Silas
She shattered right in front of us.
Not with a scream, not with rage.
With fear.
Real, pure, skin-crawling terror that stripped the air from the room and left me frozen in place like a fucking coward.
I'd seen Aeris flinch before. Avoid eye contact. Walk halls like a shadow. I thought it was an act. A shield. Some drama-fueled performance for sympathy she never asked for.
But watching her now?
This wasn't an act.
This was trauma.
The kind that lives in your bones and never leaves. The kind that makes you flinch before hands are even raised. That convinces you every kindness is a trick. Every voice is a threat.
When she ripped the IV from her arm, blood sprayed like a scream we didn't deserve to hear.
"Don't touch me!"
Her voice cracked. Her eyes were wild. Like a cornered animal. Not the girl I teased for being too quiet. Not the one I called "Deadgirl."
This wasn't just fear.
This was survival.
Kade moved first, instinctively—but I stopped him with a look. One wrong move and she'd break further.
Ronan's jaw was locked so tight, I could see the veins in his neck. He looked like he was holding himself together with nothing but sheer force of will. That scared me more than her screaming.
Because Ronan doesn't break.
But now he looked like he might.
She collapsed into herself like her own body was trying to disappear.
"Please," she whispered, and it broke something in me so violently I almost doubled over.
"Don't hurt me again."
Again.
Again.
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
We were supposed to protect her. That was the deal. The vow. The goddamn reason we were still tethered to this fucking town, to this lie of a life.
And we failed.
"I swear I didn't—" she kept whispering. "I swear I didn't—"
I didn't realize I was crying until I tasted salt.
All the stupid jokes. All the eye-rolls. The way I used to flick her books off her desk just to see her blink too slow.
We thought she was shy.
No. She was broken.
And we helped do it.
"Just give us one chance to explain," I said, my voice hoarse like I'd swallowed gravel. "Please. That's all we're asking."
She didn't hear me.
Or maybe she did.
But whatever she felt drowned out everything else.
She curled up, trembling like her own bones were trying to shake her free from herself.
And for the first time in my life—I didn't know what the hell to do.
No clever quip. No cocky smirk. No mask.
Just silence.
We stood there.
Minutes. Hours. I don't even know.
Ronan didn't move. Kade sat back in the chair, elbows on his knees, head in his hands like the weight of the world had finally crushed him. I stayed on the floor. I didn't deserve to stand.
She didn't ask us to stay.
But we did.
Because walking away felt like the last betrayal she wouldn't survive.