I didn’t want to, but I backed up and covered my mouth with my hand. This couldn’t be the case, “No,” I whispered.
“Bree, I can explain-”
“You, you’re one of them?” I asked, reaching a hysterical point.
“I didn’t want to,” Parker/Ginkloo raised his hands in protest, “It-well-I. I went after that one…”
“What one?”
“Oaikil. And well, I lost as you can see.”
“I thought I told you not to do that. For fear that this might happen.” I turned my back away from him and took some time to think.
“I’m…I’m sorry.” He quietly whispered. I turned to face him again, “Sorry doesn’t cut it. Your house has been empty for what, a month now? Without anything to tell me where you were. I thought….I thought,” I was reaching my breaking point. I put my face in my hands, feeling tears coming on. Parker/Ginkloo walked up to me and did something no other Sangsue has ever done. He embraced me in a hug. “I’m really, really sorry.”