It was supposed to be safe here. That was the line that had been fed to her for months. And honestly….she’d been starting to believe it. Aiyla had started to have a life here. She was starting to learn how society worked, how to be self-sufficient. She was even learning how to let people in– like Oliver, for example. She trusted him, she liked him. Even on more than one occasion she’d almost kissed him…. Everything, for once, was decent in her life. More than that–things were actually good.
So of course, as it usually did when it came to her, the other shoe dropped. She’d been having a good time at the carnival, with Oliver, and was in line to get some of those fried Oreo things while Oliver was in a different line for drinks. Things were good. Until suddenly they weren’t. She smelled the smoke just moments before the screams started. Smoke soon turned into fire, soon turned into explosions, and she cried out as she was suddenly slammed into, sending her hurtling to the ground. Months of normalcy flew out the window the moment she’d been hit, the taste of blood in her mouth and years of training and self-preservation were kicking in as she hauled herself up, body tense and shaking as she looked around at the chaos, clearly disoriented and not even hearing it as her name was being called.
The head of curls popped up from the ground and his eyes fixed on her, watching closely. Oliver knew she was ready to anything just by the rigidity in her body. A side of her that he had watched her work so hard to calm down was on top again. He approached slow, eyes searching for anything that he could find to talk her down. A gentle, slow hand cupped her cheek, brushing dirt from her cheekbone. “You’re okay. I promise you’re okay.” He tried, watching her close. “You’re not there, you’re not going back there. I promised you that from day one.” He took a step back, a hand out to her. “Let’s get you out of here, yea?”
