Kill Me, Kiss Me

TWENTY THREE

    PRESSING his thumb to the redness below Theo's eyes, Keir stared down, eyes momentarily distant and unfocused, and without a word, turned without warning, face grimacing back into its nonchalance just as before in the garden. No words travelled in the air between them, however, the unspoken command rang in the air: follow, ask no questions, obey.

    Theo's chest sagged as they left the tools behind. Not today, not ever if he could allow it; he'd die first before that. But what was next? He didn't think he could take anymore, this was all much more than enough for the day. And had it truly been only a day? It felt he'd passed an eternity in this warped place, when was the last time anything had been normal? And if he continued to stay in this place any longer, will even the meaning of that word change into something completely unrecognisable? An ache sabotaged the side of his head; just thinking was getting hard.

    Out they went, back into the main room, back into the slanting light which tickled the corners of his mind from their numb sleep.

He was getting distracted, much too distracted. Somehow, he'd made getting away from Keir his first priority. But no, that was wrong, his first priority should've been getting out of this game completely. And what did he have to do? Theo's eyes grazed the white gauge on top of Keir's head. Oh, yeah, probably filling that goddamned thing up to 100%.

But what scale did that thing work on? It was difficult to tell. Where in all hell did friendship lie? 20%? No, surely more than 30% at least, yet just that made absolutely no sense in itself. Alexandr and him, they were not friends, but that man's relationship with him definitely went further than mere strangers. And 100%? True love? That was just bullshit, even he knew that something like that didn't exist and would never exist, especially in a world such as this.

    Theo's eyes followed Keir's broad back as the man slung on a suit jacket and readjusted his watch. That path's been obliterated from the start, there was no way, absolutely no way he was going through with Keir's route. Even if the idea didn't make him sick and clammy, it was simply impossible anyway - a serial killer, a true maniac falling in love with someone? Ridiculous!

    Graham and Elyas? Now, they were wildcards. Graham, he couldn't be trusted at all, Theo's stomach rolled just at the sight of how he smiled so dazzling and pushed him straight into Keir's hell. But Elyas, Elyas, that fox in white, he'd been dissatisfied with the Hews wasn't he? Perhaps... that was someone he could use. Rubbing his chin, he stared into the shifting threads of light dancing across the parquet flooring.

Alexandr Hew was the best candidate.

A high relationship status, a grudge against Keir, and some sort of wit still left, he was the only choice. And now, Theo winced, he was back on square one. How was he supposed to get out of here and meet Alexandr? That probability was pretty much as low as getting Keir to love him.... God, what was he even—

A sharp pain thrummed though his jaw. Keir's fingers wrapped around his chin and clenched even harder, forcing him to stare into those wide black eyes that scrutinised his every expression.

"You're not listening."

A chill shot up Theo's spine, and he straightened unconsciously, focussing all his attention on that probing gaze.

"Don't do that again." Keir said, releasing his jaw and patting the side of his cheek firmly, "I won't be so lenient next time."

Theo gave a stiff nod.

"Good," Keir rubbed his head, "Get dressed, we're going out."

Theo followed his gaze to the neatly folded pile of clothes on the chaise lounge. A red silk shirt, dress pants, and an atrocious pair of what looked like long ruby earrings.