LEILA
.
.
The concrete pressed against my cheek, rough and cold, tasting like dust and something metallic, maybe blood.
Couldn’t really move, felt like my body was stapled right there. Gerald’s leg, heavy as a fallen beam, was shoved into the middle of my back, grinding me down, making me feel like nothing, just dirt under his boot.
He was quiet, unnervingly so, his breathing even. Like this wasn't a fight, not a desperate stand in some forgotten corner of the city, but maybe just standing around on a Tuesday.
I couldn't see much, just a blur of gray floor and then Misa, still standing some distance away, but something about her didn't fit the picture, didn't match the screaming in my head.
Her shoulders weren’t tight with fear, her mouth wasn’t twisted in shock, it was all jus
