“Don’t say that,” I scold, although he’s right.I’m not sure I’ll sleep after this revelation.“I’m glad you felt you could tell me.”And I mean it.He’s opened up to me and admitted what he’s done and why he did it.
Something dawns on me.“Whyhaveyou told me?”
He cocks his head, confused, his eyes a little glassy from the whisky.
“Aren’t you worried I’ll tell my father?”
There’s no hesitation as he answers.“No.I know you won’t tell your father.”
He’s right, but… “How can you be so sure?”
“Because we both have secrets, Hayami.You sent Willa away and have sworn me to secrecy.”
Touché.
“Besides,” he says, rising from his chair and pushing it under the table, “I trust you.”
There’s a stab in my chest.I want to be able to reciprocate, share with him what awaits me when we get off this mountain, but this was his show and tell, not mine.I’ll be damned if I’m going to overshadow his pain with my own sob story.
“You should get some rest.”He angles his head, a softness brushing his skin as the light changes on his face.
“Why?Big day tomorrow?”I joke.
“No, but I need you to have your wits about you if you’re going to learn how to fire a gun.”
I sit up.“Really?You’re going to teach me how to shoot?”
“I said I would,” he says, “but only if you get some sleep.”
“I can’t argue with that.”I slide off the chair and hug myself.“Are you going to be okay in the office?”
He nods and heads towards the door.“I’ll walk you up to your room.”
“Are you going to check under my bed?”I ask as he follows me out into the foyer and up the stairs.
“It seems stupid, but it’s the basics,” he says.
We reach my room, and he enters first, completing all his sweeping checks before letting me follow.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” he says before closing the door behind me.
And I’m left in the soft glow of my room that looks the same as when I left it, but I feel different.Everything feels different.And it shouldn’t.He’s the same man who beat the shit out of a guy who was trying to cop off with me in the toilets seven days ago.He’s the same man who dragged me from the river one month ago.He’s the same man who pulled me from the pool six months ago.
But he doesn’t feel the same.
I see him.
I see what he is, what he can do, and his motivations behind it all.
He’s a victim.A survivor.
And he’s also a killer.
TWENTY-FOUR
HAYAMI
PRESENT
