Thirty Four

                                    

                                          
I hate you.
                          
It's only three little words, eight letters and yet somehow it has the ability to stab away at the soul. To open wounds that can't be healed and bridges that can't be mended, reduced to ashes as they burn brightly in the distance. December can't let go, the words spinning within his mind as his memories replay that moment over and over until he's nauseous from the idea of it. The way that Ryder couldn't even face him, head downcast and back facing him, repulsed by his supposed actions. Even now, he still won't face his older cousin, head turned away in disgust and arms crossed in warning. 
                          
They're only inches apart yet it feels as if a chasim stands between the two that can't be crossed, Ryder so distant and so near all at once. 
                          
I hate you. 
                          
"This office seems a little cramped when there's five of us in here, huh?" 
                          
The voice comes from the far end of the medical room, the tattooed man from earlier leaned back in a plush chair. He seems too happy, blissfully unaware of the crushing weight of the room that falls upon them as he rocks back and forth in his seat.
                          
His eyes fall upon December, brown eyes wide and full of life as he gifts a haphazard wave coupled with a smile. "I don't believe we've properly met, I'm Jax." 
                          
This man is too happy. "I'm December." The introduction slips out sterner than he meant but Jax seems to not notice, eyes transfixed elsewhere for the briefest of moments allowing the tone to slide over him. 
                          
While the office is unnaturally large he wasn't wrong in his statement, the room feeling as if it's shrinking by the second with the tension that thickens with each breath. They all feel too close though they stand feet away from one another. Jax sits cast off to the corner while Wren lies unconscious on a lifted bed pressed against the wall near the center of the room. Celeste hovers over him before crossing the room to rummage through a glass cabinet and back again, constantly repeating this cycle without a mutter of a word. 
                          
Ryder still stands with his arms crossed, leg kicked back against the dark wood cabinets as he stares at Wren on the bed before him. His gaze is too forceful as he wills himself to not glance at his cousin stood beside him. To play pretend and act as if this man had never existed, or better yet had been left in the woods to die that day with Abrahm by his side. 
                          
"Why is he even here?" Ryder mumbles under his breath as his head falls back to face the bright balls of light that float upon the ceiling off the medical office. His arms are covered with crescent indentations, nails digging into his flesh as he bites back his lips to control himself. 
                          
Even while trapped within the hells of Haven he had never felt this anger. A searing white hot pain that melts within his blood until it bleeds black, drenched in the poison of the hatred sure to kill him at any moment. His heart feels as if it could explode, the taste of metal heavy on his tongue as his lips bleed from the force of trying to contain his words. 
                          
Celeste doesn't turn to face the two standing behind her, the only indication she had even heard them being the way her shoulders slightly tense in aggravation. "December is here because he's been instructed to work under me. Whether you hate the ruling or not you're not allowed to argue with The Priestly Order. It's better to just drop it and learn to move on." 
                          
The weight of the room only falls heavier now, each body seething with its own anger that plays off the presence of one another. "Well I don't exactly want to be here either." December bites back, nails digging into the gemstone counter beside him. 
                          
The sound of flesh on stone pierces the room, the rattling of equipment following from the force of the action. Ryder can no longer be compliant, no longer stand silent on the sidelines as he grabs December's collar in his fist. He brings the boy so near that blue eyes blend with brown, the scent of blood drifting from Ryder's lips overwhelming from this close. "We wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you!" He yells, cheeks red from frustration as he wildly shakes the collar in his fist. "You did this! You let him get tortured, you let him be raped!" Ryder screams, tears beginning to well as he grits his teeth smeared with his own blood.