The Devil Child

Chapter Forty-Nine

 Gryphon didn't know why he followed Tanner. He had no reason to. It was true that he had no business being in the family reunion that was taking place in the dining room. He didn't know the girl with the purple hair, and he didn't know the boy that accompanied her. But, despite not knowing them, that didn't mean he had to follow Tanner.

You know why, the voices in his head told him, but he ignored them. He refused to listen to them. To believe them. Instead, he followed Tanner down the hallway, towards the staircase. It was there that Tanner turned on him, determination in his eyes. It matched the determination that he had when he was beating the gay out of Gryphon. Those hard set eyes, wanting to fix the world.

"You're following me. Why?"

Gryphon didn't have an answer, but he forced himself to speak. "I have no reason to be in that dining room." It was the truth. He wasn't like the rest of them. He didn't belong. Polly had always known she was gay, and she didn't lose faith in herself. She was strong where he was weak. Kenzie too. He knew nothing of her, except that she was with Polly. Outwardly gay. Out of the closet. Not a coward, like Gryphon was.

Gryphon hated himself so much he told himself the gay camp worked. That he was cured, as if being gay was some sort of illness that was plaguing him. Keeping him from truly living.

"And you have reason to follow me?" Tanner's voice was hard, but not uninviting. It was hard, but not mean spirited.

Gryphon hesitated for a moment. What reason did he have, to follow Tanner? The man in front of him was the same man who ruined his childhood. But the man in front of him looked worn. He looked tired. His brown hair was messy. His shirt was nearly halfway unbuttoned, and untucked from his pants. He looked worse for wear, but not evil. Not like the man in the camp.

"You inspired me, when you said that speech. I just... I felt like I should follow you." And now, you're tripping over your words. Get a fucking grip. Gryphon itched for a cigarette. He almost itched to be back in school, where his worries were smaller, less prominent, easy to run from. Here in this house, his problems were in his face. Demanding. Not as easy to run from.

Tanner gripped the staircase railing tightly. "Then come upstairs. You can stay, but you have to be quiet."
The way Tanner spoke to him sounded like he was speaking to a child, but Gryphon didn't care. He probably would have, at one point, but his abrasive personality was dampened here. He saw no reason to be loud and obnoxious in this house. In front of Tanner.

Upstairs, light spilled through the windows. Tanner didn't look back at Gryphon, not once, not even when he entered his temporary room. It was nothing more than a guest bedroom with a desk, but that was enough for Tanner.

He sat down at the desk and pulled out a notebook from the bag slung across the back of the chair. Immediately, he put pen to paper and began to write furiously. The sound of the pen on the paper was hard, demanding. Desperate. The wrote fast and clumsy, no time for correcting any mistakes.

Gryphon was entranced. As someone who barely wrote anything by hand anymore, it inspired him. He didn't know why, or how to even put it in words, but Tanner was inspiring him. It was a terrifying thought.

Gryphon sat on the bed gingerly. Beside the bed was a book on the bedside table, right beside a lamp. It was a hardcover book without a sleeve, and the gold words on the spine were in a different language.

"You speak more than just English?" Gryphon couldn't stop the question from being asked.

Tanner continued to write, his back straight. For a moment, Gryphon thought he wouldn't answer, thinking perhaps Tanner was in his own world and didn't hear him. But then, Tanner stopped writing, and he turned around in his chair.