Slow Poison

CHAPTER 59

"What? Christopher, are you okay?" I ask as I begin to walk.

"Don't fucking call me Christopher..." He turns around and screams suddenly, making me jump midway.

"I am not Christopher..." He screams again and reaches for the lamp resting on the nightstand. He picks it up and throws it angrily onto the mirror. I look in horror as it hits the mirror and shatters it down to pieces, making me take a step back.

Christopher? What are you doing?" I ask in disbelief as he begins to smash other things into the already broken mirror.

"I am not Christopher Harris...I am fucking not..." he repeats in fuming anger as he keeps destroying his surrounding. I wince and move back when things fly across the room. What the hell happened to him? I have never seen him this furious. I don't know what has gotten into him because he doesn't seem to be his normal self. I am utterly scared now. I need to stop him but I don't know how am I supposed to do it. If he kept going like this, I fear he would surely wreck everything around him in the next few minutes. I watch him being terrified as he pulls the sheets off the bed screaming and then clutches his head tightly.

For a moment I fear going close to him, but then I realize something. He is in pain. He needs me. I have to help him. I know he wouldn't hurt me because he loves me. With that realization, I run immediately towards him and grab his hand before he rips off his hair.

"Stop it!" I pull his hands away and say to him. He doesn't look at me, but I still feel his body burning with rage. I don't know what to do to dampen his anger, so I do the only thing I am capable of doing at this moment. I put my arms around him and hug him tightly. He doesn't hug me back, but I can feel his body easing up slowly. I hold him for a minute and then pull back.

I look at him and place my hands over his cheeks. "Hey, look at me. What are you doing?"

Christopher looks up at me and it feels like he just recognized who I am. "Nicole?" He says scanning my face and I see the anger ebbing down his face now.

"What happened?" I hold his face and ask worriedly.

He closes his eyes and lets out a tormented breath as if my question has scraped open a wound in him. When he doesn't say anything, I run my thumb across his cheek soothingly and let him know that I am here for him. I wish I could read his mind. I wish I could know what's torturing him. He opens his eyes after a moment and I see them turn glassy. "I met Richard today." He waits for a minute and then says sadly. "He told me everything."

"Oh, my god! I can't believe this." I shake my head in disbelief and say when Christopher finishes narrating everything that Richard told him. I place my hand over my head as I sit next to Christopher on the bed in utter shock. "This...This is insane. How could Richard think of doing something like this?" I stutter, looking at the wall in front of me as I picture the entire scene that Christopher has revealed to me. It pains me to see Christopher's slouched form when I turn back to him. I gently lay my hand over his shoulder.

His face looks hollow. If what I've heard is true, then I can't even imagine what Christopher is going through right now. He keeps staring at his lap, and then I hear him speak. "I am not Christopher. I am not someone I believed I was.."

"I was never a gangster. For the past 3 years, I went on killing people, smuggling drugs, weapons, and doing all that fucking shit just because I believed the words of a man...A man who I thought was in my favor." His voice cracks in the middle as he continues. "I can't believe I trusted a man who kept deceiving me for three years. How couldn't I realize it before that he was never on my side?" I stare at him helplessly as he goes on.