Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Defy and Comply ❯ Lesson 1: Book of Secrets ( Chapter 1 )

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Defy and Comply
By: Melissa Norvell
Lesson 1: Book of Secrets
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The final bell sounded and students poured through the school’s massive, golden doors. They flooded out in a sea of white, black and gold. The only distinguishable figures were those of the student council. Members of Shinjinku Academy’s student council had privileges over regular students. They could wear whatever they wished as long as they kept a professional sense of dress. Only those of the highest percentage of the student body held such privileges outside of the student council. Students poured out into the school yard and among them, Sunoma walked, standing out in her cotton candy Lolita dress, adorned in monochrome tints of dusty pink. White, heeled, mary janes clacked against the snowy stone walkways as another student walked up and joined her.

He always wore a serious expression, and was a straight laced young man that always wore a black military uniform with an arm band that had “student council vice-president” written on it in gold kanji. This student was a full head taller than Sunoma’s height of 5’5 and had short, spiky blue hair with forest green eyes and long eyebrows that extended back into a point just before his hairline began. He also wore a military peak hat, making him look more like a military school attendee than a high school student.

“Are you sure that you don’t want me to walk you home, Sunoma?” He asked in a boisterous, strong-toned voice. Usually, the two of them spent their free time together. So much so, that the majority of the student body mistook them for boyfriend and girlfriend and if they hadn’t thought of them as dating, they definitely thought they made the perfect couple.

“I would hate for you to walk alone at this time of day, and I regret not being here yesterday.” He then pointed dramatically into the air, determination lighting up his visage. “I am going to work on improving my health so that I, Kiyomaru Isata will be immune to the threats of bacterial infection!”

Sunoma blinked a couple of times and sighed in exasperation. “I don’t really think that’s humanly possible, Kiyomaru. I’ll be fine. Besides, I’m not really going home.”

She figured that she might as well tell him the truth. If she didn’t, Kiyomaru would worry about her if he happened to stop by. Sunoma knew how protective he could be of her, and how much he strived to be the perfect student. The only reason he never obtained the position of student council president was because the president happened to be the son of the man who built Shinjinku Academy. Kiyomaru had a lot of talent, and the reason he was inducted into the academy was due to his superior fencing skill. He was noted as one of the top fencers in the country.

Kiyomaru stopped in his tracks and stared at her in disbelief. It wasn’t like Sunoma to act in such a manner. “You aren’t? It’s not like you to break your routine.”

“My agenda has changed,” it wasn’t that big of a deal. It would be no different than going to the store or stopping by a gas station before she reached her destination. All she was going to do was talk to Lamar. It seemed harmless enough.

However, Kiyomaru was concerned. “Is something wrong at home?”

Why else would his friend feel the need to change her agenda and not return home as she usually did? It might have been jumping to conclusions, but it was only second nature to realize that a change in routine signified a disturbance in her life somewhere, and he was worried that it might be a bad disturbance as opposed to a good one.

Sunoma frowned and narrowed her eyes. She really cared about this guy, but sometimes she wondered where the hell his train of thought took him at times. “You shouldn’t worry about it.”

“But-“

The Lolita leaned in, as if to put emphasis on her statement. “It will be fine. It’s not like I’m in danger or anything.” Sunoma put a gentle hand on his shoulder, trying to chide him. Kiyomaru was a very expressive and intense person by nature, so much so that this made him awkward in terms of making and keeping friends. Most of the normal students found him intimidating or strange. ‘It’s not like I can tell you anyway, not with your righteous sense of values. You would never understand my situation. I can’t just say ‘hey, this crack head saved my life and I owe him so I’m being forced to be around him until this deal is up. You’d be insisting that I call the cops for extortion and entrapment.’

‘Kiyomaru’s father is the ambassador for Japan. He has that kind of dedication, so much that he’s his own worst critic and he gets out of line at the most minor infraction. I guess that comes from being in a military based family. He loves the student body and he’s captain of the fencing team. - in other words, no way in hell that I’m talking to him about this.’

“If anything goes wrong at all, then I want you to text me immediately. Do not hesitate at all!” He still had the feeling that something wasn’t right but he also knew when to give Sunoma her space. Maybe she would eventually tell him what was bothering her.

“I won’t. Enjoy the rest of your day,” Sunoma smiled and gave him a friendly wave goodbye.

With a bright smile, Kiyomaru bid her farewell. “I wish you the best of luck, and I’ll see you tomorrow!” He waved as the girl headed off in the direction of Lamar’s location.

They had agreed to meet a block from the school, and as soon as she left the sight of her fellow students, her posture slumped and her visage morphed into worry. ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this…’ Her thoughts berated her as she neared the street corner where Lamar stood.

He wore a black, leather jacket with a high collar, lined in silver spikes just as the shoulders were. A spiked collar adorned his neck and very long spikes jutted from all areas of it. Lamar wore tight, leather pants and a black shirt. His belt carried out his spiked-theme and his black shoes shone in the sunlight. Why did she expect no less from someone like him? However, his style of dress wasn’t the thing that bothered her most. It was the fact that he was standing there, smoking a joint in the middle of the public as if it were a regular cigarette!

“You actually showed up!” Lamar smiled, unaware of the maelstrom that was brewing inside of the little lolita.

Both were deplorable habits to her and seeing such a thing made her hair stand on end. In a flurry of anger, she barged up to him and swiped the joint out of his mouth, nearly making him burn himself. Sunoma threw it on the ground and stomped it out furiously.

“Hey! I wanted to finish that!” Lamar protested as he balled his fists up to his sides and wore a look of irritation. He paid good money for that and he just lit it up five minutes before she had arrived.

Sunoma crossed her arms and closed her eyes, turning her nose away from him with her foot firmly planted on the joint. “What’s that supposed to mean, anyway?” He acted like he didn’t even expect her to come. Did he honestly find her to be a woman of so little class? She was offended.

Lamar blinked a couple of times. “I just didn’t expect you is all.”

Of course he didn’t. She told him exactly what she thought of him, so why should he have taken anything she said seriously at all or hold her up to her word?

Sunoma waved one hand in front of her nose as she tried to keep a suitable distance between herself and the darkly-dressed male. The marijuana fumes wafted from his form so heavily that they were like billows, clogging her lungs at the very inhalation of them. “Honestly, you smell disgusting. You should stop smoking that horrible stuff. It smells like rancid ass.”

Lamar put both fists up in front of him and scowled at the girl. Who did this priss think she was? “Hey! I didn’t come down here to tell you how to dress and preach to you about your habits!”

Sunoma puffed up her cheeks and placed her hand on her hip. “Just tell me where you want me to go.”

The sooner she got this over with, the better.

“I know what you could do as a favor for me saving your life.” Lamar decided to cut to the chase, just as the girl had wanted him to. There really was no sense in dragging things on further than they needed to be.

‘Why did I agree to this? I guess that’s what I get for being hasty and just wanting this guy off of my back. I should have thought this through instead of wanting away from him because he disgusts me.’ There was that matter, and the fact that it was raining and Sunoma was certain she looked like a drowned ghost. The whole day prior had just been horrible. “What?”

“We should hang out together for the whole week.” It was a simple enough task. Lamar hadn’t had any real company in a long time. For the most part, he’d isolated himself from society minus one or two people who came over every once in a while to talk to him. He only had one friend, and due to their situation, they had limited contact. As much as Sunoma would probably hate the idea, it was the least painful thing he could think of, and maybe they could get to know each other beyond the scope of him being a horrible person and abomination to society.

As predicted, she was unamused. “Let me guess starting now, right?” Her thoughts continued to beat her mind for her decision to agree to his terms. ‘I hate irony. I really do. If I refuse, then he’ll annoy me into doing it because he saved my life.’ Her expression hardened. One way or another, this man was going to haunt her as long as they were in some kind of sick pact together. Sunoma could look on the bright side, and tell herself that he could have offered worse things, like a date, or the fact that she’d have to do anything he said for a week no matter what it was.

Then again, she wasn’t entirely sure what he was planning on doing with this little concocted plan of his. For what purpose did he want the two of them to hang out for? What was really on his mind?

“Great idea,” Lamar smiled.

Well, wasn’t he all too happy with the terms and conditions?

She didn’t like this one bit.

“Just…don’t smoke that horrid ass grass around me.” The blue-and-black haired girl complained before the two of them headed out towards Lamar’s house.


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His house wasn’t too far from the school, on the outskirts of the rich district. It was very small, too small for her taste and quite…plain looking with its black roof and dingy white brick. Then again, what would he need a large, elaborate house for? It was only him living there. Upon going in, the house did smell faintly of that horrid substance but contrary to what she thought, Lamar was a pretty clean person. He had few possessions and even the small rooms of the house proved to be too spacious for him in that regard.

The two of them sat at a black table in the middle of the living room and stared at each other for a while, wordless. Sunoma waited for something, anything that seemed like a proper introduction of his house or his living situation but nothing came. He just…stared at her blankly and didn’t speak at all. Was this his idea of hanging out? It seemed more like wasting time and she grew impatient after sitting there for a good fifteen minutes.

Blue eyes narrowed and her frown deepened as she broke the conversation in her usual cold tone. “Nice conversation. Paint flakes have more of a personality than you do.”

Running his hand through the masses of green spikes, Lamar snapped out of his drug induced haze. “I’ve been in the zone. I’m sorta drifting.”

“So, you expect me to sit here and stare at you while you make an idiot of yourself?” Honestly, how boring.

“I was never sayin’ be quiet. You could tell me something about yourself.” Since she wanted a conversation, shouldn’t she have been the one to bring up a topic? Didn’t people usually talk when they wanted to talk about something?

“Why are you doing this? I honestly don’t understand your motives.” They were nothing alike. Lamar had nothing to gain from being around her, or being involved with her in any way. They were complete opposites in every aspect. The more she looked at him, the more differences she saw.

It wasn’t until that moment that she noticed just how many piercings this guy had. Both of his ears were lined with silver hoops, he had a tongue piercing, one below his lip, two rings on his lip to the right, an eyebrow ring on his left eyebrow and god only knew what else the man put holes in. How could one stand that much jewelry? Both of his hands were adorned with gold and silver rings and that one with the onyx stone in it. That was the ring she saw that rainy day that he saved her.

A smirk crossed the male’s face. “I’m doing it to piss ya off.”

“You assho-“ Sunoma slammed her hands on the table and rose to her knees, but she was cut off as she was handed an intricate tea cup with fresh brewed tea inside. It would have been rude to disregard the action, so she took the cup and sat it down in front of her, resuming her seated position. The girl proceeded to glare into the amber substance with a look of skepticism. Small leaves floated around and they were a cause for suspicion.

Lamar frowned as he stared at the girl, staring at her tea. “Are ya gonna stare at it until the shit evaporates? It’s just tea. I mean, I even broke out the fancy shit for you.” The least she could have done was not stare at it like it was going to jump out of the tea cup and eat away her skin like acid.

“It’s probably drugged.” After all, he smoked that horrible smelling weed. What was going to make her think that he didn’t put drugs in other things? Knowing him, he was probably trying to get her high with his special “tea”.

Lamar waved in dismissal. “Naw, shit’s perfectly normal.” Why would he drug her? He didn’t really have a reason to, nor did he want to.

Ice blue eyes narrowed in accusation. “How do I know that?”

“Ya want me to taste the shit for ya?” At this point, he was willing to do anything to get her off of his ass. Sunoma wasn’t cutting him any slack.

“There is something in this.”

Lamar pointed to his head, “yeah, tea leaves. Duh!”

“Could be nightshade,” she spoke but her tea cup was taken away and exchanged for his. He sat his cup in front of her and hers in front of him. Tired of her accusations, Lamar took a big drink of the tea and sat the cup back down in front of himself.

“There! I’ll die if I poisoned it. Besides, why would I save your ass just to kill you right in my house? I woulda rather just let the car do my job for me.” Hopefully that would shut her up, at least for the time being.

Sunoma said nothing; she still continued to glare defiantly at the tea cup.

Lamar felt himself screaming internally. Was there no pleasing this girl? “For Christ’s sake! What now? For the last time, I did not lace your shit with anything! Give me a break!”

“I’m not indirectly kissing you.” Who did Lamar think he was trying to fool by switching their tea cups? It was a clever plan but he failed miserably in thinking he could accomplish such a thing.

He felt like reacting in anger. He wanted to lash out at her, but instead he closed his eyes and growled to himself before killing any semblance of anger within him. ‘Man, she’s annoying!’ Opening his eyes,
Lamar leveled her with an irritated expression. “No thanks,” the last thing that was on his mind was doing anything to her.

He wasn’t that lonely or desperate for company.

“It’s mutual. Especially if your mouth tastes like how you smell.” Sunoma was as sharp tongued as she had been, and it was really grating on Lamar’s nerves at this point. He could feel the last strands of patience being chipped away.

“The leaves are fucking peppermint. I didn’t drink out of that one.” Lamar was going to stick to his story.

“How do I know you haven’t drank from that one?” Now, she was just being a bitch.

“Does it look like I drank from it? Did you see me take a drink?” All he did was stare off into space, and he might have been high but he wasn’t so much so that he had no comprehension of his actions. He hadn’t touched the tea cup because he was too busy arguing with her this whole time.

“I don’t trust it.” No way was she drinking this tea. It really didn’t matter what his views on it was.

“Ya don’t trust me, either.”

Giving him a sideways glance of skepticism, Sunoma spoke. “Do you want to know what I really think?”

Lamar didn’t even dignify her with an answer; he merely glared at the girl from across the table.

“Am I to meet you in this run down building until the week is up?” She changed the subject as she turned her sight back to him.

Lamar took a sip of tea, hoping to calm his nerves, “the week?”

“That’s what you said. Don’t you dare change it.” She gave him a warning glare for good measure. Sunoma didn’t want to stay here longer than she already was.

“Guess I forgot.”

Sunoma carefully sipped her tea, as if it might be disgusting. Shockingly, the tea was very refined. It was something that she hadn’t expected someone like Lamar to possess. Not to mention, the tea was a high quality and very expensive brand that she recognized. It seemed he had some taste after all.

“I thought it was nightshade.” Lamar was quick to jump her case. It was payback for all of the times she had done so to him.

Sunoma sat the tea cup down gently on the table. “If I die, so do you.”

“Congrats! One step closer to trusting me.” Lamar leveled her with a sarcastic, flashy smile and gave her a thumbs up for good measure.

Sunoma narrowed her eyes. “Only enough to drink your tea.”

“Tastes like peppermint, right?” Lamar prodded at her.

The girl averted her eyes, knowing that he had won this battle. “I suppose.” She said lowly before taking another sip of tea. ‘This better not be an indirect kiss. He’s very unrefined, but he doesn’t seem all that bad. Perhaps I can make the best of this week of hell.’


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The next day, Sunoma showed up at the little house at the same time she had agreed upon doing so. Lamar didn’t seem to be home. She knocked on his door politely, but nothing happened. The girl sighed and knocked again. Still, nothing happened.

Annoyance crossed her face. ‘Just my luck. I knock on his door and show up on time but he’s late. He’s probably off smoking that horrid hallucinogen.’ She thought to herself for a moment, and then jiggled the door knob out of curiosity. The door just came open, much to her surprise.

“Seriously? What? Was he too high to remember to lock the door, too? Even if he does live by a lush neighborhood, he’s going to end up getting his belongings stolen if he keeps being so careless.” What was Lamar thinking? Perhaps he wasn’t. He really should have been glad that they had scheduled their meetings, or someone could have gone inside of his house and robbed him, or even worse they would have gone inside and waited for him to come home so they could kill him. Crime was significantly down in their area but it still existed. Being someone who was into drugs, no doubt he had shady connections.

Sunoma went inside and looked through all of the rooms, making sure no one was in there to ambush her, or that Lamar wasn’t just passed out somewhere. After finding no signs or disturbances, the girl settled down at the black table where they had spent time together last time. There was a book lying on the table, one that looked rather odd. It was beaten up and old and some sort of red liquid stained it. The book had no title and she was curious as to what exactly it was. Part of her knew that she shouldn’t be going through his stuff without him giving her proper permission. Such a thing was rude…However, he wasn’t home and she was curious.

Flipping it over, she turned a few pages in. It consisted of hand-written text, like a diary of sorts. The pages were splattered with a red substance. Some were perfectly fine and others were nearly red and rippled. Holding it up to her face, she began to read it.

Someday, I’ll be able to tell you how I feel when I get out of here. I know I shouldn’t be thinking about you at a time like this, but I can’t help it. I wonder if you’re okay or where you are. If you’re hurt or you’re just hidin’ on me.

Sunoma shut the book and sighed to herself, laying it back on the table as she propped her head up with one hand and stared at his flat screen television. She was most displeased with her findings. “Bunch of sentimental rubbish. Pathetic.”

As much as she wanted to continue to complain, she found herself going back to the pages of the book. As she was the seventh page in, Sunoma spied one entry that caught her off guard with its text.

Someday, I’ll wake up from this fuckin’ nightmare.

Her eyes widened as she held the book close to her face, scanning over the entry over and over again. “What the hell?” Sunoma uttered in disbelief as she flipped the page. A part of her wanted to stop reading, but a part of her was so engrossed in the train wreck before her that she couldn’t stop. The text was horrifying to read. It made her feel sick and sad but still, she read on, entranced by the book’s contents.

Did ya ever just…wonder what it was like to die? Did ya ever just think that putting someone out of their misery meant bringing them into a world of pain?

I can feel it, man. I can feel it all around me. I’m outta touch. Nothing makes sense anymore. What does right and wrong even mean in this place? I feel like I’m dizzy as shit. Like I was tossed around in a whirlwind, it’s spinnin’ big time.

I am crazy.

I’m a fucking psycho. I need to go into an institution. If I ever get out of here I’m goin’ straight to one. It’ll be for my own good. If I don’t make it out, I want everyone to know how this went down. I’ll say what I can given my mental state.

I keep having nightmares. Every time I go to sleep, the screams wake me up. Everyone here, just screaming. I can’t take it anymore! It slowly drove me crazy. Eventually, they’ll all see me in a bad light.
You can’t avoid it in this fucked up place. Here, you’re doomed to be betrayed by your friends, by those you once shared happy memories with. No one can help you. They just say they’re sorry. They aren’t sorry. They’ll just try to kill my ass when I ain’t lookin’.

I gotta get outta here, even if it means me or them. I’m gonna find the sick fuck who brought me here and kill them.

I hear something coming.

I think its Kazoo. What if I can attack him? I’ll just kill him and get it over with. Someone has to end this hell.

Sunoma paused. She couldn’t stand to read anything more. Shock and fear rushed through her body, paralyzing her in place as she sat there with a horrified expression on her face. Blue pupils had shrunken to the size of pennies, her skin was a lighter shade of pale and her hands shook as the spine of the book hit the metal surface of the table. ‘What did I just find? What is the meaning of this? Did he…kill someone? What’s going on? Why exactly did he bring me here? Is he planning on killing me?’

The questions rushed through her head at light speed. Maybe Lamar was a serial killer and she’d been caught up in his plans somehow. Maybe he needed her to commit a murder, to pry information out of. Maybe he-

Her thoughts were cut off by the door shutting. Startled, Sunoma slammed the book shut and positioned it away from herself in a hurry. The girl felt her heart flutter as Lamar’s voice sounded with a ‘you showed up’ that caused her to jump and place her hand to her chest. Her heart was pounding with such force that she thought it was going to break through her sternum and land on the table top.

Putting on her poker face, she mentally prepared herself as she spoke back in her usual tone. “Are you really that shocked?” After all, Sunoma did show up at his house the day before. Lamar should have been used to her by now.

“I didn’t think you’d show. I hope I didn’t keep ya waiting.” The green-haired man was as pleasant as ever, as if he was a perfectly normal person. Sunoma was very suspicious of him, now more than ever Lamar was beginning to fit the description of a mad man and a lowlife.

“I’ve been here a while.” Sunoma looked at him as he walked around and sat across from her in his usual spot. She noticed that his right hand had been bandaged. The red seeped through his bandages, which only meant he was badly wounded, but why.

“Are you alright?” She decided to bring it to her attention. He wasn’t going to get away with anything, not now. Even if she ended up dead, Sunoma wanted to find out what was going on, and what was written in that book of his.

“What’s it to ya?” Lamar asked, a little on the defensive side. He leveled her with a slightly irritated expression.

Sunoma averted her eyes and frowned. “It’s nothing to me. I never knew you kept diaries.” Her eyes reverted to the black book on the table.

Lamar scratched the top of his head. He furrowed his eyebrows and glanced away from her, causing his visage to become contorted with anger. “It ain’t that.”

Sunoma rested her chin in her hands with a slight smile. Perfect. She had him where she wanted him, and now he was being defensive about the book. It was the most opportune time to pin him where she wanted him. “You look rather angry that I brought it up.”

Lamar said nothing in his defense.

She leaned in with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. The girl’s visage nearly looked evil. “Did I say something wrong?” Sunoma taunted him with her emphasized curiosity.

“Frankly, it’s not your business,” Lamar reached over and grabbed the book, throwing it across the room with great upper body strength. It sailed through the air with fluttering pages as it smacked against the wall and dropped into a small trashcan.

Quietly, Sunoma rose and walked over to the trashcan, retrieving the book and holding it to her chest with a placid smile. “Do you have to overreact like a child?” She asked, shaking her head as she returned to the table and sat back down. Blue eyes gazed up at him with a teasing expression as she laid the book down and her long fingers traced the edges of the cover, threatening to flip it open. “If you really think it’s so trite then…” The lolita trailed off, flipping it open only to have it slammed shut by Lamar, who practically dove over the table to keep her from reading it.

“Someone has a guilty conscience,” she teased him further, knowing that she was more than likely dancing with death at this moment in time. Sunoma had to prod him, even if it meant sacrificing herself for the greater good. Whatever Lamar was hiding would end here. ‘I believe this game just got turned around. I wonder how far I can push him. Even if I die, I’m curious. This whole situation is fishy and I don’t intend on backing down.’

“Stop prying!” Lamar shouted and grabbed the book.

Sunoma grabbed the other end. “What’s the big secret?”

“None of your business,” Lamar shot as he pulled on the book.

Sunoma smirked as she pulled it back in her direction. “What are you hiding?”

“Fuck off!”

“I’m going to find out what you don’t want me to see.” The girl lied, jerking the book back with all of her might.

“Let go!” Lamar demanded as they struggled in a tug of war, each using the utmost strength to keep it away from the other.

“You’re tellin’ me.”

“Give me that book!” Sunoma demanded in a fit of frustration as she leaned her body back, putting extra force into her fight. She hoped that it would have done the trick, but Lamar had powerful arms. Lamar pulled the book back in his direction which caused Sunoma to jolt forward. There was only one way to remedy this, and that was to pry his hands off of it.

Digging her fingernails into his hands, the lolita tried to separate his limbs from the book. The look on Lamar’s face only became guiltier. His eyes were widened and pupils small as pin pricks, white teeth were bore and his visage was marred in a mask of anger as beads of sweat rolled down his face.

“Why are you doing this?” Lamar asked, sounding more frightened than angry, much like a puppy who felt back into a corner and had to rely on appearing tough as it’s only defense.

“I want to know what you’re hiding.”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t,” that answer was enough to make Lamar become twice as defensive about it. The secrets contained in those pages weren’t meant for her to read, not if she wasn’t going to care about them. Lamar didn’t want any part of someone so cold, nor did he trust her with the gritty details of his checkered past.

“Then let go!” He shouted as Sunoma jerked the book back towards herself in a final burst of strength that knocked Lamar off balance. The book slipped out of his hands and he did a belly flop on the metal table. With a loud bang, his body impacted it with such force that the tea cups fell over and spilled their contents into the floor.

The lolita looked at him with the book in her hands and flipped it open.

“Please, don’t read it…” A small, defeated and emotional sentence poured from the dark man’s mouth as he rose from the table.

She looked over at him. ‘Is he begging me?’ Lamar’s visage was nervous and frantic. He looked scared out of his mind. To be honest, he was rather pathetic-looking but in retrospect, she felt a little sorry for him. This was undoubtedly a cruel way to go about things, but it was for the best. Sunoma couldn’t let herself give in to this man’s sly whims.

“I already have.”

Those words hit him like a brick to the face. He stood there, stock-still with a horrified expression. His mouth was agape and his eyes were wide, green eyebrows slanted up, creased in pain and sorrow as his sweat production was more prominent. He said nothing at first. He just stood there in shock and disbelief.

Sunoma shut the book and looked down on it. “I read it while you were out. You left it on the table for the world to see and I was bored so I read it.” Her explanation sounded cruel, but it was the truth. If Lamar valued it so much, then he should have put it up.

Tears ran down Lamar’s pale skin as he continued to stand there. “No…” he uttered as he felt himself fall apart. That book was the one foundation he had, and the heart breaking realization that his foundation was made of sand broke him down. The flashbacks of his misdeeds in the past tore at him, exposing his wounded heart for that girl to see.

Lamar reeled back, grabbing his hair on either side of his head as his face tinted in blue. He stepped back, thrashing around as if he was going through torture and at that moment, he was. The green-haired man continued to chant ‘no’ over and over again, each time he got more emotional, louder and more hysterical. “Man, why would you do that?” He bellowed out, clenching at his hair so much his knuckles turned white.

This wasn’t the reaction Sunoma had expected. She just stood there and blinked a couple of times, not really knowing what to do or how to deal with him. ‘Is he…crying?’ Sunoma was satisfied that she had broken him down, but she wasn’t sure how happy she was that he flipped out on her and turned into a wailing banshee. His mental anguish over the situation made her feel a little sick to her stomach. “Look…I…”

There was nothing she could do beyond this point. She had pretty much made this guy as miserable as he would ever be. Sitting the book on the table, she felt her heart sink as Lamar continued to chant ‘no’ over and over again to himself through choked sobs.

The girl gave him a half-hearted look. ‘Why do I care about him now? I have enough about him that I could actually do something. I could get out of this situation. I could call the police. He killed people and now he’s crying out of guilt. I feel like there’s more to it than that. Just what is up with this lunatic? It may be beneficial to know these things from him directly instead of reading them from the book.’ Thinking to herself for a moment, Sunoma walked up to him and watched as he continued to cry and act as if he had physically been pained. She had never heard anyone filled with so much despair before.

‘What am I doing? He’s a low-life drug addict. People like him are the scum on the bottom of the shoe of society.’ Despite her thoughts, she placed a hand on his shoulder, being sure to avoid the spikes of his jacket.
Lamar shot away, recoiling. “Don’t touch me!” He shouted out of instinct. However, the fear in his voice was real.

Sunoma quickly drew her hand back just in time. It was nearly impaled on those spikes. “It could be a work of fiction for all I knew. You made this situation real by falling apart like this.” Honestly, it really did just incriminate him beyond a shadow of a doubt. She attempted to reach out to him again in order to calm him down.

“I said don’t touch me!” Lamar called out hysterically and swung at her, only for his hand to stop inches from her face. A loud smack rung through the air with such force that Lamar’s jaw popped. His head snapped to the side as the tears flew from his face. He turned back to look at her with eyes widened in shock as he put his hand down to his side.

Sunoma placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. “I will not be your personal punching bag. It’s rude to strike someone you saved. Get a hold of yourself. It’s undignified.” She preached at him. He needed to hear it. If he didn’t he would keep acting out of line and do who knew what with his unrestrained emotions.

“So what if I’m undignified?” He shot back, his voice still filled with unpredictability and fright was projected as anger. “I got nothing to hide. You probably think I’m some killer. Go ahead. You don’t know the circumstances, and it’s not like you could ever even if I told you what was going on.” Lamar wasn’t going to try and defend himself. He wasn’t going to say that he didn’t kill them on purpose or at all, because neither claim was true.

“I only read one page. I know I could never understand what it’s like to kill someone, but you obviously regret it. To be truthful, I don’t know what to think…but you don’t want to kill me, right? You wouldn’t have saved me like you told me before. So, why do you keep me alive? That’s the true question. What do you want from me? Do you need me for something?” It was more than a per chance that the two of them met. For some reason, Sunoma felt like she was singled out by this man. This man who held so much pain, anger and regret over his misdeeds of the past.

She wanted to know the truth.



…To Be Continued