THE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS - BWS

nine

William and I spent hours roaming through the tunnels, looking for the creature until we finally decided to climb back up. I was exhausted after such a long night. My hair was sticking to my sweaty face, and my feet were wet to the bone and probably covered in blisters judging by the pain that was coming from them. I felt gross, and most likely looked the part too. One does not hang out in sewers looking and smelling glamourous. One except William. Contrary to me, he looked as fresh and energetic as ever, despite spending all night roaming the sewers with me. His hair was still perfectly silky and tamed, his lush curls framing his face. His skin didn't look dull like mine probably did, and he didn't seem tired at all. He said he was going back home from the hospital when he saw Dee and came looking for me. How was he not tired after a full day of work followed by a sleepless night? Were doctors on some magical drugs I didn't know about?

    "I'll take care of the body," William said when we arrived at the ladder where I had climbed down hours ago. Dee was barking, fully aware of our close arrival.

    I turned my head to William, a frown on my face.

    "Jeez, what have I done to make you distrust me so much?"

    The way he was looking at me combined with his words made me think he was genuinely curious to know. He really seemed surprised that I wasn't trusting him.

    "Why should I trust you? All you've been doing is lie to me."

    "I could say the same thing to you."

    I let out a frustrated sigh. The more time I spent with him, the less I seemed to know about him. There was so much he was hiding that I simply couldn't trust him. 

    "By taking care of the body, I didn't mean getting rid of it," he clarified and relief suddenly spread through me. I didn't know why that was actually what I thought he had meant. Probably because of his tendency to hide evidence and lie about it. "I meant it quite literally actually."

    My eyebrows furrowed again. He couldn't possibly mean it literally. There was no way he could lift the body back up to the street by himself. And I was in no shape to help.

    "What do you—" I started to ask before he cut me off.

    "Go home," he said, his eyes back to their regular shade of hazel now that we were standing at the bottom of the manhole, morning light coming down on us. "You're in desperate need of some sleep— and of a shower." That was the second time he told me to take a shower in the few days I had been in Bath, and I started to wonder if my body smell was really that bad. "And Diana's worried about you."

    How could he possibly know that—

    Just as the thought popped through my mind, Dee barked, making me wonder if she could understand our conversation.

    "How are you going to—"

He cut me off again. "Go home, Charlotte," he insisted. "I promise you I'm not the villain here. I'll bring the body back to the morgue for identification. Her family deserves to know."

    I was taken aback by his words. There was so much raw emotion in his voice I forgot for a second why I didn't trust him.

    With a sigh, I placed my blade back in the waistband of my leggings and my phone in the front pocket before I turned around and started climbing back up the ladder. I was too tired to fight over it. How he thought he'd manage to get the body out was his problem, as long as the body was at the morgue when I'd wake up after a much deserved nap. For some reason, a part of me trusted him, despite my denial of it. While 90% of me was screaming at me that there was something off about him, something that couldn't be trusted, I couldn't ignore the 10% that made me feel attracted to him on another level. It wasn't just physical, there was something else. But again, I was too tired to think about it. Or I simply didn't want to.