Twisted #Wattys2019

Chapter XIV. Pretty Please

I stared at the television in terror, despite it being a black screen. "Now, will you pay attention to me instead?•"a deep voice said behind me. After getting up quicker than ever, I turned to him, recognising the small frame, the bones shown on his chest from malnutrition and being underweight. It was him. "You! You are the fucking murderer!" "so the death of that little brat was all that was needed for you to realise?•"the sickening smirk was back. The stupid smirk I wanted to wipe off his face so badly and before I knew it my fist met his jaw.

The man turned to me again after stumbling back and rubbing his painful jaw for a moment. "Who don't you think you are...? Suddenly able to hit somebody like that....•"he stepped closer, discreetly taking out the silver, shining blade before piercing it right through my chest. Movements full of grace despite them being faster than light. My sight went blurry, pain spreading throughout my now weak body. It became light.

Before it turned all dark again, I shot upright in bed, surprised to feel one's body beside me. I looked over. Raphael. It was just a very vivid dream. I laid back down, only to be met with Raphael's arm around me"you're up again...?~"he mumbled as he pulled me closer. "Just a nightmare..."I whispered before shutting my eyes again, with the intention of going to sleep again. After all it seemed to be night. Or early in the morning as there was a very dim light that let me differentiate some stuff from each other in the darkness.

The next few days went by without any error, just the usual. And with that I just meant Raphael going to work as usual and coming home late as usual.

Yet none of those days I was capable of shaking off the feeling that he'd eventually be wrongly blamed for something somebody else had done. For all those murders. For all of it. He couldn't turn up as a 'serial killer' while he wasn't. He wasn't one. He was a good man. He cared and loved. He wasn't heartless.

Meanwhile, Raphael came back home, very early in comparison with normal, even though I didn't notice as I had submerged myself in my own thoughts for the past hours.

Tap.

I sat up, startled as I looked up at him"you're home early"I furrowed my eyebrows. He simply lowered himself onto the couch, frame slightly smaller than I remembered it being. "Hey, calm, it's just me, my boss let me go home early today~"he rubbed my back. I leaned back onto my thighs with my elbows, sighing"I just haven't been able to shake the feeling that you'd once he falsely accused of being the Harvester"I said as I laid my head against his chest once I got brought onto Raphael's lap. "Also, I went by one of my friends, they work at the police department so I asked if she had any files of people that looked similar to the guy you keep seeing in your dreams~" "and?" "they found a match, there's a man called Robin Brooke, age twenty-seven, has already been in prison before for a murder on his parents, killing them both at age fifteen~" "Man...I really question how that man got into my dreams..."I furrowed my eyebrows, deep in thoughts. Raphael got up, kneeling down before me"we'll get a way to find out if it's him...~"he smiled, his words reassuring me of the fact that he'd really try, together with me. "Also...you never ever told me what job you had" "that's a very random thing now~"he snickered"but I'm a forensic artist~" "a what?" "a sketch artist at the police department~"he snickered again"oh now that explains a lot"he got up. "Now instead of dwelling on this, have you eaten anything yet?~"he smiled warmly, gently pulling me into his embrace once I'd gotten up"well I haven't, since I was busy overthinking"

And the rest of the evening went as usual, just watching a movie that was on while being snuggled up against one another. The subject of the man Robin Brooke dwelling in the back of my mind. It didn't bother me, for now..