Caleb leads Marisol back to her room within the Pack’s premises less courteously than she’d been treated since her last slumber. Anger boiled within Marisol like a tempest, and as soon as they stepped inside, her fury erupted, snatching her arm away from his grip like she’d been burnt.
“You think this is acceptable? You’re locking me in this room, treating me like I’m some kind of criminal when I’ve done nothing to you! Why am I being treated like this because of you…? Why did you bring me here!?” Marisol’s voice echoes with indignation, her eyes ablaze with a mix of anger and hurt, finally finding an opening to ask about Caleb’s true intentions since the earth-shattering revelation.
Caleb, taken aback by the sudden outburst, attempts to defuse the situation. He steps closer, cautiously, this time as he holds a hand out, “Marisol, please. I know this is difficult, but you have to understand—“
“Understand, understand, understand! What exactly is it that I’m supposed to understand about being imprisoned and deceived by you!?” Marisol intercepted, her tone a clear representation of the rage that brewed beneath the surface. “Understand that I’m being ostracized because of you?”
Caleb guesses he should’ve expected this much, but he, too, had a general lack of understanding of the situation. The least he could do at the moment was to try and placate. “I’m sorry. I promise, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” he tried to explain. “We can talk about this.”
“Talk about what exactly? How I’m forced to live like a prisoner in a land where my people were deceived to believe I would be treated with respect!?” She shoots back, her words like fiery arrows.
“I’m sorry if you feel that way. It wasn’t my intention,” he repeats, struggling to find the right words to convey his sincerity and appease the angry Marisol.
Marisol, however, was not having any of it. She shakes her head, almost vibrating with the almost painful whirlpool of emotions concocting within, “Intentions don’t matter when the result is the same. I didn’t come here for this!” Her words were becoming a frustrated cry, reverberating through the confined space.