Pathos - A Duskwood Fanfiction

Chapter 33

Phil sat silently on the couch in his living room, staring up at the now flushed face of Lilly as she returned his stare with palpable venom. The two of them seemed to be locked into a wordless standoff, with Phil's expression frozen in a mix of shock and anger.

"Did you know this?"

Jessy's sudden voice spilled into the tense silence, and as a unit, each pair of eyes in the room swiveled to focus on the too pale face and rich crimson hair of Phil's sister as she stared questioningly. Then, as they saw who the other woman was directing her question to, Phil and Lilly followed her gaze mutely.

Well. No point in lying now.

"Yes," she said quietly after a moment, watching as Lilly's bright red cheeks seemed to burn ever deeper, the other woman seemingly well aware now of the potential ramifications of the confession.

Jessy was staring at her with widened eyes, the pale blue irises seeming to shimmer in the low light of the loft.

"Why didn't you tell us? All that time that we spent suspecting him, and he was Hannah's brother? Does Hannah know?"

She nodded slightly, but before she could reply, Lilly spoke.

"She knows now. She didn't before. He had not planned on telling her, or anyone else, before everything happened. The situation changed that. He's wanted by the FBI. It wouldn't have been wise to tell anyone at all. It would have compromised his safety." At this, the other woman looked at her with a deeply rueful expression. "I'm sorry," she said in a whisper, sinking back down into her seat.

She tactfully chose to ignore Lilly's apology as anger and anxiety began to burn and bubble in her chest, her thoughts racing in a kaleidescope swirling of imagining and terror of the myriad ripple effects that Lilly's impromptu information vomit had undoubtably now set into motion. Remaining silent, she stared sightlessly down at the floor, wanting desperately to leave and to find a way to contact Jake.

But realisticaly, how would she even begin to do something like that? This was the man who made himself completely unreachable unless he wanted to be reached - this was the man who had the audacity and the power to send her sexually explicit texts with no fucking way to respond to them. What other options were there? Take a walk into the Duskwood forest with a gas can and set the thing on fire in the hopes that the news would attract his attention?

As she distractedly found herself actually pondering the logistics of sparking a forest fire to contact a hacker wanted by the FBI, Phil spoke.

"He still put me in jail."

Phil's voice was flat and unimpressed, and she looked up to find him staring at Lilly with a sullen expression.

Fuck it.

"No," she said brusquely. She gazed at Phil levelly as she felt the combined stares of everyone in the room turning her way.

Let's just air all of the dirty laundry then, shall we?

"That was Dan."

The room fell silent again.

Phil stared at her uncomprehendingly for a long moment, his dark eyes flitting back and forth across her face rapidly as though he was uncertain where to start looking for the truth in her damning statement. She held her ground as he seemed to scan every single pore, and it was only then that the silence was broken.

"Dan?"

A thin, tremulous voice slipped into the space between her and Phil, and she looked over to see Jessy staring at her in shock. The dismay and betrayal already starting to drain what little colour remained in her face, Jessy shook her head slowly, continuing to stare.

"Dan wouldn't do that," the other woman whispered, her wild gaze almost frantic. "He wouldn't."

She stayed silent as she forced herself to withstand the horror in Jessy's stare, unable to offer anything but the wordless truth. After a few breaths of desperately trying not to wilt under her her blistering gaze, Phil relieved the tension by standing up abruptly.

"Time to go find Dan," he said darkly, and would have started to walk away were it not for Jessy's hand reaching up and grabbing onto his arm.

"Phil," she whispered, her eyes seeming to glow wetly with the patina of as yet unleashed tears. "Don't."

Phil stared down at his sister mutely for a moment, the shadows in his eyes seeming to wage war as he looked at her. But whatever pull that he might have been feeling to listen to her seemed to have been dissolved in that very moment, and he jerked his arm out of her grasp sharply.

"No," he said quietly, almost gently as Jessy stared up at him with silent pleading. "This has been a long time coming. He treats you like shit, Jessy. And I've tried to let you two sort out whatever messed up shit you have going on, but if this is true, then he is going to answer for everything."

And with that, Phil walked towards the door. As he passed her, he spared her a single glance. His eyes were almost black in the dimness of the light now, but she could very clearly see the faintest hint of red that now coloured his sclera.

The expression of grim resolve upon his features was of a quality that she had only seen on one other face before, and she felt the blood in her body seem to turn into liquid ice as the horror that had chased her through her nightmares since Richy had ended the video call that would be his last was made flesh again.

Her eyes slammed shut as her mind recoiled at the sight, and when she opened them again, Phil was gone.