Mirian's Awake

"Because I'm not wrong."

"That again," she hissed.

He could see the frustration in her eyes, the desperation to understand him, to reach him. But Ryder knew he was right. He knew that his actions, his sacrifices, were necessary. And he was willing to stand by them, no matter the cost.

"You're so convinced of that, aren't you?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "Was that why you've been starving yourself of both food and sleep?"

She swallowed the hard lump at the back of her throat at the thick dark circles around his eyes, the paleness of his face, and his cracked lips. "Do you think this would make me feel sorry for you and lift your punishment?"

Reana couldn't even summon the energy to be angry anymore. She was extremely sad and drained, her emotions exhausted from the constant turmoil Ryder had put her through.

All she felt now was a dull numbness, a sense of resignation that made her words sound flat and untrue.