//CLARA//
The blood drained from my face so fast I felt lightheaded. For a second, the air in the cramped, freezing passageway seemed to vanish.
My mind, already frayed from days of isolation, immediately began to construct horrors.
A cold, jagged hollow opened up in my chest. I reached up, my fingers clenching the gold ring hanging from my neck until the metal bit into my skin.
"He's coming back, Gary." I shake my head, refusing to believe anything my mind conjured. "He's coming back. He promised me."
Gary looked at me but didn't argue. He couldn't.
The kitchen fell silent. Hattie's voice cut through the darkness like a blunt knife.
"Who's Elias?"
Gary rubbed his temples with two fingers. The moonlight through the window caught his hair.
"Hmm. Me."
Hattie's brow furrowed deeper, her small frame rigid with confusion. "And who's Gary?"
"Also me."
Hattie blinked. "I don't understand."
