Chapter 14
The Weight of Guilt
Fred is consumed by guilt over Ben's death. His grief fuels a reckless determination to protect the remaining family, pushing him to confront his own fears and limitations.
Fred moved through the familiar, grimy alleys like a ghost, each step heavy with a weight no sixteen-year-old should have to carry. Ben’s absence was a chasm that had opened beneath them all, a gaping maw that threatened to swallow what little hope they had left. The sharp, metallic tang of blood, so recently a part of their reality, still clung to the air, a phantom scent that made Fred’s stomach churn. He’d seen it happen, the swift, brutal finality of it all, and the image was seared behind his eyelids, replaying with agonizing clarity. Ben, his steady, quiet Ben, gone. And Fred felt, with a sickening certainty, that he was to blame.
He’d been the one to push, to prod, to stir the hornet’s nest that Mr. Smith had so carefully constructed around them. His restless spirit, his innate defiance, had always chafed under Smith’s iron fist, but now, that defiance felt like a fatal flaw. If he hadn’t been so eager to poke at the edges of their carefully guarded lives, if he hadn’t been chasing that elusive thrill of rebellion, Ben would still be here. The thought was a cold, hard stone in Fred’s gut.
“You’re not eating,” Kai’s voice, soft but firm, cut through his misery.
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