She sat down on the floor next to Henry and tried to comfort him. He was holding Elaina’s ring between his fingers and he was destroyed, thinking he had lost the love of his life. Sophie held him, while the endless sobbing tore through his body.
“Shhh...it’s going to be alright. I’m here for you.” She inwardly smiled. She hoped Henry would fall back into her arms. Then she could take him back to the program as originally planned.
“I can’t live without her.”
“Yes, you can. You will be able to move forward.”
“I can’t, Sophie. I fucking can’t! I’m lost without her.” He pulled away from her. “She’s the only thing that makes me feel good.” His voice was riddled with sobs. “And I couldn’t deal with seeing her move on. I can’t fucking do this!” He sat with his head in his hands. His heart ached for Elaina. He felt alone and confused without her by his side. If she moved on without him, he would surely pull the trigger.
Sophie moved away from him to let him be for a few minutes so he could try to collect himself. His sobs jarred his body. Eventually, the tears stopped flowing, but his breathing was still staggered, making his body shake. She sat down beside him again, and tried to talk to him. “Well, what do we do now?” She reached over and ran her fingers through his hair.
“I don’t know. She does deserve to know the truth about us. At least about me.”
“She does, but we can’t. You know that. It will compromise everything.”
Henry shoved her hands away from him. “I don’t give a shit about compromising anything! The only fucking thing I care about is her!” He shouted at Sophie. “You know that I’m no longer continuing with the program. At this point, it’s all about survival.” His eyes began swimming again. He looked up at the ceiling, trying to keep his tears in his eyes, but his efforts were unsuccessful. “I cannot lose her. She’s the only thing that keeps me sane in this whole fucked up life of mine.” Henry jumped up and punched a hole in the wall. He yelled, “Damn you, Roger!”
Sophie jumped up. She grabbed him by the arm and tugged him over toward the bed. He sat down and put his face in his hands again. Sophie sat down and held him, while she gently stroked his hair as he cried some more.
“I know, Henry. I don’t want you to lose her, either. She’s a piece of work sometimes, but I do know you love her. As long as you have love, there’s hope.”
“Hope?” Henry threw his arms up in the air and hysterically laughed. “Hope? In this fucked up mess?” He shook his head. “I’m trying to hang on to hope, but it’s dwindling.”
“I know.”
Sophie laid Henry back on the bed so they were facing each other. She held him for a few minutes, much like she used to when he was so injured from a beating that he couldn’t move. She stroked his hair, touched his face, and ran her fingers up and down his arm until he settled down enough to talk in a calmer manner.
“I’m going to need to go back out soon. I wasn’t able to get my fix, and I’m feeling it.” Just then, he noticed her eyes were graying. He was too busy trying to hold himself together and worrying about how to get Elaina back to notice Sophie’s problems.
“What happened, anyway? How did Jacob get you?”
“He took me by surprise. I saw him come out of the building. I hid so I could sneak up on him. I figured I would cold cock him from behind, or just cut off his air supply to make him pass out, and then do a quick draw. I tried to reach into my vest for my needle to be ready. Believe it or not, the zipper was stuck and I couldn’t reach down far enough to grab it. I lost track of him. He came from behind, put me in a headlock, and covered my mouth with his hand. I raised my leg to kick him in the bollocks with my heel, but he grabbed my Sig out of the back of my pants.”
“Jesus, Sophie,” Henry murmured.
“He jammed the Sig up against my head and dragged me to the café. I couldn’t let him give me a true death and then go after you two. He would have taken you by surprise, and things would have been way worse than they actually were.”
“Right.”
“I knew you would be heading to the café soon so I decided to stay in check. And that’s when you walked in. It happened so fast.” They both laid there, staring at one another.
“I assume you were able to get a decent fix, hence all the blood on your face earlier? You were so angry beforehand about Nate not complying, I figured you were past ready.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I did. I think I’ll always have issues staying in check when I’m hanging by a thread.”