You're Different to Me

Everything Changed

From that moment forward, I saw what truly was his inner being. As he pulled away, I blushed and continued to stare at him in awe. I reached and held the side of his face. He moved his hand and placed it on top of mine.
"I don't think you're a monster. I don't think you deserve to be in this realm."
"I do deserve to be here. I never felt that I could tell you who I really am. That I've never felt the way I feel towards you, to anyone in my life." He said in a soft voice.
"I can listen, I can be here for you. Like I said, I trust you, Frank."
He sighed, "Okay. I was a high school student, never really did well, or seemed to fit in. I made a group of friends, they were the only real thing I had of feeling wanted. They seemed to follow me like I was some sort of leader. I wanted to take care of them like they took care of me. Together, we started committing small crimes, stealing, vandalism. One night, we were doing our usual thing. We were going to steal from a store Joey worked at. We waited till closing, and Joey let us in. The coast should've been clear, it was far after closing time, Joey said the old man, the shopkeeper, should have been home by now. We crept our way in and started bagging the stuff off the shelves when a light turned on. He was there, standing in the office doorway. We panicked, he was already reaching for the phone to call the cops. We seemed to all have the same idea, we rushed him all at once and we... we stabbed him to death." It was hard for me to comprehend his story. Something seemed familiar like I had heard this before. He continued,
"We didn't realize what we had done until it was too late. So we dragged the old man up to Ormand, that place was our escape from society. We buried him there and hid it out in the old abandoned building. That was when the entity came, next thing I knew, I was with my friends at a campfire, with these twisted beings around us. Some of them didn't even seem human. The only thing that my brain could function to think was the intrusive thought, my only instinct, to kill. I have killed so many people here, and never felt remorse. It was like something I had to do, but then I met you. To me, you were just another survivor, but when I hurt you, that was the first time I felt guilt. Against all odds, you stood up and tried to protect the man I was going to kill, that triggered something in my brain. You risked your life for a stranger, in dire circumstances you never expected. Your endurance, through the full pain of your first trial, lit a flame inside my chest. Joey is one of my best friends, but seeing what he did to you, I lost my shit. The entity still hasn't granted you healing outside of the trial, if you died..." his voice began to shake, "the one shred of my human consciousness would be gone."
Tears started to run from my eyes, and my emotions felt like a jumbled mess, how could life ever prepare me for this?
"I'm not letting you go to trial, not again. I think I know how to keep you out."
"What do you mean?" I asked puzzled.
"I'm taking you to the killer's camp, I'm hiding you there, in my space. We choose as killers to go to trial, that should be the one place the entity can't reach you."
"But wouldn't the others kill me if they found out? They would know I wasn't meant to be there." I felt disheartened. I trusted him, but how would he manage to pull this off? He pulled me to face him, wrapping my legs around his lower back. He gripped the bottom of my thighs as he stood to his feet.
"Just hold on to me, I'm getting you away from here." I did as he asked and wrapped my arms around the back of his neck. He walked slowly and carefully, so as to not move my body enough for my injuries to hurt. I rested my head against his shoulder and held my breath as we walked to a place where everyone would want to kill me.