Page 94 of Resolve
Mallory is stiff as if—now that Raegan is standing in front of her—all her confidence has fled somewhere else.
I don’t intervene... yet. If she can’t handle this encounter, I'll end it early. But I give them both time to adjust to one another before I insert myself into the conversation.
I do retrieve a small square of paper from my pants to fold an origami creature to life.
Mallory notices, and a tiny smile appears.
“Do you want to sit?” Raegan offers, patting the bed.
Mallory nods. “Yeah.” She climbs up on the bed while Raegan leans more than sits a foot or so next to her.
They’re both quiet.
The girl plays with her foot, arching it back and forth against the bedding. “Um...” Her voice is soft and thready. “I wanted... I mean… I wanted to ask if... um... you know...” she rambles, struggling to get the words out. Raegan waits patiently for the words to finally come. “... if we’re safe... here, I mean.”
Raegan peeks over at me. I shrug. I don’t know what Briar told the kids about why we’d moved from the Tower to Hype. Or if they even know wherehereis. No one is supposed to leave the building.
“Yes, we’re safe.” Raegan comforts her with a gentle hand on hers, which is balled up on her leg.
“Why’d we leave? I liked it there.”
“Because it wasn’t as safe as here.”
“From GE?”
“Yes.”
“I thought Gordon and Holt... Jack told me they were... dead.”
“They are. But the company they worked for is still around.”
“Did you...Did you kill them?”
Raegan hesitates. “Holt... I did.”
“Not Gordon?”
“No. His company did that to him."
Mallory’s eyes round to saucers, her confidence slowly growing the more back and forth they have. “Why? Aren’t they on the same team?”
“They’re bad guys,” Raegan simplifies.
“Oh. Yeah.” A pause. “You’re still fighting them?”
“Yes. I won’t stop until they can’t hurt anyone else.”
The girl nods slowly, her hands fidgeting. “Then what?”
“What do you mean?”
“What happens to me? My friends... they keep going away. Briar says it’s to nice families. But I have a family. Why can’t I go home?”
Raegan’s face pinches before she looks at her own lap. “You’re not sick, Mallory. You’re special. You have an amazing gift, one your parents didn’t understand. If you go back, they might send you away again. And we don’t want that.”
“But—but if I told them that, they’d know I wasn’t sick anymore.” Her voice cracks. “They could keep me.”
Raegan wraps her arm around Mallory’s shoulders, and she collapses against her chest with a sob. She rubs her back. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
