Philophobic : Tyler Galpin

29: Suspicions and Secrets

Friday, November 16th

[author's pov]

The rain poured heavily over the town of Jericho as the citizens mourned for their previous mayor. Someone had unhooked his breathing machine. Victoria stood beside Tyler as they shared the dark umbrella under the equivalent dark sky. From above, it may have looked like a gathering of ants and perhaps that's all they were.

Little creatures in a big world with a sliver of time left.

Just as Mayor Walker's had slipped, Victoria found herself treading the waters carefully with Tyler.

She noticed him looking a little paranoid as she stood beside him. He kept his eyes straight ahead on the coffin, as if he seemed to be in a deep thought. It was almost as if she wasn't there, but she knew his father was close to the mayor.

That must've been it.

She saw him glance over his shoulder on Wednesday, who she'd noticed looked uneasy–which was unusual. Her demeanor was usually confident and Victoria's fingers entwined with Tyler.

"I'm sorry, but we shouldn't right now," Tyler mumbled quietly.

She raised her brow as he pulled his arm away, but didn't question it.

Victoria truly believed that he was feeling in distress because he'd never pushed her away like that before. She almost sensed something different about him. Perhaps fear.

But she chose to understand, seeing as she loved him, and kept her eyes ahead.

She joined Enid, stepping away from Tyler as she hugged Enid by the shoulder. Seeing as they couldn't help but feel the sorrow the town shared.

When the short service was over, Victoria noticed Tyler's quick absence but didn't mind it. As she was walking towards the bus with the other Nevermore students, she sat with Enid on the bus. She was planning to sleep over at Yoko and Enid's that night to give Tyler some space.

Apparently Enid and Wednesday weren't talking as Enid had moved out and was still angered when Wednesday tricked them into going to the Gate's Mansion. It was then that Victoria realized that Enid was very good at ignoring–even better than she was.

Luckily for Enid, Wednesday wasn't on the bus.

Victoria found it hard to ignore Wednesday, although she was a little upset. She decided to not hold it against her, seeing as she would also hate to be on the receiving end as she had been in the past.

As the bus passed the town, Victoria caught a glimpse of Tyler speaking to someone. But she couldn't make it out as the someone was covered by an umbrella. Victoria raised her brow with confusion.

"Who could he have been talking to?" she thought.

Later that night she knocked on her mother's office door. Her mother smiled gently when she saw her baby and hugged her as carefully as she could.

"I'm late to say this, but you played beautifully at the performance, my little angel," her mother said.

Victoria smiled and broke the hug. "Thank you, but I'm not so little anymore."

"Let your mother dream, will you?" her mother grinned as she walked into her office.

There was no need for apologies. Seeing as those who truly loved one another learned to move on from it–their pride aside, their love prioritized.

It'd felt like months since they'd spoken as Victoria sat herself at the chair, trying to gain an understanding of the creatures in the book she'd discovered about mimics. The fire was ablaze in the chimney as Victoria scrolled through it, gaining a better understanding of creatures from her mothers.

"What are Hydes?" Victoria asked as she came across the name. "There's not much about them here."

Her mother fell silent for a moment. She contemplated, shrugging it off until she remembered how important transparency was between them.

"Hydes are... Well, imagine a person who's got two completely different sides to them. Like a coin. One side is normal—calm, controlled, and even kind. But there's this darker side lurking, one that comes out when they're under stress, anger, or even when they've pushed their emotions too far. It's like they're two different people in one body, but the darker side is much harder to control–even harder to control than a mimic's abilities," her mother explained.

"How come there aren't any at Nevermore?" Victoria asked.

"They were cast out ages ago," her mother explained. "I heard you can... well tame one. But it's not recorded."

"Tame?" Victoria asked. "How can you tame a human? You mean you can practically siren it–the hyde?"

Her mother pursed her lips–something Victoria had picked up whenever the two were hesitant to answer a question. "It's dangerous to prove the theory, but there's been speculation when they were around that you can do that, yes–'siren' a hyde. Like an ownership."

"But what about the human form?"

"Even the human form can be tamed. It can be tricked into believing something that isn't there–feelings, emotions, memories," her mother explained.

Victoria flipped the page and froze when she came across the image. It was the monster.

The one that attacked her and Rowan and the Harvest Festival–the one that killed him and the others in town. Her breath hitched as she stared at the photo and slammed it shut, the memories coming back to haunt her.

With the image clear in her mind, she imagined that it was the hyde that attacked Tyler. The one that nearly killed him.

And the more she sat in her mother's office helplessly, the more she wanted it dead.

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