If I Fall by Kelseyleigh Reber

then?
    Shoving these thoughts into the back of my mind, I push through the door. My chest clenches. Menacing shadows hover over me, the crates becoming dark creatures rather than the mundane objects of reality. I peer into the darkness.
    “Dela?” I call. “Dela, it’s me! Dela?”
    Terror knits into my chest, a colorful threadwork of worry and panic. A shrill undertone creeps into my voice. “Oh, Dela, please be here,” I whisper as I step further into the room.
    Something moves to my right and I freeze. Another flash of movement and my heart picks up momentum. A form takes shape behind one of the crates. I open my mouth to scream, to cry for help, when the blur of movement suddenly turns into a familiar figure. My sister.
    She runs forward, a shadow with bouncing golden curls, and slams into me. I stumble back with her sudden weight. She sobs against my chest, her thin arms wrapping tightly around my waist. Embracing her, I smile with relief.
    “I-I was so afraid, El. I woke up and you were gone. You were gone and the Radicals—they were here, looking for us! They were so close to finding me, El! They were so close, but something made them leave. I was hiding just back there.” She points to the furthest corner. She raises her gaze, accusing blue discs in search of answers. “How could you leave me, El? How could you do that? I was so frightened. I was so terribly frightened.”
    Despite her words, I know she is too relieved to see me to be truly angry.
    “Everything is all right. I am here now. We’re together and we are safe. Everything is all right,” I murmur into her hair.
    She pulls away. Tears create luminescent circles under her eyes. “Everything is not all right, El. They will be back. I overheard them talking. They’ve already searched the boiler room and steerage. And it is not as though there will be an empty room in first-class for us to hide away in. We have nowhere else to go.”
    I smile, reveling in my knowledge. “Yes, we do.” A devious smirk plucks at the corner of my lips and my eyes betray me.
    “What do you know that I don’t?” she asks, eyeing me suspiciously. She shifts then, the set of her eyes changing with a new thought. “Why do I have a terrible feeling this has something to do with that man you have been sneaking off to see?”
    I scowl, but ignore her comment. Taking hold of her hand, I lead her back to the door. “Come with me.”
    We trail out into the hallway and both glance back at the cargo room. I smile down at her and she smiles back as we both share the same thought: This is goodbye. Our time among the crates is over now. Never again will we have to sleep in their company. Yes. A goodbye to the past and a hello to whatever awaits us. I cannot help but think that everything is going to be different now.
    Everything.
    “Would you like some tea, Mrs. Laurence?”
    A maid hovers over the woman sitting across from me. Dela sits beside me; her foot bouncing against the floor and making the whole chaise vibrate with the movement.
    I put a hand on her knee. The bouncing ends and she glances at me sheepishly.
    “Yes, tea would be lovely. Thank you, Gertrude,” Mrs. Laurence says.
    “And for the girls?” Gertrude asks, inclining her head towards us. “Would you two care for some tea?”
    “No, thank you,” I say at the same time Dela says, “Yes, please.”
    We both turn to each other, her expression full of confusion and incredulity. “But, El! You love tea!”
    “I’m not thirsty,” I say through clenched teeth. It feels wrong, accepting tea from this woman who has already given us so much. How could I possibly take anything more?
    “But—”
    I silence her with a glare. Grudgingly, she turns her attention away from me as she gazes around the room. I follow her line of sight, from the stunning paintings in their golden frames to the Morris Company chair mother always dreamed about. The dragon design carved into the mahogany seems to truly breathe