“Not a child, but obviously not okay. So, rest, we’ve got this,” Aurora said as she walked past carrying a stack of books.
He just barely held back the heavy sigh he wanted to let out, but he did to avoid the pain. This…was going to be alongweek, even without trying to keep his mind off of what had happened and what he had almost done.
Noble stayed silent as he carried a quiet, and obviously very tired, Ollie up the stairs into the man’s living quarters. Holding the man up with an arm under his butt, the witch’s legs were barely wrapped around his waist, as Ollie rested against his chest.
There was a lot on Noble’s mind, and yet it was nothing he really wanted to think about, let alone actually carry out. For sure, there was a list of things he needed to do, but all he currently wanted to do was stay by Ollie’s side. Even if the longer he stayed there, the more the little witch would likely question him about things he couldn’t answer without lying.
Given what had happened, with the things he said, and what the man would likely start to notice if he hadn’t already, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hide what he truly was.The fact was, Ollie was a highly intelligent individual, but he was also, Noble noticed, someone who liked to gaslight himself away from hard truths. Which was why he honestly wasn’t sure when the questions would come, or even if they would.
“I could have walked,” the little librarian croaked softly as Noble opened the front door that was thankfully unlocked.
He wasn’t so sure of that. The man had been very unsteady on his feet and only half-awake when he’d prodded him into agreeing to go to bed. It was only 9pm, but Ollie seemed pretty out of it.
“You’re tired, it’s fine.” Noble smiled down at the witch.
Ollie’s nose scrunched up in disgust. “And you’re not? Not to mention everyone else who is going to keep working while I continue to do nothing.”
The self-deprecating tone of the man’s voice bothered him, but he didn’t think he’d get anywhere if he tried to tackle that right now, so instead, he attempted to just soften the man’s feelings a bit. “Baby, give yourself a break. You’ve been through a lot in the last twenty-four plus hours.”
Closing the door, he left it unlocked and headed down the hall.
“I’ll…” the man trailed off, hesitating before lying, “I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“But I will be. Soon. I just need to not think. And once the bruises and cuts are gone, it’ll be a lot easier to do that.”
“Baby, that’s not exactly a healthy way to cope.”
Not that Noble could really talk, since that was pretty much his go-to method of dealing with shit. Well, he normally defaulted to just not thinking, or rather pretending that it wasn’t on his mind, when it was.
Because pretending I haven’t done all the horrible shit I’ve done is so easy, when I remember every single name and face of those I’ve killed, he thought sarcastically. Yeah, he was ahypocrite, what else was new? Well, it wasn’t as if he actually regretted killing all of them, there was definitely some he would happily and willingly kill again if it was an option. It was all those he was unsure of, and the ones he now knew for sure were innocent.
“Well, it’s worked out pretty well for me so far, so like, why not just keep doing it?” Ollie said with a nervous laugh that cut off as he winced in pain.
Ah, his Baby’s poor throat.
“Ollie...” he rasped with a sigh as they reached the little witch’s bedroom. Setting the man down on the edge of the bed, he carefully ran a hand over Ollie’s loose red curls, since the witch hadn't pulled them up. “How are you really, Baby?”
Jahla had just satdown near a stack of books that she planned to clean when she found herself surrounded by the other librarians. But then she supposed thiswastheir chance to try to pry answers from her without Noble and Ollie there.
“No lying, what the fuck really happened? Because Ollie was beaten all to hell, and what do you know, Noble’s fists were banged up from hitting someone. Oh, not to mention, this would be the second time Ollie’s come in looking messed up since he started dating the man,” Aurora said stiffly, as she cracked her knuckles.
“Yeah, no one in their right mind is going to buy the random masked stranger with ‘dogs’ explanation,” Percy scoffed.
“The lack of police presence, or even the fire department, pretty much drives home that what we are being told is a lie,” Fleur drawled softly.
Winnie let out a hesitant laugh. “I mean, I'm not saying I buy it, but…like, the marks on the floor don’t make sense, and I’m not sure they can be explained in a way that does.”
“As the ones that look like claw marks appear to be surrounded by rot…I’m not sure there is one either,” Hanna said slowly.
Eashaa snorted. “There is also the fact that there is a very deep scorch mark on the floor that, for some reason, never spread beyond an odd semi circular point, yet the amount of soot suggests it was burning for a bit, and should have spread.”
Jahla sighed as she eyed them before standing, as she was not having this conversation while on the floor.
She knew this was coming from a place of worry, specifically worry for Ollie, but at the same time…it wasn’t like she could tell them the truth.
“So…it’s…not entirely a lie? I can say Noble was not the one who hurt Ollie. Nor has he ever. There was for sure someone else here who Noble fought, but…can you just trust me when I say it’s best that you not know the full truth? And that there are very good reasons as to why the police and fire department were not called, and can’t be called. Not to mention why none of this will be reported to insurance…”
