion [h.s]

216

Escalation
(es•ca•la•tion)
-A rapid increase of intensity

Throughout the night that Harry brought Mariah home, escalation caused a spiral in the household. The following events taken place in this night are broken down in descending time frames displayed in Amelia's eyes.

It's hard knowing that in one moment something seemed like one thing, but in a blink it feels like the total opposite. Safety to terror, happy to infuriated, loving to fighting, all of these can easily be switched in moments just by the excessive power of escalation. And the worst thing about it is..

You never expect when its going to happen.

Amelia Adams

6:37pm

The four of us sat at the table for dinner, I across from Harry and Niall across from Mariah. Briar was in the high chair next to me - eating yogurt from a bowl. I was spoon feeding it to her before but she dived her hands into the bowl and started putting it on her mouth that way, so I just let her have her moment and do it herself while I ate.

Harry pulled Niall aside before dinner and filled him in on everything involving Mariah. Of course he was cool with everything, but he's been quiet. I guess it's a little strange having a stranger in your home, you don't really know what to talk about.

"Do you go to school Mariah?" I ask as she sat quietly in her, eating the vegetables like she hasn't eaten in years, but still managed to look polite.

I want her to feel like she can let lose though, if she's really hungry, then I don't care if she wants to eat like an animal. I want her to feel comfortable around us, not putting up this wall.

"Yes, I miss a lot of days, but for the most part yes." She nods.

"And do you like it?" I ask while hearing the various sounds of utensils tapping and lightly scraping the plates while people ate.

"Y-yeah, I mean, history is kind of cool. I'm not big on survival." She murmurs.

"Do they still only teach those two things? I thought they would've added at least English by now." I furrow my brows.

"Sadly, no." She shakes her head.

"What do teachers say when they see bruises on your face like that?" I ask.

"Pretend they don't." Harry answers for her, wrapping his mouth around the fork in a bite.

I look at him for a second as he was looking back at me with seriousness, like he knows from experience. I glance back at Mariah to my left who forms her lips into a line and nods.

"That's awful." Niall murmurs while looking down at his plate, barely being audible.

"It is. How can an adult, a teacher, pretend they don't see a child being abused?" I say in disgust.

"I guess it's just easier for them, they don't want to cause trouble in a world that's already troubled enough." She mumbled while suddenly just pushing the food around the plate rather then eating it.

"It's still no excuse." I shake my head and turn to look at Briar who was spreading the yogurt across her highchair table, smiling to herself while looking at the pink disaster.

"The world is so dangerous. Ever since Malignant, violence is the answer to everything. Killing is just a normal thing now I guess. Some guy, some random guy, shot the mailman the other day because he was constantly delivering his mail to the wrong house. People get killed so often for such little things. And the sad thing is, it's all I grew up seeing. I was just a little kid when Malignant took over. And they still walk this earth, just in disguise. Those robbers at the store, the police found out they were apart of Malignant because of their chains." She rambles, kinda surprising me that she spoke this many words.