Fall - Prequel

10. Goodbye

Everet looked different now.

A little more human, if that was even possible for a monster like him. I thought I could detect the slightest hint of sadness in his eyes, however, his voice held no emotion whatsoever. Maybe my own eyes were starting to play tricks on me. I'd been staring up at the golden lights on the ceiling for so long that they could've blinded me. 

I blinked my eyes shut momentarily, demanding them to rest and focus. When I opened them back up, nothing had changed. I was still standing next to a man with clouded eyes, lips drawn into a twisted frown. Everet rarely ever smiled when he looked at me, which lead me to believe he didn't particularly like me.

Well, at least the feeling was mutual.

"What happened to the family?" I looked away from Everet and the woman that stood by his side like a little obedient dog. It was the same one as before. Prince had said her name was Aurora—but with her inky black hair—she looked more like Snow White to me. Everyone here looked like royalty with their impeccable designer suits and their bodies adorned with the most expensive jewelry. I, on the other hand, looked like a poor maiden. The peasants were always the ones who overthrew the kingdom, though. Something told me that by the time I left this place, the walls would come crumbling down behind me.

"They found the person who burned the restaurant down and then they burned their house down... while they were still inside of it." Everet said monotonously, looking up from the shot glass that rested at the base of his lips. "It was only after they murdered him that they realized killing someone doesn't always bring back what they took from you."

"Well, at least they learned a valuable lesson—"

"But it does feel really fucking good." He cut me off, the ghost of a smile touching his lips.

It was like a lightbulb when off in my head as soon as those words left his mouth. He went from telling me a story to reliving it with every word he spoke. We weren't talking about someone else's family. We were talking about his family.

Now, it made sense why he replicated this restaurant down here. He was paying tribute to what their family had lost, but more importantly, he was paying tribute to his father. For someone who claimed not to care about anything, it was clear that he cared about his family. He could hide a lot of things from a lot of people, but this was the one thing he couldn't hide from anyone.

It was as clear as day.

"It was your family." I stared down at my empty palms, wondering how someone could go through something as horrible as that. He may have gotten his revenge, but he never got back what was taken from him. So, in the end, did he really get much of anything? It didn't seem like it. "It happened to you."

"A lot of things have happened to me." He cleared his throat, giving me an offhand shrug. It was clear that he didn't particularly want to discuss it, but I wasn't going to let him shy away from this conversation. I looked him dead in the eye, encouraging him to speak more about it. "Many people have tried to knock me down, but I'm still standing tall."

He was.

After everything he'd been through, he was still standing on his own two feet. He towered over me, reaching his full stature. Every inch he had on me made me feel a little more intimidated by him and I had every right to feel that way. Everet Santoro wasn't just a survivor. He was a fighter. Maybe even a warrior.

"You know what you do when someone tries to hurt you?" He looked in my direction, arching an eyebrow. I didn't know. "You destroy them."

"Why?" I tilted my head to the side, wondering how he'd justify taking someone else's life. Even if someone hurts you first, two wrongs don't make a right. Someone has to be the bigger person. The better person.