Ego's Trap | ✔

43 | Anything for Ane

☆☆☆ Chapter 43 ☆☆☆

Anything for Ane

*Daniel's Point of View (POV)*

There was no need to knock on the door, it was wide open. Someone was obviously in the room── heavy metal blasted out the door, and as I walked closer and closer, the more I heard the awkward 'singing' of that certain someone. Joel.

Every step I took felt like needles pricking the soles of my feet, but I had a purpose. I had to see him, talk to him, for Ane. Anything for Ane I will do; anything but hurt her, even if it kills me. Even if Joel gave her the scare of a lifetime and traumatized her with it. Even if I want to shove him against a wall and beat him to death for it.

Reason and empathy have been my sole motivators for as long as I could remember, but they're gone today, for the most part. I could not be any more grateful for that, and as much as I hate to say it, I have Ane to thank; she finally gave me that bastard's name, and I won't put it to waste. The police are certainly not enough for someone like him. I need Joel. I need the closet sadist. I need his connections. Even if it kills me, I'm doing it, because there's a bastard out there sipping lemonade for me to catch and tear apart now. A bastard for me to catch and tear apart to shreds. A bastard whose throat I'll personally cut.

Every single step I took── every single step that led me to Joel's room── felt stupendously heavy, and brittle. So, so very brittle. So many things rushed into my head with every step I took, so many needles pricked at my feet, and every single time it was something new; Ane's words, Ane's trembling self, Ane's fits, Ane's fears, Ane's pain. So, so many things rushed into my head, so much crammed into it, that the scorching heat that swelled my entire face with anger or heartbreak or sorrow or tears or whatever it was that I could not tell apart from anything, had no problem with making me, above all else, lightheaded.

Perhaps my face looked as pale as a ghost, or sickly, or normal, but the lightheadedness worried me── just not enough to keep me from doing what I felt was right.

I breathed in hard before popping my head in his room, and once I spotted Joel banging his head furiously to the beat of the track, I forced myself to come inside. He must have felt my presence, because once I was in, his eyes snapped open and made direct contact with mine.

A grin crossed his face, a wide one, after he turned off his stereo and clumped his hair together into a bun. "Oh, oh my, what a surprise, it's my good brother Daniel! I thought you were messing with me about meeting up an hour back, but nope, here you are, in the flesh," Joel exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "I thought you would never do this on your own, Ane has literally been the only reason you've approached me── oh, well, until that time at the hotel── but I won't complain, I'm happy that you at least forced yourself to talk to me. It's been years, Daniel. I missed you, I really did. I'm a lonely kid, seriously." I had no intention of hearing him out, so I walked my way out of the room to give him that message; I had better things to do with him than talk nonsense. He followed behind. "S-so you're really here! Okay, okay, so what are we going to do? Where are we going? Are we finally going to talk about our lives and bond for a bit, like normal brothers?"

"Stop playing around, Joel. You know very well that I'm not here for that, that I never will," I spat, overlooking his excited blabber and distancing myself from him further. "I'm not here for you."

"Oh, so I'm here for you, then?" Joel asked, catching up to me.

"Yes," I replied, looking elsewhere. If he didn't get the message before, he's definitely got it now. "You're going to do something for me."