Uncharted: Assassin's Heart

Confessions

Caeli turned the shower taps off, grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her body before she stood still, studying her arms. The scars the Order gave her stood out prominently against her pink skin still warm from the shower. Everything that had happened to her, it was never going to leave and the mental scars were the worst of them all. Because of them she wasn't sure if she would ever be able to feel the same again, to show emotions as she used to, to let people as close to her as she once had.

The mental manipulation was what had destroyed her completely, sending her into an almost catatonic state after...

She couldn't even speak of it, think of it, yet she knew it would have to come into the open eventually.

The only thing that snapped her back to her senses was getting her power, her shadow-walking. It was a chance to escape, if she played it right, which she thankfully did.

She walked up to the mirror, and for the first time since she had gotten away from the order she wiped the condensation from the reflective glass and took in her own appearance. She had, of course, looked in mirrors when applying makeup and the like, but never had she done so to just see herself as she is, to get a sense of self-identity back.

Her hair had been blonded when she first met Sam until she grew tired of the damage it did to her dark brown hair, and it had finally grown to meet where the towel sat against her body. The Order had shaved her hair off, to make access to her brain easier when they wanted to do so, it had been that way for the eleven years she had been trapped with them for. When she got out she had promised herself that she would only grow it out once the Order was taken down, hence when she had been reunited with Nate her hair had been cropped short.

Her ears still had some holes from her piercings, they never seemed to want to heal, so she would always remember those reckless days.

She touched the scars on her arms and the ones that just reached above the towel on her torso, she had been violated many times over, cut into everywhere but her face. She had survived them and she had done so with her sanity intact. She was almost grateful for her time with them, her strength and speed wouldn't be anywhere near as great as they are now if they hadn't of experimented on her and she would never have gotten her shadow-walking. Aside from that she now had her family back, they may have been more distant and more of a wreck than fifteen years ago but they were together and they were all alive by some miracle. She had lost years of her life to the Order but with time, and a very patient therapist, she had been able to find a way to accept what had happened to her, although she probably wouldn't admit to Nathan that after they took the Order down a reason she had disappeared was to go through intense therapy. She had ways to cope with everything now, and she was in a much better place than she used to be.

The door to the room that she and Sam were sharing clicked open, meaning that the debrief with Sully and Nate had ended, soon after the bathroom door swung open. Clearly she had forgotten to lock it, but she didn't particularly care. In fact, Sam seemed to mind the situation more than she did.

"Oh Jesus Christ, I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"It's fine." She told him, finally turning away from her reflection to look him in the eyes. But he wasn't looking at her face, he was looking at her legs, her arms, seeing the scars that covered her body for the first time.

"What the hell did they do to you?!" He exclaimed, all care about walking in on her in just a towel seemingly dissipated as he walked over to her, gingerly touching her arm and tracing over the scars with concern.

"The Order tortured me to make me docile." She answered, very aware of the fact that she wasn't pulling away from his touch.

"You were there for eleven years while I-"