Fear

Chapter Ten

Recap:

He shook with sobs. "I'm a Monster. Her face was so horrified. I ran as fast as my feet would take me out of the alley and I watched as she left. I took a lighter and set him up. No police comes to Fear and no one questioned his disappearance."

"She didn't even think it was real." I spoke remembering. "She told me it was a bad dream. It was the only time she had talked to me after you left. She was terrified at how real it felt."

"I thought she had lost it." I continued remember her saddened face. She had travelled all the way to my house at about four in their morning. She was broken.

"She wasn't the bizarre one out of the bunch..." Tyler spoke as Tyson finished for him.

"We are."

                                                                                                    Intruding

As soon as I walked into the house I helped him up the stairs with his suitcases as I opened the room door. I smelt musty from the lack of use. I hadn't even taken a glance at this room in over a year. I avoided opening it like the plague. I turned to look at him as I let out a breath.

"They repainted." I said bitterly.

"Well they were bound to," his voice was a little more cheery than mine. I don't see why though. I would hate them just as equally as they hate him.

"They're wrong about you." I turned to look him in the eyes but his were burning into the plain wall. "You needed help. You got it."

He didn't respond. His gaze was fixated onto the north wall which held nothing. Nothing but the memories of the mural that once laid there.

"I remember when I first decided I was going to paint," he said suddenly walking over to the wall. He slid his hand gently across it almost as if he was feeling for any trace of hidden loophole.

"I saw it in a place I went to the first time I boxed. It was on the side of a fight club. There was a damp alley with broken water pipes hanging down from the abandoned apartments that neighbors the club."

I hung on to his description of the words trying to visualize the kind of place he was in.

"The alley was pathetic and dark. It looked like death and despair. It looked like the definition of murder."

He sniffed as he spoke with harsh words almost like he was recovering from a bad memory. "It was like Fear."

My eyes widened when he said that. "Where were you?" I asked walking toward him.

"I was too drunk to remember. The only thing I remember is seeing the graffiti." Nate answered automatically. Almost like it was programmed in his head.

I nodded at his turned back. "But as I looked down the alley I saw a light. I bright green light. It was flashing. At first I thought it was an alien I was so drunk. So I followed it. It was a lighthouse."

"When I was following it I passed the graffiti. It was a painting of two boys. Two boys with same face but different lives. It's like I knew them. I knew exactly who they were but at the same time I didn't."

"So you drew the same painting with different people. A girl with the same face but two destinies. One where she was cold and dark and another where she was full of life and"-

"Happy." he said turning to me. " I didn't know that you'd be her Payson. I didn't want that."

I looked at high and nodded. "I'm happy now." I answered truthfully. I was happier.