Savior [Completed]

Savior: [Sixteen] [II/II]

*

Accelerate.

I don’t think there was anything else consciously going on in my mind from the point when I hung up the phone till the point where he opened the door slowly before I could even press the doorbell to announce my arrival.

It struck me that he’d been watching out a window, waiting for me.

And it’s only then that I noticed the ‘intruder’ outside the compound, leaning against his car, waiting.

The panic reached its peak.

“Hey, you-”

He didn’t let me finish. “Come in and let’s talk.”

I gave him – and more importantly, myself - a few moments to settle, so to speak. “Okay, now I’m here, so tell me.  What’s going on? Why is he there? And why did you say that there wasn’t any need to call the cops?”

“I..well.”

I waited.

Max shrugged in response, and I lost it completely then, I think. Either way, I was convinced that my friend definitely wasn’t thinking. “You do know who that is, right? Max?”

“Yeah, I know. That’s…well, we know, right?”

“Max! I didn’t call the cops because you told me there was a good reason not to, but now I’m starting to think …”

“No, no! I swear, there’s a good reason!”

“Which is?”

“I…he said he wants to talk.”

“And?”

He shrugged again.

“Max! Are you seriously-I-wait, why am I even arguing with you?” My phone was in my hand, but before I could get beyond the 9, he swatted it out of my hands. “Hey!”

“Nick! I’m telling you, there’s no need for that!”

“You’ve still not given me a good reason though, Max. ‘He wants to talk’ isn’t good enough! I mean…you do realize who that is, right? What he can do?”

As soon as the words were past my lips, I instantly regretting saying what I had. Of course he knew - I’d forget before Max ever did. He cringed, and my guilt intensified.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” I tried to keep my voice calm, “but Max? What’s going on?”

“He said he wanted to talk,” he swallowed, “and…I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know what he wants to talk about, but…yeah.”

“And you think that’s a good idea?” I looked out of the window where Mark was still waiting, then back at my friend. “Don’t get me wrong, I can see that he’s not doing anything right now, but…I don’t trust him.”

“Me either…that’s why I called you.”

I was still skeptical. “Instead of the cops?”

“Look.” He opened his mouth and shut it. “I was just chilling out at home and he showed up, and I had my phone with me and I freaked and started to call for help, but he…he stepped further away and asked me not to.”

“Okay?” I wasn’t sure what relevance that was of, but Max wasn’t that much of an idiot – I still strongly disagreed with his trust – to launch into a story of no significance.

“And then he said that he just wanted to talk. And then I said I didn’t want to and I started to go in, but he said that I didn’t have to be afraid of him and if I wasn’t comfortable, we could go to Dorman’s or some public place so that I’d feel…safer.” He shrugged. “And then he went out to the road and said he’d wait there while I decide.”