For a moment, the shock on the stranger's face was wiped off to be replaced with total confusion.
"Eri?" he said. "Who—"
Then the expression cleared.
"Oh," he said. "That's the name she gave you."
I blinked. So 'Eri' was a fake name?
"You're her brother?" Nolan repeated.
Unsure if I should move further away from them or not, I stared at them both in a futile attempt to gauge the situation.
A grimace flickered over his face. "Yeah. Hey, are you ..."
"Do you," he said, his voice dropping into a dangerously low tone, "know what your sister has done to me?"
I stumbled forward, trying to push past the numbing sensation that was rapidly spreading through my insides. Maybe I was thinking too much, but it seemed like Nolan wasn't letting up on him at all.
Alarm bells started ringing through my head.
"Nolan," I tried to say, but his name came out more like a hoarse whisper from my throat.
He acted as if he couldn't hear me.
That was the moment when the guy started coughing, which rapidly evolved into a wheezing noise. "Hey, can you go easy on me—"
His words tapered off into another cough as Nolan seemed to pin him even harder against the wall. He started to try kicking at Nolan, but it didn't have any effect at all.
"Nolan!" I forced his name out.
This time, he finally acknowledged me with the slightest backward tilt of his head.
"Stay out of this ..." he began, but I ran up to face him.
"Stop! Can't you see that he can't breathe? What are you going to do if he blacks out or gets seriously injured or—or—or"—I drew in a sharp breath, trying to calm myself down, but my voice turned shaky anyway—"dies?"
Nolan wasn't exactly strangling him, but the amount of pressure he was putting on his torso, along with the inhuman strength he had, made crushing at least some part of this guy a very real possibility.
My stomach lurched at the thought of it happening right before my very eyes. The French toast I'd eaten scrambled up my gullet, fighting to exit my throat.
I was one second away from hurling up all the contents of my stomach.
"He's faking it," Nolan said instantly. "You heard him—he's Eri's brother. He's probably as strong as me, maybe even stronger."
"Dude, I'm not ..." As his strain in his voice grew, genuine fear stole over his face.
In my panic, I grabbed at Nolan. "Stop, stop! Seriously, please! Why would he fake this? If he really is just as strong you say, wouldn't he stop you from doing this? Nolan!"
My voice was so shrill that it sounded unrecognizable.
I could not be witnessing this right now.
His eyes, which had been staring at my hands, looked into mine, as if he could finally hear the words pouring out of my mouth.
I felt, rather than saw, the tightness in his arm muscles go slack for a second. It was all that was needed for the guy to gulp down air, his ragged breathing harsh and loud in the quiet alley.
"Even if he really is faking it," I whispered, watching him slouch into the wall, staggering away from Nolan, "you can still overtake him anytime, right?"
"I don't know." Nolan's eyes were trained on Eri's brother, who was placing a tentative hand on his chest.
"Wow," he gasped out, his eyes still wide with shock. "I forgot how strong you guys can be."
With narrowed eyes, Nolan said, "That's what he wants me to think so that I'll let my guard down."
"Hey, hey! Can't you tell that I'm normal?" The force behind his words came out weak like a wispy breath, courtesy of Nolan's use of excessive strength. "Do you really think I'd let you rough me up like that if I could stop you?"
With his fists clenched tight against his sides, Nolan glared harder down at him. "Didn't you just try to threaten me?"
"Whoa," he gasped out, putting a hand up in a 'stop' gesture. "Didn't you hear me? I said that this was for your own good. I only wanted to scare you off a little. I wasn't planning on killing you. I'm not a monster."
"You're her accomplice, aren't you?" Nolan stalked closer so that he was looming over him. "Why else would you be doing this for her?"
Nolan wasn't listening to a thing that he was saying. Then again, if I were in his shoes, I wasn't sure if I'd be capable of being more rational. A guy popping up right as I was chasing after the girl who'd upped and disappeared after ruining my life, claiming to be her brother and obstructing my path wouldn't likely to be seen as a neutral party from my point of view.
Determined to keep an eye on his actions, I hurried to stand beside him. At least I would be able to stop him—or ask him to stop—the moment I saw him try to hurt this guy again. He clearly didn't look like he could fend for himself.
The guy shook his head, but his movements were sluggish. "How many times do I have to say this? I'm not doing this for her! If I'd known"—here, he coughed a loud, hacking cough that racked his whole body with tremors—"you've been changed, I wouldn't have stopped you!"
Nolan's mouth had been set in a grim line, but now it relaxed. The rest of his body still appeared tense, however.
"You asked if I know my sister did to you," he began again, this time widely gesturing at Nolan as a whole. "I'm guessing it was this, wasn't it? I try to keep the ignorant idiots who just see her pretty face or get suckered in by her sweet words and try to go after her away because I don't want this to happen to anyone else."
His left hand gripped onto the brick wall behind him for support. Slowly, he managed to stand up properly without leaning against it.
Nolan sneered. "If you don't agree with what she's doing, why aren't you stopping her instead of keeping potential victims away from her?"
That drew a guttural guffaw from his throat. It swiftly faltered as a series of weak coughs took over him.
"How do you think I can stop her?" he demanded, making a downward gesture at himself. "Look at me. I'm this weak and pathetic after you knocked me into the wall for a couple of minutes. I'd be dead if I tried to force her to stop."
"Couldn't you report her to the cops or something?" The question was out of my mouth before I could stop myself.
"Are you kidding me? Report her? Report her when she can literally fly away and never be seen again, and then I'd never know where she went for the rest of my life?" The incredulity in his voice could be seen in his helpless smile.
"And you can't just fly off with her?" Nolan said.
Exasperation dripped off his words. "How many times do I have to repeat myself, kid?"
"I'm not a kid," Nolan spat. "Just like Eri isn't a kid."
A silence fell over the alley. The guy studied Nolan's face with a solemn stare.
"No," he said, after what felt like forever, "Sierra isn't a kid."
"Is that her real name?"
He shrugged. "It's her first given name, anyway. She's gone by so many different names at this point, I don't know if she even cares for it anymore. How old are you?"
"How old is she?" Nolan countered.
"She's twenty-nine this year. How did this—how did she change you?"
"Don't you know, since you're always following her around?"
"I follow her around because she doesn't tell me anything! She hasn't shared anything about her plans ever since I started asking her to stop. There are places I can't follow her into."
"Why didn't she change you?"
The guy gave Nolan a blank look.
When he didn't respond, Nolan rephrased, frustration seeping into his tone, "You're her brother. Why didn't she change you? She didn't seem like the hesitant kind the last time I saw her. Didn't she want you to live with her forever or whatever?"
The guy burst into another round of snickering, but it was just as humorless as the other times he'd laughed. It sounded more somber than anything.
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AN: hope you guys have a great week! happy Monday! ^^ as usual, thank you guys who remembered to leave a vote, it means a lot to me and helps my story out! i love reading your comments as well! take care and drink lots of water!
check out my insta for a sneak peek for ch20! :)
[i'll be back to my normal schedule for Thursday updates starting this week!]