I glare down at her as I step further into the small room, forcing her to stand and step back to avoid me touching her. She hates showing defeat, but she hates me touching her more.
“What do you want, Langston? I’m tired of our game.” Her eyes drag up my body in my dark jeans and a fitted gray shirt.
“Really? Then why did you run? You know the only way to end our game is to finish it. Declare a winner once and for all. But we can’t finish the game if we keep avoiding each other.”
She shakes her head as the corner of her lip rises into a smirk. “You have no idea what finishing the game means.”
“Maybe. Or maybe I know more than you could imagine.” We talk in circles, neither of us speaking the truth. Neither of us showing the other our cards. Neither of us showing the other the final move we need to make to win.
“You owe me a debt, my huntress.”
“I already offered to pay you for that debt, even though you don’t deserve it. The arrangement was that I would kill the man, you would just be present to give me plausible deniability.” She pauses for effect. “Instead, you murdered him.”
I pet my chin, staring at her, as she continues to pout and throw a mini tantrum, reneging on our agreement. She’s forgotten our deal. One we made a long time ago.
“Are you finished?” I ask.
She folds her arms over her chest in a huff. “No, but I’m sure you’re going to interrupt me to spew your lies.”
“No, I’m going to interrupt you to remind you of an agreement we made a long time ago.”
Her wheels start turning as I speak. “We were five when we made that deal! You can’t hold me to that now.”
“We’ve kept every other promise we’ve made. We lie, but we keep our promises.”
She rolls her eyes. “I promised to hunt. You promised to kill for me. And if either of us failed, then—“
“Then, we owed the other anything we wanted—and I want you.”
You might think the promise was something silly little kids promise each other—like play getting married or promising to never give each other cooties.
That might be what it was for Liesel. She hunted down a spider in her room, but couldn’t go through with killing it. So she called me. I promised to always kill for her. She promised to hunt down any creature.
It may have started as innocent kids making silly promises. But for me, it was so much more. We promised each other a life if we failed. And we’ve both failed more times than we can count.
I’m read
y for my life.
I’m ready to end this.
I’m ready to learn her truths while keeping my lies.
I’m ready to win and take the truth of that moment, along with hundreds of others to my grave.
Liesel will never know my truth, but before the end of this year, I’ll learn hers.
I watch Liesel closely as she realizes what’s happening.
“You’re really going to use a promise that we made when we were kids to get me to go with you? To take me as your prisoner? To convince me to follow you? To become your slave? To let you own me?” Her voice gets louder with each question.
I’m silent.
She knows I’ll use whatever I can against her to get her to come with me. She can either come willingly, or I’ll take her. She can’t keep running and hiding.
Her chest rises and falls quickly under her stained sweatshirt. She’s considering her options and realizes she has none. She needs answers as much as I do.
We both need answers.