Page 84 of Two for Joy

“I worry about you. My biggest wish is for you to find someone.” She squeezed his father’s hand. “I want you to experience love. To have someone there for you, for the good, the bad, the ugly.”

“Definitely the ugly.” Romeo’s father said.

“Not everyone needs love.”

His mother recoiled. “What does that mean?”

“Some people don’t want or need a romantic partner, but they still have fulfilling lives. They achieve their goals.”

“I understand that, but they have love, whether friends, or family, they still have love, company.”

Romeo’s shirt stuck to him. He was sweating, and despite sitting on the balcony, he still felt far too hot. “I’ve got you.”

“But when we’re no longer here. You don’t have brothers or sisters, or cousins, or aunties, and uncles, or friends.”

Romeo took a sip of water. “Don’t sugar coat it.”

“I’m serious, Romeo.”

He lowered his gaze. “I know you are. Maybe I’ve not found someone to spend my life with yet, there’s still plenty of time, but for now, I’m content with what I have.”

His mother detangled her hand, then reached across the table for Romeo’s. She held him and stared deep into his eyes. “Promise me when you do find it, you’ll never let it go.”

Her big green eyes connected with his, and he knew he should look away, break the eye contact before she saw past the façade, the emptiness, and saw the cage, and the monster lurking inside. His eyes stung, watered, and he didn’t look away, even when she frowned.

He hadn’t felt that lost since he’d been a child. The integral desire to experience what others did, and not being able to. Knowing he was messed up for not feeling what he should’ve, and for craving something dark.

“Promise me.”

Romeo’s eyes burned. His heart drummed in his chest. Why couldn’t he have been born with a normal brain? Why couldn’t he have been able to love his mother like she deserved? His whole existence was an ugliness only he could see.

His father cleared his throat, and Romeo blinked.

“I promise I won’t let it go.” Romeo said, then he took back his hand, and picked up the drinks menu, hiding his face. “So, coffees?”

“Sounds great.”

He peeked over the menu, and saw she was smiling at him. He didn’t deserve that smile, not when only minutes ago, he’d been in the bathroom, trying to reign himself in. Trying to ignore the growl in his head that told him to kill. It got louder each day, taking over more and more of the space in his head.

When Romeo looked down at the coffee on the table, it was orange in color and came with a bread roll.

“What the hell…”

He could smell soup, the sickly-sweet tomato soup they served at dinnertime in the prison. The memory of his parents dissolved into darkness. He didn’t open his eyes, he wanted it to look like he was still blissfully asleep, still under the influence of whatever they’d jabbed in his arm. Time had jumped, it had been morning when they’d first drugged him, and he suspected they’d drugged him again. He still wasn’t at the city hospital.

Chad had been with the killer for four days. For over 96 hours he could’ve been cutting him, hurting him. He listened as the beeping of the machine he was hooked to quickened.

Romeo was still no closer to getting out of the prison.

The concussion wasn’t getting him anywhere. He suspected if he kept complaining, they’d dose him with more sedatives. Romeo needed to alter his concussion into something immediate, something life-threateningly serious … a stroke.

He opened his eyes, groaned, and Zander rushed towards him, flashlight at the ready.

“You feeling any better, Romeo?”

“Where am I?”

“The hospital wing?”

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