Kill Me, Kiss Me

THIRTY SEVEN

Keir's wrist slipped to the left, drawing a silver arc through the air with the gun held limp in his fingers. His head turned towards the bright end of the gun, and he did not look back at Theo. He simply stood in the doorway, contemplating the thin tendrils of white smoke trailing upwards like they held the answer to a question consuming his mind.

"Is it really that surprising?"

Theo stood, staring from the cooling body of Dr Hillary to the man who killed her. It had been so... trivial, so quick. That face, still contorted in its expression of split horror, it was as if she was still alive. She could stand up right here and now and continue with her story. She could! But her eyes were glassy and without light, her mouth slack, her hand limp against the dark wood and slowly pooling blood.

Just a single second.

Theo's feet stumbled forwards towards the body, into the penetrating heat of red that soaked his feet and gripped him tight without mercy.

A single second was all it took

"Why?" His voice trailed off.

"I didn't want to hear it." Keir replied mechanically, "It wasn't her job to tell you."

Theo's eyes drew downwards to the Doctor's death mask, and he could not look away from her blankly staring gaze - eternal in the way they could never close, "You killed her for nothing."

A faint breath whistled from between Keir's teeth as he slowly turned his head away from the gun to look at Theo.

"Oh? Nothing is it?" Keir tilted his head, his weapon spinning in a lazy circle, "Where was she thinking of taking you?"

Smiling frigidly down at the corpse, a detached mockery crept over Keir's face. He stepped out of the doorway and into the fluctuating grey light of the room.

"Where were you thinking of going?"

Theo's head snapped upwards from the body, colliding instantly with that almost... bored gaze. The corner of Keir's mouth twitched, his brow jerked, the hand that played with the gun seized like he'd seen a ghost, but in a moment, those reactions were pushed over and drowned. Cold amusement reigned the man's features again.

No more play pretend.

Theo shifted, muscles seizing in an aching squeeze that pressed down against his chest. There was no more play pretend, no more shadow of Murray, Keir was looking straight at him, only at him, Theodore Harrow. And Keir was angry. It didn't show on his face, the man's expression was hollow except for the streak of bitter irony and judgement, but a tremble ran through Theo's bones. They creaked for every step Keir took forwards.

Creak.

Creak.

"Where else can you go?" Keir murmured dangerously, printing the floor with flakes of dried blood.

Theo stepped away from the body and drew in a long breath, "Anywhere but here."

Keir breathed in deeply, staring down at him like a cliff was what separated them.

"What are you trying to do, Theodore Harrow?" Keir did not raise his voice, did not so much as blink, "Do you think you've lived too long, is that it? Is that why you're baiting me?"

Tightening his jaw, Theo said nothing. It was true, he'd taken the risk and truthfully, he hadn't expected Keir to hear... The danger hadn't registered, he hadn't really cared. A chill ran down his spine. Why? Why had he felt safe enough to say those things?

Had he been confident with Keir's 80% for him?

Or was he starting to feel comfortable here?

"You knew she was a spy from the beginning." Theo voiced finally through the discomfort.