The two watched Kai pull on his coat and run put of the door, the walkie talkie Louis gave him in his hand. The door slammed, making Clara jump and whimper away. But at least he was gone. She felt a huge cloud of fear and anxiety clear from her mind as she looked at Louis.
They stared at each other, wanting to hold each other, but not sure how. They felt like awkward teenagers, who knew what they wanted to do but not sure how to do it. That's how she felt at least.
Louis cleared his throat, breaking the silence in the room. "So I have to leave," he said nonchalantly.
"You just got here. Why would you want to leave?"
"No, that's not what I meant. I mean...I mean I'm leaving Kitan." Her breath hitched as he grabbed her hand. "Clara, don't be mad at me. Whatever you heard from anybody is a lie. I didn't do anything to Bradley. It was all a stunt by the fucker himself."
"What?" Clara screeched. "Are you saying that Bradley hurt himself? So you have to leave? Louis, I don't get what you're saying, but I know you had nothing to do with Bradley getting hurt by that terrorist. If there even is one. Is there?"
He didn't answer her. All he did was squeeze her hand tighter and look away. This wasn't good. At all. Normally, whatever Louis had to say, he came right out and said it. Except for that time when he was having dificulty explaining to Clara what Kai did to Aadila. Other than that one time, Louis just said whatever came to his mind.
Yet today, after two days of absolutely no word from him, he's having trouble speaking. Clara rested her free hand on his cheek, and lightly moved his head to face hers. Then she could see it, or at least part of it.
His eyes said it all. He was scared.
"What's going on Lou?" She whispered nervously. She'd never seen Louis like this before. He was never scared of anything. She'd bet anything on the fact that he was being very sarcastic when he got arrested. Louis never got scared.
"Louis, love. Please tell me what's bothering you."
Louis looked out of the window at nothing in particular, then back at Clara. "I have to go for a while," he whispered. "And I don't think I'm coming back anytime soon."
Silence.
That's what filled the room. No, the whole flat. There wasn't a peep, even from the neighbors who were probably listening harder than the actual Listeners.
All Clara could do was stare at him. For so long, she'd been annoyed by his straight forward answers and now, she was begging for one.
"What does that mean?" She asked after some time.
"I've been framed."
She waited for him to continue, however he never did. He just looked at her as if she was supposed to understand exactly what he said. And she didn't.
Finaly, after some time, she threw her arms up in annoyance and shouted, "For what Louis? Just say it already and stop building up so much tension."
He sighed loudly. "I was framed for being in the same 'terroist group' as the guy who attacked Bradley. And in order to keep everyone I love alive and the whole world safe, I have to runaway from this place."
"Is that the short answer?" He nodded. "Can you give me the whole explination please?"
He took a deep breath and let it out. "I guess I'll start with the...um... attack on Bradley."
"That sounds like a good place to start."
He nodded and sat down on the floor, bringing her down with him.
"So," he started. "They were fake. A hoax. Bradley had some people get some paint and make the gash look realistic enough on camera. He did it because, well he knows about Kai. The fucking government knows about Kai. Even Father knows what he can do.
"Father wanted to use me as a way to get Kai angry, you know? Get him on this temper tamtrum that would make him go bezerk, basically drive him to the brink of insanity and to the point where he wouldn't care if he...if he killed people.
"They wanted him to do this. They wanted him to scare people, to where Father would be able to come out and 'save' the people form a savage boy. They wanted to use him as a tool to keep everyone under control. And they need a reason to kill him. And all of us. They see us as a threat to them, and they want us wiped off from the face of the Earth.
"So, if I can explain this to Kai, if I can tell him that I have to leave in a way that he'll understand, I can save us all. I can stop all of this from happening, you guys can live in peace, or at least until they want to bother you again. But-"
"How long will you be gone," Clara asked, cutting him off from saying anything else.
She was staring at the palms of her hands, trying her best not to cry. She had only recently accepted the fact that she was in love with Louis, and now he was being taken away from her.
How could this happen? Could nothing good stay for long? Her boss, who died along with her son three years ago, and now Louis, her Louis, who had been with her for eleven years. Eleven years of complete happiness and joy, was being taken from her.
"How long will you be away from me?" She whispered, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She nervously picked at her nails as she waited for an answer. All the while she kept thinking, Things shouldn't be like this. They shouldn't.
"I want-no I need-to know, Lou."
"If I knew I'd tell you, Clara. Honestly I wish I knew how long I'd be gone."
"Lou I...I don't know what I'd do without you." She started trembling as she felt tears well in her eyes. "I love you. I don't want to know what it'll be like here without you."
"Very different, I'd imagine. But Clara promise me something."
"Anything."
"Look out for Kai. You have to look out for Kai."
Her breath hitched as she looked up at him. That boy. He was a murderer. He killed someone. He wasn't safe to be around. He could turn on her any day now.
But looking up at Louis, with a face so serious she'd never thought that it'd come from him, she knew he wouldn't tak no for an answer. Kai was his son more than hers now.
So she gave the answer he wanted to hear. "I wil."
"No Clara I know you're only saying this to get me to shut up about him, but you cannot clock out on Kai. He's only eight, he needs a mother. I've been there for him, but dammit Clara he needs you."
"I know. I'm sorry. I'll do better." There was a long silence in which both stared at each other. Clara sighed and shook her head. "It's just that I'm scared."
"I know. It's okay. You two will be fine."
"You promise?"
"Yes." She heard the hesitation in his voice. She heard all of the uncertainty, unanswered questions, fear, all in that one word. But she choose to ignore it.
She knew Louis, and she loved him. She loved everything about him. His smile, the way he talked. He cockiness and the way he always seemed to have an answer to a problem she had.
Sure, he could be an annoying, concetied, womanizing asshole at times, but at the end of it all, he was just a sweet little American boy who loved the hell out of everyone he touched. And that's what made him one of a kind. And Clara loved him.
"Hey Clara," Louis pipped up. "We should do something together. You know while Kai's out."
She gave him a quizical look and asked, "Things like what?"
"I...don't know actually." The two laughed and Clara nudged him. "Maybe something that we used to do. Before he came, you know?"
"Oh my gosh that's been so long ago Lou! Did we even do stuff before Kai came?"
"Sure we did. We'd come back here after work, and we'd eat and then we'd watch Bradley together. Sometimes we'd skip out on the show and just read books, or we'd talk about the most random stuff. Remember I took you out for your birthday that time? And we just continued to walk for hours and we made it to Taiya?"
The two laughed, remembering that they did in fact have to sneak into the neighboring country for the night. "How could I forget that? We were lucky they weren't checking flats that night because we would've been in so much trouble."
"Yeah, well we can't do anything that crazy again. But I want to do something with you."
"Why?"
He shrugged and looked at her. "Does there have to be a reason to want to spend time with you?" She opened her mouth to answer but he continued with his speech. "I wanted to bring like a shitload of books for you, but they wouldn't let me."
"What's a shitload?"
"Nevermind that. I just wanted to show you how much I love you. That's all."
"What about me?" They heard. Both whipped their heads around, only to find Kai standing there, tears streaming down his reddened face as Eloise held his hand. "Don't you love me too Louis?"
"How long have you been there," Clara asked, standing up. "How much did you hear?"
"I heard enough!" He snapped at her. "Louis you can't leave me! I don't care what people will think I'll do if you leave! You have to stay!"
"Kai if you heard everything then you know why I can't stay. They'll kill me or something. It's better-"
"Nothing's better than you staying here with me you bastard! How can you say that you're going to leave me with that bitch-"
"Kai!"
"Shut the hell up mom! I don't care what happens as long as you're here Lou!"
Seeing where this was going, Eloise stepped in front of him to calm her friend down. He instead pushed her with his ungodly strenght into the opposite side of the flat. She hit the wall, denting it as she screamed out in pain. Kai stared unmercifully at her before directing his attention back at Louis.
"Kai what is wrong with you?" Louis shouted, advancing towards him.
"Nobody's going to take my dad from me! No one's taking you from me!" His eyes started to turn as red as his face. Fists clenched and face exploding with anger he looked nothing short of a demon.
"You're not leaving me! You're not leaving me! You're not leaving me!" The more he repeated it the more furious he got. The air in the flat started to pick up as a tornado of darkness surounded him. It whipped their hair around, as it picked up thei items in the home.
Papers, books, pictures, lamps. They all were sucked into the swirling black vortex that surrounded the eight year old. His eyes lost their red color and were pitch black. Darker than a moonless night, darker than the pits of hell that seemed to consume him.
"Tu non relicto me. Tu non relicto me." Kai repeated the words of an unknown language as shadows started to circle around him. "Tu non relicto me. Tu non relicto me."
They danced around him as they sung a song that sounded as evil as they looked. "It interficiebantur. Vult occidere aliquem. Currunt. Currunt. Salva animam tuam. Monstrum insanientes enim intra se continere non potest. Tolle moneam. Tolle moneam. Currunt. Currunt. Currunt."
"Tu non relicto me. Tu non relicto me."
"Kai calm down!" Louis shouted.
"Tu non relicto me. Tu non relicto me."
"KAI!"
"NO! YOU'RE NOT LEAVING ME! I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF IF I HAVE TO BUT NO ONE IS TAKING YOU FROM ME! YOU AREN'T GOING TO-"
The shadows and darkness vanished, just as Kai hit the floor. Eloise stood behind him, blood trickling down her forehead as she held a wodden rolling pin in her hands.
Her breathing was heavy as she slowly looked up to Clara and Louis. "I'm sorry," she whispered, completely calm and void of all the fear that Clara showed. "Kai's a little upset that you're leaving Louis. But he'll get over it. I just had to calm him down."
The two looked back at the young boy, who laid on the ground, unmoving and unconcious, dealing with the demons he brought out himself.