“They gave you aperson? For real?”
“Yes!”
“And you accepted?”
William’s hair stood on end as a surge of shame hit him. “Dude. If I refused, they were going to give him to Richard.”
“Leclerc?” Oliver asked with audible disdain.
“Yeah. You should have seen the way he was looking at him. His name is Adathan, by the way. He’s a whole damn person, but he thinks he isn’t. He’s so brainwashed. He keeps trying to make me read his fucking instruction manual. He has aninstruction manual! This is so fucked up. Surely I’m dreaming.”
“Okay, calm down. We’ll find a solution. I’ll do some research—what’s the company called again?”
“I don’t know, but they call him a Serviteur. It’s French for servant.”
“Right, I remember now. It might be difficult for me to find anything with just that one word, though. You said he has an instruction manual? Can you find the company name and send it to me?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”
“We’ll figure this out, all right?”
“It’s so fucked up, man,” William whispered, his throat tightening at the thought of going back. “He has a box with... with... things. They call them deluxe accessories. There was a collar for me to tether him, he said. Like he’s a fucking dog. And a torture kit, too. He said it was to discipline him when he’s bad.”
“Shit. That’s sick.”
“You should have seen his face when I asked him . . . when . . . when—”
“Hey. William. It’s okay. You won’t be using them, right? They can’t hurt him anymore.”
“I put it all in the trash.”
“Good. See? He’s safe with you.”
“B-but I can’t do this. I can’t.”
“You can. It’ll be okay. Just treat him like you’d treat a friend until we figure this out.”
William huffed a humorless laugh. “We both know I’m a shitty friend.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yeah. Whatever,” William muttered.
“We’ll find a solution, I promise. Just stay calm. He’s safe with you. It’s the only thing that matters right now.”
William sighed. “Yeah. I’ll... go back. Thanks, man.” He hung up and dragged his hand across his face.
Safe. Adathan was safe with him. William just had to treat him like a friend.
No. He’d treat him like Oliver would.
Yes. That might just work.
William headed back to his room with a faint spark of optimism, only to realize he’d forgotten to take the keycard. “Shit,” he hissed at the door. Would it be weird to knock? Would Adathan answer? Was he even allowed to?
He sighed and knocked on the door, nearly jumping out of his skin as it immediately opened. “Hey, sorry about that,buddy,” William said, dying a little inside. He was so bad at this. “My friend needed urgent advice about something.”
Adathan smiled as he held the door for him. His accessories were no longer on the table—and neither was the box—which made the instruction manual stand out against the polished surface. It felt unbearably wrong to read it, but with how insistent Adathan had been, it would be a real asshole move not to.
