Gears and Steam

Pain

Edmund

Floyd had to be lying, right? Jules wouldn't lie to me, not for that long, not about something that big. He would have gotten so close to me if he was just going to leave. He wasn't a freaking spy! That was ridiculous! Right? The papers were fake. Floyd was just bluffing.

"It's not t-true, right? Jules?" I choked. "I-it's not t-true." I looked over at him to see him staring at the ground with tears pouring down his face.

"It's very true, Eddie," Floyd said, still grinning. "He lied to you."

"No...no!" I screeched. "Jules, say it's not true! It's not true!"

"Julian Haydn Vincent," Freddie read off once of that papers in her hands. "Age: twenty. Mission: infiltrate illegal races and report back with information gathered. Reports given: two-"

"Stop it!" I screamed. "It's not true, it's not true, it's not true, it's not true!" I felt warm tears fall from my eyes. Jules couldn't have hurt me like that. He would never betray me. He said I could trust him. He couldn't have lied; that would mean that I had put my trust in a liar twice.

"Edmund, these papers...they're definitely from the police." Freddie looked miserable. "For once, I think Floyd's telling the truth."

I looked over at Jules again, he looked pleadingly at me. "Edmund, you have to believe that I was going to quit," he sobbed. "I was going to stay!"

My knees gave out, leaving me in a crying heap on the ground. "Y-you lied. You lied."

"N-no," Jules's voice broke. "I d-didn't want to. I didn't want to h-hurt you."

"Y-you did."

Suddenly, Theo grabbed Jules around the throat and slammed him into the wall. "I warned you," he growled. "I warned you." He swung his fist, hitting Jules directly in the eye.

Jules didn't protest, nor did he try to fight back. Theo punched him again, square in the jaw, before Freddie pulled him back.

"Theo," Freddie scolded, grabbing his shoulder. "Fighting won't fix this, especially fighting a police officer."

"Maybe not, but it makes me feel a heck of a lot better," Theo grumbled.

Freddie glared at Jules. "Run, before I change my mind. Don't you dare come near us ever again."

"I can't-" Jules tried, but Theo punched him again, knocking him to the ground. Jules got shakily to his feet. His gaze lingered on me for just a second before he turned and ran. I watched this all through a curtain of tears.

Theo tried to lunge at Floyd, but Floyd put his hands up in surrender. "Hey, I was just here to warn you. My job's done." He walked calmly out of the alcove with his hands still raised above his head.

I had lost my second love. The two people that I put all of my trust into had both betrayed me. It was worse with Jules though. It felt worse, at least. I had just poured my heart out to Jules, and he was lying to me the entire time. Maybe it wasn't worse. Floyd and I had been together for a year. He was the first one to love me, and he could actually say it. He hadn't hurt me quite like Jules had. After all, he had wanted me to come with him when he left. Floyd still wanted me. Nobody else seemed to want me.

Theo kicked the wall, sending a cloud of dirt into the air. "No more assistants," he muttered. "It's only the three of us from now on."

"I shouldn't have kept looking," Freddie cried. "I'm so sorry, Edmund."

I curled up into a ball and shut my eyes tight. I didn't want to be here right now. I didn't want any of this to be happening. I couldn't decide if I wanted Jules to still be here, never to have met him in the first place, or if I wanted to be back with Floyd. Only one of those was actually an option.