We exchange glares, and Lucas manages to get the paper out. He opens it, and I can see him turning red with angeras he reads it. He puts the note on my legs, abruptly getting up. I wince when he throws a punch at one of the walls, creating a perfecthole in it. He swears and looks at his bloody fist and gets even angrier.
I then look at the words in front of me. Fury and dread are the only emotions I’m feeling in that moment.
Paul was only the beginning.
Blake was a test.
You negotiate, or Anmara is next.
You have 72 hours, Lucas.
You choose.
-C
I get my frowning gaze off the note to Lucas when I feel him looking at my reflection in the mirror. I can’t read his eyes, but he looks like he saw a ghost, and I realise that the situation is even worse than we anticipated. Lucas paces, while his hands comb his hair, colouring his blonde curls with blood, then turns to face me.
“I need to tell you something, and you won’t like it. At all,” he says, making my heartbeat go crazy.
And then I see it as clear as day in his gaze: he now remembers everything. I can feel it deeply in the air I’m breathing, and through the vibrations of his tense body. His eyes are full of regret, happiness, sadness, and profound distress.
I patiently wait for him to open up, really curious about what he is about to say, but he seems like he doesn’t know how to tell me what is going through his head.
He closes his eyes and lets a long sigh out. He sits down on the bed and puts his hands on his face, looking like he doesn’t wanna talk after all.
I go sit next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, only to make his gaze go to my brown eyes.
“I cannot tell you everything right now. The situation we are in is shitty as hell, and our plans have been turned upside down. All that you need to know at this exact moment is that I didn’t have anything to do with those photos,” he starts by telling me, making me relax with the last part.
Apparently, I was tense because of that uncertainty.
“Paul is the name of my brother, the one from the photo. The last time I saw him was on his wedding day.”
My eyes snap wide as my brain starts working better and connecting the dots. It’s so strange that when he talks about the past, the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. I’m not upset that the memories came through, but it is strange that they only appeared when Lucas was telling me about them.
I let him continue, curious about his take on the wedding and Paul’s runaway. I lived that day from a very different perspective.
“One day before it, he was normal, chill, having the specific emotions from before the big day. He was thrilled to marry the love of his life. On the big day, he was very stressed. He was constantly sweating, and his smile was fake. I knew something was wrong with him, but I thought the emotions got the best of him. He went outside after looking nervously at his phone, saying he had an urgent matter and would come back shortly. 15 minutes passed, and he didn’t come back. I’ve gone outside to look for him, and I found you in that elegant red dress, having your attention set on something behind the church. You weren’t moving an inch. You were too captivated by whatever you were watching. Before asking you if you’ve seen Paul, I managed to see what you were so caught up in: Paul passionately kissing another woman. You also watched him follow the lady in a van that quickly got away after the door closed. And then, his future wife, the one I knew he was in love with, called for me, and I turned to face her.”
“She probably wanted to ask you about her future husband, but she didn’t manage to do that because I’ve gone past you and hugged her,” I surprise him by continuing the story. “She started crying after I told her what just happened before my eyes, almost melting on the ground from the shock. I looked at you, and I knew that in that moment a plan was forming in our minds because you nodded.”
He gets up and goes to the closet, where he searches his bag. He brings me the photo with his brother and looks at my tear-filled eyes.
“I found this photo in the room we were both in before he went away with the mystery woman," he says, finishing the story. “Paul knew something was going on. I came into town two days before the wedding, and he seemed happier about his future marriage than on his supposed wedding day. Unfortunately, I also know the real reason for his sudden change of character, and it is only my fault," he says, surprising me. “He found me back then, now, and I could swear that he will find me wherever I go, however much I could forget where I came from,” he sighs, frustrated, constantly moving his right leg.
“Who’s meant to find you?” I ask curiously, not knowing if he would answer.
“My boss," he says, wanting to retract his words as soon as they left his mouth when he saw my gaze.
Chapter 8
The darkness awakening
I’m staring at him with an unimaginable fury ruling inside me.
“Your boss? What do you mean byyourboss?” I ask, and I can hear from my voice how angry I got about this situation. “And do not fucking say that you don’t wanna talk about it because it’s my life we’re talking about! I’ve been threatened, not you!”
I can’t hold myself from screaming the last part, not for how much adrenaline is settling in my blood because of the nerves that are paralysing my positive thoughts.
