Darkling

Chapter Ten: Someone dangerous is after me

Content/trigger warnings: Death, Violence, Child abuse, Suicidal ideation, PTSD, Emotional abuse, Trauma, Murder

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"Jason," murmured Sinastar, echoing her thoughts aloud.

Her friend marched over to them and the grip on her arm prevented Satara from turning to face him fully. Her self-mocking explanation about why she was so close to the roof edge died instantly as he grabbed Sinastar's arm and pulled it away from hers, his gaze fixed on the other guy.

"Let go of her," he growled and Sinastar hesitated for a split second before releasing her elbow.

His other hand twitched as if he were about to reach out and take hold of her left arm instead but he only raised both disarmingly.

"Forgive me." He waited for Jason to relax his hold and took half a step back. "I thought she was going to – fall."

"Then you shouldn't have let her come up here in the first place." She had seen Jason get angry before.

Whenever Nigel or Brian said something stupid to her. Whenever someone walked too close to her. Whenever something happened and she nearly got hurt. But his irritation was a doubled sided thorn that would also pierce him under the slightest pressure. A lack of confidence that weakened him as much as the person he confronted.

"I came up here by myself." Sinastar's attention rested heavily on her head as she backed away, closer to the edge, and wrapped her arms around herself as if she were cold.

"Why?" The weight of Jason's attention nearly knocked her off the roof as he turned, switching the bag to his other hand and grabbing her kimono sleeve. "You shouldn't be walking around yet."

"I'm okay –"

"You haven't eaten anything properly since yesterday," he insisted, shaking the bag as though it were a substitute for her shoulder, strengthening the savoury tell tale scent of fish and chips. "You're supposed to be resting, not –"

"I needed to –" get some air. Even if my ribs were fine, I wouldn't have been able to breathe down there. I couldn't think. But even up here, where there's nothing but the sky, my head feels like a room of mirrors and I can't tell the difference between the reflections and what's actually in the room with me right now. The truth never revealed itself easily. It turned into a lump of clay and formed a single word instead. "– think."

Jason's eyes flitted to her arms, pressed to her lower chest, then to Sinastar as the other guy began to speak.

"I told her the truth," he said before speaking directly to her. "The Cunningham household wasn't your real home. I understand that's hard to accept, especially from a stranger like me. But I wouldn't have come here to lie to you."

"Why did you bring me here?" She tried to ignore the sting of Jason's gaze as it jumped back to her. "She broke my ribs, didn't she? If you really care about what happens to me, cousin, why haven't you taken me to a hospital yet?"

"We didn't have time to wait for your body to heal through normal treatment. And a hospital wouldn't have let me treat you the way I did."

I didn't let you treat me that way either. You did it while I was asleep. Her eyes narrowed. Against the washed out grey sky that highlighted him like a professional studio backdrop, everything about Sinastar seemed darker yet less suspicious. As if the wan light had picked out the slivers of authenticity in his existence and she could now put them together to form a complete picture of honesty, despite everything he had done.

"Then why aren't you letting me go back to the Langs?" A distressingly delayed thought dropped to the base of her stomach like a stone. "I've never gone anywhere without asking them first."