A Deal of Blood and Roses

Chapter Seven - Mr Moran

Chapter Seven - Mr Moran

Mr Moran sat at his desk, he back in his chair with his head tilted up words, exposing a gnarly scar running across the length of his neck. Eris noted that the room had a pungent smell of aged whiskey and something else he could not name but recognized. He clenched his teeth.

Mr Moran raised a brow, "Well," he leaned forward and clasped his hands on the desk. He reminded Eris of an evil Victorian serial killer that cut his victims up in alleyways and kept organs in jars. It was his deeply sunken eyes, the collar that was tied too high up his neck and the suit that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks but still never bore a single stain or crease.

Eris shifted his grip on the crutch, his hands growing sweaty, but he stayed silent.

Mr Moran snorted with annoyance, "Sit down then. I don't have all day to deal with children." He watched with a beady eye as Eris pulled the wooden framed chair out and sat down on the leather cushion. He stalled, unsure what to do with the crutches he held in his hand. Eris could feel the eyes on him, so he leaned them on his good leg, still keeping them in his hand.

"Well?" he asked, looking at the younger boy, "Do you want to explain?"

Eris looked up to meet his eyes. He grimaced at the sickly colour of them. He wondered if the now dull blue eyes had once been bright and lively like his. Perhaps they were when he was little, he ran around the garden with his father, but it seemed weird to imagine him as an innocent child.

Mr Moran cleared his throat. His patience was already wearing thin, and it had hardly been a minute.

Eris snapped his attention back, "I was shot." he rubbed his hands together, a nervous tic.

"Kick me in my arse and call me stupid. I didn't think you fucking pricked your finger!" Mr Moran yelled, his voice loud, but sarcasm dripped off his tongue like venom. Eris jumped in his seat. He tightly pressed his lips together to stop them from quivering.

"Look, I don't know what happened, I swear. One minute I was just walking along, and then someone was shooting at me. I didn't see them or that," Eris lied, not entirely, though. "I swear," he added, his voice shaky with hesitance.

Mr Moran leaned back in his chair, his head twisted to the side, studying the boy and his words. His explanation was plausible enough for him to believe.

Silence filled the room as Mr Moran kept a cold gaze settled on him. Eris felt himself growing more and more nervous the longer the silence held. His leg started bouncing, he placed his hand down to stop it.

"What about the bandage? Tilda said you were bandaged up, and the bullet was removed when you got here. I doubt you have the balls to rip a bullet out your own leg. So then - explain that," he questioned with his arms crossed across his chest. Eris felt like he was in a police interrogation; he had no choice to leave and had to answer every question until he gave the answer they wanted to hear.

Eris's face froze. How was he going to get out of this one? He wondered if he should confess and tell Mr Moran the truth about Ivy and Winston, the two people that made his stomach turn with fear but yet they had helped him.

"Good samaritan, I supposed. Woke up in their apartment and left before I could see who they were." Once again, he lied but not entirely.

Mr Moran seemed to buy it.

"Well, clearly they did a shit job considering you were knocking on death's door when we found ya," he smirked, amused with himself. Perhaps he felt proud that he contributed to saving Eris, or it was just another boost to his ever-growing ego. "But you know where that leaves you?" he said as a question, not a statement.