Book I - ch 10. Rulebreaker

* * *

Sarah shut her eyes tight, refusing to see the blood.

The voice asked another question, but she wasn’t listening. The voice, no matter how calm, was unfamiliar and without a face to it. She didn’t want a stranger on the other side of the wall.

Her mind struggled with sorting out everything that was real and dream. “Where’s Robyn?”

Whoever the voice belonged to gave up trying to calm her down and disconnected the call.

Sarah tried the lock again with more of the numbers that came to mind, but the door didn’t budge. Screaming, at the door or maybe the faceless voice on the other end of the intercom, she pounded on the door until she wasn’t sure what she was doing anymore.

Only the pain flaring up in her chest stopped her. She focused on it as if it were a lifeline away from all the madness. The pain was real. And if the pain was real, so was her fall inside that abandoned building.

Like a string being pulled, it unraveled the sequence of events, setting reality apart from what had been the dream.

Crying, Sarah withdrew from the door and sank into the corner. She’d wanted so much for that other life, that other place, where everything kept going as it was, to be real. She drew in a deep breath and pain spiked somewhere in her chest again.

Yes, the pain was real.

She steadied her breaths, and soon it didn’t hurt as much. Everything started separating in her head, even if the feelings weren’t so easy to sort out.

Dream and reality both felt so very much alike. Rationally, though, it was a piece of cake telling them apart… the good things were the dream and the bad things were real.

Of course the bad things would be real.

She pressed the palms of her hands against her closed lids, hoping to shove back into the dark corners of her brain all the things she wished she hadn’t seen.

The cold from the tiles seeped through her pajamas, leaving a cold trail along her skin. Her chest and head were competing to see which could hurt more. Now that her panic had subsided, everything was reduced to pain.

Invading her darkness and the silence dominated by her shallow breaths came the click of her lock.

She opened her eyes, shifting her gaze without moving her head.

The door inched open, blocking her view of whoever it was. A hand appeared from the threshold, fingers waving. “Are you gonna attack me or can I come in?”

It took her a moment before she recognized the voice. Pegasus, Robyn had called him. He didn’t wait for a reply before coming inside and letting the door close behind him.

“You look horrible,” he said when he saw her.

“You don’t look so good yourself.”

If at all possible, he looked worse than she felt. Pale skin and sunken eyes gave him an air of exhaustion. It didn’t help that his hair was a mess and his clothes were wrinkled as if he’d been sleeping in them.

He shrugged a shoulder, gestured at himself. “This is what you get when you start screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night.”

Sarah wiped at her face to get rid of any tear stains. “What happened to you?”

“I breathed in when I should’ve not breathed at all.”

“What?”

“It turns out I can’t hold my breath for more than three minutes.” He gave her a wry smile. “And the gas mask had a bullet hole in it.”

Was he trying to shock her?

But if he was in this state… Robyn…

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“Your sister’s fine.”

Sarah rubbed her sore eyelids. “You a mind-reader now?”

“I wish. That would be so helpful. I could know when the cook was planning on making pizza and get there before it got cold.”

Sarah turned to stare at him with wide eyes, a laugh escaping her before she noticed.

Pegasus smiled at her. “It’s understandable to be worried. This time, Robyn wasn’t there when we were playing with poison gas.”

But she might be in the future.

He tapped his fingers against his leg. “But my being like this is to blame for her current absence. So I guess I should say sorry for the inconvenience.”

Sarah scrutinized his face. It was more than exhaustion. Something was wrong with his eyes as well—other than how red they were. The rim of blue was thinner than she thought it should be, as if his pupils were dilated. And now that she looked closer, the paleness of his skin had a sickly quality to it.

All in all, he was the one who looked like he belonged in a hospital bed.

The fog all but disappeared from her brain, a twinge of guilt joined the embarrassment abut having a meltdown in the middle of the night. “Sorry I bothered you.”

“It’s okay. I was going crazy cooped up in my room. At least your little tantrum gave me an excuse to get out.”

“You’re welcome? I guess.”

“You wanna tell me what happened? Cypher said you were hysterical.”

“Is that the name to the voice on the other end of that thing?” she asked, nodding towards the intercom.

“And now you’re avoiding the question.”

She twisted the corner of her mouth. Avoidance was as good a reaction as any.

“Personally, I think he was too scared to come down here himself and that’s why he woke me up,” Pegasus said during her silence. He settled himself in the corner opposite from her, mirroring her position.

Maybe she should offer him her bed.

The sentences formed on the edge of her mind and lingered on the tip of her tongue, but it sounded so stupid now that she was fully awake.

Tired, bloodshot eyes continued to watch her expectantly. He looked about ready to collapse. And yet he was there.

“I had a bad dream,” she muttered. “I thought I was home and when I woke up, I didn’t remember they were dead… my parents, I mean.” It was hard to keep the words from bringing forth more tears, but she managed.

“Everyone has those types of dreams,” he whispered. “They’re worse than the nightmares in a way, because they trick you.”

“Do you have them?”

He shook his head. “No home to dream of.” Without explaining, he leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

“I wanna get out of here,” she said.

Pegasus scoffed. “Yeah, that’s not happening.”

“I want to go see their graves,” Sarah explained. “Right now, it doesn’t feel real… Maybe if I see the place where they’re buried and say a proper goodbye, it’ll help.”

He opened his eyes and looked at her. “Did you talk to Robyn about this?”

“I just thought of it. And it looks like no one’s gonna tell me where she is.”

“That happens.”

“Can you ask someone to take me, please?”

“So you can see that it’s real?” There was something in his voice. It sounded almost like amusement.

“Yes,” she answered nonetheless, hardening her tone.

He laughed. “Well, how do you know we won’t show you a couple of headstones standing on an empty lot or something? There’s about as much veracity in a piece of stone as there would be in a photo of a gravestone with your name on it… and don’t get me started on the issues with that.”

“What do you mean?”

He shook his head, dismissing her confusion with a wave of his hand. “Sorry. Everyone says I’m weird when I haven’t slept.”

She remembered Robyn saying something about it. It was good to know her sister hadn’t been making stuff up as she went. “I’m even sorrier I woke you then.” Though maybe she should be sorry to the other people he’d have to interact with.

“That makes two of us.” He let out a long, tired breath and pushed himself back up. “Look, this isn’t going anywhere tonight, just like you, and just like me… You’re apparently safe and reasonably sound, so I’d better talk to you tomorrow.”

“Promise?” she asked before she could stop herself.

He stopped at the door and looked back at her, pausing as if to give the question much more consideration than she deemed necessary. “Yeah, tomorrow… If I remember this conversation.”

* * *

Pegasus shut the door behind him and stopped for a moment, letting his eyes drift closed. It took a lot more effort than he expected to keep from collapsing on the spot. He really was so tired.

He took a few steps before opening his eyes and almost ran into Scorpion. She was coming from the infirmary.

“How’s Bear doing?” he asked.

“Doc says that depending on how she does over the next few days, she’ll be fine. We’re gonna transfer her back to the Lair in the morning.”

“And how’s your leg?”

“Meh. Doc’s trying to scare me into thinking it’ll get infected.”

They hesitated, each seemingly trying to look away from the other and failing.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.

“Forgot my meds. Doc Green made me go get them.” Scorpion glanced towards Sarah’s room. “You didn’t waste any time getting cozy, I see.”

Cold replaced any hint of warmth in him. “I figured it was worth a shot. What’s wrong? Were you hoping I’d be headed the other way?” The tinge of malice coated his voice quite naturally.

Scorpion sucked in a breath, obviously forcing herself to hold her tongue. But she couldn’t school her expression even if she tried. Her anger only made him more incensed.

“You started this. You shouldn’t get to be pissed at me,” he whispered, but instead of angry, he realized he sounded hurt.

Scorpion ran a hand through her hair. It was a habit of hers when she was trying to remain calm. She didn’t look like she was up for fighting today. Neither was he. It was late, they were tired, and he was obviously not himself.

Scorpion moved away from him. “All we have are the rules sometimes.” It was something she’d said to him many times before.

Pegasus started laughing uncontrollably. Yeah, he was definitely far from okay. “Do you know how twisted it is that you, of all people, have to keep telling me that?”

“Doesn’t make it any less true.”