Chapter 86
Quill
Snap
They’ve All Gone
Mr. Kamera
He was no longer in the park where I had last seen him, so, with my heart racing, I entered the large campus park, which – as always – was bustling with activity.
It was lunchtime, and I had missed a lecture with Professor Faber, which I didn’t regret in the slightest, because it felt good to avoid the traumatized Lucas and Zachary, who had been looking grumpy ever since the debates had been canceled.
Frantically, I looked around, since my brother and Davian often took walks here, and my heart skipped a beat when I spotted Davian, who determinedly strode down the stairs of the main building with his leather briefcase slung over his shoulder, heading toward the large parking lot.
Immediately, I set off as inconspicuously as possible – glad that everyone here was either engrossed in speculation about Atrianima or preoccupied with themselves and their friends – and caught up with Davian in the parking lot just as he was inserting his car key into the door lock.
“Davian?” I blurted out, and immediately lowered my voice, glad that a few bare hedges and paths were shielding us from the main campus. “Wait.”
He instantly looked up, spotted me, and for a moment I thought I saw his expression brighten before he immediately looked around, furrowing his brow in frustration.
“Get in.” Exhaustion settled over his face, and he looked at me earnestly. “I need to get out of here. And I don’t want you to stay here.”
Unable to process it, I stared at him.
His hand twitched, and he took a step toward me, but then paused, his gaze growing more pleading until the lump in my chest tightened.
“I need you right now, Quill.”
I didn’t hesitate any longer, making sure no one was watching us before getting in on the passenger side, and as soon as we were both in the car, I reached for his hand.
Warm, soft…
He intertwined our fingers, and I began to stroke the back of his hand.
“Monica told me everything.”
He looked up at me, his gaze full of unspoken emotions.
“Everything.”
Davian let go of my hand, started the car, and pulled out of the parking space, his expression stiffening as he focused on the traffic, before turning onto University Street.
“Davian, you need to talk to her. There are things I can’t tell you that you should know.”
He furrowed his brow.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea…”
“She had her reasons.”
The fact that I sounded desperate didn’t help. Davian needed someone to calm him down, to show understanding. He must be upset…
Arnold was his father.
That information would throw him completely off track.
“For lying to me all those years?”
He turned onto the main street, drove through a yellow light, and took a deep breath.
“No. But you know she didn’t do it out of malice. You’re important to her.”
For a moment, I felt like my brother when he tried to make peace between me and our father. But it was different with Monica. Something like that couldn’t possibly destroy the little family that Davian, Lara, Tony, and Monica had grown into over the years.
“You’ve always been important to her. From the very beginning.”
Davian accelerated the car, remaining silent as he turned onto the next street.
“She did the same thing as Lily,” he gritted out, his gaze fixed on the heavy traffic. “And made me believe all these years that she was better than Lily.”
“Davian, she tried.”
Despair washed over me, along with memories from my childhood that I’d rather bury.
“Be glad you have her in your life, since the day she decided she was ready for it again.”
Davian took another deep breath.
He’d never had it easy, had fought his way through life. For others. He had every right to be angry at Monica. But he should never forget that she had tried, that she would keep trying.
Just like Mama, until she gave up on me…
“Do you know how often I’ve wished my parents had given me up for adoption? All those years of pain it would have spared me. Flying dishes, stomped-on toys, a broken mother, his devastating words, his hands around my throat, a damn letter opener in my…”
I bit my tongue.
Davian’s head snapped around and the car slowed down.
Full Intro
Mr. Kamera
“What?”
With my lips pressed together and my vision blurring, I looked out the window.
“What were you about to say?”
Davian sounded tense, and I didn’t know what to do.
“Quill”
Davian pulled the car over to the side of the road and stopped so other cars could pass, while my throat tightened.
“Give me your hand.”
I couldn’t…
He took it, and I turned my head toward him, staring in horror at the scar my father had left there.
To me, it meant nothing. Just another memory that would haunt me for the rest of my life. A memory of deeper scars than a pathetic letter opener could ever leave.
“Oh my God…” Davian whispered, staring at the scar as if it meant the world. “How could I have been so blind…?”
I felt his gaze on the scabbed-over spot, which kept tearing open a little in the palm of my hand whenever I wasn’t careful.
“Davian, I wanted to tell you, but…”
“No,” he interrupted me. “Don’t say a word.”
Three more tense seconds of silence passed, during which I watched his unreadable stare.
Then he let go of my hand and steered the car onto the road. But instead of driving straight ahead, he suddenly yanked the steering wheel around.
“Davian?”
Panic gripped me suddenly and without warning.
“That bastard is dead.”
He stepped on the gas, clenching his fists around the steering wheel as if he wanted to strangle it.
Adrenaline exploded in every fiber of my body.
“What are you doing? Home is this way…”
“We’re not going home,” he forced out through clenched teeth.
“Davian?”
The panic in my voice was unmistakable as I saw which street we were turning into with screeching tires.
“This is long overdue!”
They harmed his precious paper muse,
till she had nothing left to lose.
Too late they had to realize,
her artist would bring their demise.
– Leaking Batteries Diary