Like the Moon

Four - Silence

In the car everything was quiet. Not as quiet as it had been the morning they'd arrived, but it was close.

This silence was the kind that came from words unsaid and questions unasked. The limo-like car had enough room for Commander Terren and I to sit face to face, knee to knee.

I had tried not to stare at him for the first half of the ride, but the urge to do so grew with each passing second.

I didn't need him to convince me or perhaps change my mind about recruitment. I was going to do it. It was my in. The only way I'd get the answers I needed was through recruitment. I had only one edge on these people, and it was that I knew their intentions were evil, and I knew they we're evil.

As far as I knew, no one knew I was in the lab when my parents died. I somehow had made it home before they were looking for me, and I supposed no one had seen me running away from the massive fire that had engulfed the science center. It had given me time to do the same with my own home, right after I grabbed the shotgun dad kept in the safe.

I looked at Terren and wondered what he made of me. Surely he remembered that I was the one who nearly killed him. The one who killed his commander. My curiosity over took my mouth, but the words I wanted to say didn't come out.

"I was scared that day."

The words now hung in the air with that same silence. Terren's head snapped to look at me, and his eyes were filled with an emotion I couldn't place. Fear maybe.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said in a low, calm voice. His eyes stayed locked on my own.

"I think you do." I looked away then, down at my hands, but I continued. "I felt like a deer– prey," I clarified. "My instinct was to react."

"Stop."

I did. My lips squeezed tightly together, and I could feel tears pooling in my eyes. It wouldn't be the first time I had cried, but it would be the first time I truly cried in front of one of them.

I heard Terren press something on the door. Maybe he was calling Marin or one of the authorities to bring me in for questioning.

"Juliet? I want you to listen to what I am about to say, very carefully."

I looked up then, his eyes fierce and a little blue light blinking behind his head. It was a noise barrier, so no one would hear this conversation.

That scared me more than the idea of him calling Marin.

"No one, but myself and you, know that you were on that roof." He paused, but I just looked at him not fully understanding.

"I reported that you fell from your bedroom window while trying to escape the house fire."

I knew better than to ask why. The Veah didn't do emotional, and asking Terren why would force him to show me his hand. He didn't seem like the kind of guy to do that.

"What is in the report states the position from where the two shots were fired, came from the house next to yours. Whoever shot my commander and then again at me, escaped on foot. The weapon was not found."

I remembered the gun had been on the roof the last time I'd seen it. I wasn't sure if it had caught in the gutter or if it had fallen with me. More questions were piling in my brain, adding to the mountainous burden resting on my shoulders.

The silence again consumed the back of the car, and my heart dropped when Terren turned to press the sound button.

"Wait!"

He froze before pressing it. He turned back to face me, but I was still watching my hands.

"I want to know why." There it was. I would never get the opportunity to ask again. He had already revealed more than I was expecting, hopefully he wouldn't stop now.

He sighed and stretched out his legs a bit.

"Because you'd be dead right now."

A chill settled in my bones.

"Why would that matter?" My voice was small, and I was afraid of the answer I was going to get, the repercussions of asking, the consequences I faced when this car finally stopped.

"Because you don't deserve to die. I don't think you did anything wrong. You said you felt like prey? That's because you were. You had every right to pull that trigger."

Silence. It was becoming a theme song to this new life I was living.

I sighed deeply before speaking one last time. "I don't expect you to believe this, but I am truly sorry for my actions that day. There are things I wish I hadn't done."

"As do I."

The car pulled to a stop.

- - -

Terren got out first and held the door open for me. I only nodded.

I hated him. I hated that I had to remember to hate him, to hate all of them. I wasn't sure what my end goal was. I was hoping I'd figure it out once I got the answers I needed, but I wasn't sure now.

Not with Terren's confession. I looked sightly to the side as he escorted me up the stairs of the large estate house the general, his wife, and myself lived in. The moment we reached the top of the stone stairs, Willa flung the door open.

"Juliet!" she exclaimed, embracing me in a hug as she always did. "I'm so glad you're home. Are you hungry? Oh, Varren honey, thank you for helping get her home safely."

She was every bit the dotting mother. Sometimes it was stuffy, other times I didn't mind it. The only thing that I didn't like was that statement she always made. I'm so glad you're home.

"I'm fine Willa, thank you." I remained in her embrace until she let go. I'd tried more than once to get out of the embrace in times past. She would never yield.

"The pleasure is mine Madame," Terren said beside me. I again wondered about the logistics of his two-name conundrum.

Willa, who had no connections to the military other than Marin, also addressed him as Varren. A part of me just wanted to shorten both names, like Ren. That would at least make sense. Although I'm sure he and anyone who heard wouldn't appreciate it.

"Varren? Would you like to join us for dinner?" Willa asked.

My eyebrows knitted together. That was a loaded question. One I'd heard before. However the last time my real mother had been asking the question. To Max, my boyfriend.

Willa might have acted dense, however she was anything but. The question was a trap, for me or for him, I wasn't sure. I decided to keep my mouth shut. Terren was nothing to me, and it would stay that way.

"That's very kind of you Madame, but I have to over see some new recruits. Thank you for the offer." He turned to me now. "Miss Benson, always a pleasure. Think about what I told you." He bowed slightly, and walked back down the stairs to the car.

Willa and I both watched as his car drove out of sight behind the bend in the quaint street. Willa whirled on me.

"What did he tell you?" she asked like a woman desperate for gossip.

"Willa," I moaned, like the daughter I was supposed to be. "He was talking to me about recruitment."

It was a half truth. It didn't seem like Ren meant recruitment. It felt like he was telling me to keep my trap shut.

"Recruitment?" Willa gasped.

"I thought Marin told you. I mentioned to him that I was thinking about recruiting. I guess he asked–" I caught myself. "The commander to inform me of all aspects."

"Oh my, well let's go eat, and we'll talk all about it as a family."

As a family.

We walked into the foyer, and I once again was greeted with the empty silence of a large, lonely house.