How to Kill a Man in Thirty Seconds

Chapter 63: In the Moment

A/N- Reader Beware?

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A slight drizzle had begun when we reached home, little drops of rain dripping onto our shoulders. The house was silent, and my heart was in my throat as Adrian and I tiptoed up the stairs, praying my mother would not awake. The floorboards of the upper landing creaked loudly in the grim silence and we froze, my heart squeezing tightly in my chest.

Silence. We began moving again.

Just as we had nearly made it to safety, my room merely meters away, Lily's tiny figure suddenly appeared sleepily from her doorway. Her eyes lit up when she spotted Adrian.

"Baba!" she shrieked without warning, with sufficient volume to make skeletons turn in their graves.

Oh crap.

Adrian's eyes widened in horror- as did mine- and he caught her just in time as she sprang into his arms with all the excitement of a thousand children on Christmas morning. Giggling joyfully, Lily burrowed her face into his shoulder as we stood petrified, ears peeled for movement.

"Baba!" Lily cried again, planting an unabashed wet kiss on his cheek before grinning fondly at him.

"Charley?" my mother's voice called from her room.

I froze. Adrian's eyes widened in absolute terror and for a split second, I wondered if he would make a wild lunge through the window.

"... Yes, mum?"

"Oh good, you're back. Sleep tight, love."

A breath of relief left us, and my gaze locked with Adrian's for a split second's celebration. Phew. As Adrian carried my hyperactive sister to my bedroom, I shut the door behind me, lock clicking in place.

I watched with subtle interest as Adrian tried to lay her asleep but every slight attempt to do so would cause her mouth to curve downwards and her bottom lip to tremble as if she were about to burst into tears. She would glare at him stubbornly, as if daring him to let go of her.

Adrian's eyes would widen- hilariously enough- guilt flickering in them, along with worry before he would pull her back into his arms, whispering, "Sorry, sorry. I'm here, Lily Flower. I'm here."

By the time I returned from my shower, Adrian was lying on the bed with my sister curled into a ball on top of him, her face burrowed into his chest, small, satisfied exhales leaving her mouth in her slumber.

He attempted to retort when I lifted her from his arms.

"You don't want my mother coming in here looking for her," I said, patting him on the shoulder.

The air in the room changed when I returned to my room, having tucked Lily safely into her own bed. Perhaps it was that the door was tightly shut, all else in the house fast asleep and pitch-black outside. Perhaps it was that the drizzle had developed into a thunderstorm, sheets of rain pattering unforgivingly on the roof overhead, streaming in torrents down my window, so deafeningly loud in our ears that it drowned out all other noise.

The tension in the room was so thick I could cut it with a knife.

My throat had suddenly turned as dry as the Sahara and I broke into a sweat. Adrian seemed to be having difficulty too, for he was avoiding my gaze like I had transformed into a Greek Medusa, and that familiar pink tinge had returned to his cheeks. He swallowed hard.

"Um, I'll... sleep on the floor," Adrian had all but lunged there in no time, arm bent to cover his eyes in a sleep we both knew he was only pretending to be in.