The End of the Littlest One [Completed]

42. he could've yelled at me

'Aren't you relieved?' Benjamin asked.

'I guess,' Dante said.

'You guess? I know you're relieved.'

'How do you know?'

Benjamin let out a laugh, and sat down on a bed, next to his open bag.

'Because you look relieved.'

Dante saw Benjamin sat down, and put a shirt down, back into his bag. His feet carried him to Benjamin. He sat down next to him.

Benjamin saw the opportunity and immediately held Dante's hands in his.

'How?' Dante asked. 'How do I look relieved?'

'When you're annoyed or stressed you tend to speak in short sentences.'

'That doesn't explain how I look relieved.'

'You got me there,' Benjamin admitted. 'I can just tell, though. Something about you just changes. It's something I can't put into words.'

They enjoyed the peaceful silence for a while. Benjamin and Dante had arrived at their third stop to their way to safety. An unexpected early stop, however. They decided upon it this morning.

Upon seeing how large the previous town was, Dante had asked to leave earlier than the initial plan was. We shouldn't want to be in crowded places like this he had said. Benjamin had rolled his eyes before agreeing.

'I assume you're relieved as well?' Dante asked.

'What do you think? Of course I am,' Benjamin exclaimed. 'I thought that man was going to murder us.'

Dante laughed.

'Isn't that a little extreme?' he said.

'No,' Benjamin firmly said. 'That man followed us all over town. He was even wearing a hat and a scarf. He was concealing his identity.'

'It's winter.'

'So? We weren't wearing both.'

'And he wanted to tell you your laces were untied.'

'He could've yelled that at me.'

Dante gave up. He knew he could be paranoid sometimes, but not like this.

Or is he making it up to make me feel better?

Either way, they arrived at their next inn safely. They already ate dinner, so all that was left to do, was unpack some of their stuff and get some much-needed sleep.

When Dante entered the room after taking a shower, he saw Benjamin frantically going through both of their bags.

'What are you doing?'

'I can't find it.'

'Find what?'

Benjamin left the bags alone and searched through the clothes he wore that day. Turning every pocket inside out, he became disappointed.

'Find what?' Dante repeated. 'Did you lose something?'

Benjamin didn't respond. Instead, he got down on his knees and looked under the beds.

'Benjamin, answer me.'

Benjamin stood up.

'What?' he asked.

'I asked what you were looking for.'

'My watch.'

'What watch?'

'You know. My watch. The only one I have.'

Then it dawned on Dante what Benjamin meant.

'You mean the pocket watch your mom gave you.'

'Yes, that one. Can you help look for it? You didn't take it, right?'

'I did not take it. I wouldn't even know why I would.'

After turning the whole room and everything with it upside down, back to normal, and then upside down again, they could not find the watch.

Disappointed, and slightly out of breath, the men sat on one of the beds.

'Maybe I forgot it at the previous inn,' Benjamin said.

He put his hands behind him, and slowly lowered his back before he laid on the bed. He put his hands on his face.

'We have to go back,' he continued.

'You want to go back?' Dante asked.

'Yes. We have to.'

'We can't risk that.'

Benjamin took his hands from his face and looked at Dante, still sitting with his back towards him.

'You can't be serious.'

'I am. We shouldn't go back for something as simple as a watch. It's too dangerous.'

'You know it's not just a watch. It means a lot to me.'

'It's too dangerous.'

'What is dangerous? You have been looking out for our safety the whole trip. Have you seen anything unsafe yet? Have you saved us yet? May I ask why we would be in danger at this point?'

Dante's jaw dropped. He couldn't believe Benjamin would say that.

'I'm supposed to kill you, remember?'

'Of course, I remember that. You're my biggest danger, and yet I'm here, with you, in some small town in some small inn sharing a room with you. You've had quite some time for it, right? Even if they would find us here, they'll think it's part of your big master plan.'

'How do you know?'

'How do you know they won't?'

They looked each other in the eyes. Both were annoyed by the other, but neither was surprised because of it.

Since the whole running-away-plan became reality, they had disagreed on things. That's normal of course, you can't see eye to eye on everything with someone. But to their extent... It was frustrating.

'I'm leaving tomorrow morning to go back,' Benjamin eventually said. 'Do what you want.'