“If you are ready, then we can.” Edward straightened, every bone in his spine practically cracking one after the other. “I just don’t see the point in dwelling on what has been, and instead, focusing on what will be. Does that answer your question?”
William shook his head, clutching the side of his chair to stop him from doing something he regretted. What that was, he wasn’t sure. He just didn’t seem to trust himself at the moment. His mind, his emotions… his heart.
“Something is weighing heavy on your mind,” Edward said. “Talk to me.”
“What isn’t on my mind!” William barked through a laugh. “How long do you have?”
“Try me.”
William took a deep breath in, wondering where to start. What came out of his treacherous mouth surprised even him. “I’ve been thinking about what happened, and I just can’t help but think you planned for this.”
“Not at all. You’ve been an interesting surprise.”
“Not me, stop bringing it back to me. You know what I’m talking about. The Ouija board, your stories about your great-uncle Teddy. It seems like this is going down the exact path you wanted from the beginning.”
“All I have wanted was answers, Will. I told you that from the start.”
And yet something is missing.
William ripped his hands from the chair and slapped them on the table. The bowl shuddered, the spoon within clattering against the ceramic. Edward hardly flinched, but his eyes did widen.
Good, William, thought.Let him see why he should leave.
“Why? Why do you care so much for the past?”
William had spent the last year running from it, and here Edward was, running towards a past that didn’t even belong to him.
Edward’s unwavering gaze fixed on William. “Because Teddy deserves this. Just because history forgot him doesn’t mean his story isn’t important. I’m not willing to just let Teddy become a distant, almost forgotten, memory”
“Oh. How valiant.” William turned away from the conversation. Suddenly, the idea of fresh air was welcoming. Perhaps the cold afternoon breeze would work Edward from his skin, mind, and soul. “Get out of the past, Edward. You’ll only drown in it. Trust me, I know.”
William got to the kitchen door before Edward called after him. What stopped him in his tracks wasn’t his words but the tone in which he used. It was the first time Edward spoke with an emotion differing from care and kindness.
“What are you running from?”
“Right now? You.”
“That wasn’t the question, and you know it. What are you running from in life, William Thorn?” The use of his full name was somewhat jarring, considering he was getting used to hearing Will come out of Edward’s mouth. “What drives someone so young to contemplate moving into a forgotten place in such a secluded area? What makes someone so cold, even when they are offered warmth? Just when I thought we were getting somewhere with each other, you turn around and throw it back in my face.”
“It’s none of your business,” William snapped, recognising that this time, in the face of a frightening conversation, he didn’t freeze. He didn’t feel the urge to run either. He wanted to fight. To split the wound in his heart and bleed out all the pain until he was empty of it.
Breathless, he spun back and faced Edward. Neither man had done much in the ways of physical movement, and yet they were both inhaling deeply, panting as if they’d climbed a mountain. When the truth was, they both faced one, contemplating who would climb it and throw themselves off.
“No, William. You’re wrong. Whatever happened to you, whatever has scarred you so deeply, itismy business. Use me. Off-load on me. Unleash all that darkness inside of you simply because I won’t judge you. Do it because I care.”
I care.
In that moment William hated Edward. He hated him for being him, for offering him the chance to face a past that frightened him more than any ghost and haunting. “I don’t need someone to save me. If you didn’t know, I’ve managed pretty well on my own before you came along.”
“Did you?”
William’s body froze to the spot. There was something in the way Edward asked his question, the lift in his tone at the end, that suggested Edward knew more than he was letting on.
“How. Dare. You.” The feeling rushed out of William’s legs. “I don’t need anyone. Maybe you’ve got some weird knight in shining armour complex, but I’m not going to be the one to feed into your kink, okay?”
“You wound me.” Edward’s eyes widened, his hand finding the back of his neck and rubbing. “Are you saying that to convince me or convince yourself? Because, from where I’m standing, I think it’s healthy to rely on another person for help. It’s okay if you do need saving; that doesn’t make you weak. It makes you human.”
William gripped the door frame a moment before his knees completely buckled. “I can’t do this–”
