Duskwood: And Beyond

18. The Second Scariest Thing in Duskwood

ORYN

I stood still as the figure approached me.

"You are causing quite a lot of trouble," he said. He sounded like he was enjoying this interaction.

"Hello Alan," I responded. He smirked for a second.

"Where is the hacker?" he said in a cold voice.

"Who is the snitch?" I responded. I was not going to give him any information. I knew he wouldn't answer meaning I wouldn't have to answer his questions.

"You ignored my call," He said.

"I was not interested," I said. It was a lie. I wasn't aware that he called me which meant Jake blocked it.

"I can arrest you for obstruction of justice," he threatened.

"Because you were doing a damn fine job before I started to obstruct?" I taunted.

He took a sit. I made my way to the kitchen. I had no chance to run away so I might as well make this more bearable. I started to make coffee. Alan sat in silence until I returned back to the living room and offered him a cup.

"Poison?" he chuckled.

"Not my style," I responded. He focused on my arm as he picked up the cup.

"You are bleeding," he questioned.

"So I have heard. It's fine. I'll survive," I said.

Alan stood up and went to the bathroom. I heard him searching for something. This would have been the perfect moment to leave but I wanted to see where this would go. And running away would make me look even worse. He came back with some bandages and some antiseptics.

"May I?" he asked. I nodded. He lifted Lilly's old shirt and started to take care of my wound. He disinfected it and wrapped it up. It wasn't a terrible cut but it still bled a lot. It was obvious that he had some experience with first aid.

"Do I even want to know how you got this?" he joked when he was done. I laughed and shook my head.

"I am sorry about your friend," he suddenly changed the topic. I was still not ready to discuss that topic.

"Let's not mention that," I said. My eyes started to water as I felt a sharp pain in my neck. It took me a minute to recover.

"You can talk to me," he said. I stayed quiet for a few minutes. My heart was racing and all the emotions I was ignoring resurfaced.

"They follow my lead. They ask me to decide everything. They trust me. And most of the time, I have no idea what I am doing," I spilled. I didn't know why I told him that. It felt good to get it off my chest. As the emotions washed me, I couldn't help but cry. I felt angry, sad, disgusted, ashamed, guilty... All of them spilled in form of tears. Alan patted my back, it was forced like he was afraid to touch me.

After half an hour of crying, I calmed down. I thanked him.

"You are an ugly crier," he laughed. I also laughed as I was blowing my nose. Our laugh was interrupted with his ring tone. He answered his phone, I tried to listen in but I couldn't hear anything.

"Well, this was a lovely encounter but there is a problem I need to take care of," he said.

"Let me guess, I caused it?" I asked.

"Possibly," he said.

We got up. He offered me a ride and asked me where I was staying. I told him that I was staying with Jessy and she was picking me up. He didn't question. I walked him to his car, so he wouldn't see mine. He told me that the next time he saw me we would have a serious conversation. I told him I also have a lot of questions. He left. I waited for a few minutes to make sure he was not returning.