The Bliss began to wear off eventually, but Eden's fear and sadness never faded. She sat in her room and thought about what she saw. Before with the things she had encountered in the Bliss she woke up and knew it was the Bliss. But with this...well all of that could have been true, she didn't know if any of her friends made it. If they did, they were trapped. If they didn't, then all of her friends were dead because of her.

     She just didn't know what to do with herself. She didn't want to live to see if her friends lived. They were all probably dead anyway. The world above the bunker was gone now, lost to the ashes of what once was there. They were all gone, even after they treated her so well, in the end she was even more helpless than she always was. And Eden absolutely hated feeling helpless.

     Jacob tried to offer her food but Eden just hid in the corner, not even looking at him. Jacob left water but she didn't drink it. She just stayed in her bunker, pacing around, sometimes muttering to herself, sometimes crying, sometimes she just laid down on the ground and stared at the ceiling.

     No matter what she did, the echo of her friends' lives was all around her. Sometimes she would hear something in the bunker groan or the door creak and she would flash back to being in Nick and Kim's house. Sometimes she would lay down on the floor and stare at the ceiling and picture Sharky and Hurk drunk out of their minds staring at the sky.

     Everything that she thought of hurt, everything she did hurt. She couldn't even stand to think of her friends anymore because of how much it hurt, but her mind wouldn't let anything else in. No matter what she tried to think of, it always went back to her friends.

     John turned the corner and saw Jacob sitting on the same chair as always in front of the Deputy's door. His brother was leaning with his knees on his legs, his head in his hands. John quietly turned back down the hall and paused.

     He knew that Jacob had a soft spot for the Deputy, but he still didn't know why. She was the exact opposite of everything they had been working towards for years. She was disobedient and utterly annoying at times, and yet she has enough of an effect on him to bring him pain. It was so confusing.

     John stayed waiting in the hallway, but then he pulled a small knife out of his pocket and dropped it on the floor. It made a loud clanging noise and he knelt down to pick it up, taking his time doing so.

     He stood back up and walked down the hallway, turning the corner to the hallway to the Deputy's room. Jacob had leaned back and composed himself after hearing the 'accidental' noise in the hallway. John slipped the knife back in his pocket and walked down the hallway.

     "Brother." John greeted Jacob and grabbed the handle on the door. Jacob just nodded and looked down at something on the floor.

     John hesitated at the door, but decided just to go inside without saying anything else. He opened the door and saw a bottle of water and an untouched sandwich on a chair in the middle of the room. Eden was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall.

John walked into the room and shut the door behind him.

"Hello Deputy." He walked over to the chair and moved the bottle of water. He picked up the sandwich and studied it in his hands. Peanut butter and jelly.

"You know, we don't have enough food for you to be ignoring the rations given to you." John advised in his usual tone and sat down on the chair.

Eden just looked at him, not saying a word.

John leaned back in the chair, studying Eden. "You know, you and I aren't so different." He said in an unusually quiet tone. "We are both slaves to our sins, to our addictions. We've been in the trenches of the slums of man, seen the worst in people, seen the ugly truths behind the curtains."

"You and I are nothing alike." Eden muttered quietly.

"Sure we are." John scratched his cheek and folded his arms over his chest. "From the moment I saw you, I could see that you were running from a ghost, just like me. I could see right through your tough act, I saw you for who you really were."

Eden looked up at him, an angry expression on her face. "I said, you and I are nothing alike." She hissed at him, yet John remained calm and still.

This was weird, why wasn't he getting angry? Why wasn't he reacting to the attitude she was throwing at him?

"Eden, I saw you for exactly what you are. A snake in the garden. You are simply an ex-junkie looking for redemption."

"Fuck you."

"When you were in the Bliss I was there, when you were sobbing about your mistakes I was there, when you were begging for forgiveness I was there."

"Fuck you!" A year rolled down Eden's cheek but she didn't look sad, only angry.

John leaned forward, staring Eden in the eyes. His expression never wavered. "You killed someone, not just my men, not just Joseph's followers, you murdered someone that meant so much to you! Who was it?"

"He would have killed me! I had no choice!"

"WHO WAS IT?" John finally raised his voice, but he didn't stand up or threaten her. He just shouted to be louder than her, to establish dominance.

"He...he was going to kill me." She stammered out and John nodded.

"So you killed him first?"

"I...I didn't plan on it. It just happened." Another tear rolled down her cheek and Eden looked down at her hands. "I just snapped."

     "All it takes is one snap." John said. "Who was it, Eden?"

     Eden cringed from hearing John say her name. It was so...unnatural. "He was the first person I ever cared about."

     "What happened?" John asked, this felt less like an interrogation and more like a genuine conversation.

     "Everything was fine. We met after I left my mom, he was...he was this amazing person. He made me think that I could finally have a life, a good life. But he got into running drugs for an old friend, then they started partying. Then the drugs started, and things got so bad." Eden trembled as she spoke, she had no idea why she was being so damn vulnerable around John. Maybe it was the Bliss still in her system.

     "He turned into this abusive, sack of shit. But no matter how bad it got, he always apologized and said it would be better tomorrow. I don't know why I believed him. Things never got better, they got worse." The whole time Eden spoke, John didn't interject, he didn't snicker or sneer, he just listened to her story.

     "One day, he came home late, drunk and blown out of his skull. We didn't have anything in the house, we were too broke to buy more drugs or alcohol. I knew he would take it out on me for not working, and I got scared. I really thought I was going to die." Eden finally looked away from her hands and looked at John. She was crying but there was no remorse in her eyes.

     "So when he fell asleep on the couch, I grabbed a cord of a lamp, and I wrapped it around his neck until he didn't move anymore. And I took my shit, and I ran. I ran until I couldn't even think about going back." Eden finished and John nodded.

     She was expecting a big speech about the principles of man, about how sin drives us, about how she could be free. But that didn't happen.

     "So that's why he cares so much." John said and nodded again.

     "What?" Eden asked, confused.

     "That's why my brother cares so much about you."

     "Jacob doesn't give two shits about me-"

     John cut her off by laughing. "Oh well then you don't know my brother. Do you know the people he's dealt with? Do you know the bodies left behind in his wake? He saved you for a reason, and now I finally understand."

    Eden stayed quiet, a little confused by what John was trying to tell her.

     "Deputy Eden, you made Jacob Seed fall in love." John said and started laughing again. He stood up from the chair and handed her the sandwich.

     Eden was hesitant but still in a confused state she took the sandwich. John laughed a bit more and walked over to the door. He grabbed the handle of the door and paused, he turned back around and looked over at Eden.

     He saw her in her ragged, gaunt state and shook his head, a small entertained grin on his face. "You, Deputy, have really accomplished the impossible." He left her with that final statement and left the room.

     After John left Eden just stayed frozen in her spot. Too confused to even think right away. She looked down at the sandwich and thought for a little while.

     There was no way he was in love with her. No that was stupid. Just another one of Johns mind games to try and get her to talk...right?

     But then again, Jacob did always have a weird way of popping up when she needed him, well sometimes it was when he was the one at fault. Actually a lot of the time he was the reason she needed help.

     They did have their time in the cabin, but honestly? She didn't think he was fawning all over her or anything. God why did this have to be so difficult! She hated him, she hated his family and everything they did. Why couldn't he hate her too?

     Wait she was getting ahead of herself. Jacob didn't love her, there was no way. A man like that couldn't be capable of love. Could he?

John walked out of Eden's room and saw Jacob sitting next to her door. "The dutiful soldier, protecting his flock." John remarked and leaned against a box across from Jacob.

Jacob looked up at John. "What did you just say?"

John folded his arms over his chest and chuckled. "You know, of all the women we encountered across this whole country I never picked the Deputy as your type!" John taunted him and Jacob didn't react.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm making sure she doesn't get out." Jacob lied and John sneered.

"No need to lie, brother. I'm happy for you! She would make a fine wife for you, if you two don't kill each other at the alter at least." Jacob stood up so fast his chair fell over.

"You're going to want to watch how you speak to me, brother." Jacob loomed over his younger brother who wasn't backing down at all. John held his hands up in surrender, that shit eating grin still clear on his face.

"All I'm saying is, good job." John said with a smirk and started walking down the hallway. "Oh and don't worry, I'll save her for you." John's causal, threatening behaviour shook Jacob to his core.

He balled up his hands into a fist and slammed them into the wall, creating a loud BANG. "Fuck. Fuck." Jacob hissed quietly and tried to calm himself down by rubbing a hand over his hair. He looked down the hallway where John disappeared and then back at Eden's door.

     Jacob walked over to Eden's door but hesitated to open it. She probably needed to be alone after talking with John; Jacob sure knew that he did.

     So Jacob let out a short, tired puff and stood his chair back up, retaking his seat by Eden's door.

     Hi guys! I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to @luciferstempest and @The_Queen_Dreamer for being such big fans of this story! Along with everyone else that enjoys reading this story, I honestly never imagined this would be a story I would be writing for so long but you guys have helped keep me invested in it! So thank you, I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!