Run. Run. Run.

And yet my body made no move to heed my instincts. I was like a deer caught in headlights, only that I was trapped in place by his cold eyes instead.

With every step he took closer, I could feel my heartbeat increase. Under the table, my hands and legs seemed to have taken on a life of their own, shaking furiously.

After an eternity, he stopped before me. For a moment, neither of us said anything.

Then, he spoke.

"Mr Smith, what a pleasure to see you again."

Liar.

The word never left my lips. It was like all of a sudden, my tongue had gotten stuck to the roof of my mouth.

The lack of my response didn't deter him from speaking though. "I must say, I'm rather caught off guard at the moment. Yours wasn't a face I was expecting to see on this fine eveni-"

"W- what are you doing here?"

Those words came out as somewhat between a squeak and a whisper, very much different from the bold projection I'd been going for.

He chuckled. "Ah, so you noticed. Yes, I must admit I'm not the most regular visitor to this place. Or most places in this town actually. In fact, this is the longest period of time I've spent in Bloomsby, and I must say that I have quite enjoyed looking around-"

"No, I mean what are you doing here?"

Those words came out much clearer than the ones before. So much so that Lucas' smile dropped, albeit ever so slightly.

A bit later, he replied, "Well I'm here to check up on you, of course. I know you must be going through a hard time, after the... incident."

A dry laugh broke free of my lips without much effort on my part. "Funny you of all people should say this-"

He furrowed his brow. "I'm afraid I'm not following you. Could you perhaps be more clear-"

"-considering you're the one who killed Max."

I watched his expression closely after I had uttered those words, noting the manner in which his green eyes darkened.

Glaring at him, I growled, "Was that direct enough for you?"

To his credit, Lucas replied barely a breath later, "I know you're going through a hard time, Smith, and I sympathize with you. Truly, I do. However, I would advise you to think before you make such an unfounded accusation-"

"Unfounded?" I scoffed. "Max died at your dinner party, from poisoning, but that's a coincedence, right? Is it also a coincedence that you stand to lose nothing from his death, as well?"

"It's interesting that you think that. But what would I stand to gain from-"

"I don't know, and truthfully, I don't care!" I snapped. "Why don't you just admit that you did it now? After all, you have nothing to lose. Even if I tell anybody, I'd have no proof. Why would anybody choose to believe me over you?"

Lucas didn't reply to that immediately. His green eyes just remained on mine, as if he was digging, searching for something. Despite the screams of my instincts, I kept my eyes on his as well.

Then, he smirked. "I know you're looking for someone to blame for Max's death-"

"I'm not, I just know-"

"-but have you ever considered the fact that maybe you're to blame?"

The words I had been about to let out caught in my throat. For a long while, I just stared at Lucas' smirking face, unsure of what to say.

Finally, I choked out, "Y- you're sick."

Raising an eyebrow, he chuckled. "For what exactly? If I'm to blame simply because I hosted the dinner party, then maybe you're to blame because you're the one who forced Max to go for it."

"What are you talking about? I didn't force-"

"Sure, maybe not directly. But Max hardly ever used to go for the New Year dinners. Is it mere coincedence that the one he decided to go for was the one you were able to attend, seeing as you were off legal age?"

My mouth opened, but no words came out.

Noting my reaction, Lucas smirked even more. "So the first dinner you go for, and it ends in a disaster unlike any that has ever happened at any prior Society dinner, or meeting for that matter. I guess you must at least think that it's a good thing Annie didn't go with you. After all, she might have ended up sharing Max's unfortunate fate, while you walk off unharmed, just like you did. Imagine if instead of your parents, you were the one who'd died all those years ago. Wouldn't Max still be alive today?"

"So, when you think of it like that, you might say that you killed Max."

If Lucas' intention had been too anger me, then he failed miserably. For not a spark of anger lit in me as a result of his words.

Only the dawning of an epiphany.

A short while later, he laughed. "But, of course, passing blame is not important. The only thing we can hope to do from this is to recover from the great loss we all as a community have suffered. Once again, I offer my condolences, Smith. Until we meet again."

I didn't say anything, so he simply turned and walked back to his seat, where the two men watching us sat waiting.

I'm not sure how long I sat there alone. I know that at some point, I heard what sounded like Dylan's voice ask, "Yo, where's Aimee?"

I remember distantly waving him in the direction of the stairs. There was no antagonising thoughts towards him, no bitterness. Only one thought seemed to echo in my head at that moment, only one thought seemed to matter:

You killed Max.
.      .      .

"Wow. I'll admit, I am rather surprised."

Smirking, I looked beside me and rose an eyebrow. "Just surprised?"

Aimee smirked back at me. "Well considering that we've been on the road for about five minutes and you haven't crashed the car, what else am I supposed to say?"

"Maybe that you were wrong?"

She furrowed her brow, but a smile still remained on her face. "Now why would I say that?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe because you told me that I would send us crashing to our death if I drove instead of Tony, and look-" I removed one hand from the steering wheel and gestured around, "-we're still in one piece, aren't we?"

"Well that's because the road is practically empty!"

Well, she wasn't wrong about that. There seemed to not be anyone on the street with us, like everyone else had headed indoors as soon as the first signs of dusk had appeared.

Still, I scoffed. "Please, that means nothing. I'm an expert driver."

Rolling her eyes, she replied, "Sure, that's why you always have Tony drive you everywhere."

"That's only for convenience, it doesn't mean I don't know how to drive!"

"Sureee. Just to be on the safe side though, why don't you actually face the road as you're driving?"

"Please, I know this street like the back of my hand. Besides, there's no one around anyways."

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean you can't crash into a streetlight!"

"You have such little faith in-"

"ANGELO!"

"Why-"

The words caught in my throat when the corner of my eye caught a glimmer of light. Squinting, I turned my head-

-just in time to see the car ram into mine.

The sound of glass echoed as my head lurched forward at the impact, colliding with the airbag that had just inflated before me.

For a while, I just remained like that, my heart racing furiously as a beeping sound repeatedly sounded. Then slowly, I rose up my head. Turning it to the side, I asked, "Fuck, Aimee, are you-"

My eyes went wide when I saw her.

Just like me, her head had been lurched forward.

Only that she hadn't been fortunate enough to land on an airbag.

She had collided with the dashboard instead, in the midst of various shards of glass. As I watched, the puddle of crimson surrounding her head slowly increased.

A laugh caught my attention, drawing my eyes to its source, who sat at the driver's seat of the other car. A smirk sat on his face as he stared at me with those cold green eyes.

Slowly, Lucas nodded his head in the direction beside me. My eyes followed his movement, redirecting my attention to the body beside me. Only that it wasn't​ Aimee's I saw when I looked again, but Max's reddened face as blood leaked from his mouth-

As I jerked up the scene before me vanished, melting away to reveal the darkness of my own room. It took me a moment to realise that I was in my bed, not in a car seat, but even after I did my chest continued to heave at a superhuman rate. Sweat ran down my face in rivulets, despite the cool temperature of my room.

I'm not sure how long I remained seated up, but eventually I lay back down, resting my head on my pillow.

But even then, I didn't dare close my eyes again.
.       .       .

"Angelo?"

I wasn't all that surprised to hear Annie's voice. After all, it was only to be expected that Pierre would notify her after he'd gotten no response from me the several times he'd knocked on my door.

I wasn't quite sure what time it was, and honestly, I didn't care enough to check my phone, or walk to the curtains and draw them open in order to find out. It isn't unusual for me to go for breakfast at around noon or even 2 pm on weekends, so I estimate it was probably around late afternoon then for Pierre to have actually walked to my room to ask me what I wanted to eat.

It's weird, but it was like I heard his calls, but at the same time I didn't. Like he was far away, and his calls seemed less real. I didn't want to reply them. I just wanted to remain curled up in bed, keeping company with nothing other than my own thoughts as I had been for several hours before then.

Despite my original wishes, I'd eventually drifted into sleep again the night before. Severally, actually, till I had gotten used to the tragic events my mind conjured up in my dreams, or even just the piece of darkness brought before me.

In fact, I began to seek solace in them. They hurt a lot less than the harsh realities my thoughts presented while I was awake.

But alas, even that bittersweet reprieve was stolen from me.

So I lay in bed, drained but unable to sleep, forced to face reality. The events of the day before crept back into my mind. I'd cancelled my practice session with Aimee that day, telling her I was feeling too tired to go ahead with it.

I hadn't done much when I'd come back home. Mainly because I wasn't quite sure what to do. So I'd simply stripped down to my boxers then collapsed under my covers.

But my state of mind after the nightmares was different. Because my mind finally started to process the weight of Lucas' words.

You killed Max.

"Hey, Angelo?"

Another knock followed those words. When I didn't reply, Annie asked, "Hey, are you feeling well? Pierre says you haven't been down for food yet. Do you need anything?"

My heart lurched at the caring tone of her voice. The tone I was sure would vanish the moment she realized that her brother would still have been alive if it wasn't for me.

The pounding in my head seemed to increase.

"Angelo-"

"I'm fine. Please leave."

Those words came out as a croak, the result of my dry throat.

Apparently Annie was able to hear it, because after a moment of silence, she softly said, "Angelo, open the door. We need to talk."

Don't.

I couldn't. I knew that if I were to open it, if I were to face her, the truth would come tumbling out of my lips. Then she would realise that it was my fault that Max was dead.

She would surely hate me.

"Look, I know that I've been distantly lately, and I'm- I'm sorry about that, Angelo. The truth is, I- I haven't been doing so well lately. None of us have."

See what you caused?

"I know- I know you've probably not been doing so well either, but you've probably been hiding it, m- maybe for my sake. And honestly, with all that you've gone through, you've been so strong." She gave a shaky laugh. "In fact, you've probably noticed how I've been faring as well."

The knot in my stomach twisted even more.

"But Angelo, it's- it's okay to open up. Because it kills to me to think- no, to know that you're suffering in silence, and it's all because of-"

Because of you. It would have been better if you'd drank from that glass that night instead of Max.

My lips trembled at the thought.

You would have taken a burden off everyone.

"So Angelo, please open the-"

Everything would be so much better without you.

"Let's talk about this-"

If it weren't for you, he'd still be alive.

Something snapped inside me then, causing my mouth to spring open and let out, "I said I'm fucking fine, now leave me alone!"

Silence held for a few moments before Annie spoke again.

"A- alright. I'll... we'll... talk later."

The pressure in my head built up, so much that I wanted to scream. The truth is, I didn't want Annie to go. I wanted to let her in, to open up to her, to tell her everything. To let her know how sorry I was for what happened to Max.

But my mouth remained shut, because I didn't think whatever resulted from those actions could be good.

So I allowed myself to wallow under my covers, bearing the brunt of my pounding head as Lucas' words repeated over and over in my head:

You killed Max.
.      .      .

So I know this chapter was pretty deep, but like I said earlier, I don't just want to gloss over the effects of Max's death. Of course, Angelo blaming himself is irrational, but it's very easy for a person to fall into that kind of trap when they're going through a tough time. I included that in the story because I want to make this story, and Angelo, seem more real.

Please let me know what you think of this chapter in the comments. It'd be really helpful, as I want to know what kind of effect it had on you. Also, please vote if you liked it as well.

Till next time !