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I chew on my lip before whispering, “And we’ll never speak of your work again.”
He nods. “I promise.”
The hold on my lungs releases, and I take in a big breath of air as I look away from him.
Alik is a murderer…
I kind of knew that, didn’t I? I certainly suspected he was a dangerous criminal. This isn’t a huge revelation.
But…
“It’s just bad people you kill, right?” I ask, needing the clarification. He isn’t like me. He still has standards. Some moral code. He must.
“I thought you didn’t want to talk about it.”
I don’t.
But I need to know.
When I don’t answer, he continues.
“I don’t ever hurt anyone for fun. I’m not a sadist. There’s always a reason, and most deserve to die.”
Most.
So not all.
“It’s also never my choice… If that matters.”
I squint at him. “What do you mean?”
He opens his mouth but pauses to think. “I mean, I don’t pick and choose who deserves to be hurt. I’m just given a target and follow orders.”
He doesn’t even know the people he kills.
He really is dangerous.
“What happens if you don’t do it?”
He shrugs.
“Would they hurtyou?”
He nods.
“Can you leave?” I ask, sitting up straight with my hands grasping the table. “What if we left together?”
“They’d kill us both,” he says, so matter-of-factly I don’t consider arguing against it. “No one leaves the brotherhood.”
Thebrotherhood. So itisa brotherhood.
I relax my grip on the table and stare down at my fingers splaying over the wood. A tiny ball lodges in my throat. “I guess you’re doing what you have to do, then.” I bring my gaze to him and look into his red eye, remembering his story. Remembering how unimportant he made himself out to be.
They would’ve left him to be tortured to death if not for his friend.
I believe him when he says they’d kill him… And that he can’t leave…
I reach my hand across the table for him, and his eyes lower to it, but he doesn’t move. “Why did you join?”
