Dark Country (Detective Loki from Prisoners Fan Fiction)

Part IV: Enlightenment

“Here you go,” I said setting the plate on the table. “Do you want coffee?”

Taking a whiff of the fried eggs and bacon, David softly answered, “Yes, please.”

After pouring some coffee for him and taking my place at the table, I asked, “Does that taste good?” There was much left to be said about my cooking abilities.

“Yeah, and thank you,” David answered with a genial smirk. Every time he did that the vein on the right side of his temple would pop out, an aesthetic quality that made him all the more mesmerizing.

“Can I ask, how many times did you stay out there?” I asked.

“A few times,” he replied nonchalantly.

After a short pause, I very politely asked, “So, how did you know where I live?”

Laying his fork on the plate, he tentatively turned his head up, and lowly laughed inwardly. “This town has a population of less than 10,000 people. It wasn’t difficult to find you. Besides, I’m a detective.” He finished with a wide grin.

Well, that was obvious. Feeling outsmarted and frankly very idiotic, I could feel the blood gush to my face — and I was probably embarrassingly red as a tomato. “Oh,” was all I could manage to say.

“You know, you’re the talk of the town,” David said taking a few sips from his coffee.

“Really?” That was an unexpected surprise. After all I was just me, and most likely the most boring person on Earth.

“Yea, everyone wants to know who’s the new girl,” he said matter-of-factly as he ate in methodically small bites. “So then, who is she?”

David gaped at me with a stare that had me rendered completely still. It seemed my whole existence shrunk down to those beguiling ice blue eyes — as if he could see right through me. “Where do you want me to begin? I don’t want to bore you.”

“You’re not a bore,” he said firmly. “Where are you from?” The curiosity was evident in his eyes. Never had anyone shown genuine interest in me before.

“Florida … Miami to be exact.”

Seeming amused, David went on to add, “You traded the beach and sunshine for clouds and rain?”

I chortled slightly. Even I have asked myself the same question more than once. “Well, I sort of picked this place out of thin air without giving it more consideration. I literally blindfolded myself, took a map, and played eeny, meeny, miny, moe. This place was ‘it.’”

At that moment I felt like an open book. Under normal circumstances all the questioning would’ve made me uncomfortable, but with him, things were different. I wanted to tell him everything.

“Oh?” He turned his head to the side and scrunched his eyebrows, as if in deep contemplation. “Then there was a reason you wanted to leave?”

Bobbing my head in agreement, I replied, “It’s a long story. One that you wouldn’t want to hear.”

“Enlighten me,” the words effortlessly rolled out of his mouth.

It was ironic that part of me lured him here to ask him questions, not the other way around. David was exceptional at getting information out of people. Perhaps I was just a little more than willing to divulge my history since it was him doing the interrogating.

Taking a deep gulp, I began: “Here’s the short version. Plain and simple: I was running away from a failed engagement. It’s very disappointing to have something that you’ve invested years into suddenly blow up in your face. Either way I was already jaded. It’s hard to leave your family and everything you know behind, but sometimes it’s necessary. Getting as far away as possible seemed like the best thing to do.”