Riley
What am I doing?
The panic instantly settled in her stomach. But it was too late, the words had already left her lips and now that promise hung in the still air of the night. Two pairs of eyes watched her, wide-eyed and believing. Desperate. For that fleeting moment, a haunting thought occurred to her. They’d believe anything she said. She could have said anything she wanted, could have made them believe anything. Made them do anything.
For that fleeting moment, she had the two of them dancing in the palms of her hands and for that moment, the inevitable ending was pushed to the back of her mind. But the roar of the wind from outside broke her from such thoughts, and the reality of the situation was released before her. The two pairs of eyes were not only desperate, but they were also calculating. Cold. There was a shadow of a threat in the dark eyes of Ellie’s companion. The shadow of a warning. A promise. Where Riley knew deep in her gut that Ellie could never turn a gun on an old friend, she wasn’t so sure about this Dina.
And so, she drew a breath, and then nodded. “Like I said, I took a few things that didn’t belong to me. You’d be surprised what those cult bastards like to hide.” A glimmer of pride swelled in her for a moment, until her eyes landed on Ellie. There was something dark beyond those green eyes, something that made Riley’s stomach coil. Her pride faded, and a part of her felt guilt begin to take its place. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
But this wasn’t a maybe she could reason with. Marlene was dead, and that was that. Someone had to answer for their crimes. “I spent awhile following them. But I also overheard things; where they’d put their strongest, which walls would have more guards. Shit like that. I have a pretty good idea of how we can get it, but-” there’s more. Riley sucked in a breath.
“But…?” Dina’s eyes prompted for more, and that threat still held in her gaze. Riley tugged at her blanket, pulling it tighter around her. The fire in the fireplace blazed, but yet, it still felt so cold in the room.
“It’s not just the Scars,” she elaborated, slowly. Her mind cursed at her, but the words were already at her lips. “There’s another group. Following the cultists. I don’t know much about them. Just that wherever I’ve seen the Scars, they aren’t too far behind. I don’t think the cultists were the only ones after Jackson.” Maybe.
Maybe.
Maybe.
Her heart ached briefly, as she spoke. But she drew another breath, and begged her mind to silence. Ellie leaned back against the wall, a breath of air puffing past her lips. “Shit,” she breathed. There was a worry behind those eyes, now. And an anger that chilled Riley to the bone. “I’ll kill ‘em all. Every last fucking one of them.”
And Riley understood in that moment. Ellie was on a warpath, and if she wasn’t careful, she be caught in the crosshairs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“About time,” a rough voice hissed from the darkness. Riley shushed them, yanking the hood from her head. Dina and Ellie were finally asleep upstairs, and she had taken to the basement. Cold, dark and empty. Snow blew in from a shattered window that just barely peeked out over the ground.
“I’ve been a little busy,” she hissed in response, shooting the figure a look. Leaning against the wall with an agitated scowl, the male only scoffed in response.
Maybe I can still fix things. With the two now asleep above them, she found herself weighing her options once again. Maybe there was still a chance. But that bloodied body haunted her mind. Marlene, her Marlene, with a hole in her abdomen and surrounded by her own blood. Her Marlene, who had damn near raised her. And in the center of it all, was the girl who’d been granted immunity since birth. The girl whom she’d once loved, and had nearly given her own life for.
Ellie Williams; the fortunate favorite of the Fireflies.
The girl who, up until several hours before, had been a distant memory. A ghost. Just another death in Riley’s life. But no, instead of lying dead, shredded to pieces by those damned Clickers, she had been lingering in the center of Riley’s own vendetta. And Riley had been none the wiser, until now.
And that simple fact couldn’t change all that she had planned. No, that simply wasn’t an option. Running her hands over the legs of her pants, she turned back to the figure with a solid gaze. “Enough talk, where the hell is Abby?”