SACRIFICE: A House of Ashes Story

-CASE 003-

-RACHEL-

When our food came, I managed to wake Eric long enough to get him to eat something, thankfully. I'm fucking worried. He needs medical attention. When one of the guards took away the food cart, I brought it up. I had to play nice to get Eric the help he needed.

Surprisingly, the guard told me the medic would arrive shortly. Under no circumstances did I believe that they were doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. The food quality informed me that they intend to keep us as healthy as possible for their experiments.

"Once we recover, what the hell should we do?" Eric asks as the guard leaves.

"I'm not sure yet," I admit. "With us being separated, it's hard to be tactical."

"You're right," Eric groans as he sits up. "And Talia is pissed at you."

"Yeah, there's that," I sighed.

"There's more to it than meets the eye, right?" Eric asks.

Shit. There's no point in keeping anything else from him. I promised him there wouldn't be any more secrets, and he promised me to work on his communication.

"You're right," I confess. "There is. Uh, Talia has feelings for Nick-"

"-Holy shit," Eric swore softly.

"-Yeah," I winced. "And by the time she confided in me...it had already been a few weeks, and at the time, I'd convinced myself that you and I weren't going to see each other again. We'd been fighting so much. But no matter what I was thinking, I hurt her. I hurt you and Nick. Their friendship is probably ruined, too. I was selfish. You aren't the only one I have to work things out with."

"...Jesus, Rachel..." Eric said breathlessly after he took a few moments to process things.

"Yeah," I tried to clear the lump in my throat.

"...And she still did everything she could to save you from the infection," Eric marvels.

"I know," I swallowed thickly. I don't deserve to cry. I brought this on myself.

"...I can't pretend to be any better, though," Eric admits.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"When Nick went down to the pit to set the charges, his call reached my radio first, remember?" he reminds me.

"Yeah," I nod, wondering where he was going with this.

"For a brief moment, there was a part of me that wanted to ignore the call and leave him down there," Eric concludes.

"...We didn't handle our separation well at all," I groaned, pulling my fingers through my hair. "We hurt everyone around us!"

"Maybe... hopefully, we can make this right somehow," Eric decides.

I nod as the door opens, and to my shock, I see a familiar face.

"Elijah?!" I gasped in horror. "What are you doing here?!"

He puts a finger to his lips as he closes the door. Eric's eyes are wide, and he's been shocked into silence. We know Elijah Harper from the CIA. He's one of their top operatives, but I never thought he would be a part of this!

"Talia Hawke asked me the same thing," he murmured. "It's not what you think, but before I get into that, I need to check Eric's vitals."

"Is she okay?" I asked, despite my doubts. "What about the others?"

"She's as good as can be, considering that she and Nick Kay were let out of their room," Elijah reports.

"What do you mean they were let out?" Eric asks as Elijah gathers his medical supplies.