☆☆☆ Chapter 43 ☆☆☆
Anything for Ane
*Daniel's Point of View (POV)*
There was no need to knock on the door, it was wide open. Someone was obviously in the room── heavy metal blasted out the door, and as I walked closer and closer, the more I heard the awkward 'singing' of that certain someone. Joel.
Every step I took felt like needles pricking the soles of my feet, but I had a purpose. I had to see him, talk to him, for Ane. Anything for Ane I will do; anything but hurt her, even if it kills me. Even if Joel gave her the scare of a lifetime and traumatized her with it. Even if I want to shove him against a wall and beat him to death for it.
Reason and empathy have been my sole motivators for as long as I could remember, but they're gone today, for the most part. I could not be any more grateful for that, and as much as I hate to say it, I have Ane to thank; she finally gave me that bastard's name, and I won't put it to waste. The police are certainly not enough for someone like him. I need Joel. I need the closet sadist. I need his connections. Even if it kills me, I'm doing it, because there's a bastard out there sipping lemonade for me to catch and tear apart now. A bastard for me to catch and tear apart to shreds. A bastard whose throat I'll personally cut.
Every single step I took── every single step that led me to Joel's room── felt stupendously heavy, and brittle. So, so very brittle. So many things rushed into my head with every step I took, so many needles pricked at my feet, and every single time it was something new; Ane's words, Ane's trembling self, Ane's fits, Ane's fears, Ane's pain. So, so many things rushed into my head, so much crammed into it, that the scorching heat that swelled my entire face with anger or heartbreak or sorrow or tears or whatever it was that I could not tell apart from anything, had no problem with making me, above all else, lightheaded.
Perhaps my face looked as pale as a ghost, or sickly, or normal, but the lightheadedness worried me── just not enough to keep me from doing what I felt was right.
I breathed in hard before popping my head in his room, and once I spotted Joel banging his head furiously to the beat of the track, I forced myself to come inside. He must have felt my presence, because once I was in, his eyes snapped open and made direct contact with mine.
A grin crossed his face, a wide one, after he turned off his stereo and clumped his hair together into a bun. "Oh, oh my, what a surprise, it's my good brother Daniel! I thought you were messing with me about meeting up an hour back, but nope, here you are, in the flesh," Joel exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "I thought you would never do this on your own, Ane has literally been the only reason you've approached me── oh, well, until that time at the hotel── but I won't complain, I'm happy that you at least forced yourself to talk to me. It's been years, Daniel. I missed you, I really did. I'm a lonely kid, seriously." I had no intention of hearing him out, so I walked my way out of the room to give him that message; I had better things to do with him than talk nonsense. He followed behind. "S-so you're really here! Okay, okay, so what are we going to do? Where are we going? Are we finally going to talk about our lives and bond for a bit, like normal brothers?"
"Stop playing around, Joel. You know very well that I'm not here for that, that I never will," I spat, overlooking his excited blabber and distancing myself from him further. "I'm not here for you."
"Oh, so I'm here for you, then?" Joel asked, catching up to me.
"Yes," I replied, looking elsewhere. If he didn't get the message before, he's definitely got it now. "You're going to do something for me."
"What makes you think that I can or will do something for you?"
"I'm not asking you for a favor, Joel. You owe me, and you know that very well, so you'll do it. I mean, unless you're dumber than you look."
Joel scoffed, rolling his eyes and playing his favorite role: the clueless blockhead. "I owe you? Since when?"
I shoved my fists into the pockets of my pants. I had to keep myself cool, but every step, every damned step, I felt needles prick my skin. "I'm not here to play around, Joel. Do you really think I want to talk to you, especially after what you did to Ane? She genuinely thinks you tried to kill her to this day. She's traumatized enough for all of the gods' sake, and you just had to make it worse. You're a fucking asshole."
Joel chuckled a bit at that. "Hey now, nothing actually happened── you had someone to help you, so calm down. Not a single scratch on your precious Ane, big bro."
"Wow, you're ridiculous. So what? Normal people don't like to hurt or scare others."
"Am I normal to you?" He looked up at me, waiting for me to say something. When he realized I had no intention of responding to that, he sighed and said, "I thought so."
As if nothing had just happened, he continued with what he was saying beforehand: "I don't know who they were── whoever helped you── but they're good, scary good. Did you know that Steve's my right hand man? Nobody can knock him out cold like that, unless they're inhuman. Steve doesn't even know what the hell happened. Neither does Demy. All they know's that they were hit. Was it Jade── oh, no, nevermind that. She's still healing... ha, geez, your girlfriend's got some issues, man."
"You literally gave her the pocketknife, asshole."
"Hey, it's not my fault that Ane used it. You can't blame me for that. Besides, she told me she would've used her so-called 'trusty knife' anyways. She's got a screw loose, I'm not kidding when I say that, and it's coming from me," Joel said, shrugging. His nonchalance made me want to throw him off a bridge. He was testing my cool, my patience, and I was more than convinced that he was doing it on purpose. "Anyways, that's not what I want to talk about. Let's... let's talk about the one who helped you back at the hotel, yeah? As I said, they knocked out Steve── Steve, for fuck's sake! Steve's a massive human tank, so it's crazy, bro. A beast that can knock a tank out like that, oof. I would kill for someone like that. Why not get them to do whatever it is that you want instead of me? Pretty dumb to come over to me with someone like them on your hands. Also, why not tell me a little about who they are? Someone like that, man, better make good use of them, you know? Give me a clue, at the very least. Do I know them?"
That was it.
My hands rushed over to his collar, and thanks to all of the adrenaline coursing through my veins, I pinned the bastard against the hallway's wall. My arms trembled from the weight they were suddenly supporting, but again, thanks to the adrenaline coursing through my veins, I was able to push through. "You disgust me. Don't fucking say that. Don't you dare say it again, you bastard," I snapped. "I'll use you in a heartbeat instead of them not because I'm dumb, but becase you don't mean anything to me. They're precious to me, and more than anything else, they're nothing like you; they're not a sick fuck, they're not a bastard," I continued, holding him tighter and feeling my head go blank immediately afterwards. I had to take a deep breath again to force myself back into orbit. "Where did my brother go, the one from ages ago? Where did that sappy little crybaby go?"
Joel's face scrunched up into an expression I didn't want to read as he slapped a hand onto his chest. "That little guy's in here, trust me. It's just a hard-knock life for him, is all. Uncle Wilfred keeps pushing that little guy around, Daniel. It's not easy, it's not fucking easy," he said, with his eyes as wide as they could possibly be, threating me with tears I didn't want to see. "Heh, what am I saying? You don't understand. You're not the one being forced into a damn band of vigilantes or crime lords or whatever it is they want to call themselves. All you have to worry about is the pretty face of the family business. Must be nice."
My arms gave up after that, and as soon as I let him go, Joel gave himself a weak chuckle. I denied myself from seeing what may or may not be an act. A sad one that may not be an act. One that reminded me of who he once was. I didn't want to see it; no tears, no sniffles, nothing.
After a second or five of awkward silence, Joel was ready to talk again. "I'm sorry about Ane, I hope she's alright. I seriously meant no harm. It's not like that was the point, brother, for her to think that," he said. For a moment I thought it was genuine, but after processing his words and seeing a smirk form on his face, I lost the small bit of empathy I was allowing to sneak into my heart. I had to shove my fists into my pockets again. "It's not like she followed Hilery around and saw something she shouldn't have, right? It's not like she got the idea of doing that from her obsessed stalker boyfriend, right? It's not like I wanted to keep her mouth shut, right? I was just playing around because I'm just a dumb little kid, right?"
I found myself grabbing the bastard by the collar again before he tried to say anything else. "Don't mess with me, you pipsqueak."
"Last time I checked, we were both pipsqueaks."
I held him tighter, ignoring the cries of my arms. "Shut up, stop playing around. I'm seriously not here for this!"
"Okay, okay, whatever, Mr. Ane. What the fuck do you want?"
"I want you to find someone."
"Why, for your precious girlfriend?" Joel cooed. "What, someone looked at her the wrong way? Called her fat or Scarface or something?"
"Joel, I swear, don't cross me. I've been having a seriously bad day."
Needles, needles, needles.
"Oh please, brother. You can barely lift me. You're a fragile little thing── Ane herself could squish you. Let's not even get started on me. I'm a whole boss-in-training, brother. Who knows what the hell I can do to you. For starters, I could make you let me go from this weak hold," he sneered. "But, of course, you're having a bad day. That's so sad. I can't relate, never had one in my entire fucking life. Never cried, never hated myself, never felt bad. I'm just fourteen years old, I don't know what a bad day feels like, because I'm just going through some regular teenage hormone bullshit, and nothing else but that. It's not like my life's fucked up already, not at all. It's not like I fucked up Hilery's life either, not at all."
I held my breath, my anger, my needles and anything in between. "Please, shut up. This is seriously not what I'm here for." I'm trying not to care. I don't want to care. He's taking advantage of that.
"Aw, man. Cursing, yelling, threatening, it's not working, brother. You're awful at being mad. It doesn't suit you, really. Let it go, as you always do."
My arms couldn't take it anymore, so I did let him go── physically. "You're an asshole, you really are, Joel."
Joel's eyes narrowed with a playful glow in them. "So, tell me about who you're trying to find. If you're asking me and not the police, does it have to do with a pimp? Did Ane have a pimp before? You want me to give him a beating? Make him disappear off the face of the Earth?" After a while passed with plain silence, he sighed. "Alright, whatever, Daniel. Here's the thing── I'm not from Florida, if you don't already know, Mr. Genius. I'll give it a try, but I don't know my way around here, don't know how this turf works."
"Florida man or not, I know you have your way around things. I want you to find a sick bastard."
"Oh, so I'm not the only one around in your eyes. It's great to know I'm not alone!" Joel exclaimed.
"Fuck you, asshole. It's different," I spat. "I want him gone from Ane's mind. I want Ane to know he'll never hurt her again."
Joel paused for a few moments, looking at me with an expression I didn't want to read. "Alright, I'll come up with something you can do when I find him, then," Joel eventually said. "I won't press you about the details on what he may or may not have done to Ane, but I need a name, something I can use."
" <*&@!($#> ," I breathed out, clenching my fists as I said it. All of the rage, pain, sorrow, horror, and anything in between pricked at my skin── not just from the soles of my feet, but from everywhere else, all at once. My head was swelling with so many things. So, so many things, that it felt empty, lightheaded. "His full name is <^},_+*&@!?/--;@> . No clue where he's at now, but he lived here for a bit. I'll ask Ane for the address he had here. I'll give it to you."
"Anyone he knew here besides Ane? Friends, family?"
" ...his 'friends' were a disturbing bunch... they did a lot of things to me, Daniel... "
Ane's pain, Ane's horrors, Ane's fears, they all pricked at my skin and it hurt so much. There was something about her eyes when she explained to me what had happened to her that tore me apart, something I can't describe. Something I fear is eating me up.
"I'll... I'll ask Ane for their names," I forced myself to say.
Joel nodded again. "Got it. It won't be easy, but I got it. We'll talk it through later, okay?"
"Okay," I breathed out, covering my face. My head was hurting, and yet it was not. " ...Thanks, Joel."
"What the hell, for what? I owe you, just like you said,'' I heard Joel say from somewhere, not sure where. I was too busy holding myself together. "Keeping what I have with Hilery a secret, aside from other things, is more than enough for a lifetime's worth of service from me. Use me all you want. Trust me when I say Hilery and I are not taking your silence for granted, haha... "
"You can't keep it hidden forever. It won't be coming from me, but one day, Mother and Father will find out," I replied. "It doesn't look easy, I'll admit, but don't misunderstand me, I don't support you. I'm keeping quiet for my own reasons." With one of them being the benefit of having you at my beck and call.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," he quickly said, fixing his throat. "Can... can I go now?"
"Yeah, leave me alone, brat."
And so he did── he left me all to myself, alone with all the needles that were pricking me as if I were a piece of cloth. I wanted out, I wanted to escape, but I didn't want to rest or sleep, so I walked, and walked, and walked. I found myself outside, looking up at the sun, passing by a park, looking past the horizon, humming to myself a song I didn't necessarily know. Trees whispered sweet nothings to me, and the dry wind slapped me across the face. Sturdy homes waved at me, and the sidewalk became my very best friend, if not more. Roger. Ane. Roger. Ane. Ugh, needles. Everything eventually stitched and blended itself together, but I kept walking, walking, walking.
Only the gods and perhaps my subconscious had any idea of where I was going, or perhaps I wasn't going anywhere at all.
Every single step I took felt heavy and brittle. Every single step felt smooth and light, as if I were floating around.