Now You See Me

Twenty-Five: The Cadaver

I went down to breakfast the next morning to find Marilyn at the table once more. At first, my instinct was to turn around and leave immediately, but then Lucien passed me to go through the doorway and took a seat right beside her. It was only then that I entered, because I was certain that with him there, Marilyn posed no kind of threat to me.

I hobbled to a chair - a long morning spent soaking in the tub had limbered up my sore feet somewhat – and took it, as far as the table allowed from Marilyn. She didn't try to catch my eye or anything, but I still knew she was waiting on some kind of signal from me that I had an answer for her.

Long story short, I didn't.

It wasn't that I hadn't thought about it. I'd been agonising over it since six am, and only stopped at eight to let Mum in the bathroom to pee. It had been hard pretending nothing was bothering me, and I wasn't entirely sure I was that convincing, but Mum had seemed preoccupied with something and didn't notice. She left for work soon after nine, looking extremely flustered.

The worst part of it was that I was tempted.

I recognised the potential danger of agreeing to what Marilyn was saying, and of course I was terrified of saying yes – what would the others say if they found out? Even if I could conceal it, they'd know something was up when I spoke on Marilyn's behalf; it was no secret how much I disliked her. Though the idea of capital punishment was abhorrent to me and could think of no reason why I should resign Marilyn to it through silence, I wasn't so sure my mum and friends would be convinced on that basis alone. It took balls to stand up to a supernatural council, I was sure, especially one consisting entirely of vampires. Yet, the draw of seeing Chris again, the draw of finding some answers, and the insatiable urge to go after any possible solution to my memory loss tried its best to topple my silence. There were no answers for me here, no matter how much they tried to help. From what I gathered, if I got Chris's exact location from anywhere, it wouldn't be from Leia because of her firm belief in my recklessness. I was starting to believe it, too, but it didn't make the bait dangling in front of my face any easier to resist.

The vampires left the breakfast table before I did. As Marilyn passed, she finally met my eyes and pinched her lips as if to signal me to hurry up. Looking at the grim expression on Lucien's face, I guessed her interrogation was progressing further than she'd wanted it to, and she still didn't have a witness to speak for her. I didn't want to feel guilty about it, and I had absolutely no obligation to agree; all I had to do was wait it out.

I just wished that would convince me enough to go through with it. I sat there with an untouched breakfast until Courtney returned from an early morning trip to the supermarket and found me there.

"You're looking morose," she said, dumping the bags by the doorframe. "Something happened?"

"No," I said absently. She gave me a reproving look that reminded me so much of my mother I almost asked her if the bank had burned down, she was back so fast.

"And you think, after you've lived here this long, that you can fool me with that one?" she asked. "Don't be silly."

"Worth a try," I said. She rolled her eyes.

"Come on," she said, "Spit it out."

"It's nothing, honestly," I said, "I just had a bad night, that's all."

"You've had worse and come down looking better," Courtney pointed out.

"Yes, but I've never had a psychopath attack me in the night the week before said worse nights," I retorted. "Just because I moved rooms doesn't mean it never happened."

Her face fell. "You're not having nightmares about it, are you? You need to see Feila if you are, Damien, she can help."

"I'm not having nightmares about it," I muttered. "Just drop it, it's nothing."