13
Under Reir’s unblinking stare, I placed a single pill on the step beside him.
As I turned to leave, he shot out a hand and seized my wrist. His palm was ice–cold, sending a chill through me.
I had no choice but to look down at him. At such a close distance, our eyes met.
“Who are you?” he finally rasped.
The lighting was dim, but I thought I saw something flicker in his dark pupils, a flash of light that was there
and then gone.
He moved too fast. Before I could consent or protest, his other hand had reached up and hooked the mask from my face.
Reik’s dark eyes reflected the vivid scars on my cheek.
We were so close.
I saw his gaze tremble.
My face was still too frightening.
I reached up and hooked the mask back in place, I saw his hand suddenly go slack, and a silver chain slipped from his grasp, dangling in the air.
-It was what he had been clutching so tightly in his cold palm.
At the end of the chain was a silver locket. In the center of the locket, I could faintly make out the smiling face of a young girl.
I looked away, not daring to store.
I left the pill and walked away. This time, Reik didn’t stop me.
Before I left, I glanced back one last time from the doorway.
Reik was still sitting where I had left him. Dressed in severe black, yet radiating an aura of complete desolation.
