Demon's Protégé

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It was never going to be easy from here on.

I tried to think over what just happened when I got back to the motel after I dropped Nari off by her house this afternoon. The entire reality was still not sinking in. Did she just agreed to date me? She just did, right? Then why am I feeling so disappointed all of a sudden? Shouldn’t I be rejoicing now and celebrating myself for being able to achieve what I really went here for?

Ten years of searching for that girl… Ten years of feeling so out of myself that I almost withdrew from the world. I was in love with that woman for years and had nursed a sorrowful emptiness for too long I had even forgotten how to feel anything else… And now, my wish has been already granted. So why am I acting like this? I don’t get it.

Did I just lose all the sense of infatuation towards Nari? No, I don’t really think so. I still want her to love me. I could still feel my heart beating so loud when I saw her turning around and looked at me for one last time before she had walked away and went inside her house, leaving me watching her from the driver seat of my car a while ago. The feeling was still strong… So I don’t think it would be about that. Yet something else was still making me uneasy. And for some reason, I just have to do something about it. Maybe now is really the best time to check that document I had requested from Hudson earlier. It might be all because of that and the fact that there was still a mysterious connection between this town and my family’s business.

Musing and feeling troubled by these things, I stretched an arm across my bed from where I had been sitting in the middle and reached out for my phone on the bedside table. Opening the email content of my account, I was almost ready to read what Hudson had sent me when the phone suddenly vibrated in my hand and the screen flashed my father’s name.

How funny, though. He seemed to have sensed what I was about to do. It is kind of weird and I chuckled bitterly as I contemplated for a few seconds, letting it rung for a while before I finally took a deep breath and answered it on the fifth ring.

“Did you go to the old mansion?”

Unbelievable. I instantly felt cold and my body reflexively froze upon hearing his opening question like a bullet shot at me. I totally lost all my ability to speak all of a sudden and it had me wondering with complete suspicion. How in the hell did he know something about that? What the hell?

“Why are you asking?” I tried to break my silence and gripped the phone against my ear so hard I could almost break it.

“I just want to make sure you’re holding on to your promise,” father told me back and I was puzzled with his answer. What was me going to the old mansion had anything to do with the promise I just made? And who told him? It could not be possibly Nari, she does not know him at all. Nobody had seen us today. Was it Henry then? But how can he know my father?

“What if I did go there?”

My father didn’t say anything back after that but I could almost feel him looming from the other end of the line. I was just glad I wasn’t really in front of him while we were having this conversation.

“I would have to ask you why.”

“Did you have me under surveillance again?”

That must be it, if anything else was impossible. But I don’t think that could have happened as well. I would have figured it out all the way from the diner and I would have notice someone watching us back. But I still don’t know my father that well to be so sure. I guess, there are quite a few things that I need to check about him too… In reference to his connection with this town as well. Something is really fishy about it.

“Will there be a reason that I have to?”

His vague reply had me more troubled and conscious of the possibilities. But I tried not to be swayed by his psychological attempt to make me confirm his doubts anyway. I was already prepared of everything he might throw my way now.

“I was actually thinking of staying there next week,” I replied back easily and the moment I had spoken out the idea, the more it had become entirely plausible for me to do. I could actually really use that as an excuse to stay much longer near the town. “Would that be a problem?”

“Did you talk to Hudson?”

“What do you mean?” I almost choke out my words after hearing him ask that but I luckily avoided it.

“How long are you going to stay there, Taiyo? Our business isn’t going to keep profiting with you acting like this.”

The insinuating tone of his voice really got me riling up as I pondered over his questions. Why did he suddenly ask about Hudson? Did he actually find us out? How in the hell? But it’s unlikely to happen. There is no way he would have found us out this fast. But why does it feel like I’m being interrogated for some reason? I do get why he had to worry about the company, but it was not really as if not being in the office and taking care things here instead would totally make any difference. I was already under the impression that people are putting pressures on me but then, I was still doing my part in any I can. I was not slacking off, business-wise. So, why was he calling me so suddenly just to remind me of these things? He wasn’t like this before, he has never pried on what I was doing all this time until I set foot on this town. It’s really getting more suspicious.

“I won’t be coming back anytime soon, father,” I firmly responded to him, not even wavering as I went on, “I still have something to do here.”

“You’re still not forgetting our deal, right?”

Why does he keep reminding me that? But then, I already broke the deal. Though it wasn’t like I was going to tell him anyway. I know it would just take a matter of time before he eventually finds it all out and chase me down to hell. But while I was still not being caught in the act, I just have to keep on hiding from his eyes and digging down the dirt while I still can.

“I’m not,” I lied without even feeling any guilt, and it actually surprised me that I was brave enough to do this to my own father. “Don’t worry.”