After that day, things had suddenly gone really fast.
For all my struggling over the last few months, I had almost forgotten the key element; Brian himself. It was fairly debatable to presume that the hypnotherapy had done him much good, but at least it had helped his memory. He no longer gave that haunting empty stare whenever Peter was brought up. He no longer lashed out or snapped in the middle of a conversation.
Instead, he became more quite, more withdrawn. We didn’t see much of each other after those initial two weeks. Everyone went to their own place, picked up their own things. Except me. I couldn’t let go. Not ever. Whenever I did see Brian, it was like there was this weird tension between us. He knew pretty well that I was starving for information. It wasn’t like he hadn’t told me anything. It’s just that what he’d told me from what happened in the Westminster hotel didn’t really make sense. It could be that his memories were still terribly scrambled up.
Could be.
He’d confirmed what I’d already expected. That it had been Peter that had been stalking him for a few months prior to the bloody night in that hotel room. That it had been Peter that had grabbed him when he stepped out of the bus. That it had been Peter that had escorted him to the room and that had threatened him into taking the pills. That it had been Peter who had sliced open his arms and had left him for dead.
But when I asked about who Peter was and what he’d had to do with him, Brian grew silent and evasive. He’d said Peter had just shown up one day, apparently just released from prison for whatever reason. Brian didn’t go into detail about Peter’s supposed crime that had landed him in jail in the first place and I had begun to question his testimony right then. I had been able to read the fear and horror in his expression as he told me the story. I knew Brian believed it.
It just didn’t add up.
For one, AJ’s friend had said that there was no criminal record to be found on Peter Robins. How could that be if he had been in jail for seven years? The article Carry and I had found on the internet clearly stated the Peter had been missing for seven years instead.
And the biggest question of all: If Peter was the one that had tried to kill Brian, where was he now?
Wouldn’t he have come back now that it was clear that Brian was going to live?
I had been glad Brian trusted me enough to tell me the story. I advised him to go to the police. I don’t know if he did, but the conversation had done him good, even if it left me frustrated and with more questions. He seemed relieved and ready to move on. Soon, it was like nothing bad had ever happened. We even planned to go back into the studio to pick up recording again. We all were ready for the future and I had slowly begun to accept that there were certain questions that would probably never be answered.
Until that phone call.
April 17th 2006
I couldn’t help the grin from spreading across my face when I heard him belt out the long note like nobody’s business. It was like he felt he needed to overcompensate for the awkward way he moved or talked sometimes, or for the months that he thought we left wasted because of him.
Compared with his movements and speech, his song was almost flawless. Where I wouldn’t have believed we could ever be what we had been before five months ago, now there wasn’t any doubt on my mind. We would rise from the ashes; untouchable in the very sense of the word. The grin was still present on my lips as he slowly walked out of the cubicle, a confident smirk unmasked on his face. He turned his cocky smile to Nick and gave him a challenging stare, “Your turn,” he said as he dropped into a chair opposite of Nick. He still preferred short worded sentences over long ones. It was so different from the long, carefully constructed sentence forming I knew from the old Brian, I still had trouble getting used to it.
Nick jumped up with a lot of bravado and without saying anything, went into the recording booth. Within a few takes he had nailed his part and came out the door with nearly the same level of overconfidence as Brian had.
I smiled, fascinated by the way our old habits had returned. There was a silent contest going on on who could finish his parts fastest and best, just like all the times before. “At this rate, the album will be finished by the end of the week,” AJ said in an enthusiastic tone.
It did go a lot faster now that Kevin wasn’t there, but I figured it was best not to bring that up. I cleared my throat as a means of excusing myself when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I pretended I didn’t see Nick rolling his eyes, quite aware of his annoyance with my constant attachment to my phone.
I opened my phone when I was outside of the studio and saw that I already had three missed calls from Carry.
We’d seen each other just yesterday, what the hell could be so important? With a frown, I dialed her back, impatiently drumming my fingers against the wall while I waited. She picked up at the fourth dial.
“Howard?”
“Yeah.”
“Finally! What have you been doing all day?”
“Recording... I told you yesterday, didn’t I?”
“Oh yeah,” she mumbled, followed by a long silence.
“What’s up?” I asked, slightly concerned now.
“Seth called,” she answered, successfully snapping back to the present.
“Seth?” I questioned dumbly.
“Seth Mackles. You know, from the article about Peter?”
“Oh yeah...” I mumbled on my turn. My first thought was that Carry was calling because she’d wanted to hook up.
We’d been dating for a few weeks now. I had honestly totally forgotten about Seth when we hadn’t been able to find his phone number after finding the article. And now he called us.
“Howie?” Carry said, confused.
“D-did you call him back?” I stammered softly, careful not to let the people in the room next to me hear what I was talking about.
“Of course not! I was waiting for what you would have to say,” Carry stated patiently.
I nodded, then realized that Carry couldn’t see me and cleared my throat, “I’ll be there in an hour, we’re almost done here anyway.”
“Alright,” she confirmed, but didn’t hang up. She stayed silent for a moment before asking, “Are you gonna tell Brian what we’re doing?”
“I don’t know yet. We’ll see what Seth has to say first,” I said reluctantly. It was very unlikely I’d ever tell Brian about the way we went behind his back to get the still missing information on Peter and himself. I told myself that I didn’t want him to get worked up and stuck in the past over this, but the truth was that I didn’t want him to get in our way in the search of the truth. It wasn’t like I was going to do anything with the knowledge I could possibly acquire. I just wanted to know for the sake of knowing.
I wanted to put my mind at ease with a reason why I had found Brian half-dead in the middle of the night that day. And although everybody else did not seem to care about it anymore, I still had to know.
Author's Chapter Notes:
so long time no see :)
I think I finally thought of a suiting ending for this story, so hold tight while I go and figure it all out.
Also, woot for Howie the detective.
I think I finally thought of a suiting ending for this story, so hold tight while I go and figure it all out.
Also, woot for Howie the detective.
