Bugs Bite

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: An Overdue Compensation

As always, the seaweed shine of the man's right eye overcame his senses, while the defiling left one filled him with a familiar dread.

Abruptly then, Avish began to laugh. In broken segments first, then in an uncontrollable ensemble.

The man in black simply smiled his gruesome smile, patient as a rock on the shore, waiting for water to lick its surface.

(what a weird comparison)

(nevermind but why are you laughing)

'You are laughing,' said the man in black - oh, had he missed that voice, 'in order to mock me. You are laughing because you had not expected this to work. You had never anticipated me showing up. But, my dear friend, you forget what I keep telling you: that I will always be there for you.'

His laughter receded immediately, as if on force. He had forgotten how Bhoo knew almost everything. From his thoughts to his upcoming actions.

'So you say,' Avish said bitterly, still suffering from bits of laughter from before. 'So you say.'

'What, pray tell, is the reason you summoned me here today, my friend?'

'First off,' Avish berated, 'do not call me that.'

'Do not call you my friend?' The man's chipped left brow arched. 'Why, what might the reason for that be, my dear friend?'

'I said, don't call me that! You go as you wish. You don't give a shit about what happens to me all these years. My Dad almost murders me and my Mom. My Grandma dies. While you, sir, you sneak in the shadows and whatnot, steal the very hat you give me as a gift, haunt me using my dead grandma and still dare call me a friend! I'd say either you have a lot of guts, or you're just a dick in general.'

It was the man's turn to flounder. Even if it was mere fluster, it gave Avish immense joy to see the invincible man in black be at a loss of words for once.

'Well, well,' the man remarked, the faintest hint of disapproval in his good eye. 'Why, sometimes it escapes me how much you've grown since we last spoke properly.'

'Yeah, 'cause you wanted me to - what was it? Slay my dragons? Well, guess what. All dragons are dead now. Including my own fucking grandma!'

The man chose to remain silent. A faint smile touching the rim of his ever-drought-ridden lips.

'And you were there, weren't you?' Avish had broken into a verbal spree now. 'At the funeral? I saw you. Mum saw you. I ran after you and you leave a stolen hat as a compensation? Is that the friendship you refer to? Or the fact that you've stalked me all these years. Come to my dreams. Met me at that stupid-ass Chinese restaurant. Hell, even paid a visit to the hospital. But not me. And now of course you are fucking shut because you don't have an answer!'

Now the smirk overtly spread over the man's visage. 'Are you quite done yet, my friend?'

'You have no right to ask me that. And no right to call me that.'

Avish was shaking, quaking like heated bacon. Many frustrations of the past two years were surfacing.

The man retained his unambiguous smile. 'Are you done, though?'

Avish kicked the floor, kicked all he could find. Mumbled to himself, paced about the floor.

'I'll take that for a yes,' said the man, apparently enjoying himself. 'As a matter of fact, I do have an answer. Or should I say, I have all the answers. But, dear Avish, I cannot possibly attend to them all unless you are willing to listen to me in a comprehensive fashion.'