As Long As I Have You // A. Ghale

Stay With Me

"Ajay, you're not going!" I yell at him. Not only did he get his hand slit open by an unforgiving blade, it was his dominant hand.

"Delilah, I really don't expect you to understand why, but I need to do this." He fights, trying to push himself out of the bed. I walk over to him and sit on his bedside.

"Listen, you just need to rest for a while. The monastery thing can wait, your hand cannot." I say, handing him a glass of water from his nightstand. The boy was insane for thinking he can just carry on like some inhuman soldier. Ajay needed to learn that he needs rest, he isn't a robot to be controlled.

I stand up and head for the door, grabbing my bag in the process.

"Wait, can you stay? Just to keep me company?" Ajay asks, looking at me with those eyes. Those eyes that made me weak in my knees.

"Sure, of course." I give in, he smiles and knows that he won. As if his ego needed another boost.

There were so many thoughts flying around in my head. I couldn't help but question what deal my father had made with Pagan. What the hell made him do business with a man like that?

"You've got a lot on your mind? You look deep in thought." He says, brushing his back out of his face.

"Yeah, I just cant piece together something with my father. He came to Kyrat but he made a deal with Pagan. For an entire YEAR. Why would he do that?"

"What if you're just asking the wrong questions. What if he had no choice in the matter? You know how much of a smooth talker Pagan can be. Hell, you and I both saw it firsthand!"

"Maybe you're right..." Still, something wasn't adding up, "let me look through his letters again and see if I can find out anything else." Ajay nodded and grabbed my bag and pulled it closer. I had a whole collection of letters that my father had sent me. Ajay looked at me with a look of sorrow.

"Why the sour face?" I ask, shuffling through old letters.

"You just, never knew what a true father should be. It's not right, you deserve better." Ajay tells me, despite him growing up without a father figure in his life either.

"Maybe that's a good thing, Ajay. Maybe that was how it was always supposed to be." Ajay doesn't say anything else, but I can feel the tension in the room.

"Check this out; I found one of his letters that mentions Pagan and the 'deal' he made."

Dear Delilah,

Your mother told me she would tell you this, but I know how stubborn your mother can be. So, I'm writing you this letter. So, here's the truth.

Pagan is not a good man. God forbid if you ever come in contact with him, do not trust him. We will spill lies out like how blood flows through veins.

I do know something now that I didn't know before, Pagan has a secret. A big one. He has been foolishly toying with the Tarun Matara and got her pregnant.

The Golden Path doesn't know this though, as Mohan is the Tarun Matara's true love. Or, so he thought he was.

Another thing, the reason for the 'deal' was only to protect you.

I love you.

Love,

Gilead Carver

"Shit, he never says it. All he said was that it was to protect me. What the hell could that mean?" Ajay looks at me for a second and then takes another look at the letter.

"I think he knew something, but he couldn't say." Ajay suggests, but my father had always sent me letters, even Pagan knew about them. That's how he was able to keep in contact.

"That's it! He couldn't say anything because Pagan was the once who had them sent out of Kyrat in the first place. I think Pagan is our answer." I say, finally piecing everything together. It was actually starting to make sense.

"Listen, just like you told me earlier, you need to rest first. Let's think about everything before we decide exactly what to do with this information." He was right. It would be stupid to just show up at Pagan's doorstep with harsh accusations. We'd probably be shot on sight before we even got close.

I put all the letters away, and listened to Ajay. I talked to Ajay about everything. His mom, my mom, common ground, backstories, and history. It was nice to actually relax and enjoy Kyrat since we had got here. It would probably be the only time for a long time...