Outer Space | Spruceworth 6.3

Chapter 58: Back to Square One

Chapter 58: Back to Square One

~Grant~

       When I walked inside my home after getting some takeout from the diner, I ended up seeing something I wasn't expecting to see.

       Ollie's investigation board was back, being strung all over the living room. Not all of it was back up, though. There didn't seem to be as much as there was before but it was still back up with Ollie standing in the middle of the living room, looking at the investigation board.

       "Ollie..." I said, walking over to him and placing the takeout bag on the coffee table. "I thought you threw all this out."

       "I did," Ollie said. "But... I threw them out because Hugh was still in prison and I was just hallucinating everything. Now he's actually released."

       "So what are you going with all of this?" I asked. "You don't have to prove that he's not in prison."

       "This isn't to prove he's not in prison," Ollie said. "It's to figure out what he's planning next and where he's staying. I need to stop him before he does anything to anyone else. Shaw has a lot of people he loves who haven't done anything to Hugh. It won't be fair to get hurt just for knowing Shaw or being related to him."

       "But you can't stop him, Ollie," I said. "It's too dangerous. He's dangerous."

       "You don't think I know that?" Ollie asked. "I know he's dangerous. I know stopping him will be dangerous but I don't have a choice."

       "You do have a choice," I said. "You can choose to leave it alone."

       "I can't leave it alone, Grant!" Ollie said. "I can't get over what he did. He tried to kill me. I'm still suffering because of him and you expect me to leave it alone?"

       "Ollie..." I said softly, gently holding onto his hands in an attempt to calm him down. "I'm not telling you to get over it. I know you're not going to and I don't expect you to. But I can't have you try to stop Hugh when there's nothing to stop."

       Ollie was silent, not replying to me at all. He sat down on the couch with a heavy sigh, digging his face in his hands. He rubbed his face before pulling his hands away and looking at me. "I can't... I can't handle the fact knowing that he's out there. That he's a free man despite not even serving his full sentence. And I don't believe that he got out on good behaviour. There's no way."

       I sat down. "He did get released on good behaviour, though. There isn't any other way he would have gotten out early."

       "No, I meant that I don't believe that he changed," Ollie said. 

       "I don't believe it either," I said. "From what Shaw told me, Hugh isn't the type of person to show remorse. But just because he hasn't changed and because he's out there, that doesn't mean you should try to stop him. You can't. It's too dangerous and you can get hurt."

       Ollie didn't reply, yet again. Since he was done with the conversation, I reached for the takeout bag and pulled out the order I got for him. He ate it quietly, not holding a conversation like we normally did when we were eating together.

       And I hated to say this but I really think he wasn't going to let go of wanting to stop Hugh. He has been like that recently. Once an idea was in his mind, it was hard for him to change his mind.

       I was going to have to do something else to change his mind and convince him that going after Hugh himself wasn't going to do him any good.

       However, Ollie didn't go back to work on his investigation board as soon as soon as he finished eating. Instead, he went over to the piano and started playing that song he was working on. I guessed that was one way for him to distract himself.