Chapter 46
Ollie awoke as the urgent need to pee made itself known, and he’d just been about to tug roughly from Noble’s hold when he remembered the man’s injury.
Taking a calming breath, so he didn’t wet himself, he carefully moved Noble’s right arm off him, before slipping from the bed, only to stand there, his irritation growing when he realized his bad patient of a boyfriend had put pajamas on him while he’d been asleep.
Huffing, Ollie decided he needed to pee too much to care at the moment, as he snagged his glasses off the nightstand before putting them on while hurrying to the bathroom.
Quickly using the restroom and washing his hands, Ollie was about to head back to bed, but he slowed down as he neared the other door along the same wall as the bathroom, when he spotted a glow coming from its upper seams. The glow was easy to notice in the pitch-black room, and it grew brighter the closer he got, as if reacting to his heartbeat, which had already begun to speed up and fill his ears.
Staring at the closed door, Ollie hesitated, taking a shuddered breath in an attempt to calm down, before turning the knob. The door made no sound as he pulled it open, and inside was about as non-threatening as can be.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Ha—what was there even to fear!? It was just a small closet! A closet with shoe boxes on the floor, with coats and other things hanging inside…
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Unthreatening, it was completely unassuming, and normal. At least…it had been until he looked up at the shelves above, and a wave of trepidation washed over him at what he saw.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Swallowing hard, he eyed the thin jewelry box sitting on top of a stack of other boxes, a brilliant light emanating from the cracks. As he struggled to hold back the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, he took another shuddering breath as he continued to stare.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
He hadn’t opened it, hadn’t even touched it yet…but Ollie still knew what was inside. He knew.
Thump, thump, thump!
Despite knowing… Despite knowing with all his being that it would ruin everything, Ollie couldn’t stop himself from stretching on his tippy toes and shakily grabbing the velvet box from the top shelf.
While his mind screamed that he didn’t need to see, for him to put it back, to close the door, to look away and forget it was there, Ollie… opened it.
THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!
The box shook in his unsteady hands as he stared down, tears falling helplessly. An odd numbness began to spread through him, while ringing began in his ears, as a sharp, piercing pain stabbed into his chest.
Grinding his teeth to hold back a sob, Ollie looked down at the bright, glowing teardrop gem held in delicate, intricate filigree, and felt as if the ground had fallen out from under him. The truth was…each swirl of the setting was forgettable, yet unforgettable, in that it was the SAME!
Ollie choked down another sob, gasping as he hunched over in an attempt to slow down the increasing agony radiating from his chest, as his heart now seemed to squeeze painfully with each beat.
Tracing the swirls with his gaze, again and again, he willed it to change, to be different, but it wouldn’t, and it wasn’t. Nothing would fix the reality that it was the same. Clear as can be, every single line that had been sketched, down to the very last one in the book he’d read only days ago.
Taking in a gasping breath as more tears fell, Ollie stared down at the amulet…as that was what it was, and just knew that nothing would ever be right again. And it wouldn’t…because Ollie couldn’t lie to himself anymore.
Noble had known…he thought with a silent sob, barely holding back the sound in the dark, dark room. The very person who had been his everything just minutes ago, now felt as if he was the very shadow who had been haunting his dreams.
And the worst part was…that he was… Ha… Noble was… His tears fell faster as a sob forced its way out.
Noble was…too strong. He was too…fast. He was even healing too fast. And the man had always been so unfazed by everything that had gone on, no matter what it had been.
It had never been right…his reaction to dead bodies, or to the idea and the action of killing, but Ollie had looked away!
He had closed his eyes and his ears, and had pushed aside and ignored every doubt he’d had.
And when Noble had told him he was a monster, Ollie hadn’t listened. He hadn’t believed him!
I should have believed him. Noble had… He had always known too much…
Noble laid there, his heart clenching as he heard Ollie hold back his sobs, the witch’s breathing getting faster and faster with what he was sure was pain and fear.
He had woken up when Ollie had gotten out of bed to use the bathroom, but even when Noble had heard Ollie slow as he neared the closet door, and saw the glow of the Seers Amulet behind his eyelids, he hadn’t moved.
Instead, he’d just laid there like he’d been tuned in to the ticking of time, and was just waiting for it to run out. And it had. His time was up…
Based on everything he’d done so far, Noble should have moved.
He was certainly selfish enough. He should have been selfish enough to get up and stop the man from opening that door, but he hadn’t.
Something inside had stopped him, had made him continue to lie there as if he were still asleep. Guilt maybe…
Whatever it had been was gone now, the only thing keeping him in bed was his own fear of finishing the job of destroying what had been between him and Ollie. But he supposed whatever had been there had only existed because he’d lied…
Swallowing thickly, his tears refused to come, even as his heart broke. Noble carefully slipped from the bed, easily ignoring the pain in his shoulder as it was nothing compared to his chest.
“Ollie…”
The witch spun with a fearful yelp on hearing his name. The man dropping the jewelry box as he did, the Seers Amulet was sent clattering to the floor.
His face pale and tear-stained, Ollie stared up at him as if he were face-to-face with a monster. This time, Noble knew for certain that, unlike all the other times, the terror was actually meant for him. But then it always had been, the witch just hadn’t known it before now.
In the face of Ollie’s fear, whatever pleading or words he’d intended to desperately throw out froze in his throat. Because in the face of that fear, it was all useless… Nothing Noble said would ever make this better. Nothing would fix this.
Ollie finally saw him for what he truly was—a witch hunter.
A monster! And there was no way forward for them anymore.
Swallowing hard as the tears finally came, he just barely managed to hold them back.
But he did, if only because he knew he didn’t deserve to cry.
He wasn't the one that had been wronged here.
Noble was the perpetrator, not the victim…
“Ollie…I…” He trailed off, before desperately crying out, “Ollie, wait!” as the witch sprinted for the open door, and out into the hallway.
Noble hesitated for barely a second before snagging Ollie’s phone off the nightstand when he spotted it, and gave chase, as he wasn’t sure what else he could do.
He easily caught up with him on the stairs, but forced himself to stay a few steps behind, to not touch him, to not scare him any further.
As if that was even possible. Everything in Noble was crying out to hold and comfort Ollie, to make it better.
“Please, stop, Baby! I’m not going to hurt you,” he begged.
“Don’t c-call me th-that!” Ollie shrieked when he reached the kitchen, spinning around to face him once he was past the table.
“Y-you should have never—ah—” The witch’s words cut off on a hard sob, his whole body trembling fiercely while he struggled to hold himself together.
As his tears continued to trail down, the man’s expression seemed to twist further with both anger and pain.
Noble swallowed thickly, as he once again had to fight back tears. After a moment of hesitation, he started to slowly walk towards the man, as he pleaded, “Ollie…I didn’t… Can we just—”
“S-stay back!” the witch screamed, as he clumsily scurried around the table, almost tripping on one of the chairs, before placing himself near the opening he’d just fled out of. The panic in Ollie’s eyes as he glanced around for an escape, hurt Noble down to whatever was left of his soul.
He clenched his hands, and as his right one tightened around Ollie’s phone, reminding him that he even had it, he held it up for the man to see.
When the witch’s eyes widened, his skin becoming even paler, Noble almost hit himself for making it worse. But instead, he carefully set the phone on the table as Ollie watched. Having done that, he held both hands up, ignoring the pain it caused his right shoulder, and stepped back.
When he was as far away as he could be from the man without leaving the kitchen, Noble slowly said, “I’m not going to hurt you, Ba—Ollie. I’d never hurt you. Go ahead, take it. I won’t get any closer.”
Ollie hesitated for a moment, his gaze flicking between Noble and his phone, before he finally rushed to snatch it off the table and backed away again.
But as he backed away, dread slammed into Noble when he saw the man glance over his shoulder at the pantry door, making a decision he knew would make everything worse.
“Don’t!” Noble yelled as he leapt across the room to stop him, only to have the pantry door slammed firmly in his face, the sound of a lock engaging following it.
Staring helplessly, he softly cursed, “Shit,” as he stood there listening to the man’s heavy, fearful breathing and quiet sobs through the locked door.