Watched

Chapter 25

Julia

Jason guided us inside his father's old house. It was pretty big. All the walls were painted in dark colors. The furniture looked old, but still good-looking. Old paintings and photos were hung everywhere on the walls. In general, the house didn't really freak me out like the hideout did. The hideout looked much scarier and creepier, but the house wasn't like that. Of course, it scared me just a bit because of its dark theme. Like, how did I even think that it would look other than this.

But anyway, I didn't really care about the house or its decoration. All I cared about was the reason why Jason brought us here. He never told me that he had this house before. He kept walking and scanning the house with his eyes. He looked kind of sad but I didn't know why he acted like he had never seen this house before.

He stared at every photo hanging on the wall. He stared at every painting, every room, every corner and every detail in the house. He finally entered a large room and we followed him. It had a king-sized bed with a small nightstand beside it. There was a huge old brown wardrobe that covered almost the entire wall on the left side. He turned on the lights which gave the room a nice soft yellow illumination. Jason headed towards that brown wardrobe and opened it. He grabbed a pretty big and a heavy box from the shelf, then threw it on the bed.

"What's inside this box?" I asked in curiosity.

He didn't respond until he sat down on the bed and kept searching for some stuff. "It contains all of my childhood memories."

I walked slowly towards him and looked inside his box. It was full of toys, old photos, some papers and some other stuff which I couldn't recognize.

"Look, it was me with my father back in 1990 when I was still five years old," Jason lamented as he handed me an old torn photo. I couldn't help but giggle at his cute smile in the photo. He seemed really cute. I just wished that this angelic face wouldn't be such a cultist.

"You looked really cute," I looked at Jason, "and innocent too."

"I wish I could still be as innocent as before."

"It's your choice. Why don't you just quit the Black Cult?" I swallowed hard, afraid that he might take my question offensively, but his reaction wasn't expected at all. His face dropped and he became very emotional. I was confused, and didn't know how to respond to his reaction.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I just-"

"Could you give us a couple of minutes, guys?" Jason interrupted me by looking at Sally and her boyfriend who were standing in the doorway waiting for us.

They just nodded then closed the door, leaving us some privacy. Me and Jason alone. I didn't know how to explain how much I loved this feeling. Just me and him.

His soft gaze met mine as he held my hands between his warm ones. He pulled me closer towards him that there were literally only a couple of inches between our bodies. But it didn't bother me. I loved sitting that close to him. I felt safe.

"Julia, I need to tell you something," He started. "I-I know that I shouldn't have hidden this information for so long. I really didn't mean it. I was just afraid to tell-"

"Shhh, Jason. You don't have to say this introduction. You can say whatever you want honestly without being worried or afraid. You know that I will never be judgmental with you," I said, tightening my hands on his.

He took a deep breath and continued. "I need to tell you more about my past. I don't want you to think that I'm a monster because I'm not. I was forced to be who I am today."

I just nodded a little and gave him a comforting and warm look. I wanted him to speak and confess everything to me without being afraid. I needed to know who Jason was.