Chapter 2

My reaction was quick. Before I lost him, I immediately stood up and on my heels as well to get an express view of his parameters. Where he was headed, what he was doing, If he was or wasn’t in any immediate danger...

When those were settled, I began making my way toward him, adding a little bit of anonymity because why not? It’d just be more of the ‘night’ to sneak up on him. 

It was easy waddling through the crowd, especially as I knew how to make myself unseen. I knew the people I bumped into or slightly shoved couldn’t care less about my ‘I’m sorries,’ but I whispered them anyway...more for my own conscience than for their pardon. When I finally arrived at the booth Don was in, I drew back to observe him for a bit, for no reason...maybe just to see what he was up to.

‘Out of habit, Asher. Out of stalking habit,’ my mind whispered to me amidst the deafening music.

“Screw this,” I mumbled and proceeded to tap him on the shoulder. I thought of how it would play out if I greeted him with a punch or a fake of sorts but decided against it at the last second. I wasn’t looking to be escorted out so early. Instead of turning around like a normal human, Don decided a punch would be a more natural response. I caught the punch with relative ease and the one he threw after, just for spite. I wished I had gone with my punch plan now. Curse my good heart.

“What are you doing here, Asher?” He gritted his teeth when he found he couldn’t pull his hands out of my grip.

“What am I doing here? Really, I’m the one to answer that question?” I asked him blandly. When he didn’t answer, I posed the question to him. “What are you doing here, Don?”

“Just leave me be for at least this night. You’re going to blow my cover.” He looked nervously around and back at me, forcefully trying now to yank his fists from my grasp. Futile.

I loved messing with him like this, though I didn’t express it in my face. I instead opted to play oblivion until he brought my notice to it.

“Come on, man. This is insane.” I dropped his hands. “Whatever it is you think you’re doing is going to get you into more trouble than the peace you think you’re looking for.”

“I’m prepared,” he mumbled. That, I knew, was a lie.

“How prepared is a teenage boy against an orgy of dr*g-peddling psychos? We don’t even know how many there are...”

“You don’t.” He seemed to think he was wise for saying that. “I have a number.”

“You vile...” I paused before I said something uncharacteristic. “Even if it was just one. Do you think you’d ever stand a chance against a very well-experienced man who’s given his life to danger and knows nothing but pulling a trigger and swinging his fists?!”

“I’ve got a chance at that. Bes...”

“It’s not just one, Donovan!”

He was quiet for some seconds before turning away from me.

“You can’t convince me otherwise, Asher. I have to do this, and you know why.”

I gave him a wide-eyed glare he didn’t see. “No, I do not know why.”

“Something is wrong about this entire thing, Asher,” he told me.

“Oh, yeah, lecture me.” I took a seat beside him.

“You’ve already blown me open, so I guess I would.”

This guy is going crazy.

“You’re not a cop, you idiot. You don’t have a cover.” I nudged his sides.

“Around here, I do now.”

I remembered what the restaurant owner just a few streets away said. Don was a troublemaker. Maybe that had something to do with his cover and it being blown. And it didn’t help that he was among the less than twelve percent of blonde people in the country. To identify him back in Avenston, all you had to say was, “Tall blonde guy.” He was literally the only one in St. Avenston that fit that criterion. There were blonde girls that were also few, and a short blonde guy who was made the student president for allegedly that uniqueness, but Don remained the only “tall blonde guy.”

Anyway, I was already feeling queasy enough. I wanted to leave this place the minute I got here, and the fact that I could see the very stage that she hung over just gave me goosebumps, even in the wrong places.

“Since it was determined that it was a suicide and stamped so, no further investigation has been carried out.” He looked at me as if waiting for the words to sink in before delivering the punch line. I waited it out, but he took too long.

“And?”

“Dude, no one is talking about the reason for the suicide,” he whispered unnecessarily to me.

“Okay... should they?” I asked blandly.

“They should! She talked about them. Who are ‘them’? Does that not concern you?”

“Should I be honest with you, Don?” I put an uneasy hand on his shoulder. “Whatever she talked about in that letter died with her. There’s no need to resurrect it. You’ll just be resurfacing the demons that put her down in the first place.”

That must have hit in some way because he shoved my hands off and began walking away, out of the club.

Finally!

“Listen, Don, you have to let it go,” I called after him once we were out of the club and just walking north. That was toward the nearest bus station. He was mumbling something, and I had to get closer to catch the last of it.

“... you’re not much use anyway.”

I just felt this surge of emotion inside me. It was a mixed feeling of anger and deep concern.

“There’s no reason for you to be doing this, Don. You’re risking your life for someone that’s way beyond saving to even know you’re doing it!”

“I’m not doing it for her, you galoot. I’m doing it for myself. For my peace of mind. I’ll sleep better at night knowing that people that are dangerous enough to kill a person without even touching them are behind bars.” Of all things, I guess it was the calmness in his tone that pissed me off the most.

“And how do you intend to do that, huh? The police gave the case up months ago. What makes you think they’d willingly open it back up? You’re not thinking, Don.”

“Nobody cares about me now, anyway.” He chuckled with a hint of a sad smile, “They’re not going to start now if I die or something.”

“I care, Don! I freaking...God! I feel like punching you in the face right now!” I looked at his pitiful face. It didn’t stop me from feeling like punching some sense into him, but it at least stopped me from doing so.

He didn’t do anything more. Just kept staring at me, and I stared back. He knew I’d never abandon him. He was more than just a crush to me now. He was a friend.

“I just need to find the man, Asher.”

“What man?” I quirked my head sideways in curiosity.

“He was the only one whose face was visible in the video. If I can find him, I’m sure I’ll get all the answers.”

I turned myself to face the club and began moving backward, away from it, further north.

“What makes you think he’ll frequent this place as often as it’s necessary for you to get him?” I asked again.

“Tomorrow is a weekend. I’ve asked the barista. I’m sure he’ll be there.”

“And what are you going to do when you find him?” I continued to prod him.

“Tail him.”

Okay...

“Find out where he lives, who he is, what he does, who his children are.”

Starting to get creepy now...

“And then what?”

“And then... I’ll mess with him. Just like he messed with Amelia.”

“Okay...what happened to the cops? They got lost somewhere in the picture?”

“I’ll involve the cops later on...when he’s at the foot of his own building...dead.”

I stood and observed him for the better part of the next ten or so seconds.

“Let’s go home, Don. You’re really tired. You should try sleeping this entire thing off, huh?” I pushed him ahead of me further to the bus stop to catch an already-approaching bus.

Too much was wrong now that a simple night’s sleep could solve right away.