Chapter 9 – Pick a side (2)

At the end of the huge hall, at the dining table, at the man-of-the-house chair of it, Dad sits, with Mom and me on his right, and Sam and Mr. Villers to our opposite. Plates full, with warm and delicious looking and smelling food.

"Oh god, crickets!" Mr. Villers complaints, shaking something away from near his ears. It really had been a few silent minutes… the usual here, actually.

"I sensed a storm coming, but I wished for a peaceful dinner," Dad sighs, while continuing to eat.

"Who really likes silence anyways, am I right?" Mr. Villers looks at me and Sam, but we don't support him, and just continue eating too. Sam really meant the dragons but dads thing, even when it meant her own Dad, wow.

"I just want five minutes of silence, Ivor. A silent dinner is all I ask for."

"Five minutes or the whole dinner? Choose one," Mr. Villers says, and Mom stops eating, and looks ahead with wide-open eyes, as if telling Mr. Villers to stop, which he misses. "Or do you actually eat for five minutes? You must eat each bite, or drink each slurp, enjoying it, as if it could be your last. Take my advice."

Dad wordlessly drops his spoon and gets up. He turns and storms away but… I get a question of if I really saw something just now… and when I look at Sam, I find the same question in her eyes. Looking at me, she asks the question I wanted to… were those tears in his eyes?

"D-did I… say something wrong?" Mr. Villers looks at Mom.

"No…" Mom gets up. "You just said something right. Ivor. But don't… worry. Just eat your dinners, and plates in the sink, please."

"Okay, and I'll do the dishes. Least I can do," Mr. Villers says.

Mom wears a weak smile, and goes the way which Dad went, to their room.

"Wonder how good you both are at doing dishes," Mr. Villers says, while sipping the soup.

"Dad…" Sam sighs.

"Oh fine, I'll ask. Please help your old man doing the dishes he agreed to do."

And this way, after finishing to eat our dinners, we gather at the sink, and start doing the dishes… together.

Mr. Villers keeps on eyeing at the two of us, and finally Sam eye-contacts him, with hands on her hips. "What?"

"Nothing… I just expected you guys to have something to say or ask," Mr. Villers says, looking back at the dishes.

"Well, we want to find Rusty and the dragons. By ourselves. But… you will be unofficially helping us."

Mr. Villers stops, and looks at the wall ahead of him, as if that were us. "That's not what I meant. And we are NOT doing that."

"But why? You literally knew about our curiosity and asked."

"Well, I did… but I myself am not sure of this whole dragon-thing. So no. Besides, not what I expected you guys to ask for. And go to the dragons? Are you crazy? If… no, you aren't going to pick a side or something, Sam. And Max."

"But Rusty…" I say. "Could be in danger. I mean… or not. If they don't k-… harm him… then they should be the… they could not be that bad," I try to explain.

Mr. Villers stares at me, as I purse my lips.

"Oh lord, you really do think… no! The dragons burned a whole city down. That is them. They are violent, and ready-for-chaos creatures. No… stay put. And Sam, we are staying tonight. Me in the guest room, and you in Max's, cause I trust you won't have ridiculous curiosity there. Better not."

Mr. Villers stops talking, and we get the dishes done this way.

"Trust me on dragons. We need to… choose to… run, if they come. You need… you shouldn't… choose to be… with them. Ever," with these words, Mr. Villers leaves us.

"Are we thinking the same thing?" I ask to Sam.

"Maybe, let's go," she says.

We go up the stairs the three adults had left from, and find Mr. Villers close the guest room door behind him, after entering it. My parents' room was the opposite room, and the closet was straight ahead of us. The two of us put our ears to the door to my parents' room.

"…dearly hope they don't," we hear Dad, his voice barely heard as a whisper.

"Me too, lucky them to not know of where the dragons are, or they would have probably… you know," Mom says.

"Lucky dragons, that I don't properly know where they are, or I would end their existence."

"You don't have to, Parzival, you know it wasn't the dragons' fault that-"

"-no… it was my fault. Mine alone. And I know it. Because of me they killed my best friend. They could have killed me instead, and they wanted to kill me instead too. But, he protected me until his last breath and died."

A friend?

"It is not your fault."

"Maybe, and maybe it was his, to have protected me, and believed in me. But, I betrayed him, and got him dead. So well, it is all a fair competition."

They stay silent for a good while. Mom doesn't seem to have anything to say.

"I'm going to go check on Ivor. You don't have to worry, Minerva. And I'm sorry that you must be involved."

"Parz… I'm your wife. You better fucking know that I chose to be at your side! I promised him, Parz. I promised him. Whether I go where he went, or not… he'll kill me up there, if I don't fulfil the promise."

And Dad doesn't seem to say a thing, but right as we hear footsteps, me and Sam go down the stairs, quickly and soundlessly. Dad knocks at the guest room's door, and enters. And back we go again, eavesdropping the other door now.

"I just wanted to apologize," Dad says in an audible voice.

"Accepted. Still… I do not understand to what you mean. But, I think you wouldn't give me an explanation, would you?" Mr. Villers says, and I bop my head sideways: in agreement. He had a point, Dad usually was this way.

"No, I can't; it is a thing I don't want you to be involved in."

"I lost my son, Parzival," Mr. Villers sobs, "I have no idea where he is, and I just can't figure out what is wrong with you. I'm not involved? Like, wake up Parzival! I joined this because you asked me to. You may have started this, but I put my life out for you, and you say that you don't want me to be involved? If I did not have made us weapons such as the para-grenade, or planned so much, you wouldn't have survived!"

Back at that… wall which broke. Was that… that? I couldn't move back then. It sure did feel weird.

"That actually is true, but it's my secret which I don't want you to know. No offence, but, you wouldn't completely understand."

"I can understand that you don't want to, just like how you didn't want us to know of how you found about the dragons. Everyone has secrets that they tell no one about, I do too, so… I'll let it go. This one time, at the least."

"But I'm afraid I may not know where anymore."

"On the contrary… I have an idea. Which may indeed prove to be helpful. I have my research on these beings too."

"We could work on that tomorrow then," Dad says, and the door clicks, making me and Sam panic and move mindlessly. "You can find other clothes in the closet outside, if you'd like. Or just ask me. Sleep tight, friend."

Me and Sam don't hear Mr. Villers anymore, from inside the closet. We just hear a door open, and hold our breaths.

I was still holding Sam's hand, and realising that: I look towards her, even in the darkness of the closet. She was holding my other hand upon her mouth, to stop her panting. But even then, her body seems to move up and down, in this small space.

I squeeze her hand, and she stops, while looking in my eyes. Her eyes glistening in this darkness, from the little light passing into the closet. Her eyes are all I can see.

Sam takes her hand away from above my hand- covering her mouth.

I feel her soft breath on my hand… actually, harder, silent, timed breaths. I also feel her pulse in her other hand. It is… fast.

Sam winces a bit, and steps forward, while gripping my shoulder. She almost steps upon my leg, but steps away, while almost gasping then.

Sam's eyes shake, and find an area of interest, somewhere upon my face, which isn't too hard to guess.

I move my hand, slowly, away from above her mouth, while also, in a way… gazing her lips, with my finger. They were… interestingly smooth. And seeing them, even I could guess why it was such an area of interest… they sure were interesting.

Sam takes a hard breath, and her breathing gets heavier by a bit, anticipating something… just like me and my own breath getting heavier.

Sure was… sweaty in here. We should be… getting out.

Our eyes were fixated into each other's, while also closely spying other area of interest below them.

Sam presses on my shoulder, lifting her body upwards, and I too, move, but lower. Slowly, we reach to connect together our lip-

The closet-door opens right then, and we peck to move our faces away.

"I dearly hope that I'm not interrupting something here," a sweet and sarcastic voice of Mom enters my ears, making me a little calmer. Her eyes move, and find our tight-knit, and holding-hands, poses. "Maybe I was interrupting curious young love. How wrong of me."

I leave Sam in the closet, and step-out, to Mom's side. Sam awkwardly steps out too, after we both look at her.

"No worries, no worries. Not a word. Not until tomorrow. I'll know details tomorrow. Every little… THING," Mom chants in a low-tone, and walks to her door, and into the room.

Sam and I start walking, together, silently, through the dark corridor, to our… my room. The lights were still on in my room, for some reason.

Ah, obviously we had forgotten when we left for dinner.

Sam closes the door behind her, and turns to find me in front of her. I just awkwardly step-back, and make her realise of our held hands. Since when were we holding hands now? Didn't we…

I let the hold loose, but Sam continues to hold my hand, staring into my eyes, in a daze. Not even my lips this time, but, it was hard for me to not look at hers.

I step forward, startling her. And lock the latch of the door.

Sam looks sideways, and lets my hand go.

"Where would you like to sleep?" she asks.

"Wherever you'd… like to; you can. I'll sleep at the other," I say, and peck her cheek. "Good night, Sam…"

Sam looks at me. "Good night… Max."

Sam takes the lower half, and me the upper.

Even with lights off… I couldn't sleep. My mind feels like it had a messy loosened ball of thread… threads. One knotted to the other.

Rusty… Aster… were they fine? It felt selfish but… I wanted to ask them both a question… is this how Rahambose will occur?