"How do you want to do this?" I asked Cana as we walked towards the clinic.

  She didn't say anything.

  We stopped in front of the door, not one of us eager to knock. "What we did was inexcusable," Cana said. Her voice was trembling. "I—I never thought I would have seen her again," she said while hugging herself. Then she cleared her throat.

  She turned towards me. "You ready?"

  "Wh-what do we say?" I asked. Fear and panic had me it its grip. And for good reason. I honestly don't know how to start this conversation. Facing the one you left for dead and reliving what a cruel and selfish friend you are is not something I had a lot of experience with.

  "It doesn't matter," Cana began. "Because nothing we say will make it any better."

  I fell silent. I didn't even bother trying to come up with an answer because I know there isn't one. I supposed we could argue that at the time, there wasn't much choice to begin with, but that doesn't make our choices any better. It's just the lesser of two evils, I guess. Not very comforting but that's what it was.

  With a deep breath, Cana opened the door.

  My heart started racing, my legs refusing to walk forward. I don't know what to expect. Come to think of it, this was the first time I've ever heard Indigo raise her voice like that. I think back to minutes ago, I thought for sure that she was angry. But now, I think she was more hurt. Which made it even worse. I'd rather she be angry. We did deserve it. Because if so, then she can just take out her anger towards us. But if she hurt...If I—we hurt her...I don't know what to do.

  It seems like I was spared from her wrath because we saw her on the bed sleeping. I can't really be sure because she was on her side, with her back towards us.

  I watched Cana, wondering if she was going to check to see if Indigo was indeed asleep, but Cana turned as quickly as we entered.

  "I hope you're here to tell me the truth," Indigo said.

  A lump formed in my throat upon hearing her voice. She didn't sound angry anymore. But rather, there was a cold detachment from her voice. And I don't know which is worse.

  It was a struggle to make my neck turn towards her. My heart was racing just as fast as when we were being chased by the Shade himself. I still didn't know the first thing to say. And then our eyes met.

  "We left you," were the first words out of my mouth. I surprised even myself. I thought my mouth would fail me this time around but words started coming out effortlessly. "W-we didn't know what to do. I—everything was happening so fast!"

  I watched her expression change to utter shock and horror as I recount the events this morning. Before I know it, tears were running down my face. My throat got tighter that I was choking on my words. But the dam was already broken, the words flooding out could no longer be stopped.

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  "So I told him that we bring you with us or we're not coming with him. But the moment he entered the car to take you, I pushed him in. I took the gun from his waist and shot him in the leg. And ran. We ran. Leaving you behind. Unconscious and bleeding out. We ran. I used you as bait and I didn't even look back."

  "WE!" Cana interjected, putting that heavy of an emphasis on the word. "We used you as bait. Then I ran. He had no choice but to follow after me."

  Suddenly, there was a lull in the air. Only the buzzing of the humidifier was heard. Finally, Indigo sat up on the bed, facing us.

  "Wow, that was intense," Indigo said with levity. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm glad I was unconscious the entire time!"

  I wiped my tears on the hem of my shirt. "You-You're not mad at us?" I ventured.

  Indigo looked down. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't..."

  There was another lull in conversation. I didn't know how to follow that up. Even Cana was silent.

  "But you also saved my life," Indigo finally said. Her feet dangling, she started swinging them. "And now carry this guilt for saving us.” She looked up, straight to me. “Maybe we can say that now we're even?"

  It's as if a thorn in my heart had been removed. I exhaled the breath I didn’t even noticed I was holding. My shoulders felt lighter. I nodded assent.

  "How did you find me, this place?" Indigo asked.

  I didn't know what to do. I looked at Cana. Thankfully, she understood. She cleared her throat and took the lead again. "Remember the guy he shot?"

  "Uh-huh," Indigo said. "Rustia, right?"

  "Well, he actually gave us a journal," Cana said. "It told us the address of this place. And all the other cultists."

  "The entire cult?" Indigo asked.

  "Yes," Cana confirmed. "It has the faces, work addresses, home addresses of all the members of the cult."

  "But why would he give that to you?" Indigo said. "Didn't they know that Major Coleman can use that to capture all of them?"

  "I guess it was his way of showing us that we should go with him and trust him."

  "So do we trust him?" Indigo said. "Them?"

  "Rustia didn't expect us to come here," I said. "And we didn't expect to...see you again."

  "But he did leave you with the journal, right?" Indigo asked. "I don't know. He could be betting on it. You guys coming here."

  "Well, if they really was out to kill us..." I said. "We're still alive, aren't we?"

  "Maybe that's the plan?" Cana said, her voice no longer tight from holding back tears. "To gain our trust so that we can lead them to Major Coleman?"

  I thought about it. "If they got rid of Major Coleman," I said. "They would get rid of a huge problem for them. But there is still the government. Someone else would just take Major Coleman's place. So...I-I don't know."

  "So you really think they were telling the truth?" Indigo said. "That they had...a cult civil war?"

  "I don't buy it," Cana said.

  "Me too," I agreed. "But I don't think we're in any position to be choosy right now. What else are we going to do? Run away now? At night?"

  "We don't even know how to get back to Biringan," Cana said. She turned to Indigo. "Unless you've got an idea on how to get back to Biringan?"

  She shook her head.

  "So I guess we're staying," Cana said.

  "I guess so," I said.

  The conversation died out. The PA system started blaring the alarm overhead.

  "What is it now?" Indigo sighed, clearly exhausted from all the drama since this morning.

  The PA system sounded its chime.

  "May I have your attention? May I have your attention, please? This is your fire safety director speaking. We have received a fire alarm condition on the 8th floor. Building personnel are investigating at this time. Please stand by for further instructions."

  With a quick exchange of looks, the three of us rushed out of the room.