"No," Cin told him firmly, the same tone she used when the kids were trying to get something out of her and she wasn't budging. "You stay here. Don't you dare let him wake up alone." She grabbed a shirt from the floor and pulled it on, not bothering with a bra. "There is no way that Barak is still alive, but if he is then I need to see it."
She picked up her boots and left the room with them, just so Apollo couldn't try to argue anymore. At the bottom of the stairs she put the boots on and noticed there was a slight shake in her hands.
This was probably all just Brody getting twisted up because Apollo had, like, future crazied him. God, she did not want a psychic little brother.
Other than barking dogs, the street on the way to Barak's was quiet. She had walked this sidewalk more times than she could count, her entire life lived in The Hole and the most important person to her living on this street. At least, that had been the way it was before.
The house was dark and quiet as Cin stepped in, though each step she did take sounded either the squish of soaked carpet or the squeak of floorboards, half rotten even before this most recently flooding had gotten into it.
It felt eerily quiet inside these walls, and Cin moved carefully and slowly, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. But there wasn't a huge amount to adjust to, and so she moved into the living room with one hand running along the wall.
Cin paused and looked across the room. She could see barely anything but slowly she found the shape on the ground that was the body of Barak.
It was a relief to find him still there and not risen as some sort of monster come to find her. She knew that would be what happened if he did. No way some sort of zombie Barak wouldn't come to take her down for what she'd done to him.
Moving forward she stopped a few paces from him, turning her head to listen better. She didn't think she could hear anything. But if he was breathing, it was probably very quiet.
Feeling dread in her guts, Cin moved forward until she was right beside him, and then slowly crouched down. Her knees clicked. She found herself leaning in towards him even though she wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere else.
Was he breathing?
She could have touched him to see if he was cold, but she didn't dare. Touching him was- No, that was out of the question.
Cin couldn't tell how much time was passing as she remained completely still, crouching and leaning to catch anything at all.
He was dead. He had to be dead. But she couldn't move away or stop listening, even though she would never hear proof of the thing she was hoping for.
Wait, was that-
Cin leaned down a little more.
Barak made a spluttered cough, deafening in the silence, and Cin threw herself back with a shriek of her own. Her arse hit the carpet behind her, soaking her pants through instantly, and she kicked her feet against the floor to move back back back until she hit the wall.
Out of here! She had to get out of here!
Cin pushed herself up from the floor and ran for the door, ramming her hip into a table as she went but barely letting it slow her. Her feet slammed down through puddles as she sprinted back to her own house, closing the door behind her a little too loudly and then making sure all three locks were in place.
"Fuck," she whispered, backing away from the door and into the kitchen. Shit, she needed a drink. She needed- Oh god how was he still alive??
Cin sat down heavily at the kitchen table, dropping her face into her hands.