Arrow-Rieka

Leave

Rieka's POV:
I head out of the lab and just start walking. Not in any direction in particular. I just keep walking til it's dark. By the time I stop I don't even know where I am. The street lights are dim and there is a shadow following me.

I hear a chuckle and stop in my path.

"You ever get tired of following me around?" I ask to the darkness.

"Never." Ivo states as he steps into the light.

"What do you want?" I ask.

"I thought you'd be asking yourself that same question." Ivo quips.

"I know what I want. I want to be left alone for once in my goddamn life. I don't want to have to think about people following me around, expecting something from me." I sigh not wanting to argue.

"Yeah, well, unfortunately life is full of things we can't have. That's what life is. People having expectations of you, people following you in the dark. Because guess what, life isn't fair. And right now both of your teams need you." Ivo says as he walks closer and I shake my head and chuckle.

"I should've remembered. You don't take no for an answer." I say as I glare at him and he bows his head and sighs.

"You're still hung up on what happened on the boat? You can't blame me for that. The only person to blame is yourself. There was nothing that happened that you couldn't have stopped if you didn't want to do it." Ivo states in a chilling tone.

"You were going to hurt Sara." I growl and he chuckles.

"Is that what you tell yourself? That that's why you let me do what I did to you. Because we both know you didn't care about what happened to Sara. You did it because you thought you deserved it, for some deranged reason." Ivo says with his arms out and I realize that he's right.

"Yeah, well...maybe I did." I shrug.

"Is that why you don't think you deserve to have people care about you?" He asks and I clench my jaw.

"Because that's what you're doing, isn't it? Running away. I suppose you're good at it by now. It's what you do." He shrugs and I glare at him.

"You have no idea what you're talking about." I warn.

"Please, enlighten me then! Talk to me! Talk to someone! You can't keep all of this anger and hurt inside! It's going to kill you!" He shouts.

"I don't have a choice! If I let it out, people die!" I shout even louder and he looks at me confused.

"You want to know why I deserve everything that comes my way? It's because I'm a killer! It's what I do, it's who I've always been! It's what I was trained to do! There were times on the ship where I could've killed everyone without a second thought. What you did to me, kept you guys alive!" I growl, he just stands there as I walk away.

———

After a few hours I find my way back to Ivo's place and he's still up when I get inside. Almost as if he knew I'd be coming back.

"I knew you'd come to your senses." He states calmly.

"Who says I have such a thing." I scoff and he chuckles.

"Rieka, listen, I don't know what your life was like before me, but I'm here now. And I want to be here for you in any way that I can." He says as he gets up off the couch and walks over to me.

"That's just it...my life before you was simple. It wasn't normal by any means but there was a rhyme and reason to it. I knew who and what I was, and what I needed to do...now, I'm trying to figure out where I belong. I know where I should be, but going back...is harder than I expected. A lot has happened that made me question a lot of things and it's turned my world upside down." I say and Ivo cups my face in his hands.