The next few days are a blur. I'm kept in my room, alone, so I'm not exactly sure what's going on. I overhear that Briseis has been taken to a temporary foster home, but nobody will tell me where, and my phone is taken from me so I can't call and ask her. I only leave my room to eat and use the bathroom, then I'm pushed back in quickly.

After about three days of this routine, my door is opened and I'm ushered out by a man I've never seen before. Alone, I sit in a waiting room of some kind for a couple of hours, then a young woman with long, black hair and a dark complexion approaches me with a tentative smile.

"Patroclus, right?" I nod hesitantly. "I'm Theo." I shake her hand stiffly, then she takes a seat opposite me. "I trust you're aware that your dad was being investigated after your mother called the police because-"

"What?" I interrupt her. She frowns, concern evident on her face.

"You don't know?"

"My dad said we were being investigated because my friend got mugged. She is- was... staying with us. Briseis. Is she okay?"

"Oh, the girl. Yes, she's fine." Theo assures me. 'She's in a different foster home. But she wasn't mugged! Your mother called the police. Apparently your father was abusing her."

"Oh."

"Do you mind if I take a few statements?" She asks me.

"Go ahead." I nod. She pulls something from her bag and places it on the table between us, pressing a button. I assume it's a recording device of some kind.

"Okay. Are you aware of any occasions like this happening before?" Cautiously, I nod again.

"He hits her occasionally, yeah. Brie and I didn't know what to do, so... We just kept quiet and waited for it to end." I look down. This is my fault. I should have stepped in, or said something to somebody, but I was scared he'd go back to hitting me...

"Patroclus, what your father did to everyone is not your fault. And you're safe, okay?"

"Okay."

"Can you recall what exactly your father would do?"

"It was mostly just shouting.' I admit. "He might have hit mom more than I think he did, I didn't see it happen much, and he kept her quiet." I scowl at myself for being so useless.

"This is all really helpful, Patroclus." She encourages me, like she can read my thoughts.

"I remember once when I was younger, my mom went into hospital for some operation." I say.

"For an injury caused by your father?'

"I don't know." I admit. "But while she was gone, he took to hitting me."

"How young were you?" She gasps. I shrug.

"About six?" She covers her mouth, eyes softening, then gently urges me to go on. I look down.

"That's it, really. He never touched Brie. He wouldn't, in case she said something."

"Okay. Thank you so much, Patroclus. This is all really useful. Now, your mother is mentally unstable, so you can't stay with her, so we're going to have to move you to a foster home."

"O-Oh." I nod, eyes wide. "That's okay, I guess..."

"Would you like to be put with Briseis?"

"Yes please." I say quickly. She nods.

"Now, you never need to see your dad again if you don't want to, but if you wouldn't mind, we'd really appreciate it if you could testify against him in court."

"He's being charged?" I ask. She nods, and I suppress a smile, pressing my lips into a line.

"I'll testify.' I agree. She smiles gratefully.

"Thank you, Patroclus."

"It's okay." I say absentmindedly, then I focus on her fully. "Could I call Briseis?" I ask, then another thought occurs to me. "And my bo... Friend, too?'

"Who's the friend?' She asks. I can tell she's trying not to sound suspicious.

"Achilles Pelides. He's just a friend from school. I left his house quite suddenly the other day and he probably doesn't know what happened to me."

"Of course. Just don't tell him all about the trial, okay? We want to keep it under wraps until it's all over." She requests.

"Yeah, sure." I nod. She smiles, tells me to stay put, and leaves. She comes back later with a mobile phone, tells me the number for Brie's foster home, then leaves.

I call Briseis and chew my nails as it rings and rings, then finally an unfamiliar voice picks up. I ask for Briseis and there's a lot of noise, then a tentative

"Hello?"

"Hey, Brie. It's me. Patroclus." I cringe.

"Patroclus!" She shrieks delightedly. "You okay?"

"Yeah.' I sigh. "Are you?"

"Good. Nice family."

"That's good." I think she can sense that I'm too tired to try to understand any complex Greek phrases, or even correct her grammar, as she keeps it short and simple, assuring me again and again that she's okay and making sure I'm alright too. Neither of us bring up the trail. I figure out that she really wasn't mugged, which is relieving, to say the least.

Eventually, we hang up, and I call Achilles, hands shaking. I ran out so fast, leaving him with his clearly angry mother... He probably hates me! I can't remember his mobile number, but I somehow still know his home phone from memory from our friendship as kids, so I call that number instead and hope they having gotten a new phone since we were kids. The phone is picked up on the first ring, a sharp voice saying

"Yes?" His mother.

"Is... Is Achilles here?"

The long pause makes it clear that Thetis knows who I am. Eventually, she curtly says

"No."

"Why not?" I frown. She sighs loudly.

"Achilles moved out."

"What?"

"I said he moved out."

"Yeah, but why?"

"That's none of your business." She snaps.

"But I'm his b-" I stop myself. "I'm his friend." She scoffs, showing that she knows fine well that I'm more than that.

"He's staying with his father.' She tells me. "Now I must-'

"Can I have his number?"

"No." She hangs up on me before I can persist.

I sit, lost in thought, for a while. I keep pushing it back, but regardless, a single thought keeps floating to the forefront of my mind: What if she threw him out, because of me?