Facade [h.s]

twenty-six

I moved my gaze from Harry to Indigo, that were both completely silent.

The television had been turned off not too long after the chilling news had ended, and now they both seemed to be completely lost in their thoughts, none of them opening their mouth to at least talk about what we'd just discovered.

I was terrified, because even though I didn't know what it was, I knew that information would've brought to something. There was no way something like that could happen without eliciting some kind of reaction from Joel. I only wished they would've talked about it, so that I could've gotten an idea of what was about to happen.

But they didn't say anything for what felt like minutes, leaving me to panic in the quietness of my mind. There was something of so wrong in letting all that go by without doing anything - we knew things we definitely shouldn't have known, and yet nobody was doing anything. I knew that the right thing to do would've been to go to the police - Theo had realised it too - but the simple thought of doing that terrified me. I didn't want to end up like him, and more importantly, I didn't want anyone around me to end up like him.

I wanted them to be safe, but I couldn't help but feel as if safe wasn't a possibility anymore. The only thing I knew, was that the uncertainty of safety would've quickly turned in the certainty of extreme danger if any of us would've dared to go to the police about it, and that was a risk I wasn't willing to take - not in that moment at least, not without talking to them first.

For the first time, I wondered how Callie was doing. She'd definitely taken the wrong side in that whole thing, but that didn't mean I couldn't be worried about her. She was - or had been - my friend, after all. I could only hope that she wasn't in danger in that moment.

"Joel's gonna freak" Indigo murmured all of a sudden, and I quickly turned my head to look at her. She was staring ahead, her blue eyes wide, a hint of fear hidden away in them. In that moment I knew we were screwed, because I'd never seen her act that worried, almost scared, before. Not even when we'd found out about Theo's death.

I glanced at Harry, but he didn't seem to have any intention of replying to her, too lost in his own thoughts.

"What will happen now?" I asked her, hoping that she'd let me know what I had to expect from that moment on. I was still too new to what was going on, and I felt so lost. I'd barely had time to adapt to the new situation, and then it'd been turned into one that was much worse in the blink of an eye. I could only hope that nothing else would've happened at that point.

Indigo gave me a shrug. "I don't know" she said honestly. "Joel will freak, I don't know if he'll do something though."

"What would he do?" I asked, wanting to know what kind of thing I should've prepared myself for.

"I don't know." Her reply wasn't particularly useful, but for some reason it reassured me. Of course, the uncertainty wasn't good, but the simple fact that she wasn't sure he would've done something of absolutely awful was enough to make me feel a bit better. "Maybe it would be a good idea to disappear for a while" she then added, and her words annihilated the reassurance I'd felt. "You could go to your dad's house again, Raine."

I shook my head. "I'm not going there" I said, "if Joel went looking for me, that'd be the first place he'd look. What if he finds me there and thinks I told my dad?" I shuddered at the simple thought. "That's a risk I'm not willing to take."

"You can stay here for a while" Harry told me all of sudden, finally seeming to be interested in communicating again, sending me a little look. "If you don't feel safe in your flat."

I looked at him for a few seconds, not replying right away. I really wanted to tell him that it truly was a great idea and that I would've loved to take him up on that offer, but I also didn't want to impose. I'd already spent way more time I should've at his house, and I didn't want to make it worse. How could I know that he was saying it because he truly meant it, and not because he was just being nice?