The Tortoise and His Sunrise | ✓

19. Brother

For a moment, the shock on the stranger's face was wiped off to be replaced with total confusion.

"Eri?" he said. "Who—"

Then the expression cleared.

"Oh," he said. "That's the name she gave you."

I blinked. So 'Eri' was a fake name?

"You're her brother?" Nolan repeated.

Unsure if I should move further away from them or not, I stared at them both in a futile attempt to gauge the situation.

A grimace flickered over his face. "Yeah. Hey, are you ..."

"Do you," he said, his voice dropping into a dangerously low tone, "know what your sister has done to me?"

I stumbled forward, trying to push past the numbing sensation that was rapidly spreading through my insides. Maybe I was thinking too much, but it seemed like Nolan wasn't letting up on him at all.

Alarm bells started ringing through my head.

"Nolan," I tried to say, but his name came out more like a hoarse whisper from my throat.

He acted as if he couldn't hear me.

That was the moment when the guy started coughing, which rapidly evolved into a wheezing noise. "Hey, can you go easy on me—"

His words tapered off into another cough as Nolan seemed to pin him even harder against the wall. He started to try kicking at Nolan, but it didn't have any effect at all.

"Nolan!" I forced his name out.

This time, he finally acknowledged me with the slightest backward tilt of his head.

"Stay out of this ..." he began, but I ran up to face him.

"Stop! Can't you see that he can't breathe? What are you going to do if he blacks out or gets seriously injured or—or—or"—I drew in a sharp breath, trying to calm myself down, but my voice turned shaky anyway—"dies?"

Nolan wasn't exactly strangling him, but the amount of pressure he was putting on his torso, along with the inhuman strength he had, made crushing at least some part of this guy a very real possibility.

My stomach lurched at the thought of it happening right before my very eyes. The French toast I'd eaten scrambled up my gullet, fighting to exit my throat.

I was one second away from hurling up all the contents of my stomach.

"He's faking it," Nolan said instantly. "You heard him—he's Eri's brother. He's probably as strong as me, maybe even stronger."

"Dude, I'm not ..." As his strain in his voice grew, genuine fear stole over his face.

In my panic, I grabbed at Nolan. "Stop, stop! Seriously, please! Why would he fake this? If he really is just as strong you say, wouldn't he stop you from doing this? Nolan!"

My voice was so shrill that it sounded unrecognizable.

I could not be witnessing this right now.

His eyes, which had been staring at my hands, looked into mine, as if he could finally hear the words pouring out of my mouth.

I felt, rather than saw, the tightness in his arm muscles go slack for a second. It was all that was needed for the guy to gulp down air, his ragged breathing harsh and loud in the quiet alley.

"Even if he really is faking it," I whispered, watching him slouch into the wall, staggering away from Nolan, "you can still overtake him anytime, right?"