Mr. Hodek and His Little Minion

49

Except he walked right past me.

"Max?" I followed him, not bothering to check behind me for any details. I saw his hands were dripping with...something. It became too dark in the woods to see what it was. I'd managed to get a glimpse of his face before he so rudely cut ahead, and he was pissed.

"Max, what's going on? Are you..."

I was interrupted by him stopping in his tracks, like he wanted to tell me, but as quick as he stopped he started up again. I'd never seen him walk this fast in my life. He seemed mechanic, almost. I struggled to keep up, constantly tripping over roots and fallen branches that he'd simply kick aside and leave in his wake.

"Okay. I won't lie, it's kind of funny seeing you this mad. But what the actual hell happened back there." I furrowed my eyebrows as I came to a not-so-good-for-us conclusion. "You didn't get caught, did you? Because that would make this the second time we've been forced to leave here, specifically, and I swear to go—"

"Brian? Brian? And he didn't even keep his own name. They fucking killed—"

He was cut off as I yanked both of us to a stop and gripped his shoulders. "Max. What happened."

I expected him to calm down, or shrink, but there was some kind of black fire in his eyes. His face was contorted in fury, and I almost stepped back in surprise. But instead, I glared and held him tighter.

"Tell me. Now."

He wasted no time.

"He didn't remember. He didn't believe me. He looked at me like I was crazy, they killed him, I know it. They brainwashed him again. It took me five fucking years to find him and now he's dead. I can't do this anymore. I won't do this anymore. I have nobody. They killed my—"

I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a last-resort kiss. God, he finally shut up. I found myself wrapping my arms around him in a close embrace, rendering him nearly immobile. You'd better not do anything stupid right now. I almost started digging my nails into his back when he angrily pushed me away.

I raised my eyebrows. "Wow. If that won't shut you up, you must be pretty mad."

"You don't understand, Hodek," he said, breathing heavily. The color was fading from his face, and his mouth slowly formed a pained grin. "I don't even know if I understand. But I feel something. It—I don't know why, but...I feel like I'm going to stab myself in the chest. Do you know what that's like? Have you felt this pain before in your entire, glorious fucking life?" He let out a hiccup of a laugh, making me take a step back. This is new.

"I sure know I haven't. Not like this."

I glared at him and sighed. And this is not how things should go. "Okay. First of all, do you even know anything about me, or was that a rhetorical question. Second, I'm the only one who gets to do the insane grin thing." I sharply gestured to my mouth as if to prove my point.

"So take a breath and tell me again: what the fuck happened back there. Who did you kill." I paused and furrowed my eyebrows as I remembered something he said. "And who's Brian? You'd better have a good explanation, or I might have to rethink this whole 'partner' thing."

I looked him directly in the eyes after that pretty much empty threat. They were glazed over, like he was looking at something in front of me. Or looking through me. His grin started to fade, like he was just now processing my words. I could almost hear the gears in his brain at work. I could hear everything said within the past 5 minutes muffled in his head. I felt like if I concentrated enough, I could see through his eyes exactly what happened to make him like this.