He didn’t hear anything at first, and wasn’t sure if he was doing it correctly until he heard the sound of Rose knocking. Brenden stood up from the bed as though someone had stuck him with a cattle prod. Malcolm heard him mutter something to himself, and watched him walk slowly toward the door. He hesitated, and then opened it.
Malcolm realized that he’d been holding his breath. He trusted Rose, but nagging insecurities in both his head and heart had prepared him for the worst. Part of him had secretly been bracing for a romantic reunion between the two, Brenden sweeping Rose off her feet and into bed and leaving Malcolm to ponder his own inadequacies.
The reality of the situation was much more tense and awkward. There was no sign of recognition on Rose’s face. She looked as though she didn’t know what to say, like a woman on a blind date, seeing their partner for the first time. Brenden’s back was turned to Malcolm, but he was slowly shaking his head, as though in disbelief.
“Brenden?” Rose asked, hesitantly.
“Rose…” said Brenden.
Another couple of seconds went by before Brenden stepped back and gestured for her to come in. He tried to help her out of her sweatshirt. Rose let him, with a reluctant, uncomfortable expression on her face.
“Uh…” said Rose. “I got your message. About finding you here.”
“Good, good,” said Brenden. “I mean, obviously you did. For you to be here.”
His voice shook a little as he spoke, but not from nervousness. Brenden looked and sounded like a tightly wound ball of tension and emotion. Rose sat down on the bed. Brenden seemed to hesitate before choosing a chair situated opposite the bed.
Neither of them said anything for what felt like an eternity. Rose kept looking at Brenden, examining his face and features, like someone trying to place where they knew someone from. Brenden stared down at his legs. He wouldn’t meet her gaze, and it contributed to the awkwardness of the moment.
“Brenden,” said Rose, finally. “I don’t remember anything. I feel like… you need to know that, before anything else.”
“Oh,” said Brenden. “Well. I didn’t expect you to.”
“So…” said Rose.
“So…” replied Brenden.
Malcolm cringed a little, almost wishing for Brenden to find his confidence and charm her, just to make the scene easier to watch.
It’s not a trap, that much is clear. He’s not smooth enough for it to be a trap.
“Can you tell me?” asked Rose. “About myself? About us? You were my fiancé… weren’t you? I remember so little that I can’t even confirm it to myself.”
“Yeah, we were engaged.” Brenden exhaled, the sound slow, almost painful. “Wow. It’s a lot… to tell you about it all.”
“Relax,” said Rose. “I’ll be patient. Why don’t you start with how we met?”
Brenden cleared his throat.
“College,” he mumbled. “We were friends. We didn’t date right away.”
Silence. Far too much silence.
“Are you scared of me, Brenden?” asked Rose, flatly. “Because I’m a spryte?”
Brenden acted like he didn’t hear her.
“Our first date,” he said. “Why don’t I tell you about that? Maybe it will help you remember…”
He turned and looked at Rose. She nodded slowly.
“I wanted to take you to dinner and a movie. You said you hated movie theaters, that the floors were sticky, and the food was too expensive so you always had to sneak your own candy in.” Brenden let out a nervous laugh. “So I said… I suggested… That we go to a drive-in, instead. And you said yes.”
Rose listened. Her face was still, but there was a gleam of emotional longing in her eyes.
“I picked you up. You were wearing this amazing black dress. I thought it was wasted on a drive-in, where nobody was gonna see you, but you said it would just be for my eyes only, then.”
Brenden grinned at Rose. She smiled back at him. She didn’t say anything, but Brenden seemed to relax a little as he continued.
“My car broke down on the way. It had some engine problems that I’d been ignoring. It was pretty embarrassing. We were only just down the road from the drive-in, too. So I said, and this made you laugh, that we should just go and watch the movie anyway, even if we didn’t have the speaker and the sound.”
Rose’s smile grew wider. Her eyes were locked onto his. Malcolm felt a stab of jealousy, but it was outweighed by another, more complicated emotion. He wanted Rose to hear all of this. He cared enough about her to want her to know who she’d been, and what her life had been like.
“So we sat on this hill overlooking the screen, way, way back. You’d brought candy with you, hidden in your handbag. You said something about how old habits die hard, even if you didn’t have to sneak the stuff in. The movie started, and it was boring without sound, so I… did the voices.”
“You did the voices?” asked Rose, lifting an eyebrow.
“I pretended like I knew what they were saying,” he said. “Made up a plot through the dialogue. The movie was like, two hours long, and I kept doing it the whole time. By the end, you were laughing so hard, it was ridiculous.”
Brenden glanced away from her, and then looked back. He hesitantly reached his hand out and set it to her cheek.
“I… think I fell in love with you that night,” he said. “Or at least, I fell in love with the fact that I could make you laugh like that.”
“Brenden…” Rose’s face was uncertain. However, she made no move to stop Brenden as he leaned in and kissed her.
God damn it. I shouldn’t be here.
She pushed him back slightly after a second, not far enough to be out of range for another kiss, but enough to express her hesitation.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “There’s something I need to tell you. There’s someone else that I love.”
Brenden didn’t react at all to her statement. It was as though she hadn’t said anything. He sighed, and gave her cheek another caress.
“This would be so much easier if you remembered,” he said. “If you remembered everything.”
He let his arm slide to the bed, and then reached behind his back. Malcolm stared uncomprehendingly at the object Brenden held when he brought it back into view. It was a gun, and it took Malcolm far too long to realize it and react to the fact that Brenden was pointing it at Rose.
Rose’s mouth formed a tiny, confused circle. Brenden pulled the trigger before she could say anything, shooting her in the upper leg. The sound of the bullet shocked Malcolm’s sensitive, wind enhanced ears, but the pain of that was nothing compared to the pain of listening to Rose’s scream.
CHAPTER 18
Malcolm went in through the window. It wasn’t a calculated move to catch Brenden off guard. It was a line drive, the shortest path between points A and B. It was a desperate, visceral response, and he smashed through the glass without taking the time to consider breaking it beforehand.
He tackled Brenden and slammed him into the wall of the motel, leaving a vaguely person shaped dent. Brenden tried to push him back, but Malcolm was stronger and faster. He slammed his fist into the other man’s jaw once, twice, and pulled back for a third blow.
“Malcolm!” Rose’s voice was strained with pain and emotion. Malcolm turned to look at her. She was holding her upper thigh, trying to staunch the flow of blood.
The expression on her face hurt Malcolm more to see than her injury. There was so much betrayal and loss in her eyes. She was slowly shaking her head, and took a deep breath before speaking again.