Fighting for our Home

Chapter 16: Dying is Easy, Living is Harder

Chapter 16: Dying is Easy, Living is Harder

Xander was clearly surprised by my response, and looked at me with a look of wonder.

"I am sure that what happened wasn't your fault." He said, in his reassuring voice, he thought that I was just blaming myself, without evidence.

"Get the others in here, I will only be able to say this once, and I need the others to hear it." I whispered, my eyes meeting his again. He waited for a couple of seconds, his eyes searching mine, for any sign that I would start screaming and kicking.

He left without a word. I just sat there in the bed, my head throbbing and my heart aching.

A couple of minutes later, Xander came back, followed by Travis, Charles and Sam. I wanted to tell Travis that I was happy to see that he had come back safe, but the words caught in my throat. Xander took a seat, while the others stood around the bed. Travis moved forward, probably to hug me, but Charles pulled him back by his upper arm. My head was pounding, and my throat was tightening, but I still stood up, and leaned against the edge of the bed.

"The mission was going well. It was my idea to pour the poison into the glasses, before the waiters handed them out. So at first it went well, with me distracting the waiter, and Aaron pouring the poison, but later we had to switch roles, to not be so suspicious, but a man saw me, when I was pouring the poison into the last glass." I stopped for a second, and my arm automatically went to my upper arm, where a purple bruise had already appeared. I kept my eyes away from the four men in front of me, not wanting to meet any of their gazes.

"I was getting cornered, and was gonna be exposed, but Aaron came and he had to reassure them that I was just putting some medicine in his glass for him, and then he drank it to prove a point. I made him throw it up a couple of minutes later, and then we couldn't leave right away, because that would be suspesius, we raced home and now we are here." I finally raised my gaze from the floor to look at the different reactions from the four men in front of me. Xander was looking at me with a gaze of wonder, like he was trying to read my mind. Charles looked deep in thought, Sam looked more worried then ever and lastly Travis. He normally always wore his emotions on his sleeve, but now he was a closed book, he kept his gaze at the door next to him.

"I understand now, you were both in a very dangerous situation and you were almost exposed, it is my fault for sending you on a mission, when you clearly weren't ready." Charles broke the silence, after a couple of minutes. My heart sank at his words.

"What?" I whispered. Charles looked to Xander.

"I assume that you will be doing a full evaluation, to make sure that her error was not due to her earlier trauma." Charles spoke like I wasn't even in the room, and that made me angry.

"Don't talk like that in front of me, Yes I made a mistake! But it wasn't because of what happened with James. It only happened because someone must have already been watching us, and I simply wasn't fast enough!" At the end of my rant I was practically screaming. I was panting standing right in Charles' face. He looked shocked at first, but now he looks calm, but I knew better than to think that this was over. He was schearing my eyes for something, and when he didn't find it, he looked past me at Xander.

"Leave the full report on my desk, when you are done" and with that he left. Sam and Travis followed him without as much as a goodbye.

I sat back down on the edge of the bed, knowing that running away from this would do me no good.

"Are you ready to talk?" Xander asked, after he made sure that I had calmed down from my outburst. I simply gave him a nod.

"Have you had any images of James, other than that dream you had a while back, when we talked?" He was speaking in his normal calming voice, that always nagged me.