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┏━━━ CHAPTER TWENTY THREE ━━━┓ ★゜・。。・゜゜・we all fall down ──── Mallory Thompson
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NO ONE DARED TO SPEAK THE LONGER THE AGONIZING SECONDS DRAGGED ON. Aasim and Omar retreated away from the door, god knows what was going through their brains at the current moment. Louis sat flat on the ground, all the while Mallory remained slumped just mere feet away from him. At one point, Louis had become alarmed when she had fallen deathly quiet. After a quick check, he noted her breath had been the cause of panic as it had shallowed just enough to show the toll her injuries were taking on her. He watched her silently after that, hopelessness creeping upon him. The fear of one of them not making it off the boat alive wracked his brain more than he'd like to admit.
At one point, Minnie and the woman Louis had come to know as Dorian stood watch outside, both seeming satisfied that the four teenagers no longer felt the need to lash out. It seemed their little punishment had worked, maybe a little better than they were expecting. Their lack of empathy made Louis curl his lips in silent anger, wondering how all humanity just seemed to be wiped from their minds.
They had always dreamed of the day they found Minnie and Sophie again. When Marlon and Brody had come back without the twins that one dreadful day, sadness had swept through the school and most things were never the same again. It was a heavy loss for them, the girls bringing about an exceptional joy in the troubled youth. Both were kind-hearted and soft, a purity in the daily gloom of their existence. Sure Minnie was a little rough around the edges, but it was more an act of not letting people walk over her. Still, they were two of the main people that hated everything that the new world had stood for. Louis joked constantly with Minnie and Sophie, them being part of the small list that didn't immediately shut him down.
But when they 'died', it seemed that the others despised humor—perhaps rightfully so. Even he had to admit the endless jabs every time he made a joke reminded him of everything they had lost. It was the shadow that never left.
And now here they were, Minnie was alive after all this time and the light that used to shine in her eyes was practically nonexistent. Whatever the Delta had done to the twins during their stay must have fucked them up real bad. And one thought ran through Louis's mind: What the hell had happened to Sophie?
When Mallory shifted next to him, Louis couldn't help but prepare to care for her. Her eyes opened, bloodshot sea-green meeting brown, and for a moment she merely just stared. But it more felt like her gaze was passing right through him as she seemed more so confused at whatever was going through her brain. Louis held his breath, afraid to do anything that startled her. He had learnt from the last time.
