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“Keep my sister’s name out of your fucking mouth,” I say.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” The mask slips momentarily, revealing his true self. “It’s no wonder she couldn’t trust you. You’re a fucking asshole.”

I remove the knife from his thigh. He screams again, his teeth clenched together so tightly that the veins on his neck bulge against his skin.

He takes deep breaths to compose himself.

I don’t think he knows how much he’s messing with my head right now.

The guilt of not being there for Sera is worse than ever. I should have been the one to help her. I should have been someone she could rely on.

But instead, she was made to feel like she didn’t have anyone in this world.

“It’s true, I swear,” Richard says. “Alaric tried to get rid of me so he could be with her. He wanted her the whole time, and taking me out of the picture was the only way to achieve it. He wanted to play the hero to the damsel in distress.”

There’s a flare of hot anger in his eyes. He might be acting right now, but some of his emotion is real.

I remember what Alaric told me. Richard knew that my sister went to Alaric for help. That must have really bruised his big ego.

“So it has nothing to do with the fact that my sister wanted to leave you?” I ask.

“She would never leave me,” he says. “We loved each other.”

“You never loved her. You only loved having control over her. You loved that she was crazy about you.”

“Look, we had our issues, but it was never anything we couldn’t fix,” he says.

“I read her diary, you son of a bitch,” I say. “I knew exactly what you did to her.”

He’s putting on an Oscar-worthy performance, but I’m not falling for it.

“I lose control sometimes,” he says, looking up at me. “I’m sure that you can relate.”

“You and I are not the same, motherfucker. I would never raise my hand on a woman,” I say.

“I never meant to,” he says. “It was a mistake.”

It’s taking every ounce of control inside me to keep myself from ripping this man to shreds. It would feel so good to have his blood on my hands. It’ll make me feel like I was born again.

But I hold back.

Because he has something I need.

“I know you’re not a complete idiot,” I say. “You know there’s only one reason you’re alive right now. Tell me what I want to hear.”

“Your friend is the one who tried to kill me,” he says. “He’s the one you should be questioning, not me. He wanted to have Sera all to himself.”

I throw the knife at him this time. It slices into his abdomen.

It must hit a major artery because he passes out within seconds.

“I told you not to say her name out loud,” I whisper, watching the man bleed out. The spot of blood grows on his shirt, spreading quickly.

I hear footsteps from behind me.

“Dude, I was gone for ten minutes,” Alaric says. “Did you kill him?”

“He’s just taking a nap,” I say.

“Okay, we’re going to do this my way,” Alaric says.

“And what is your way?”

“We give him the truth serum,” he says. “After we get the answers we need, you can do with him as you please. It’s a win-win situation.”

“Every word from that diary is imprinted in my head, Alaric,” I say. “I want to take my time with him.”

Alaric stares at me for a moment and then at Richard.

“I suppose he’ll wake up from his nap soon,” he says.

I look at my friend for a moment. For a brief second, I float the idea that he’s still hiding something from me. Something that has to do with my sister.

“What?” he asks.

“He said something about you,” I say. “He said that you orchestrated all of this because you love Sera.”

“I do love Sera,” he says.

“He said you were in love with her,” I say.

“She’s like a sister to me,” Alaric says. “You know that.”

I don’t know what to think.

The people I love keep letting me down lately, and I don’t know what to believe anymore.

But I know in my heart that Alaric would never hurt me on purpose. He did something behind my back, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to discredit our entire friendship.

“I know,” I say. “I know.”

“And I felt terrible about keeping that secret from you,” Alaric says. “It’s one of the biggest regrets of my life.”

“What were you thinking, though?” I say. “You could have gotten hurt.”

“It was an impulsive decision. If I only knew then what I know now...”

He looks so haunted right now. He looks so consumed by the pain inside him.

I’ve been there before. I’ve been in his shoes more times than I can count. And it’s not something I’d wish on my worst enemy.

“You had no way of knowing it would end like this,” I say. “You made a mistake.”

“I swear, if I could go back in time, this is the first thing I would undo,” he says.

“Alaric, look at me,” I say.

He lifts his eyes to mine.

“What you did was terrible and thoughtless and completely stupid,” I say. “You destroyed everyone’s life and?—”

“I don’t know if you’re trying to make me feel better, but if you are, you’re doing a horrible job at it,” he mutters.

“What I’m trying to say is that I forgive you,” I say. “I forgive you for what you did, and I forgive you for keeping it a secret.”

“Really?” Alaric blinks a couple of times.

I nod.

If there’s one thing I learned after everything that happened, it’s that life is too short to hold grudges. Especially when it involves the people you actually care about and want to keep in your life.

“I’m so relieved,” Alaric says. “I thought you were going to stop talking to me, and even thinking that made me sick to my stomach. Because you’re like one of the only people I can actually stand in this world.”

“You’re one of the only people I can stand too,” I say.

“Can I hug you?” Alaric asks.

“Five seconds,” I say.

My friend launches himself into my arms, holding me tightly.

I don’t see war and chaos anymore. I’m not transported to my past. My feet are firmly rooted to the ground. My mind is right here in this present moment.

“Your five seconds are up,” I say.

“No, they’re not,” Alaric says, holding me tighter. He glances over my shoulder and pulls away. “Fuck, this guy is going to bleed to death. I need to call a doctor.”

As he calls his doctor, I can’t help but think about how much I’ve changed in the past few months.

I’m able to hug the people I love. My heart is able to forgive easily. I’m able to see that other people are human and that they make mistakes sometimes.

It’s a shame that the person who taught me this is nothing more than a stranger again.

Even though everything is different now, it’s like we never even happened.

It’s like we were never even in love.