𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞; eugene roe ✔

PART SIXTEEN

Ciao readers; please tell me if you're finding this boring so I can make more of it <3 Don't want you to live in pleasure now do I?

Word count; 2,588

Valentina

With my eyes fluttering open, my palms extended out, caressing the fleece I lay beneath. A moment or two passed before I could see properly, the outside darker than the in. I couldn't even remember falling asleep, only Eugene standing by the bed and tucking the covers around my body. This memory hanging in the room, I muttered his name, almost to check if he was still there.

I collected my clothes first, before even turning on the light. As I entered the ensuite, I recalled Eugene's advice to not look in mirrors - something else that briefly flickered through my mind from the hours previous. He had said it'll only do more bad and so I listened. Did it help? Only time would tell.

Downstairs, in the communal room, a group of officers sat by the main coffee table, throwing down cards, exclaiming joy and reclaiming money they had formerly lost. I shielded my eyes with a flat hand, the light from the chamber soaring directly through my pupils. The entire descend of the stairs, I'd been like this - incapable of basic functions; my legs were too tired to move properly, thinking this was all a dream. If only it was.

No-one had noticed my presence, not until a medic emerged from a doorway with a tray full of hot cup of coffees. He'd finished placing them down then, in a small glimpse in my direction, froze once realising I had appeared. In reaction, all of the officers sent their stares towards me, barring Spiers who took the opportunity to find another cigarette.

"Eugene?" Winters probed.

"Miss Fritz just had a lil' rest upstairs." He explained.

Nixon supplied, not to the medic but to me, "Is everything okay?"

I looked at Eugene and Eugene only, spilling out the words, "I want to go home."

The room stirred, almost as if my words were like medusa's gaze and they'd all been stunned to stone. No-one combatted my request, despite the urge for some of them to offer a coffee and a seat beside them. For some reason, they sensed it would be better for me to do as I wished. Eugene patted down his torso, checking he had all his bags, then strode around the sofas until he met with me.

I avoided every puddle on the way home, the air bereft of downpour, only a blanket of dusky clouds covering the sky. Eugene walked close by, hands in his warmer-pockets. My steps were swift and for every three I took, he used one.

"Are you all right?"

I darted a glance at him, registering his words. "I don't like being in that house on my own."

"You weren't on your own."

"It felt like it."

The sound of my heels colliding with the pavement echoed throughout each square and street we crossed, Eugene's boots thudding alongside them.

"Why don't you like it?"

I coughed out a cold breath. "It's..."

He sniffed.

"It's Herr Dietrich's house. One of them, at least. It's where..."

Where Teo was forced at gunpoint to have sex with another girl. To think the bed I slept in could've been the exact location, somewhere in which many others had probably shared themselves. When last were the sheets even washed?

"My God." He murmured. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were already doing so much."

"I could've done more."