Chapter Thirteen

I'm waiting for Trent. It's been a while since Trent and I have had lunch together without Kim. I love Kim and all, but I dislike third wheeling. I used to have to third wheel with Aubrey and her now husband. I'm quite happy to have just Trent for lunch today. When he gets here, I'm all smiles, but he looks somewhat serious. Midway through our lunch, I figure out why.

"So Nia...did you hear about...well, of course you did. The supposed serial killer?"

He only signs, not a word coming from his lips. This is rare.

"Yes, mom told me about it, and I looked into it a little. It seems awful." He nods his head.

"Well, mom wants me to take extra great care of you. She tried to convince me to take you to all of your classes. She actually wants me to take you home. The whole thing is weird, especially since most victims are from our campus." I shudder.

"Yeah, I've been trying to be more careful."

"Okay. Nia, I don't want you going anywhere by yourself. When you're in classes with Sebastian, stick with him. Don't go for walks alone to the lake. Don't eat alone. Be extra careful."

"I will, Trent. Don't worry about it."

"I think I'm going to ask Sebastian to walk you to all of your classes to keep you safe." I smile.

"That's really nice, Trent, but I don't want to make him go out of his way."

"We'll figure it out."

"Okay."

After that, we're pretty silent, only saying a few things.

                                                                                          ~~~

'Hey. Can you come to dinner with me at the diner? Today? I need to...er...tell you something rather serious.' I've been reading and rereading this text for the past hour, trying to understand what he means.

'Yes. Of course! What time?' He responds about .01 seconds later.

'Would five work for you?'

'Yes, see you then :)'

That was it, but the whole thing is making me nervous. It's almost five, and all I can think about is the text. Finally, five comes, and the expected text comes from him. I walk to his car. I'm feeling dread now because whatever he has to talk with me about can't be good. When I see him, I smile and even give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey!" He gulps. Whatever it is he needs to talk to me about seems to be dreadful to him as well.

"Hey..." We drive in a sort of decided silence. It's as if we both know whatever he has to tell me can't be said in the car. We pull up to the diner, walk in, and get our table; everything seems normal. After we order our food, I can't hold it in any longer.

"So...what is it?" He goes slightly paler.

"Well." He sighs. "I don't know how to tell you this. I've honestly been wanting to tell you for a while now, but I'm starting to lose my courage. I just need to spit it out, but I can't. I need to explain everything to you." I blink. He sounds like he's panicking.

"Sebastian, please calm down. It's going to be okay. You can tell me whatever you have to tell me."

"That's just it, Nia. I don't think it will! It can't! You'll probably never want to talk to me again, but I have to tell you." He says this looking so defeated.

"No, Sebastian, you're wrong. I'll never not want to talk to you." He shakes his head.

"I hope that's true." Our food arrives, and I sort of ignore it to make direct eye contact with him.

"It is. Let's just eat our food; you can take a moment before you get into whatever you have to tell me." He takes a deep, trembling breath.

"Okay." We began eating our food.

"Alright, I don't really want to tell you about it here..." I look into his eyes. I'm a little confused.

"That sounds good." We silently finish eating our food; we wordlessly make our way to the car.

He pulls up near the lake, and the sun is beginning to set.

"I uh, I don't know why, but I think here would be a good place to tell you about it. We can just sit in here, or we can go out and walk or even sit on the bench out there."

"Let's go out. It's really nice out today..."

"Alright, give me a second to-" He doesn't finish his sentence, going to my side of the car to open my door. He pulls it open, helping me out of the car. I smile and mumble a thank you. We begin walking along the lake. Sebastian breaks the silence.

"Alright, I'm sorry that this is kind of a long process, but if I just blurt everything out, you'll think I'm some sort of monster, which I am. Remember how I told you I'm not really in contact with my family?" My eyes are glued to his lips, watching intently while trying not to miss a word. I nod my head at his question.

"Well, that wasn't for no reason. I love my family, but when I left home, I just...everything went bad. The first mistake I made was going to one party. A party that ruined my life. The people at this party weren't bad. They were actually pretty nice, and they weren't who messed up my entire life. It wa-" He pauses his story.

"I just realized it's probably hard for you to read my lips and walk. Why don't we go sit down?" I smile softly.

"Okay." We walk slowly to the bench, sitting and looking at each other. After a short pause, he continues.

"Anyway...so at the party, we were attacked. They thought we were some other group, and they thought I was someone else. They were tricked, but they were too dumb to notice until they had kidnapped me already. I tried fighting them, of course, but they brought me somewhere. When they realized that I wasn't the right person, they decided to be done with me, dumping me into the ocean. I thought for sure that I was dead. I was mistaken. Someone found me, and I was entirely messed up in the head when he asked me to help him. He thought that because he had saved my life, I would do whatever he asked of me. I was dumb enough to agree. Well, all of this lead to me doing something really dumb. I'll have to tell you about that...later. Anyways, I moved here and got my two jobs...college...I can't even think of talking to my parents. I never told you what my second job is, so I will now. I was supposed to be an...this is gonna sound bad, or even like a joke." He sort of stops here, and I'm feeling very nervous. I know that whatever he says, I'll still be fine.

"I was supposed to be some sort of killer...not even, more like a distraction. This is where everything leads to you..." My eyes are as wide as the moon and my jaw is dropped, yet I don't say anything. He needs to finish the story.

"These people wanted me to create weapons. The person who hired me wanted me to kill a lot of people; I didn't, but what I did do is worse." I'm just watching his lips, not saying a word. I'm not going to say anything until he finishes speaking. He sighs and continues.

"I created something in phones to kill people. A frequency. It screws up the brain. It's a perfect weapon because nobody would suspect a simple phone, even if the police did find out about it. They don't know how it works, and people don't care about warnings. They are mostly burner phones that die on a timer. There is no way for anyone to figure out how we made it. I also made ear plugs that block out the noise." This is when I remember the fact that he 'dropped' his phone when we first met. My eyes widen even more at this thought.

"I gave the group I was supposed to kill the weapon, creating a group to kill. They begin using the weapons, but they weren't quite killing the people. They just tested it out. And that's when they decided it was my turn. I rendered them all deaf with the frequency, and I stopped it before I killed them. It made them all crazy. Right after that, I saw you." He looks really distressed. "I thought the perfect way to get rid of my phone was by killing you. I put the plugs in and turned on the killing frequency, dropping it right by you for the kill." I can't help but let out a gasp. He looks at me with pain written all over his face,

"I'm pretty sure I went insane for a moment. I'd never killed anyone before, but when I saw you, I wanted to for no reason. It was strange. It was sick. I was on the brink of insanity, that is until you gave my phone back, still alive. I was shocked to say the least. When I realized that it didn't work, I panicked." He pauses while looking at me. I feel a little more scared.

"I decided I would try it again, tweaking the frequency a little. I tried three times. I wanted to kill you, but I had no reason. When you told me you were deaf, I realized why the frequency wouldn't work. I didn't want to stop talking to you. I felt relief that it would never work. I didn't want you dead anymore. I don't want you dead because I think I'm in love with you now."