ASUNDER (I) : tmr newt

49: I'm Loving

Leo 49

She won't look at me. We have two med rooms, each with two beds. She lies on the one which I rarely go in. It's the one where we deal with people undergoing the Changing. Initially we were going to transfer Ella here today, until we found where Dawn was.

The youngest Slopper, they call him Chuck, found her on the ground of the Slammer. Asleep, or passed out, or something like that. Worst of all, she was alone.

Beaten.

Her face has swollen up. Red and purple bruises hiding her eye from sight. I can't imagine Minho did this, but he was the last person to see her before she was like this. He went looking for her last night. What if she said she didn't want to get back together with him?

I hope that isn't why this was done to her. If it is, I couldn't bare it. I might explode.

"Who was it?"

She turns away from me as she lies on the cot. No answer spreads out her lips and spills onto the ground. It's been like this for three hours.

When Minho comes back, I am going to scream in his face until he goes deaf. I will have what he did to her done on to himself. His body will be burnt to the ground.

I can say it in my head, but I don't have it in me. Although I barely know the guy, I can't believe he's done this. I can't believe this has been done. Who could possibly hurt someone like Dawn? What monster, rumbling in the night, finds it in their soul to break apart another person like this?

"I told you, I was climbing the walls." Of course she continues to lie. I don't know why she won't tell me it was him. "Just leave Leo."

If she won't tell me, I will find out for myself.

Standing up, I take one last look at her. My feet make their way out of the door with determination I have never felt in my whole life. The door shuts softly behind me, and when I turn around, I realise Newt is still behind me.

"Didn't you say you were going to get Alby?" I ask.

Newt squints at me, before he shrugs. A frown dominates his face. I must mirror his and the thought makes me sad. Why is it always hard? Why is the world collapsing down onto us? These Walls are suffocating. I don't know that I want to breathe this air.

"Jeff said he'd do it. I don't necessarily want to be there when Alby finds out someone hit her," he rakes his hands through his hair. I desperately wish to help him, but I don't know how. "I don't know who could've done it."

"If it was Minho-"

"It wasn't."

"You can't know that," I correct, following as he shakes off into the distance.

"I can," Newt tells me carefully. "You talked to Minho about her more than me. You know how he feels about her."

"If she doesn't feel the same, maybe he'd do this." I tell him. "He risked his life for her, so he must feel betrayed. He at the very least knows something. He was the last person to see her that we know of."

"Leo," he begins, as he moves towards the room I know is his, "you don't know him like I do."

"Well, you didn't know they were together for a week," I keep my voice in a hushed tone, but I see him glance back at me.

"You have known for a week?" He asks. "When did this happen?"

"Michelle was going to die the day I found out." I tell him as he opens the door. Forgetting formalities, I follow him in the room. "Who knows how long it has been going on before then."