The Aftermath Read Online Free Page B

following the woman’s death in the courthouse and the brief appearance of the gray-eyed boy dressed in black. But all I manage to do is take another bite of the stale protein bar and stare idiotically between the two of them.
    “Thank you both for completely going against my wishes and lying about it. It really makes me want to throw you both out of my clan.” There are a million thoughts racing through my head and none of them are being verbalized— Instead, everything that I’ve managed to say has been a confusing mess.
    Jeremy winks at me, but it looks so unnatural a shiver creeps through my body. “Don’t be so dramatic, Claudia.” He kicks his heel against the door frame and starts to walk off. “I’ll catch you in a bit. April and I need to go finish clearing out the jail,” he calls out.
    “I really should get rid of all of you,” I say.
    “Don’t be like that, Oliv—”
    “Don’t call me that!” I snap, focusing on Jeremy’s back as he walks away. Even though Ethan didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence, my heartbeat speeds up. He was about to call me Olivia, I think. The name from my nightmare. The name of that other girl. How does Ethan know about that?
    “Don’t bend your own rules.” I grind the tip of my index finger against Ethan’s bony chest. “Never call me that.”
    I don’t understand the painful disconnect between what I’m thinking and what I’m actually saying today. Why am I bringing up the rules? Within our clan, there are only two rules: never leave one another behind. And never break. Up until now I was certain the rule about breaking referred to us bringing up who we were before The Aftermath—what good did dwelling on things we couldn’t remember do us?
    Now I’m not sure what it means.
    “Rules are meant to be broken every once in a while. Besides, we almost lost you, and who knows what would’ve happened then.”
    I never cry, but I want to right now. From frustration. And from the numbing ache in the center of my head. I am going insane. That’s the only thing that makes any sense. I turn to Ethan and open my mouth to speak, expecting a dam to burst and all my questions about what happened after I was knocked out to come rushing out in a deluge. But all I say is, “April’s the one who wanted to move to this place, huh?”
    No. That’s not what’s important to me. Not what I need to say.
    The left corner of his mouth tugs up. He stares out of the storeroom to where April is touching the giant statue that’s the centerpiece of the museum. “How’d you guess?”
    I look at April, too. Her head is lowered so that her red hair tumbles around the faded golden feet. That statue makes the end of society bearable for her— She’s never said so, but I figured that must be the reason she’s drawn to it. After every successful rescue mission or raid, she comes here. The thief and her shrine.
    April’s lips move for a few seconds longer; then she presses her lips to the golden shield the statue carries. She looks up at us, smiles at Ethan, waves and finally disappears out a side door.
    Maybe April is ecstatic now that this is our home, but her obsession is the last thing that matters to me. I hate myself for my inability to say what’s needed. I close my eyes to ground myself. And for that moment, I am no longer in the black mold-infested storage room of a dilapidated museum. I don’t even think I am in my world at all.
    I am outside it, looking in from a white room.
    There are flashing red lights embedded in the ceiling at each corner of the room—ten of them in all. Every light is turned in my direction, like spotlights. The only furnishing in here is a plush leather chair that’s empty. And all around the chair are large video screens that completely cover all ten sides of the wall.
    In front of me, the side of Ethan’s face and body fill one of the displays. Two years ago, we took up residence in a movie theater on the far side of town. One of the