Secrets, Deals and Lies

Chapter 2 - Changes

5 minutes later I feel the urge to ask Nick where we’re going but instead he whispers back not to talk.

‘Oy!’ the man driving warns us with that voice of his. ‘And who do you think you are?’ I mock. ‘Stop it, calm down!’ Nick mumbles, knowing what I'm thinking. ‘Why?’ I retort.

‘He’s The Warden of the company I'm working for, now shush!’ he whispers fast getting it all out. I straighten up and kind of calm down for the sake of Nick and Nick only. I look at the rear view mirror and see The Warden glaring at me frowning before looking away to the road.

‘Nick, where’re we going?’ I say one more time but a bit louder than before. ‘If we told you, will you stop talking?’ Daniel asks with his eyebrows up.

‘Hmm I’ll think about it…’ I look him in the eye, ‘nope.’ I mock.

‘Well then there’s our answer,’ he replies calmly holding my daring gaze as if it were nothing and then everything went quiet, even me as I look away embarrassed of my own silence.

A while later it starts to get dark and I start to feel sleepy, I rest my head on the head rest and close my eyes, falling asleep not long after. Something wakes me after a while and I wake up with my head rested on Daniel I look up and felt a flush crawling up my neck.

I put my elbows on my knees with my chin in my hands and then look outside from the front window but I see nothing; just plain black and silhouettes of buildings from far away and mountains on Daniel’s side.

The car stops and we get hustled into a hotel, the hotel rooms big and there’s 4 bedrooms and just a mini fridge in a big lounge in the middle with an enormous view of the city - the window nearly a whole wall side.

I walk into the bedroom closest to the window and Nick next door; The Warden goes in the room on the other side across of me, and Daniel on the other side across of Nick.

In the morning I wake up and The Warden had already left with Nick – I didn’t really care since The Warden’s too intimidating.

I get out of my pyjama’s wrap my towel around me before getting in the shower letting the warm water relax my tense muscles and thoughts.

When I come out Dan­iel was waiting right outside the bathroom door and I almost walked into him. ‘Hurry up we need to go somewhere,’ he says. ‘Hang on, let me get changed,’ I say still walking but only just turning around to face him.

When I come out he leads me into another room a few storeys up and says I need to stay there for the rest of the day – that wasn’t so bad since there was a big plasma T.V and a case full of DVD’s also a laptop in the middle of a table in the lounge.

‘Oh, and you can’t touch anything in this room.’

‘What? Why?’ I ask trying my best to hide my disappointment.

‘Warden’s orders,’ he replies, settling himself onto a chair and looking at his phone. ‘He also said to make sure you won’t touch anything – meaning I have to stay here and watch you,’ he adds looking up and watching my reaction.

I felt like throwing a tantrum but knew that it would get me nowhere so I decided against it completely, my face blank and giving Daniel nothing. ‘Pfft, I’m not 3 years old and I certainly don’t need you to “look after” me,’ I say with my fingers in the air making it look like quotation marks and almost bursting out laughing at the idea.

‘So what’s your name?’ I ask making small talk so there wouldn’t be an awkward silence, even though I already knew his name I still asked for no reason.

‘My names Daniel and yours is Remiah, right?’ he says obviously knowing I was aware of his name and him knowing mine just as much.

‘Mmhhmm,’ I say walking to the giant TV and looking at all the DVD’s in the draw, totally tempted to watch something. ‘But just call me Remy,’ I add a split second later.

After I examine all the DVD’s I start to get all bored so I grab a chair and sit right in front of him. ‘So… how’s life?’ I say half bored to death.

‘Eh,’ he says coolly. I stayed quiet for a moment, wishing he would say more, and he got the hint. ‘Yeah, it’s a’right,’ he replies.

‘How old are you?’ I ask, searching his face thought maybe 20-25.

‘Me?’ he looks up from his phone. ‘Naah!’ I wanted to say but he bet me to it – ‘23 , and you're 15, right?’ I nod.

We sit there in complete silence for almost an hour, Daniel looking at me every now and then as well as his phone; and me looking at anything but Daniel, yet I’d find myself dragging my eyes away from him all the time.

‘Where’s Nick?’ I ask even though I knew Daniel’s not go­ing to tell me. ‘Can’t tell you,’ he answers simply texting someone on his phone. I groan inwardly, ‘why though?’ He puts his phone down and holds my gaze. ‘Cause it’s confidential. Warden’s orders,’ he looks at me with those soft grey-green eyes again and it makes me feel all weird inside remem­bering the first time I met him face to face – literally. I turn my gaze to the floor; shoulders slumped in bored and tiredness.

About a boring and tiring 11 hours in one room, Nick finally comes back at 10 pm. As soon as he approaches he reeks of whisky and burnt metal and wood. I come and greet him as we get in the apartment – and man, does he smell of whisky.

He stumbles a bit walking into the apartment and I ask him straight-out, ‘Nick, have you been drinking?’ I ask shocked and worried.

He starts to mumble something and then I finally hear him. ‘No… no, we were just…’ he stops to swallow his saliva ‘…doing a little experiment.’

I look at him concerned. ‘What kind of experiment?’ I venture.

By now Nick was leaning on me with an arm over my shoulder, his whole weight against me.

‘A-’ he starts but then the light turns on and The Warden walks inside; strong, firm and tough as usual.

‘He should get some rest,’ The Warden says in his deep straightforward voice.

He grabs Nick’s other arm and dragged him to his room, leaving me just standing there.

‘What was my father doing?’ I demanded when he came back.

‘Nothing, an experiment… like he said,’ he tries to walk off already half way across the room with his back facing me, but I stop him.

‘What kind of experiment?’ I push on moving toward him fast. 

‘An experiment.’ He turns around looking at me and before he could turn around again I question even louder to make sure he could hear me soon stepping forward and blocking his way to his room.

‘What kind of experiment?’ I ask once more holding his gaze. He takes a couple of steps toward me and only then did I notice his strong jaw line; his broad, firm face which showed no emotions; his hair cut close to the scalp; and his always narrowed eyes. I stared for what felt like eternity and watched as a silvery light shimmered across his eyes, he went to open his mouth but as Daniel came out of his room and The Warden just walks off before I could turn to look at him again.

I walk to my bedroom and turned around to say good night to Daniel, but he wasn’t there, so I yelled it out to Nick instead but of course no one replied.