Wrecked

The 30

"The bomb. It was for me. I have something they want." My voice had dropped just like his, it was no more than a whisper and I finally said the words aloud. It almost felt like sharing this had taken a small weight off from my shoulders. My body was pressed up against Jesse's, sandwiching him to the tree as he still had a tight grip on my wrists.

"They? Who is they? What are you talking about?" He looked so confused, his eyes searching mine for answers as he tried to piece together my words.

I searched his eyes myself, was he ready to hear this. He already hated my guts, what was he going to think of me when he realised this whole thing was my fault. The pit in my stomach deepened at the thought of what he could do with this information- it would be the perfect opportunity to turn everyone against me. Yet, his eyes shone with nothing but pure intentions. I felt myself wanting to tell him, needing him to know so that maybe we could work this out together. Together. Why did I feel so compelled to trust this guy? It was that same feeling of no control that I could when I spoke to him and I wish that I could push it aside. But I couldn't.

Taking a deep breath I knew what I had to tell him.

"I was working in Tanzania, for doctors without borders on a uni break. One day I was in town and heard this girl screaming." I paused, the girls eyes haunted me to this day, "I found her alone in a room behind a alleyway. She had been tortured and she wasn't going to live much longer. All she could say was take the book. She gave me a stupid bundle of leather and told me to run- that it wasn't safe for me to help her." She'd screamed at me, shoving me away with what little strength she had left. I left her my bottle of clean water and forced my legs to push myself away from the girl. "But I didn't go too far, I stayed just around the corner. I hid under some cardboard in the alley and waited to see what danger the girl was in. It wasn't long before these guys- they came running into the Alley. I didn't understand what they were saying, I didn't speak that dialect but I heard her say 'She knows who you are know. This whole organisation is doomed.' Before she could say anything she pulled their trigger and shot herself in the head."

I paused, my eyes meeting Jesse's to find so many questions, so much admiration and confused that it hurt my own head. His look was telling me to keep going, but he could also see how hard it was for me and his thumbs had began to circle comfortingly around the back of my hands. It was a odd gesture yet it felt comfortable.

"I waited in that Alley until they were all gone, I waited for the whole night. I watched them search their surveillance feeds and find me. Luckily they only had cameras in their room, not in the Alley or they would have found that I hadn't even left yet. The next morning they'd packed up all of their belongings into vans and were gone, I couldn't understand anything they said now could I understand the book that I had. It was a bunch of names and numbers and what looked like addresses. As soon as they were gone I ran to the closest store- scared they would have found out where I was working already. I called the embassy and they took care of me. I was there for days before they sent me home. Except it wasn't my home. They took me to Darcy, convinced that if they found out my identity they would already be staked out at my home. Before I could even have a shower they had me and Darcy packed up and on our way to the airport and well, here we are."