ELARA~
Isla directed me as I drove. With every turn onto the dark, winding access roads, a dozen unanswered questions played out in my head.
She had been acting strangely lately—stranger than usual. The quiet wasn't her usual calm, calculated silence. It was heavy, suffocating. She knew something. She had to know why Ernest wasn't answering my calls on any platform. She was drinking herself into unconsciousness over a date, and just minutes ago, I was almost certain I heard her scream up in her room.
The image of Isla's crying face flashed through my mind—raw, fractured, and so unlike the impenetrable wall she built around herself.
What is it that you keep bottled up inside of you? I thought, my grip on the steering wheel getting tighter. I hope one day you'd trust me enough to share the burden. To let me in. I hope one day you'd trust me just like I trust you.
"Go through here," Isla's voice broke the quiet, low and devoid of emotion. "The plane is waiting just up ahead."
