Fallen From Grace | ✔

Chapter Ten - "City Lights"

               “Ah yeah.”  He chuckled.  I smiled slightly.

               “Pent up anger?”  I suggested.

               “Pent up problems.  Right.  Uh.  I'm not gonna bore you with all the gory details - that would take too long - but I had a little mishap with Marcus.”

               “A mishap?”

               “Yeah, he was mentioned this girl and Gustav and Harmony seem to know but Marcus refuses to tell me or Saria.”  He seemed a mixture of upset and angry.  I was silent, I didn't know what to say.  I mean, didn't everyone have their secrets?  Plus, they never shared problems...

               “You said earlier you guys never shared your problems.  Maybe he doesn't want to bore you?”

               “No, he told me that until I ac-”  Balt froze mid-sentence.  It looked like he'd said something he wasn't meant to or didn't mean to.  I wanted to know.  Something in me told me it was important.

               “Until you what?”  I tried to pry the answer out of him.

               “Until I accept this... situation I'm in, he won't tell me.”  It seemed that Balt had a lot of problems.  A lot which all needed to be solved.  Having a lot of problems couldn't be healthy!

               “Well maybe you should accept the situation.  I mean, his problem and your... situation could be similar.  He probably thinks you won't understand it because you aren't in his position.”  I suggested.  It sounded reasonable to me.  "And if someone suggests you accept a situation, it can't be that bad, can it?"

               “It's not as easy as that.”  He sighed.  I wanted to comfort him but I didn't know how.  An idea sprung into my head.  I inched my hand slowly towards his.  I was doing a lot of bold moves today.  I slid my hand into his and interlocked our fingers together.  Something was telling me that this is what I should do.  I was learning to trust my gut instincts.  Slowly but surely.

               “Maybe you're just over thinking?  Nothing is as complicated as it seems.”  He didn't move his hand, that was a good sign!  He just turned to me and smiled.  I felt his hand squeeze mine slightly.

               “I suppose.  I'll just have to see how it goes.”  I smiled at him.  This wasn't going too badly!  For someone who couldn't remember what their life was before, I was doing pretty good so far!

               “I'm sure it'll sort itself out soon.  Anyway, it's probably not as big as you think it'll be.”

               “No, it's pretty big but maybe you're right.  Maybe it's a lot easier than I'm making it out to be.”  I nodded.  He didn't move his hand away and I didn't know if I should keep mine in his or not.  I kept it in there anyway, it felt comfortable.

               “So was that all that got you so angry?”  I asked amused.  It wasn't that big of a problem, I didn't think but I didn't know how close he was with this Marcus person.  Maybe they were extremely close and this was a sign of betrayal?

               “Amongst other things.  But that was kind of the main problem.”  I nodded.  It was nice being able to talk to someone.  I would talk to Emily but she was always with Harmony or Gustav and her head was always in a book.  Although we'd talk occasionally, I didn't want to get her in trouble by pestering her with questions she might not be able to answer.  There was no point asking Caroline, last time I'd ended up storming out the house and into the hands of those... those thugs.  I'd crossed out asking Caroline for anything.

               I could ask Balt.  He looked familiar to me so maybe we'd met before?  Maybe we'd even been acquaintances?  I mean, he'd told me there was no harm in asking Harmony... so surely there was no harm in asking him?

               “So, er, did we ever meet before you rescued me?”  I blurted out.  There, it was out in the open!  I sucked in a breath as I waited for him to answer.

               “Yeah.  We did.”  He seemed unsure about answering.  I needed answers though.  I didn't want to live another few days having known nothing about myself.  It was torture.  The flashbacks and dreams weren't helping either.

               “Where?  How?  Why didn't you say anything?”  I fired the questions at him.

               “Whoa, slow down there!  Just... one at a time, yeah?”  I nodded, waiting for him to answer the questions.  “When we first met, you were at a night club.”

               “A night club?”  It didn't sound familiar – I had no clue as to what it was.  He nodded.  “What's a night club?”

               “It's a place where you can drink and dance.  Anyway, I came up to you at the bar and we uh... we... clicked!”  I eyed him suspiciously.  He wasn't telling the exact truth... he was hiding something from me.

               “Huh.  Well then why didn't you say anything?”  I asked him.  When he saved me, he could've mentioned that he knew me...

               “You never asked.”  Was his simple reply.  It shut me up because it was true.

               “Oh.  So you don't know anything about what my life was before?”  He froze slightly.  I wondered why.  This time, it wasn't personal to him.

               “Not really.  You didn't talk about it much.”  I sighed.  I was never going to get any information, was I?

               “Of course I didn't...”  I muttered exasperated.  I just wanted to know who I was and it seems I'd left no clues.  Hopefully when I asked Harmony I'd get some answers!