CONFRONTATION

The train can get very packed during the morning rush hour, to the point that everyone inside the train is pushing into each other.

During that time, I held on tightly to Erika’s hand so that we wouldn’t get separated among the sea of people in the morning rush.

We had to take the train for several stations to the station closest to Erika’s university.

When we got there, I felt Erika tugged on my arm, and we both squeezed through the tight pack of people inside the train to get out of the train.

After that, we waited in line to exit the station gate, along with the other upwards of a hundred people that also got off in this station.

All this while, since even before we left the apartment, my mind was occupied by the sound of singing I had heard alongside the sound of Erika playing her guitar.

For all I know, it could be that she was just playing an audio while practicing her guitar. I couldn’t really compare the voice I heard earlier this morning to the recording Emma had played the other day, so I couldn’t be sure that it was Erika that I heard singing.

The fact that I couldn’t figure out if it was actually her or not means that I couldn’t take my mind off it. It was the only thing I've been thinking about ever since I heard it.

I also don’t know if this is something I should bring up either, as it might be an unpleasant topic for Erika.

While my mind went through this, I suddenly felt a strong tug on my hand, pulling me back, just before a strong gust of wind from a passing car swept past me.

I immediately snapped back to my senses and took a good look around.

I’m right by a road crossing, with the pedestrian light shining a red color.

Erika was the one that tugged on my hand as I had walked past the sidewalk into the road while the light was still red.

It’s the rush hour so there’s a lot of cars moving about, and I was just about to be hit by one, that was the gust of wind I felt swept by me.

I then turned to look at Erika and saw her pouting at me. But not like the cute looking pout I usually see her do. This time she looks actually mad at me, and she’s expressing it to me with this pout.

“Sorry.. I was a little out of it.”

She just continued staring at me, and I couldn’t really bear it, so I looked away, just in time for the pedestrian light to turn green.

Once we crossed to the other side, Erika started tugging on her backpack strap, and she started trying to reach back with one hand.

I assume she wants to get her phone in her backpack but is having a hard time since she can’t move her backpack forward with me still holding onto her hand.

As soon as I realized that I’m actually bothering her by holding her hand, I tried to let go, but she immediately strengthened her grip on my hand and gave me another pout full of anger.

I could do nothing but shrink back at her wrath.

Looking away to avoid her scary eyes, I reached into my pocket and fished my phone out of it. I unlocked the phone and opened the chatting app we usually use before going into Erika’s chat room. Once it’s open, I handed the phone to Erika.

She looked at the phone in my hand for a while before taking it. She then started typing something into it, and once done, she showed me the screen of my phone.

“What’s wrong?” She had typed in.

“Sorry, I was just.. Thinking about something.”

She then started typing on my phone again.

“It’s dangerous to lose focus while walking.”

“Sorry..”

She then gave me another angry pout, before handing me back my phone.

I responded with a wry smile, and took my phone back from her hand, before placing it inside my pocket.

Despite the scolding I just got, I still lost focus almost immediately.

I walked along with Erika in a daze, until eventually, she tugged on my hand again. I turned to look at her, who was standing oddly still, a little far from me to the side, while still taking a couple steps forward, until I ran into something hard in front of me.

It’s a streetlamp. I just ran into a streetlamp. In broad daylight.

Rubbing the side of my head that had hit the streetlamp, I turned to look at Erika again, to find her pouting at me, filled with overwhelming anger. She then proceeded to pinch my arm with all her strength using her free hand.

I cried out in pain before apologizing and saying over and over that I’ll pay attention to the road, and she finally let go of me some time later. But even after she’s finished pinching my arm, she’s still pouting at me with anger.

It’s really my fault for spacing out while walking. Being pinched to make me focus was much better than having hit by a car while in a daze.

That said, now I know that Erika can be really scary when angry.

We then continued our walk. I hadn’t spaced out again until we reached her university, because Erika had made sure to keep me focused by tugging my hand every few seconds to get my attention, and pout at me with anger every time I turned to look at her when she did so.

After letting go of my hand right in front of her campus gate, she moved her backpack forward and took her phone out of her bag. While moving her backpack back, she started typing into her phone and showed me the screen.

“Will you be fine going back on your own?”

I replied with a nod.

She looks at me worryingly, before then typing something else onto her phone. “Don't space out while walking.”

I nodded again.

She then started typing again. “Pay attention to the pedestrian light while crossing.”

I nodded again.

She then started typing again. “Keep your eyes forward.”

I nodded again.

She was acting just like a mother sending her child off on their first errand, but I couldn’t really complain in this situation as I don’t have any ground to stand on after what had happened earlier.

After a few more warnings, she finally let me go.

She put her phone back in her backpack and took out a face mask. While she’s wearing her face mask, I reminded her that I would come pick her up when she’s done with class.

She replied with a nod, and we waved to each other.

I stayed for a while after we did, to watch her go, and she turned back every now and then with a worried look in her eyes.

I start to walk away when she’s far enough that I can no longer make out the look in her eyes.

While walking, I constantly remind myself not to lose focus, but I still kept on thinking about the singing I heard from Erika’s room this morning.

At one point when I reminded myself again not to lose focus, I realized that I’m in front of a furniture store.

I don’t think I’ve walked through this place before, and looking around, I feel somewhat confident in a speculation that I had made about me being actually lost right now.

Even though I had kept reminding myself not to lose focus, I still ended up in an unknown place.

Erika is going to get mad at me again.

Well, now that I’m here. Might as well look around the store.

Everyone that had seen my place so far told me that I should get more furniture. I don’t really feel the need, but looking around wouldn’t hurt.

It might help me get my mind off things for a while too.

Walking across the store’s parking lot, I noticed that the employees are currently gathered outside the store. With the uniformed employees all grouped, in front of them is one guy holding a loudspeaker, and another taking notes on a writing board. It looks like they are having a briefing of sorts in the parking lot of the store.

I didn’t recognize him at first, since the sound coming from the loudspeaker was somewhat alien to me, but once I got closer, I saw that the guy leading the briefing was actually Erika’s father.

This must be the furniture store he said he’s the manager of.

I watched from afar for a while until the employees started to disband.

Once they did, Erika’s father noticed me watching, and waved when he recognized me. He handed the loudspeaker to the person with the walking board that was beside him and made his way towards me.

“Oliver, did something happen?” He asked, but seemingly not looking very worried despite his question.

“No, I was just going to look at some furniture.” I replied, glazing towards the store.

“Oh! Want to get something for your place?”

“Yeah, if I find something I like.”

“Let me show you around, then. I know some things that might fit well in your place.”

He then led me inside the store and walked me through the shelfs filled with display items.

While going to an item he’d like to show me, we chatted a little about this and that. He had also asked about Erika in a passing, and I mentioned that she’s currently in class and that I’d go pick her up after her classes are over.

Once we arrived at the first item he wanted to show me, I remember that I immediately thought that it was a unique piece first and foremost, but now I don’t remember what it was that he had shown me.

My mind is elsewhere while he walks me through some items he thought would fit well with the rest of the stuff I have in my place already.

“You don’t seem to like any of the items so far.”

His question pulled me out of my mindless daze, and I apologized for spacing out.

“Did something happen?” He asked me again, now looking somewhat worried.

“I, uh.. Sorry.. Something did happen. But I don’t really know how to say this.”

“Did you sleep with my daughter?”

“I- NO! Erhm. No, sir. We didn’t do anything like that. We slept in separate rooms.” I replied with my face flushed red.

He laughed at my response. “Come on, you can tell me. I’m her father. I might be able to help if something happens between the two of you.”

Alan had previously told me that being hesitant to ask in respect of her feelings isn’t actually me being considerate, and Emma told me how if I didn’t know anything, I wouldn’t be able to help her when I need to. But I still couldn’t just casually bring it up in a conversation with Erika.

Seeing how just thinking about it is getting me nowhere, I decided to ask her father about this morning. “When I got back from a run this morning, I actually accidentally overheard Erika playing her guitar in her room.”

“Yeah? It’s nice to hear that she’s still playing at your place.”

I nodded a little in response. “She hesitated to bring her guitar over to my place at first, saying that it might disturb me, but she was so good at playing it that I wouldn’t have complained either way.”

“Then what’s the matter?”

“I.. actually heard singing alongside the sound of her guitar.”

Erika’s father started looking somber upon hearing what I said. “I see.. Well, at least I know that she’s comfortable there. I don’t think she ever does that anywhere besides our house.”

“So, the singing that I heard was actually Erika?’

“Yes. She does that every now and then in her room.”

“I see..” I said before trailing off for a while. “Sir, I actually heard about what happened to Erika from a friend.” I studied his expression for a while and continued after seeing that he’s not displeased about the fact. “I heard about what happened between Erika and Mari, up until the so-called celebration, which I assumed had caused her to be afraid of men, but I hadn’t heard about anything that might cause her to lose her voice.”

“That would be because she didn’t. Like I said before, she still likes to sing every now and then in our house.”

“Then why isn’t she..” I trailed off as I started to have second thoughts about asking this question.

“Speaking?”

I nodded in response.

“She still has her voice, but she can’t speak to people. It’s something called psychogenic aphonia. The trauma had apparently caused her to be unable to speak. For quite a long time after the incident, she was actually unable to let out any sound at all, but with therapy, she was eventually able to speak a little, and then sing, but only when she’s very comfortable. That is usually when she’s alone in a familiar place, or so the doctors said. We can still hear her singing from outside her room, but she doesn’t know that we’re listening.”

Erika doesn’t have any scarring on her neck, so I initially thought that she was unable to speak since birth. But then Emma told me about her time in the music industry, how she was singing until some time ago. With that information, I actually didn’t know why she lost her voice. I never even heard of the condition Erika’s father just mentioned.

Afterwards, we talked about Erika for some more time. About her condition, and how she could completely recover, and I left sometime before the time for Erika’s classes to end.

She only had one class today, so it's not even a couple hours before it's time to pick her up after I had seen her off.

Erika was still worried that I might be still out of it, so she held on to my hand to lead me away from any danger.

My mind at the time was still occupied, but it was occupied thinking about how Erika could actually get her voice back completely, I ended up being overly conscious of her, and in effect, a little conscious of my surroundings.

At night, after we both went to each of our rooms, I was still thinking about Erika’s voice.

I had looked up the psychogenic aphonia condition that her father mentioned and learned that it was actually a very treatable condition. Most people were able to speak normally after a couple weeks with proper care.

Before I knew it, I had started thinking about what would be best to do to help with her therapy so that she could speak normally. From there, I started thinking about the future once Erika is able to speak normally, and I even started imagining how our encounter would be had she been able to speak normally.

As I start to think more and more about it, the more it starts to feel wrong to be thinking about such things.

I felt guilty for not appreciating her for how she is and instead started wanting more. Rather than for her to speak normally in the future, I should instead wish for her to be happy no matter what right now.

The constant thought and the guilt ended up keeping me up. Feeling wide awake, I took a step out of my room and grabbed a glass of water.

The last time I couldn’t sleep on my place, I sat on the couch and watched tv to pass the time. But much like when I couldn’t sleep on the island resort, I can’t do that now since Erika is sleeping in her room, and I might wake her.

Still, if I don’t want to wake her, then it really limits what I can do inside the apartment.

So, to avoid disturbing her sleep, I decided to just take a walk outside after leaving a note telling her that I had gone out, and to call me if she needs me.

I grabbed my phone, wallet, and keys to bring with me, but ended up leaving the key behind near the note.

I use an electronic lock that makes use of my fingerprint and passcode to open the door, so I don’t actually need to bring the keys that unlock the door as a backup method with me. I always brought it with me every time I left the place because I never used this kind of lock before and was skeptical of the technology.

That said, I had actually forgotten to register Erika’s fingerprint, and tell her the passcode, so she wouldn’t be able to leave the house if she needed to.

So, I left the keys behind, along with an added note.

Once outside, I went straight to the elevator and made my way down to the lobby.

At this time, the lobby is empty with the receptionist no longer tending to the front desk. Although the inside is empty, I can see a van parked in front of the building.

It seems to be a cleaning service of sorts, which is odd, considering that they should be parked in the basement.

Without putting too much thought into it, I walked outside, and made my way towards the park, walking by the cleaning van.

When I did, the door suddenly flung open with a loud bang. When I looked back in surprise, I found someone swinging a bat right at me.

I tried my best to dodge, while raising my arm to block the swing, but not only did I fail to dodge it, I also failed to block the swing, and the bat ended up hitting my head.

The blow was somewhat softened since it hit my arm before it hit my head, but I still ended up concussed.

I was thrown to the side after the impact, and struggled to not fall flat on my face, but when I tried my best just not to fall, I felt another impact on the back of my head and immediately blacked out.

I woke up to the loud sound of an obnoxious laughter.

After snapping out of the daze I was in right after I regained consciousness, I started to feel the burning pain on my arm where the first bat swing had hit me.

My hands are tied behind my back, around some kind of wooden beam. I tried shuffling a little to loosen the rope which only resulted in alerting the two people in front of me, presumably my captors that I had woken up.

“Oh, you’re awake?” One of them said as they made their way close to me.

The place is dark with only a dim light coming from outside the window to light the room, so I couldn’t identify the one who just spoke, even after he crouched right in front of me. But I could tell that the other person is Mari.

I ignored the guy in front of me as he started ranting and focused my glare at Mari.

“What?” She asked. “Just so you know, this is all your fault. You and that dumb bitch. I wouldn’t have lost my job if not for the two of you shits.” She added, before kicking my leg as hard as she could.

“That’s right! It’s your fault that my buddy got arrested too!” the other guy said.

He tried to threaten me with the bat in his hand, bringing it up to my face, but maybe because I’m still in a little of a haze, I don’t really find him threatening. Even as it gives me flashbacks to my father, I was still feeling calm.

“Why don’t the two of you just get arrested along with him, then?” I asked smugly.

In response, Mari pulled her leg back, and kicked me straight in the stomach, which forced all of the air out of me, and made me start coughing and gasping in pain.

“SHUT UP! I won’t be arrested. The cops, my manager, the directors just all have a misunderstanding. They’ll know that I was right once that bitch Erika comes forward and confesses to her crimes. The manager will beg me to have me back, and the directors will-”

“Once Erika comes?” I asked, cutting her off, and glaring at her.

“Ah, that’s right. I called her here.” She said while taking my phone out of her pocket to show me.

Once I realised what she had done, my body immediately reacted to snap at her, but I couldn’t get to her with the bindings around my hands. I ended up just shouting at her, which was met with a blow to my stomach with a bat.

“Shut it! Don’t make me go rough on you. Your turn comes after I do your girl. Can’t have you out before she comes.” He said while giggling psychotically.

I responded with a glare.

“Ooooh, scary.” He said while laughing.

Just then, I saw Erika come in through the door in front of me.

“NO! Erika, get out and just call the cops!”

My two captors then turned back to look at her.

“Look who’s here! And don’t you think about calling the cops. Unless you don’t care what happens to him.” The guys said while pointing his bat to my face.

“Call the cops, Erika! They’re going to beat me up anyway. You just stay safe and call the cops!”

The guy then took another swing at me, hitting my chest this time.

“Shut it, you! And don’t you dare run now, girl!” he said before pointing his bat to Erika.

“Erika, run..” I said while holding back the pain.

Despite my efforts to make her turn away and save herself, she resolved herself to stay instead.

Trembling, she reached inside her bag and pulled out a kitchen knife. It’s the one from my kitchen. She must have brought it with her after getting called here by Mari.

“Whoa! What are you going to do with that? Trembling and all.” The guy said.

He then started moving closer to Erika, ignoring the knife in her hand. He probably doesn’t think that Erika is much of a threat, which might be true considering how she’s trembling even while getting her knife out.

Still keeping my eyes on Erika, I started shuffling my hands around forcefully in an attempt to lose the rope binding them.

The guy then blocked my vision of Erika as he moved closer and closer to her, and I started panicking more and more once I lost vision of her.

Then suddenly, the guy shifted to his left, and I saw a shine reflecting the dim light coming from the window.

It’s Erika’s kitchen knife, thrown at the guy, who had dodged it, causing the knife to now fly towards me instead.

The knife landed on top of my head, embedding itself in the wooden beam I was tied around, above my head.

Seeing this, the guy and Mari then started laughing hysterically.

“What are you doing?! Trying to kill your men?”

The guy then rushed to Erika, and swung his bat at her stomach, causing her to buckle on hit, before falling to her side.

Seeing this, I felt my anger rise to its peak, and I started pulling as hard as I could to free my hands, ignoring the pain it causes, but my efforts didn’t result in anything other than hurting my wrists.

Mari then walked towards Erika, still lying on her side, and kicked her. She then started saying things to Erika about how everything is her fault.

The anger was really getting to my head, and impaired my thinking, but when the guy started saying something about Erika and me, he pointed to the knife above my head, which brought my attention to it, and that gave me an idea.

I quickly forced myself to go around the wooden beam. Hopping around to the side, to turn two corners of the wooden beam.

When I got around behind the wooden beam, my arms, and back were in sharp pain after being scraped against the corners of the wooden beam, but I ignored it, and forced myself to stand as fast as I could. Before I could stand all the way up, my hand was stopped by something on the other side of the wooden beam.

It’s the knife that Erika threw.

I then started moving my hand back and forth to cut the ropes using the knife embedded in the wooden beam, and soon enough, I was able to break free from my bindings.

Now free, I quickly went around and took the knife out of the wooden beam.

The sight that I was met with is Erika being beaten by Mari and the guy.

The sight froze me, because I was reminded of how my father used to beat my brother the same way, but when the guy was about to swing his bat down at Erika, I was immediately freed from the trance.

“HEY!”

The guy stopped midswing when he heard me and looked back in surprise to see me free. “How’d you break free?!”

“Get away from her!” I said while pointing my knife towards him in an attempt to threaten him. But he seemed relaxed enough to the point where he was even leaning on one leg towards his side leisurely.

With his bat pointing towards Erika, he told me to put my knife down. Following his threat, Mari then went to step on Erika, shouting at me to put the knife down.

I looked between the three of them, thinking about what I should do.

I tried to observe them to find any opening I can leverage, but I don’t see anything I could do. The distance between us is enough for the guy to hit Erika again before I could reach him.

She has been hit more than a few times already, and I don’t want them to hurt Erika anymore.

But just as I thought about it, Mari then kicked Erika again. “PUT YOUR KNIFE DOWN!”

I twitched at the sight, and almost immediately let go of the knife in my hand, if only to prevent Erika from being hurt anymore than she is now. My indecisiveness already caused her enough pain already.

In the first place, they likely just found me because I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings while walking Erika to and from her university.

Then again, I know they won’t just let Erika go after I put down my knife, so it won’t change the situation.

So, I renewed my grip on the knife and pulled my arm back over my head.

“What? Gonna try the same thing she did?!” He taunted.

The guy had dodged to his left when Erika threw the knife, and he’s now leaning leisurely towards his left leg, with his body weight there.

With this knowledge, I threw the knife as hard as I could, a little towards the guy’s left. It’s a gamble, but luckily enough, he actually dodged to his left, into the knife’s trajectory.

The knife I threw embedded itself into his right shoulder, and I immediately rushed him while he’s still groaning in pain.

I tackled him, and he was thrown back, tripping over Erika’s legs, and falling on his back.

He had dropped his bat on his fall, but I ignored that, and immediately turned towards Mari, who started panicking when she saw how the knife had embedded itself on her accomplice’s shoulder.

I swung at her, and she tumbled back after taking the hit.

Afterwards, I continued the momentum and picked up the bat that the guy had dropped on the floor, and turned back to face the guy, just as he pulled the knife out of his shoulder.

He then turned around, and got on all four to get up, but before he could, I was already right in front of him and started to swing the bat down to the back of his head, causing his face to hit the floor with a loud thud, and he let go of the knife in his grip.

I quickly kicked the knife away, and approached Erika, crouching down to lift her up.

I was still holding the bat with one hand, and pointing it towards Mari, who had gotten up by now, so I only had one hand free to lift Erika up.

I wasn’t able to fully lift her up, and was only able to sit her up, so I slowly dragged her away from the two, towards the direction I had kicked the knife in.

Erika was lying in between Mari and the guy, so it was hard for me to watch over the two of them at the same time. By bringing her away, I was able to have sight of both of them at the same time.

Once I had reached the knife I kicked away, which was quite a distance away from the two assailants, I gently put the bat down next to Erika, grabbed the knife and pointed the knife between the two of them to keep them away.

The guy is still lying with his face flat on the floor.

I had probably knocked him out, but Mari is still standing there, lit a little by the dim glow of the moon from outside the window, biting her lip in frustration.

I then turned to look at Erika and called out to her. Before I was able to ask her if she’s okay, my eyes found the bruise all over her face first.

She then slowly looked up at me and gave me a smile.

Seeing this, I was hit by a hard wave of frustration at my failure in keeping her safe.

The room got gradually brighter, maybe because the clouds outside started to clear up, and I was able to see the bruises all over her body. Mari and the guy really didn’t hold anything back against her.

“Hey..” Mari called out to me.

I turned to look at her after briefly confirming the guy was still out and pointed my knife towards her.

“Rather than her, come with me instead. I ‘m an actual star, you know?”

I shifted to look at the guy still out on the floor.

“They were my fans, and they said they would do anything for me. Not to brag, but I’m really popular.” She asked while lowering her pants, and she started walking towards me.

I renewed my grip on the knife in response and fixed a harsher glare towards her.

It seems to have gotten the point across, since she stopped in her tracks, horror showing in her face.

“But why..? I’m cuter than her, I can sing better, I can dance better. I’m better than her. But why does everyone like her better than me..?” She asked while starting to sob. “I’m definitely better than her, I can work harder than her. But why..? Say.. why do you like her more..?”

Seeing her cry while asking that question would have made me pity her if not for the crazy spree she went on ever since she was still working with Erika. Now I don’t feel the least moved by her delusional thoughts.

“Erika, do you have your phone in your bag?” I asked as I shifted my sight towards the small bag on her shoulder.

She responded with a slight nod.

“I’m taking it, okay?” Without waiting for her response, I went ahead and put my hand inside her bag and fished her phone out of it.

I opened the emergency call menu on the phone’s lock screen and dialed the emergency number.

The call was answered immediately, and I went ahead and described the situation. I don’t know where I am as I was brought here while unconscious, but the responder could track down the call to send cops towards my location.

I relaxed a little once I knew that cops were on their way, and let the tension leave my body.

That said, I was still gripping the knife, pointing it towards Mari, and still propping Erika up, leaning her back on me with my other hand.

Soon enough, I could hear the loud sound of sirens from outside, and it quickly drowned out the sound of Mari’s sobbing.

Once the sound of sirens was right outside the building, I could hear the sound of a car door opening and closing, and soon after, footsteps coming towards the room we are in.

Several cops then burst through the door, with their guns out.

A couple of them turned to me, and told me to put the knife down, and throw it away.

I did as instructed, sliding the knife towards them.

They then asked if I was the one who called, and after confirming, they put their guns down and went towards me to help.

“Can you treat her?” I asked while shifting my gaze towards Erika.

“We have paramedics ready, and they will come as soon as we secure the perpetrators.” The office responded.

I sighed in relief upon hearing that and turned to look at Mari who is currently being cuffed and brought outside.

“Sir, can you walk?”

“I think so, but she likely can’t.”

“Okay.” He responded, then went on to talk towards his radio. “We’re gonna need one more stretcher here.”

Once Mari was brought out of the room, paramedics then went inside.

Three of them went towards the guy still lying on his face, and three others went towards me and Erika.

They started asking us a bunch of questions, and I answered all of them, taking the time to mention that Erika is mute. They responded appropriately and readied a stretcher to take Erika.

When they tried to take her from me, she turned to look at me, and gripped my hand that’s wrapped around her with what little strength she had left.

I smiled, and gripped her hand back in response, while I tried my best to reassure her, telling her that I would still be with her.

After gently letting her down on the stretcher, two paramedics then lifted her up, and I got up to follow after her, but my legs wouldn’t give any strength to hold me up, and I ended up falling back to the floor.

Seeing this, the paramedic not lifting Erika’s stretcher then quickly helped me up.

I could still stand and walk with the paramedic’s help, so we slowly made our way down towards the ambulance outside the building.

Erika and I were then brought to a nearby hospital to get treated.

I have bandages around my head, around my torso, and around both my arms.

Meanwhile, Erika has bandages basically everywhere. She also has some pads on her face, all to reduce the swelling.

While I was getting treated, I also had some officers ask me about the incident, and I answered their questions as best as I could, describing the incident from start to finish.

Once everything was done, the nurse, doctors, and officers then left me and Erika alone in the room. Before leaving, they said that we can leave immediately after the hospital goes through the discharge procedure, and an officer would take us back to my apartment once that’s done.

I quickly got up, and went towards Erika’s bed, sitting at the edge of it. When I looked at her bandage wrapped state, I felt the frustration hit me all over again.

This was all my fault. I failed to keep her safe, and I even let Mari and the guy beat her for a while, while I just stared and watched. I’m no good.

While I bit my lip in frustration, I felt Erika’s fingers brush against my hand.

I looked at her face, and found her smiling at me brightly, which added to the frustration and guilt laying over me.

“I’m sorry, Erika..” I said to her as the tears started to well in my eyes. “It’s my fault that they found out where we are, and this wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t just randomly go out in the middle of the night.”

She responded with a slight shake of her head, and she tried to grip my hand with her fingers, but I pulled my hand away from her instead.

“I also didn’t stop them as soon as I got free. I saw them hitting you, and I just.. froze there instead of helping you.” She looked surprised when I said this, understandably so. “I’m sorry.. I was just reminded of how I used to watch my father beat my brother after he had beaten me, and I just.. I was just reminded of how he had killed my brother, and I.. I’m.. sorry..”

I was trying to hold back my tears of frustration with every word, but it ended up just overflowing despite my best efforts. I had let this happen to Erika, it was all my fault.

“It’s okay.. It’s not your fault..”

I looked up to Erika when I heard that. The tears running out had stopped in an instant while I stared at her in utter shock.

“It’s not your fault, Oliver..” Erika said with a voice so soft it made me feel as if I’m floating, all the while smiling at me.

I couldn’t believe my ears the first time, but now I definitely saw her lips move. Once I confirmed this, the tears started running again, and I lowered my head towards her, leaning on my hand to hold my body weight.

“It’s my fault. I couldn’t keep you safe.”

Erika then grabbed the hand I’m using to hold my body weight, and her other hand pulled me towards her. She brought my head to her shoulder and embraced me there.

“It’s not your fault, Oliver.. It must have been hard for you too..” She said.

Her soft voice along with her embrace caused me to wail uncontrollably into her shoulder, apologizing all the while.

In response, Erika kept me in her arms and rubbed my hand slightly with her fingers.