Anika's head remained bowed, her elbows pressed down hard into her knees and her hands clenched tightly to stop them shaking. She didn't look up, couldn't, as the splinters had finally started shattering and she wasn't going to crumble here. But she couldn't leave Dani here. And there was no way she was asking her to move, so she remained where she was, head down, eyes cast down, wide and unseeing.
It was just like before. The empty hole opened in her gut and she wished she could climb into it and hide, get away from it all, pretend it had never happened. It's how she survived last time, and this time wasn't a whole heap different. Last time it had been her body, this time it was her mind and her reputation. And again, like then, she was powerless to stop it, powerless to defend herself, powerless to do anything...