Page 137 of Chasing Ruin
It’s almost as if those few words drained every ounce of his strength. His body collapses into the wall with a sigh.
Then suddenly, he’s pulling himself up, grunting sharply.
His hands are now pale—bloodless.
He sits up as best he can, staring at me with a plea in his eyes. “You okay? Did they h-hurt you while I was out?”
The tremble in his voice is disarmingly painful. His gaze is urging me to tell him that I’m fine even if it’s a lie. All while his whole body is bracing for the worst version of the truth.
“I’m fine,” I tell him. Not a lie. “They didn’t hurt me, Theo. Not yet.”
He flinches at the last words.
When the brittle silence stretches, he scans the dimly lit passageway. His gaze drags over every person, every rusted bar, every corner that might hide something worse.
I let him take his time to come to the same conclusion I did a few minutes—hours?—ago.
That there’s nothing here for us to do. Nowhere to run. No one to call.
All we can do is wait.
For destruction or salvation.
My throat tightens at the thought, but I force the words out anyway. “Hellfire being my father,” I whisper, my voice hollow even to my own ears. “It makes more sense now.”
Theo’s jaw ticks. His eyes flicker with something dark and knowing. “Yeah,” he says grimly. “It does.”
I swallow, my fingers tightening around the cold bars. “All of this… me being here.”
“You were always gonna be a target because of that,” he adds in quietly.
There’s no softness to the truth. No cushioning.
I nod numbly, even though the motion makes my head spin.
“I saw you,” I murmur, my voice trembling now despite my efforts. “Back there, in the club yard.”
His gaze sharpens instantly.
“You looked…” My chest caves in, breath stuttering. “You looked dead.” The word breaks out of me like a sob I can’t contain. “I don’t understand how you’re here,” I whisper, shaking my head. “Why they brought you here.”
For a moment, he just watches me. Then his lips tilt into something faint. Something tired. Something that hurts more than anything else. “They didn’t,” he says softly.
My brows knit together.
“Not at first,” he adds, his voice roughening. “But I c-couldn’t let them take you alone.”
The air leaves my lungs in a broken rush.
A soft, helpless sound escapes me before I can stop it. Theo’s expression crumples for a split second.
“I promised you, didn’t I?” he whispers, his voice cracking. He sniffs, blinking hard. “I’ll get you through this—together.”
That does it.
The dam breaks. I sob—silent, shaking, my body folding in on itself as I press my forehead harder against the bars. Every sound gets swallowed by the horror around us anyway, but it doesn’t make it easier.
“W-What if—” I choke out, but the words won’t form. They won’t make it past the terror lodged in my chest.
