บท 34: Before they left (17)
"Nothing." I say, emotionlessly. I'm still very drained from Graham and my conversation. Graham opens the door. "Afternoon, sir. The plants aren't ready just yet."
"That's not why I'm here." He shoves through Graham and into the house. "I'm here because a man has died and she knows what happened." He points at me.
"I don't recall ever saying I do, actually. I only know who did it and I've told you all that already."
"But you know who the next targets are. And you knew to check for the plants."
"Yeah. I figured it was worth a try. If you know anything- you should already know what happened there."
He thinks about it for a moment. "Liar! She hasn't come. She's nothing but a myth."
"Yes. So is the dead man with plants growing out of his chest, I suppose." My voice still has no emotion. "You know who's next don't you? Who's going to die?"
I don't answer for a while. "Yes. I've got a good idea."
"Well- spit it out! Tell me!" The general barks and walks closer so that we're face to face. "You don't need to know. It's my business right now." I say. "It's my job to protect the place and to protect whoever's next. Despite what you think, it's actually very important that I know."
"You can't protect them from her. If she wants us all dead, we're all dead. There's nothing any of us can do about it."
"We can try." He says. "I'm not about to just let her kill everyone. Tell me who she's after."
"Fine. but the only difference it will make is it'll cause panic."
He steps even closer to me and I can smell his putrid breath. "Tell me."
"She's after anyone I am or was close with." I say. "Then she's going after everyone else." I don't include that I'll likely live through everything. That'll only create a bigger problem for myself.
"Like who?" Jordan asks. "Probably everyone in this house. Probably my cat. Probably- probably anyone who I ever even cared a little about."
"Me." He says in disbelief he waits a minute to grieve himself. "And the boys? But they never did anything wrong! They're young." Jordan says. "Keep it down! We need to talk to them about it later."
Jordan turns back to me. "What the fuck did you do to her to make her so angry⁈ If it weren't for you, none of us would ever have been in this mess- and now you just want to give up?! You're our only hope here!"
"That's not how you felt yesterday." I say. "What do you mean she's your last hope?" the general asks. "It doesn't matter." Jordan says. "Yes it does. You were just talking about how 'dangerous' I am and now you're upset I've given up?" I ask, my voice getting louder. "You know what? I gave up the moment you killed Jaxon! I'm not about to just pop back up and try to help a murderer."
"Listen, things seem- complicated here. Why don't you stay- I'm not sure why you're so- important but you know the most about this monster- and I'm going to need someone to explain how he murdered Jaxon, I may need to restrain him, and I can put some men around the house to protect you."
"What do I get out of staying? A few minions constantly trying to kill me?" I say. "You get food, a home, and protection." The general responds. I laugh. "I'm doing just fine with food and home and as for protection… It doesn't seem effective anymore. I'm going to need to get something out of staying here."
"You can have your father's possessions."
"Where else would they go?"
"They'd go to the soldiers and myself." He says. "That's not fair! The people need these things much more." I say. "If you want the last remaining things of your father's, you will need to stay. I don't care what you do with them."
"Fine. I'll need to get my things though. After that, I'll stay for the remainder of our time and help deal with Cora."
"Okay. If you don't return tonight, We're taking his things." I nod.
The general turns to leave. "Check in with me when you get back." He says, walking away.
I begin to walk out the door too but Graham stops me. "You should take me with you. I can help."
"I think you'll do the opposite. You'll attract Cora and I'll have to save you, which I won't be able to if she actually wants to kill you."
"I can-- carry things!"
"All my things will fit in my bag. I don't have much."
"Come on! I haven't been in the woods in forever. It might be my last chance!"
"Fine. you can come but try to be, at least a little, discrete. Please. Typically you stomp around like there's nothing to worry about. Just like yesterday when I had to waste supplies to save you."
"Well you have that ring-"
"That ring won't work against Cora! We should bring some leaves for Crombene. They should at least hide us from her."
He nods and goes up the ladder. Apparently I didn't think this out very well because now I'm in the room alone with Jordan. We sit in awkward silence for a while, waiting for Graham to return. "Why don't you let the boys out?" I suggest he nods and eagerly opens the door to let them out. This was probably an even worse decision on my end because now we're all still in an awkward silence and the boys are staring at me like I'm a ghost.
"...Hey," I say. "H-hey," Reece responds. "Are you staying this time?" Logan asks, sounding agitated. "Well- I- I mean that's the plan. To stay for until-" I cut myself off. "It wasn't really the plan to leave. It's just some-- rather complicated things happened and- and I had to get away."
"Yeah. Jordan told us already."
I glare at Jordan. "Yeah. I'm sure he did. What exactly did he tell you?"
Jordan, who is standing by the door still, walks up to the boys. "Oh, just the truth."
"And what 'truth' did you tell them?" I ask. "Your boyfriend was working with Cora. We had to get rid of him."
"He wasn't my-" I take a deep breath and grab my right hand to avoid touching anything. Control your temper. I tell myself. "Did you include the fact that we didn't actually know what happened?"
"What do you-" Jordan starts. "You know, because he never actually told us what was going on. Or did you include the fact he went willingly? For us? To save us?" Jordan doesn't answer.
"Yeah. I figured. I'll go wait outside for Graham."
"I'm coming with." Jordan says. I scoff. "No. You aren't."
"Why? You're bringing Graham."
I laugh sharply. "Yes. I'm bringing Graham because I somewhat like him. And then, of course, there's the fact he didn't recently try to kill me- or ever try to kill me, for that matter. Plus I trust him, and I'm quite sure he's not a psycho path- with you well… Besides, two is easier to travel with than three. The list goes on and on. And at least with him only half of us is on her hit list. I don't need to make it three quarters of us."
He looks embarrassed. "Look- I'll just follow you if you don't let me come. This might be my last chance to see the woods before I die too."
"Why?" Reece asks. "Th-that doesn't matter. We'll discuss it later." I say.
Jordan looks at me dangerously. "Well, if I'm staying, I'll have plenty of time to discuss it while you're gone."
"Fine. You can come but you're fending for yourself."
"That's what you said before we came here."
"What?" I ask. "Actually, I believe your exact words were 'I'm not sure if Cora will be the one responsible for his death'."
I look at the two boys. Logan simply seems bored while Reece watches the drama unfold intensively. "Yeah, well I haven't killed you yet. How do you even remember that?"
"I'm not dumb enough to forget a threat like that from someone like you."
"What do you mean someone like-"
"Who threatened who?" Graham looks between us, poking his head around the latter. "It doesn't matter. Jordan wants to come. We should go." I walk towards the door. "And you're letting him⁈"
"Is there a problem with that?" Jordan asks. "No. Yes? I mean from what you guys said earlier, it seems like maybe you guys are having more problems. I mean I personally don't care but-" Graham seems to finally notice both of us gearing at him.
"Right. Fine. I'll shut up now."
We'd all stopped outside the door. "Let's just go. Just so you know guys, this isn't a playground. It's dangerous here and you need to be careful. I already have to drag you guys along, I don't want to have constantly be trying to save you too."
"Oh, don't worry about saving me." Jordan says, with a fake smile.
"I won't." I respond darkly. The three of us head into the dangerous forest together and I'm almost one hundred percent sure three of us aren't coming out.
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