Duskwood : Dawn

Chapter VII - Anomaly

TW : talk about su***de and grief. Please be careful if you're sensitive about this topic.

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Dan and I stay like this for several minutes. As our tears are drying, we watch the rain fall.

"Dan, you didn't kill Richy..." He doesn't answer me right away, his eyes in the vague.

"I-If I didn't shoot him in the arm, he could have follow through with his plan. Because of that, he-"

"Richy had already made his decision, wounded or not. He had too much guilt for too long and the death of Amy was the last straw. This plan of releasing Hanna and "escaping" the MWAF wouldn't have changed a thing. He had enough" I put my hands on either side of his face and look at him in the eye "It was not your fault Dan" He doesn't quite look at me back. His eyes wavers between me and the rain, lost in his thought. After some time, he finally speaks in a hoarse voice.

"Thank you Mathilde. I-I think I will stay alone for a bit" He then looks back at the rain. I don't know if I really convinced him but I will respect his wish. I get up and leave without another word.

As I come inside the house, I hear the others talking. But as they see me approach, they all fall silent. I sit in a chair beside Cleo. 

"How is he ?" Jessy asks in a quiet voice

"Bad" Silence creeps back before Thomas breaks it again.

"How much time will it take before they... confirm it's him ?" I look up at Hanna. She must have told them the rest of the story, including the discovery of the unidentifiable body.

"They will surely ask his parents to come identify the belongings that were not destroyed by the flames. Then they will do some DNA test. The result could be out in a few days maybe..." I automatically answer.

"Poor Paul and Heidi..." Jessy holds back her tears.

"At least, Jake made it out safe" It was just a whisper but I instantly look up at Lilly. As she looks back at me, her eyes widen as she realizes what she has just said.

"Jake ? You had contact with Jake ?!" Hanna looks at her sister.

"It's a long story Hanna but to make it short, he was the one who told us you were missing. He then helped us to find you" Thomas answers back to Hanna "He went down in the mines when we learned that's where the MWA-hum Richy hided you. He managed to get out thanks to one of his tricks I guess..." Hanna looks perplex but I think she's satisfied with the story Thomas gave her. Lilly and I keep looking at each other. We know that we cannot hide the "brother" part of the story for too long but now is not the time. We need to talk about it with Jake first. At least, he sent a text to Lilly to reassure her as well. It must have been hard for her : she couldn't quite express her worries about Jake to the others. They wouldn't understand as no one, except us two, knows the relation that link the three of them.

"Alright now that we know the truth, I think we ca-" Cleo doesn't have time to finish her sentence that she gets cut off.

"I have one last question. Call me dumb but something still doesn't add up in my mind" Dan come back inside as we were about to leave. He seems like his old self, even though I know that he only buried his feelings deep down for now.

"What is it Dan ?"

"I think we have not yet the answer of the very first question we had at the beginning of this mess : how Hanna had Mathilde's number ?" Everyone looks at him dumbfounded. I mean, he's right. That's the first question the others asked me and that's the question that followed me through all those weeks. How could I forget about that ? We turn our gazes on Hanna but she looks even more confused than us.