The Awakened | ✅

Chapter Twenty-Five

Grace sat perfectly still and silent as I brushed through her now clean locks of hair, pulling it into her usual ponytail. She'd been here for a week or two. When we'd rescued her, she'd been sickly pale, dirty and skinnier than anyone I'd ever seen.

But now, the color had come back to her now peachy skin and she was clean, and not as skinny as she once was. I was happy to see her physical progress, but, by the looks of it, she wasn't progressing mentally.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked softly as I ran my fingers through her hair.

She shook her head in response. "Grace, come on. Talk to me." I pressed.

She sighed. It was quiet for a moment and I was just about to drop the matter before she began to speak, "I was...cold in the cell that he kept me in." She began softly."Cold and dark. They kept me away from everything electric, even lights."

She sniffed as I finished up with her hair. "And they didn't really feed me, but when they did, it...It was just bread, grits, and water and... They made fun of me for not seeing..." Tears fell down her cheeks as she continued. "They made so much fun of me for being blind, Circe and I was so sad and scared and lonely and..."

She broke down right there in front of me. I wrapped my arms around her in a hug. My shirt became wet with her tears as I let her cry it out. She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve anything that was happening to her.

But it did happen. And she was hurting because of it.

"You stay here, okay? I'm going to go get Vic or Evie to come in and help you get settled."

Grace nodded, tears still falling down her cheeks.

I left the room and closed the door behind me softly. I was so sick of this. All this pain, sorrow, and loss. It was agonizing.

It made me angry.

I was sick of this. I wanted it to end. I was going to end it. I had to.

As I was walking down the hall, I passed a room that had a lot of commotion coming from the other side. And it was loud, like two people yelling. Despite every bone in my body telling me to walk away, to forget that I ever heard the yelling, I crept towards the door and gently listened in.

"Are you serious? You've been trying? Trying my ass, Hailey! You're not trying! You haven't been improving! You've been weakening! That's what you've been doing!" Mrs. Florence yelled.

"I swear, mom! It's...It's not like that! It's just been tired more often. I think it's because of what happed on that last mission. Something that those guys put in that injection." Hailey defended.

"You can't blame all of your failures on other people Hailey! You know how ridiculous that is!"

"I'm sorry mom."

"Don't apologize! That's a weak defense. It's something you're father would do!"

"DON'T compare me to him!"

"Then don't ACT like him."

I heard Hailey and her mother start moving towards the door and I quickly ran to make it look like I'd been farther down the hall when the conversation had happened. The door swung open and Mrs. Florence walked out first, her head held high and her face neutral.

Hailey however, was a bit more expressive. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and she kept clenching and unclenching her fist, as if she longed to punch something or someone.

She took a shaky breath and wiped the tears from her cheeks, turning to walk in her own direction, but she stopped and turned around to see me staring at her.

"Hope it was entertaining, Lewis." She said simply before she walked off in the direction that her mother had gone.

My brow creased sympathetically and I turned around to go. Hailey was going through her own things too. I had to remember that.

Everything was bad for everyone right now.