An Eye For An Eye

Sept

We had stood outside for a while, saying nothing to each other. Eventually, I moved and headed inside to warm up, I only had a short sleeve shirt on and outside at the top of an apartment block turned out to be fairly cold.

The notebook rested on the arm of the sofa as I wrote. Hopefully, I didn’t get any ink on it. I managed to write a few pages before I was distracted by Deucalion walking in.
“You know, when you offered for me to blind you, I wanted to,” he said as he walked over. “I wanted someone else to suffer like I had.” That was the vindictive nature I had been expecting.
“Right…” I said quietly, staring at him and waiting for him to say something else.
“And then, I looked at you. You had your eyes closed and I could smell the fear on you. And I could tell you really did just want peace and no more deaths.” He stood in front of me, towering over me and for a moment, I had no idea what he was going to do.

“The Beta that was killed, that started all of this, was not one of mine. He was one of Ennis’, he was shot in the throat with an arrow, had his claws ripped out and then was cut in half,” he said and I closed my eyes. It sounded horrific and I winced at how painful it must have been. “They tried to convince me peace wouldn’t work and they were right, it didn’t. But I looked at you, for only a moment, and you offered peace or revenge.”
“And you chose peace?” I whispered. He nodded.

“Yes. There was no point starting a feud with you or your brother,” he said. “I am, admittedly, resentful, though I might not seem it. But not against you. I realised that you had nothing to do with it, associated by name only as I had been associated with Ennis' Beta by being a werewolf.”
Lifting the pen off of the paper, I realised how tightly it was gripped in my hand. I couldn’t do anything with it but I still held it anyway. “Deucalion…”

He took a sharp breath in. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. What I’m trying to say is that I just realised I couldn’t do it when I shifted to look at you. It would have been futile,” he said. “And I would never have talked to you. You’re not a hunter, or a killer. You’re rather unorthodox and I was intrigued.”

“Hence the staying here suggestion?”
“Yes,” he said. “And you agreed to it.” My death grip on the pen loosened.
“I just wanted to get back at Dad for what he did,” I said honestly. I balanced the pen between the open pages of the notebook. “I hated that he had no consequences, I thought that if I just disappeared for a few days like Kate did, he’d maybe get worried about me. And I don’t know if he’ll actually care. And maybe I wanted to know if you were savage beasts, if you were just ruthless killers that deserve to die.”

“And?” he prompted.
“And now I’m just confused.” Tears were welling in my eyes. As much as I didn’t want to be a hunter, I didn’t want to leave Chris and Kara.
“That makes two of us.” Slowly, I stood and moved away from him.
“I can't tell if you're being honest with me or if you're trying to persuade me out of being a hunter. I don't know what I want any more,” I said, stumbling backwards. “I don't even know you! And here I am, telling you about my life.”
“I'll admit that one less hunter would be nice,” he said as he started to walk towards her. “But I can sense how unhappy you are, pretending to be a tough hunter. I can hear the happiness in your voice when you read.”

“I don't know.”

“I'm not here to tell you what to do,” he said as he stood far too close to me. This was insane. All of this was insane. “But you're kind and sweet, Liza, and willing to take the blame but you're unhappy, you don't realise it but the chemosignals tell the truth.”
“Are you trying to tell me that I'm depressed?”
“No, I just think that perhaps you deserve something better.” He reached out and took my hand and just held it. Thankfully, the screaming was internal. Though, he must have sensed something as he squeezed my hand.