And there it was.Maxim caught a flicker of a smile.He wasn’t sure whether it was genuine or just a muscle memory, but it was there, like a spark in the darkness.
Let’s breathe life into that flame, Raven.
“Yeah,” Raven said.“Yeah.I saw things.”
Chapter 14
Walkingthroughthecityat night felt like a dream; the kind that wasn’t sure whether it was a nightmare or not.The kind that presented you with everyday horrors, noises and things lost in the darkness, things that didn’t add up to a cohesive reality.
Raven wanted to wake up, but he didn’t know how.He also knew he wasn’t dreaming, not really.There had been no dreams since he’d gone to the Forum for a lecture and for his own curiosity.It had been nightmare after nightmare since then.
Walking and letting Maxim lead the way was easier than being alone.It didn’t stop the thoughts and memories from coming, but there were interruptions.When the wind picked up, Raven smelled earth and water, greenery, and when he lifted his head, he saw the treetops of Seneca Park.
“Did we walk here?”
“Yes.It’s not really that far from the house.”
Raven glanced at Maxim, who was wearing that pajama set with the cute doughnut-stealing bats as if it were a tailored suit.I don’t get him.What kind of hunter wears that?
“Raven?”
Maxim was looking over his shoulder, disturbing the smooth coil of his braid with the tilt of his head.
“Huh?”
“I asked whether you’d like to go into the park?There are a few calm spots at this time in the month.”
“This time?”
“Not the full moon.It’s crowded during the full moon, with all the werewolves and their families and friends there.”
Raven nodded.He remembered that.Remembered being taken to the park.“They…brought me here.D-Daniel had shifted.He—Laurenzio said to look at that vampire who was consorting with a wolf and… I could’ve run.He said so.He said I was allowed to run, only they’d kill him if I did.That vampire they showed me… Laurenzio said Daniel would go and tear his head off, but I was free to run if I wanted that.”
Maxim had stopped.He was staring, Raven could tell, even if he couldn’t see well now that he was crying again.
“They took you to the park?”Level voice.Raven had been so sure it would be angry now, finally.
“T-to…my professor’s house too.They…said…I had…to watch, and then they…they—”
Strong arms around him.Raven felt himself shivering in Maxim’s hold.He breathed in the smell of him, faint but there, unfamiliar but not scary.Maxim didn’t move, didn’t tighten his hold.
“I apologize.This is out of line.”
Raven whined when Maxim started to release him, when the hunter’s arms slipped away, and he had no fucking idea why he made that noise.He couldn’t speak.Whenever he opened his mouth, he made things worse these days.
“Raven, I’m sorry.That was uncalled for.No one should’ve been forced to go through what they made you do, do you understand?They played with you.”
“I…” Raven looked at the trees again.“I could’ve run.Could’ve told you.I could’ve…saved my professor.We… They said… We went there.After the park.”
Maxim’s nostrils flared.“How would you have saved them?There was never any choice.They knew you’d not run.They knew you’d not do that, terrified as you were, but they enjoyed torturing you with the potential choice.They fucked with your mind, Raven.”
Raven could see that, in a way.Makes sense.I guess it makes sense?
“I… They didn’t—he didn’t always compel me.Not for everything.Not all the time.If I’d just… If I’d just…”
Maxim waited.Perhaps this is what the cops do, him waiting for me to confess it all.To tell him.Maybe the walk… Maybe all of it…
Raven didn’t know what to think anymore, didn’t know if they were really here for a confession, for the weighing of his guilt.In the movies, the dead would appear sometimes as a warning, as a haunting to make bad people face the truth, and stupidly, he looked into the darkness that grew denser closer to the park, wanting to see Prof.LeRoux there.
