twenty one.
"IT'S TIME FOR you to go back to your room. You too, my heroine."
Nathan stared and blinked like an idiot for a full minute. The silence screamed confusion. Behind the Director, Adelaide was also just staring. Probably frowning too.
Nathan was about to blurt out: what? but he bit it back. A split second later the Director was approaching him, and he untied his wrist. Nathan watched. Waited. Once the rope fell off, he quickly rubbed his wrist with his free hand, wincing at the sight of blood-red indented flesh. Let alone the pain.
The Director poked Nathan's side with his foot. "Move," he said, cocking his head in the door's direction. "You finished the six acts and you didn't mess up. Congrats."
It took Nathan a minute to function and another to stand even as he clutched the wires. And when he did, he gave Adelaide a look. What about the surprise? Sure it was supposedly his dad, but the Director hadn't exactly labeled it so far. Or maybe the surprise was that he wasn't going to kill him? A ton of ideas swamped Nathan's head but he focused on moving towards the door.
Something was wrong. Nathan stopped at the threshold and turned around, looking at Adelaide, who was talking to the Director in a low voice. The Director smiled at her. She smiled back. Proving that she was on his side—that was good. But something else occupied Nathan's mind.
"The surprise," Nathan said. "It's that my dad's here?"
The Director stared first. It was a creepy thing, how the edge of his mouth slowly curved into a smirk. He angled his chin just a little higher, then sighed. "Go back to your room. Now."
Not exactly an answer but an obvious threat. Before Nathan could even move, Adelaide had already given him a gentle push on the back, urging him in. So he did. And as soon as he was inside, he glanced back and caught a last glimpse of the Director as he shut the door behind them. Locked it too. Like normal.
Nathan and Adelaide looked at each other, but then Adelaide caught him and pulled him away from the door. To the other end of the adjacent wall, the safest spot from the Director's scrutiny.
"So . . ." Adelaide's voice sounded empty. "Uh . . . I . . . I was getting ready to distract him in case he wanted to kill you but . . . I just, I didn't expect this."
"Something's not right," Nathan said, his eyes constantly flitting to the door like he was scared the Director would suddenly barge in with a knife. "I'm sure. This can't be. He's got something in his head. I was sure he's gonna kill me. Six acts, six foot under the ground—ever noticed that?"
Adelaide frowned. Nathan saw the conflict on her face, the desperate need to feel safe. "Nate, that's what you thought," she said, "but you were wrong. He doesn't wanna kill you. I don't know what he wants to do with us now, but if he wanted to kill you, he would've done it."
"You don't get it." Nathan took a step back. Something popped inside of him, and his heart-rate sped.
"Nate?" Adelaide caught Nathan's shoulder and careened him back towards the wall. "Sit down. If you keep thinking about it, you're gonna panic."
Nathan did as told, sat down like usual in his spot. Adelaide settled down beside him with her face angled halfway towards his. She said, "What are you thinking about? Got any idea what he's gonna do to us now?"
Sighing, Nathan nodded. "Yeah."
". . . Wanna tell me about it?"
"No."
"Oh . . . Uh, no pressure, I guess?"
"Not now, I mean. Give me a minute." Nathan stared at the ceiling, remembering how the Director showcased his bruises to his dad. Dad. He should believe it now. He should hate him now. He couldn't.
Adelaide didn't talk about it, the confirmation, which was a little weird. Nothing along the lines of: I told you it's your dad. But Nathan appreciated it.
"Your acting's gotten better," Nathan said. "Kinda scared me for the second time."
"Not so much acting when there's an actual noose around your neck." Adelaide's chuckle didn't sound quite amused. "Besides, I wanted to convince him. Like, I wanted him to know I trust him. He needs to believe I'm on his side." Then she frowned, twisting her torso so she could catch a better look at Nathan. "Wait . . . Nate, didn't we agree you shouldn't worry about this anymore?"
Nathan nodded. "Yeah. I know. I just . . . I don't know what happened."
"It's alright. I understand."
"Yeah."
"Yeah . . ." Adelaide stayed still and beside her, Nathan fiddled with his fingers. "This is awkward."
Nathan glanced at Adelaide, shaking his head questioningly.
"Like, it's weird," Adelaide clarified. "We sorta said our goodbyes and hugged and cried and everything like we were gonna die . . . and now we're here. Again."
"You cried." Nathan made a face. "I didn't."
"You were about to."
"No."
"Uh . . . Yeah, you were. I saw it. Don't start with the I'm a boy and I don't cr—"
"Stop talking," Nathan mumbled, leaning his head on Adelaide's shoulder with a tired sigh. She shifted under him and he almost thought she was about to push him off. But instead, she just curled an arm loosely around him. The position was more comfortable like that. "I'm tired."
"I know." Adelaide glanced down at Nathan, maybe wondering when he'd gotten so comfortable with her that he'd lean on her without permission. Maybe complaining in her head. Maybe, maybe, maybe. But then she smiled. And he smiled back and closed his eyes, the tip of his nose almost touching her neck.
So they sat in the silence. Resting and thinking. When Nathan opened his eyes again, he shifted his head on Adelaide's shoulder a little, tilting his chin down.
"You alright?"
"Yeah," Nathan said, voice gradually lowering as he noticed the bracelet around her wrist. He had one too: his black, hers white. The ones they'd had to wear since Act One. He'd always thought black was for bad and white for good, but now he realized it could be a reference to black and white lies. Luna lied but she didn't mean to hurt anyone. Dolion did it with full awareness that he was hurting two women.
Nathan aimlessly looked around the room with his heart burning in his chest. Punishment. That was it. Suddenly, he sat upright and looked at Adelaide. "Do you believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?"
Adelaide laughed like she hadn't expected this question. "Uh . . . No, I don't. It's not . . . It doesn't work."
"It blinds the world," Nathan said. "I think Ghandi said this." A long sigh. "That's the thing about justice: what makes one person's heart rest doesn't satisfy the other. Sometimes it's just impossible."
"What's happening here doesn't make my heart rest. You don't deserve this. End of it."
She didn't exactly understand but Nathan went with a halfhearted nod anyway. Then he tried standing, and Adelaide helped him up even with the unsure frown on her face. "Where are you going?" she asked.
Nathan trudged towards the dresser and gripped the edge for support. He hadn't meant to check his face in the mirror, but it happened. The acne had started breaking out again, mostly along his cheeks. Sad thing. He almost destroyed his pancreas for clear skin and now it went back to shit.
What he'd really meant to do was check his torso. Nathan raised his sweater and looked at his chest, watching his ribs, how they stuck out if he leant aside. He remembered how the Director touched him. His chest. His face. His back. Fingertips now imprinted on his flesh. And he didn't want that. Desperate, he tried scratching the area where the Director touched.
Urgent shifting sounded behind him then Adelaide appeared beside him. Nathan didn't look at her. As if in a trance, he kept trying to clean and he almost scoured the same spot on his torso raw until Adelaide caught his wrist and lowered it.
"Nate," Adelaide said. "What in the world are you doing?"
"I wanna clean myself."
Adelaide blinked three times. Then she sighed and her shoulders relaxed. "Alright. If . . . If it makes you feel better, you can do that but be gentle, yeah? And not with your hand." Grabbing the water spray and a small rag they'd found in the drawer earlier, she gestured him back to their spot. "I think you should start with your face. Then your arms and stuff."
Nathan settled down again, and Adelaide sat cross-legged in front of him. She sprayed water on the towel and handed it to him. As he cleaned his face off, he didn't look at Adelaide but he knew she was watching him. Probably thinking he'd gone insane, prioritizing hygiene even midst the unsettlement.
It didn't take a lot of time, the entire process, but it made Nathan feel slightly better. It had to be a psychological thing: just wanting to clean off the memory and the idea. He looked at Adelaide with the towel crumpled in his hand. She smiled.
"See, it's all gone now," Adelaide said as she took the rag from him and ruffled his hair lightly with her free hand. Nathan nodded. Stretching her torso just enough, Adelaide reached for the dresser and placed the spray and rag back in place. "Feeling a bit better?"
"Yeah."
"You're such a child sometimes."
Nathan laughed quietly then said, "I wasn't lying when I told you I act like a five-year-old all the time." The moment he stopped talking, a round of pain suddenly oscillated all over, so he jerked in his place like it startled him. Then he leant back. He shifted uncomfortably.
"I didn't mean it as an insult," Adelaide mumbled, but it didn't sound like she cared a lot about what she was saying. "Nate?" She tapped her shoulder. "If it's comfortable for you, I don't mind. You can lean on my shoulder for as long as you want."
"No, it's fine." With an arm behind his back like he was trying to brace it, Nathan eyed the dresser. Maybe he should grab something to fiddle with. It could distract him. Except . . . he didn't think he wanted to move again, so he just messed with a loose thread on his sleeve.
"Wanna tell me now what's worrying you now? Like, what you think the Director's gonna do."
It took Nathan a second to gather his thoughts. "Remember the first time we met the Director? Our first meeting on stage," he said. Directly opposite him, Adelaide nodded. "When he told us there are six acts for the first time, he didn't exactly say it. He kinda asked me. Like he was taunting me. I didn't think much about it back then but I think I understand it now."
Adelaide frowned, so Nathan continued: "When we finished this act, Act Six, he didn't say we finished the entire play. He said that's how the real story ended. But that's not what he wants. Get it?"
"You don't think there's . . ." Adelaide let out a shuddering breath. "Oh my gosh."
"It's good and bad. He bought time for the police, but it also means—"
While Nathan was speaking, Adelaide had turned towards the door, and she didn't twist back to him anymore like something distracted her. Nathan froze and frowned. Before he could focus on what exactly she was staring at, she looked at him again.
"Nate . . . Uh . . . There's a paper under the door."
With squinty eyes, Nathan caught it too. His heart raced even though he'd expected it. A paper had been pushed in while they'd been talking. Assumably recently, because he was pretty sure it hadn't been there a few minutes ago.
Adelaide stood up and walked to the door, grabbing the paper before returning to her spot beside Nathan. Nathan looked at it. One paper. One copy. It was for the villain only. They frowned at each other, but before either of them could even read it, the Director spoke in their ears:
"Surprise, my villain! Act Seven: Alternative End, Dolion's Death."
_________
a/n: someone please tell me if you enjoyed this chapter or not bc i struggled with it so much lol
Also, next chapter is the last one!
Thank you for reading/voting/commenting ❤️