The rest of the day went by rather quickly for Roja. Lola spent the whole afternoon with her until Mary suggested that Roja should rest. Roja, exhausted from everything that has happened and all the new impressions, fell asleep easily.

However, when she wakes up again in the middle of the night, she is chained to a wall. Ric is standing right in front of her with an evil grin on his face. “Did you miss me?” he asks before touching one of the bigger bruises on Roja’s arm. “Did you think you’d get away from me? Did you think you could find friends? You don’t deserve to be happy,” he says before starting to laugh. Roja breaks out in tears, unable to speak or move. “Nobody will ever hear you,” Ric murmurs quietly, as if he was far away. That’s when Roja finds the power to scream. She screams like she never did before and sees Ric getting angrier with every second. Roja doesn’t care, she keeps shouting for help. Only as she sees Ric taking a swing, her voice breaks.

“Roja? Roja!” she suddenly hears someone shouting. Jason’s loud voice makes it seem as if he was right next to her. “Wake up! It’s just a nightmare!” he shouts. With that, Roja’s vision gets blurry and everything turns dark before she opens her eyes again and looks at Jason standing right next to her bed. He looks concerned while Roja tries to understand what happened. After taking a deep breath, she notices the tears running down her face.

“You’re safe now,” Jason mumbles before Roja apologizes for waking him up again. “It’s fine, I heard you screaming and already expected it to be another nightmare. Do you want to talk about it?” Jason offers. Roja declines, explaining that she doesn’t want to keep him from going back to sleep. “I can’t sleep anyway. Trust me, talking about it will help you get rid of those nightmares,” he says. For the first time, Roja really looks at him. His black short hair is messy and his green eyes are searching for any sign that Roja will open up to him. “For how long have you had them?” he asks carefully.

“As long as I can remember. It’s always a memory of my past that I relive in my nightmares,” Roja explains, her voice still weak from the screaming. “I watch people die or see people hurt me or my family,” she adds. Jason seems shocked.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that,” he whispers. Roja is confused because Jason seems so much friendlier now than he did before.

Jason, who has his own experiences with nightmares and bad memories, looks directly into Roja’s eyes as he poses his next questions, “How did you end up in the foster care system?” He sees Roja hesitating but she knows she’ll have to talk about it one day and that this family won’t stop trying to get more details from her. Jason’s words about needing to know more about her come to her mind.

“My parents died in a car crash when I was a child. They couldn’t find anyone related to me and I wasn’t able to give them any information,” Roja says, trying to get the words out as fast as possible. Jason just stands there and nods. A part of him is thankful that she shared this with him but the other part wants to find out more. However, he knows how difficult this must be for her.

As he sees her looking into a corner of the room he quietly says, “Maybe you should go back to sleep now.”

“Yes, sir,” Roja says automatically without even thinking about it.

Jason looks at her with a sad expression on his face, “You don’t have to do that. You don’t have to call me sir.” Roja looks at him, a bit relieved but unsure about what to reply. “I’m sorry if I seem a bit unfriendly sometimes. I’m just careful around new people, but there’s no reason for you to be afraid here,” Jason explains while trying to give Roja a slight smile to make her feel more welcome. He’s not sure where the wish to comfort her came from but he's relieved to see her getting less tense. “Do you think you can go back to sleep now?” he asks.

“I’ll just relive those nightmares if I fall asleep again,” Roja mumbles.

“I’ll be right back to wake you up if I hear you scream again. You’re safe here,” Jason says before walking to the door and saying goodnight. Roja tries to go back to sleep, knowing that at least one person is there to get her out of her nightmares.

***

In the morning, Roja is already in the kitchen with Lola again. While her friend already wears her signature black leather jacket, Roja is still in her pyjamas. Lola didn’t even give her enough time to change but neither of the two girls really cares. “I tried different colours but this one really fits me, don’t you think? I’m really happy about it now!” Lola says with regard to her purple hair. Roja nods while assuring her friend that she really likes her hair colour. The insecure girl is really impressed by Lola’s personality. She wishes she could be that confident but she’s never been like that.

Lola keeps talking but gets interrupted by an angry voice shouting, “What’s she doing here again?” Lola turns around to Jason, who’s just coming into the kitchen. Again, Roja partly hides behind her friend.

“You said she can go to the kitchen,” Lola answers while crossing her arms in front of her. Her brother shouldn’t think that she’ll let him decide everything in this house.

“That’s only for the time it takes to eat, not for chatting,” Jason states. Roja doesn’t even dare to say something, she’s too confused by his change from the caring guy to the aggressive one.

Jason tries to reason with his sister and whispers, “We know nothing about her, Lola.”

“Well, I do! I know she won’t cold-heartedly murder me right here in the kitchen!” Lola shouts angrily. Jason crosses his arms in front of him while Lola stares at him angrily. He sees Roja behind his sister, looking down at the floor.

“Roja, go to your room. You stay here, Lola,” he orders. Without another word, Roja makes her way back to her room. Lola takes a step away from her brother who first looks at her confused and then annoyed.

“Just some safety distance,” Lola explains, keeping her arms crossed. “What’s wrong with you?” she asks.

“What’s wrong with me?! Nothing!” Jason shouts, getting an immediate reaction from his sister,

“Don’t raise your voice at me, Jason.” He looks at her, already exhausted again.

“We still don’t know if she’s a spy. Gabe is trying to find something about her but it takes longer than normal. That’s suspicious,” he tries to explain. “I just want to protect you.”

“Roja is just a girl, not even much younger than me and Oren. She had a tough life. Oren and I agreed on making it easier for her now. I don’t care who you are for all the others. You are still my brother, not my boss, and this is my decision. Accept it or keep your mouth shut,” Lola states before trying to walk away.

Jason stops her from leaving and tries to calm her anger, “I tried to be nice to her when she had that nightmare last night. I think she started to trust me.”

“Well, you just ruined that trust again.”

Jason gives up trying to argue with Lola, “I’m just worried.”

“Well, have fun worrying,” Lola says before walking away, leaving an exhausted Jason behind.

“You can’t just walk away like that,” he mumbles.

Lola’s reply is simple, “I just did.”

At the same time, Roja is on the way to her room. In the long hallway, she isn’t sure which door is hers. That’s when her ribs start hurting as if someone stabbed her. Her mind starts racing, trying to figure out what to do. She hears a door being closed somewhere. With her remaining energy, she shouts for Mary before collapsing.