A Bond in the Dark

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter 16

(Hope)

"I repeat— who the hell are you?" Clarke asked her, gun still raised.

"My name is Hope," she said carefully, raising her hands in surrender. "Believe it or not, we know each other. We're..."

Hope paused— What should she say? She had no idea how to classify their relationship.

"Yes?" he asked impatiently.

"Friends," she said finally.

He laughed bitterly.

"I don't have friends," he said, placing emphasis on the word. "And even if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't let them riffle through my personal things."

She looked behind her at the notebook still lying open on the desk.

Oops.

"That's my bad," she said. "But maybe we can just...talk?" she asked hopefully, backing up into the desk, feeling a sudden pain.

"Ow!" she said, turning to find that she had scraped her arm on the sharp edge of the glass desktop. To her horror, she saw that she was bleeding. Actually bleeding. Whatever this dimension was, she could get hurt in it.

And Clarke had a gun...

"What did you do?" Clarke snapped. He had rolled up his sleeve and was studying his arm.

"I felt your pain, but there's nothing there..." he said, clearly perplexed.

"Clarke," she said hesitantly, "I don't know how to explain this, but we're connected somehow. And whatever this place is—it isn't real ."

Clarke raised his gun again, although he left his finger off the trigger.

"What did you do to me— What are you? " he asked.

"Um, that's complicated," she answered with a nervous laugh. "But trust me, I'm not here to hurt you. We're sort of—partners. We're stuck in Malivore's pit together..."

His expression changed in an instant; she watched his eyes grow wide as the color drained from his face, leaving his complexion ashen.

"You're lying," he said resolutely. "If we were in the pit, none of this would exist. There would be nothingness, darkness, isolation — " his voice broke off on the word.

Hope played anxiously with the pendant around her neck. She couldn't think of a single thing to say that would make the situation better.

Even worse, she could feel echoes of his pain, radiating off of him in waves. Whatever that dog-like creature had done to him, it hadn't severed their physical or emotional connection.

"That's what I thought," he said, taking her silence as confirmation. She swallowed thickly as she watched him move his finger back to the trigger once more.

"I know you don't believe me," she said. "I know how much your father hurt you, but I need you to trust me. "

"You know about my father?" he asked, his tone growing quiet.

"Yes," she said. "Ryan, trust me, please."

"What did you call me?" he asked softly. Surprise played across his features, replacing the torment that had been there just moments earlier.

Oh.

"Well, we're friends, remember?" she asked, suddenly feeling flushed. "You, um, told me to call you that," she said.