Page 89 of Breaking Ophelia
He catches my wrist before I can take my hand away, his grip tight enough to grind the bones together. His eyes are black, so dark they look like holes in the world.
I think he wants to say something—maybe thank you, maybe fuck off—but he just stares at me, breathing slow and measured, the way you do when you’re about to take a punch and you don’t want to flinch.
“You should go,” he says. His voice is rough, splintered by angst, but still steady. “If you want out. Now’s the last chance.”
I shake my head and giggle, because I know he doesn’t mean it. He’d chase me down even if I took the window and sprinted naked across the quad.
He sees the answer in my face, and for a second the line of his mouth softens. Then he lets go of my wrist and sighs before he slaps his thighs.
He stands, his thumb running down my cheek and says, “We have to move. Now. Ten minutes, tops.”
I’ve never seen him scared, but there’s something wired and bright in his eyes. Not fear exactly, but something like it. Something worse, maybe.
He grabs his duffel from under the bed and starts throwing in clothes, not caring what lands inside. Everything is black or grey or blue, so it doesn’t matter. He moves fast, no wasted motion, like he’s been running this drill since birth.
I have nothing to pack, but hopefully wherever we are going, Cai will take me shopping. Wearing his clothes is getting old.
I can hear him in the next room, opening drawers, dumping papers into a folder. There’s the click of a lock, the snap of a lighter, the hiss of a zipper. In the bathroom, I start with the toiletries. Under the sink is a bag big enough to fit most stuff. Even as he shouts that we have five minutes left, I keep packing, even though my hands won’t stop shaking.
Once I’ve grabbed enough until my hands are overflowing, I dump them in my bag before pulling a fresh t-shirt over my head and stepping into some sweats.
He comes back in, duffel slung over one shoulder. There’s a handgun in his waistband, the grip showing just above his jeans. He looks at me, at the bag on the floor, then at my face.
“You ready?” he asks.
I nod, even though I’m not. Not even close.
He tosses me a pack of pills and I drop them in my bag. “Last minute sweep.”
We work together, stripping the room in under sixty seconds. He unplugs the chargers and packs them, turns off lights. He goes through the room twice, checking for bugs, for cameras, for anything that could be used against us.
The air in the room is thick, suffocating. I open a window a crack, but he snaps it shut immediately.
“We go out the front. Act normal. If they’re watching, don’t give them a reason.”
I hate when he talks to me like I’m a child, but I know he’s right. I zip up my bag and sling it over my shoulder.
At the door, he pauses. He looks at me, really looks at me, like he’s trying to memorize the way I stand, the way my jaw sets when I’m about to cry.
“If you want out,” he says again, “you go now.”
Rolling my eyes, I don’t answer. I just open the door and step into the hall.
The corridor in the Feral Boys wing is empty, silent. It’s become a ghost town since I moved in, but that makes it better to escape. Less eyes watching. Less people that I don’t know if I can trust.
If Caius is worried enough for us to run, there’s a reason, and I will trust him until he tells me why.
We walk in silence out the door and down the hallway. Caius’s hand is on my lower back, not pushing but guiding, like he’s afraid I’ll vanish if he lets go.
At the stairwell, he stops. Listens. Every muscle in his body goes tight, like he’s expecting a gunfight or a firing squad or worse.
Nothing. Just the distant hum of the cafeteria, the clatter of trays and the drone of morning announcements.
We descend two flights, then duck into a side corridor. The windows here are frosted, but the sunlight still slants in, casting long stripes across the floor.
He pushes open the fire door, and we step into the cold.
The sky is grey, low, like it’s about to dump snow or ash. We keep our heads down, walk fast but not too fast, out the back and across the maintenance lot.
