Read parts one, two, and three here!
1.
Rowan can feel the countdown on his wrist. He thinks it’s ending.
He doesn’t know what it says, and hasn’t for a long time; he’s pretty good at replacing the bandages without actually looking at the numbers. He’s also decent at pretending it doesn’t exist.
Lately, though, he’s hyperaware of it. It doesn’t itch, or tingle but it’s borderline, almost as if he should be feeling something but his skin isn’t interpreting the sensation correctly. It’s wrong, it’s so wrong, and he hates thinking about what it may mean and who put it on him.
She’s in the ruins of this compound, somewhere. That woman. Rowan just calls her The Boss because she never even deigned to tell him her name, even though she’s why he lived in a prison cell for years. He knows the exact hallway this closet opens out into, because he remembers hiding in here for a very different reason quite some time ago.
She herself had dragged him out screaming when they found him. His mind echoes with the ghosts of his own ragged voice.
Rowan hopes to be the one to kill her. He hopes that he gets the opportunity to hurt her like she made him do to so many other people, other kids his age--
“Rowan, you okay?” Trent’s quiet voice breaks the silence.
“Hmm?”
“You looked, um… like you wanted to kill someone.”
Rowan does want to kill her. A lot. He forces his face into a mask of impassivity. “I’m fine.”
‘You’re not,” Trent counters, “and it’s okay that you’re not. I’m sorry you had to come with us.”
Rowan doesn’t know what to say to that. Trent is good at doing that, making Rowan’s silences confused instead of pensive. It was the most logical choice to bring owan on the mission, considering his… history with the building. He may hate the months-old fear that being here is digging back up, but it’s necessary.
“What’s the status on the others?” Rowan says instead. He knows the answer, but he’s afraid of what else Trent may say.
“You know their status. You’re checking every five minutes”
Rowan pulls up the hologram anyway, instead of saying anything.
“Okay, then, whatever. But are we ever gonna talk about…?”
“Is this really the time?” Rowan says.
“It’s as good a time as any.”
“…”
“You kissed me.”
“Yeah…”
“I, um… I had to bring you back…”
“Oh.”
“Plus, I kinda wanted to…”
“Oh.”