River & Revenge

03 | hulk in a brothel

Ignoring the escaped jailbird, he spotted a table at the corner of the room, on which something that looked like his phone was constantly lighting up. He walked towards it as fast as he could.

Like walking in the middle of the desert on a summer afternoon, his feet seared. He had no idea where the blisters came from, but he assumed it had something to do with his spying yesterday. He had taken his shoes off to ease the noise and certainly stepped on some wildflowers. It was like walking on burning charcoal, in distress he tried walking on the heels of his feet instead but it didn't work when he lost his balance. He simply decided to fight through the pain.

When he checked, his phone contained nothing but random notifications from Google. It was odd, Marco had never gone this long without texting or sending something absurd. He dialled his number and he didn't pick up either.

"What did you do to Marco?" He gritted my teeth, hating the way the man was grinning so casually.

"I told you. Left him where I found you."

"Alright, then. How long have you been out? What the fuck is this place and what couldn't wait so much that you had to kidnap me instead of simply asking?"

"Slow down. Here," he threw a candy bar, which once again landed right at Ander's feet and he shrugged, expecting him to pick it up like a dog. River did this more than often, his casual ways to demean people around him while looking innocent all along. "Around seven months now. Kind of my hiding place? And I'll tell you when you put the phone down."

"I wasn't informed about it." And he really wasn't, if he had known this had been looming over his head for seven months, he'd have prepared better. Possibly, not anything better than checking his back everywhere he went, but it'd have at least been something.

He put his phone back in his pocket, grazing his fingers through his jet-black hair.

"I bet Mom was."

"I haven't talked to her in a while."

"Gave up on her favourite son, did she?" River chuckled. If my brother isn't the embodiment of mommy issues then I don't know what is.

"No, just busy."

"She's always busy."

"Well, she can't always cry about the son that went insane now, can she?" He did not appreciate the imitation, but Ander stood his ground anyway, making sure his face was contorted with rage. "What do you want?"

"Always straight to business. I want you to talk to Jamie."

"Your ex-girlfriend?"

Jamie Hyde, Ander had forgotten about her. The obnoxiously beautiful woman used to hang around his rathole-worth apartment simply for the sake of having a peek at River. He tried to remember something good about that redheaded devil but all that he could recall was being tired of her hoarding free food while with all her father's money, she should've been the one feeding them instead.

He had a theory that she dated him merely to rebel against her father but, if that was true she paid a big price being the girlfriend of a murderer.

"No."

"No?" He repeated and Ander dismissed his hostile glare.

He had to sit down, his feet were killing him. He held the edge of the table to lower himself down on the floor and the wooden surface beneath him creaked again, like a rusty gate swinging shut. He was afraid he'd fall through it.

"I'm not your messenger," he replied when the man on the comfortable bed wouldn't stop staring. River had always held a dreadful magnetism in his eyes. Ever since they were children he could make anyone retreat merely by staring long enough. It had terrified Ander when he first met him—the little kids being seven and nine and, seventeen years later, not much had changed.