EDEN | silas

II

Silas' eyes opened slowly as he heard footsteps enter the bathroom. He looked over at Eden, who had also awoken at the noise. She nodded and he stood up to leave. He made sure no one saw Eden sitting on the floor as he closed the door behind him.

"Hello, Leonard," Silas spoke, turning on the water to wash his hands at the sink.

"Silas. I didn't expect to see you here this late. Have you thought about killing yourself?" Leonard asked. Silas was a bit taken back by is forwardness but held his surprise inside.

"No, that's not until stage three," he replied, drying his hands and walking out with the older man.

"Why is Eden's interface on? Have you been snooping again, Silas?" Leonard asked, looking into the workroom.

"Excuse me?" Silas asked.

"A month ago, health and safety saw you on Eden's interface after-hours. I was told to keep an eye on you. Is there something you want to tell me? As the manager here at Atmos, one of my duties is to maintain the safety and welfare of the team. Therefore, if I believe that someone on the team is in danger, or involved in an activity that is unsafe, I'd report him, or her. Unless, of course, the activity were to stop. Does that make sense to you?" Leonard said.

"Yes," Silas said.

"Good. Shall we get out of here, Silas?" Leonard asked. Silas nodded and headed out of this building with the older man. They went their separate ways to get home.

Silas didn't walk into the dorm building, instead, he sat on a concrete divider blocking the garden from the sidewalk, waiting for Eden to show up. It only took a few minutes before she walked up and sat a few feet away from him.

"Hello," he said without looking at her.

"Hello," she said, facing forward as well.

"He knows," Silas said. "What are we going to do?"

"We have to stay away from each other," Eden concluded.

"I can't...stay away from you. I can't...not be around you. Not in that office. Not when I see you every day. It's impossible. I thought about it. The best thing is for me to leave Atmos. Get a job somewhere else. It's like you said...that's all we should be thinking about," Silas said, turning to her, a desperate look in his eyes. She looked at him too, seemingly shaken. She nodded slowly, standing up quickly and swiftly walking away.

"Eden..." he called after her, his voice filled with sorrow. She didn't stop as she left him there.

↢ • ↣

The weeks that ensued were the worst weeks of Silas' entire life. He missed Eden. He missed her presence, her voice, her touch. All of her. He tried to forget about it all when he got a new job at Insemination, but he couldn't seem to push it all behind him.

This night he sat on a bench overlooking his dorm building when a man he had met at his first doctor appointment sat next to him. He was at stage two of the S.O.S. disease.

"Silas?"

"Jonas?

"You okay?" Jonas asked. Silas shook his head.

"Do you want to take a walk? You can tell me what's going on," Jonas said. Silas nodded and stood with him, going off on a tangent all about Eden.

"I don't know, it felt so good to be around her that...we were nearly tripping up and I couldn't see...couldn't see anything bad happening to her," Silas concluded after a bit of walking. Jonas sat down on another bench and turned to look at the sad young man in front of him.