But I heard a chair scraping across the floor before another gasp sounded.
“Brutus, come on, man,” King said as I felt my shoulders slump a bit. “Can’t you keep it down while she’s in here? You know your voice booms.”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” the woman whispered in a shaky voice, “it’s okay. He’s okay.”
“You’re all right,” I heard King say softly before there was shuffling behind me. “You’re okay. You’re good. Come on, you’ve eaten enough. I’m sure Doc will be satisfied.”
I retreated back into myself as I turned to Anna. She had a look on her face that I didn’t care to decipher as she held the bottle of water out for me. I simply nodded my head as I took it from her, and then three big strides had me back in the darkness of the hallway that connected itself to the kitchen.
I watched King stride out of the room with that woman in his arms.
“Brutus,” Anna said.
I ignored her as I continued out of the kitchen.
“Bee!” she exclaimed behind me.
My patrol was done, and I was ready to get out of the light. It was always better if I simply stayed away. Kept to the darkness. I didn’t frighten as many people that way. We had another vulnerable woman in the safehouse. I needed to get back to business as usual.
I wondered if business would ever be usual again.
Anna’s voice fell into the background as I weaved my way to the room at the back. With most everyone being toward the front of the safehouse, it left the back end of it a little too unguarded for my taste. So I wove through the slim hallways that my shoulders practically scraped against as I kept my footsteps light. Everyone thought I was insane because I wanted stealth training during my military days. It served me well, though. I wanted to think it made me less intimidating. Maybe even a little more approachable. At the time, I thought, ‘Hey, I could offsetmy size by being light on my feet.’ You know, tip the scales in my favor a bit.
Though I found as I grew up, that was rarely the case.
My silence usually made me seem all the more intimidating.
I stopped fighting the stereotype after a while.
There were better uses of my energy growing up.
“Brutus!” Anna called out down the hallway.
I shouldered my way into my room, lost in my haze of thoughts. I heard someone fucking in the distance, which was a familiar sound. I was happy for my brothers, I really was. But good fucking god, they all fucked like wild, rabid animals.
I was over the growling at night.
“Are you going to answer me, or keep ignoring me?” Anna asked.
I sighed as I placed my plate and drink down on the little bedside table the room afforded me. “No.”
She scoffed and I looked over at her long enough to watch her fold her arms over her chest again.
I had to pinch the bridge of my nose to stop from looking.
“No, what?” she asked.
And I knew that stubborn look on her face. The determination behind her eyes. She was going to get a conversation out of me, whether I liked it or not.
She really was a spitfire, that one.
3
ANNA
I didn’t take kindly to being ignored.
I knew that Brutus was hurt. Over the time that I got to know him, I found that he really was the squishiest of all the guys here. A kind heart. A gentle soul. At least, he was to me.
