Page 83 of Ezekiel
It was late when my brothers all showed up at Malachi’s house, just after midnight. Malachi had already broken out his favorite whiskey, neither of us speaking. What could we say? What was there to say? The situation we found ourselves in had just twisted itself into a fucked up pandemonium that I had no idea what to do with. I only hoped Levi would have the answers that evaded me.
“I’m going to check on Talia again,” I muttered. We were all assembled, just waiting for Levi and Ruth to arrive. Delilah was beside herself, pacing the floor. Malachi, in his usual brutish way, had only told them that there was an issue with Talia, and to come quick.
“Can I come with you?” Delilah begged, but I shook my head.
“Not yet. I’ll explain as soon as Levi gets here. And for now, she needs her sleep.” I wanted to offer her more than the few words of comfort I had given her. Talia wasn’t hurt. That’s all I could say when she and Ollie had first arrived.
I shook my head, making my way down the hall to where Talia lay sleeping. She was calm, seeming more relaxed and comforted by the soft blanket wrapped around her. Thank God for that.
I heard the front door opening. Fucking finally. Levi and Ruth had arrived. The murmuring voices of my brothers sounded like the screaming sounds of a train as I reentered the room. My very presence brought their talking to a quick end, each of them turning to look at me expectantly.
And I stood there. Like a statue. Completely silent.
“Well…” Levi began, looking at me with tired confusion. “What’s going on?”
His question pulled me from my stupor.
“We have a problem,” I began. “A big one.”
“Fuck,” Malachi grunted in response from his place in the corner. He leaned against the table, nursing his whiskey, his eyes trained on the table in front of him, but not really seeing it. His mind was far into the hellhole of thoughts, as my own was.
“Well… tell us,” Levi urged again, his arms crossed over his body. Ruth stood beside him, her arms wrapped around his waist. I wanted to be wrapped around Talia right now. Instead, I needed to be able to put two words together and explain what the hell had happened.
“It’s Talia,” I sighed heavily. “Tonight, we had a scene and..” I trailed off, trying to find the right words.
“And it all went to shit,” Malachi scoffed from his corner like a fucking troll.
“Nice, Malachi,” I shot right back, shooting him an annoyed look. “As Malachi so dumbly stated, things went to hell.”
“In what way?” Levi asked, his brow furrowed in that way that showed he was trying to figure something out. Good luck with this one, buddy.
“She safeworded,” I explained with a heavy sigh.
“Poor thing,” Ruth mused.
“I won’t go into details without her consent, but it was an intense scene, and she ended up having a flashback. As a few of you know, mostly just Delilah and Ruth, I think — Talia’s parents adopted her when she was around five years old.” Both women nodded, as did Ollie and Levi. “She was told that her biological parents were killed in a car accident. One she was also in. She was the sole survivor. It turns out that’s not true.”
That heavy pit was back in my stomach. I reached for the glass of whiskey Malachi had handed me, taking a slow sip. The burn soothed the ache inside me.
“What do you mean, it’s not true? How did they die then?” Gideon asked.
“They didn’t.” I watched as the looks on my brothers’ faces, and Delilah and Ruth’s, passed through the same series of emotions Kai and I had just experienced.
“How was she adopted then, Zeke?” Delilah asked. She was a bright girl. I could see it on her face that she was already thinking the worst. With parents like hers, I couldn’t blame her.
“She was taken. People from Zion, men from Zion, stole her away from her parents and brought her here.” There was a split second of utter silence before chaos broke loose.
“The fuck!?”
“What in the hell does that even mean?”
“Talia, the poor thing!”
“Was it the Elders?”
“Was it our Father?”
“Were her parents in on it?”
