Happy Together

Creep

“You’re serious,” she said, her voice flat, her hands gripping the seat beneath her.

He nodded again, his expression pleading. “Victoria, I know how it sounds. I know it’s crazy. But I swear to you, I wasn’t going to hurt you. He wasn’t going to hurt you. He just... gets angry. He takes over sometimes, and I can’t always stop him.”

Victoria stared at him, her mind reeling. She thought back to the way he’d acted earlier—the way his entire demeanor had shifted, his voice, his posture, even the way he looked at her. It was like he had been a different person.

And maybe, she realized with a sickening dread, he was.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded, her voice trembling. “You should have told me something like this before we ever got in the car!”

“I wasn’t in control, it was him…I didn’t want you to see this side of me,” Alistair said, his voice breaking. “I thought... I thought I could control it. I thought I could keep him away.”

Victoria shook her head, disbelief and anger boiling inside her. “You didn’t think about what could’ve happened if you couldn’t, did you? You just—” She stopped herself, taking a deep breath to steady her shaking hands.

“I should go,” she said finally, her voice tight. “I can’t... I can’t do this right now.”

Alistair’s face fell, panic flashing in his eyes. “Please, Victoria, let me take you home,” he said. “It’s the least I can do. I don’t want you walking out here in the dark.”

She hesitated, her instincts warring with her fear. She didn’t want to be in the car with him, but she also didn’t want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Finally, she gave a small nod, her body tense as she opened the car door and slid back into the passenger seat.

“Don’t talk to me,” she said, her voice hard. “Just drive.”

Alistair didn’t argue. He climbed into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and turned the car around, heading back toward the main road.

The silence between them was thick, suffocating, broken only by the occasional hum of the tires on the uneven road. Victoria sat stiffly, her eyes fixed on the window, her body angled away from him.

Alistair didn’t say a word, his hands gripping the wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Inside, Lucius was silent too, retreating into the shadows of their shared mind.

But Victoria couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t gone.

The drive back to Victoria’s place was heavy with silence, but it wasn’t the suffocating kind. It was an expectant pause, as if the tension between them was waiting to erupt into words. Alistair kept his eyes on the road, his hands gripping the wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white. Beside him, Victoria sat stiffly, her arms crossed, her gaze flicking between him and the window.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Pull over,” she said sharply.

Alistair glanced at her, his expression weary and haunted. “We’re almost there. I’ll—”

“I said pull over, Alistair!” she snapped, her voice trembling but resolute.

He exhaled shakily and guided the car to the side of the road. The tires crunched against the gravel as the vehicle came to a stop. Victoria unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to face him fully, her hazel eyes narrowing as she studied him.

“What’s going on with you?” she demanded. “And don’t give me some vague excuse. I want the truth, Alistair. I deserve that much after tonight.”

He hesitated, his hands still clutching the wheel, his gaze fixed on a distant point beyond the windshield. “It’s... complicated,” he said finally, his voice low.

Victoria’s hands clenched into fists in her lap. “Stop saying that. I’m here, aren’t I? I didn’t jump out of the car, I didn’t run away. I want to understand, but you have to give me something.”

Alistair’s throat tightened, and for a moment, he couldn’t speak. He could feel Lucius lurking in the back of his mind, watching, waiting, as if daring him to tell the truth.

“What you saw tonight...” Alistair began, his voice shaking. “It wasn’t... me.”

Victoria raised an eyebrow, her jaw tightening. “What do you mean it wasn’t you? You were the one driving, the one yelling, the one pacing around like a maniac.”

He turned to face her then, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. “It was someone else,” he said softly. “Someone else inside me.”

Victoria blinked, her anger momentarily giving way to confusion. “What are you talking about?”

Alistair swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I have... issues,their name is Lucius.” he said quietly.

The name hit her like a slap, the memory of him screaming it earlier flashing through her mind. “Lucius,” she repeated, her voice flat.

He nodded, his gaze dropping to his lap. “He’s... not like me,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “He’s angry. Violent. And sometimes, when I’m not strong enough, he takes over.”

Victoria stared at him, her mind racing. She thought back to the way his entire demeanor had shifted earlier—the rage, the snarling, the way he had shouted at nothing. It all made a terrible kind of sense now, but it also raised more questions than it answered.

“So... you’re telling me you’re two people?” she asked, her voice skeptical but tinged with curiosity.

Alistair nodded again, his hands trembling. “It’s more than that. Lucius’s... he’s dangerous, Victoria. And I don’t always know how to stop him.”

Her heart pounded in her chest, but she forced herself to stay calm. “Dangerous how?” she asked, her voice softening. “Has he... hurt anyone?”

Alistair’s face crumpled, and he looked away, shame radiating from him. “Yes,” he admitted, his voice breaking. “In the past. But not you. Never you.”

Victoria sat back, absorbing his words. Fear still lingered at the edges of her mind, but it was joined by something else—pity, and a strange, stubborn determination.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked after a long pause.

“I didn’t want you to see me like this,” Alistair said, his voice heavy with regret. “I thought I could keep him under control.”

Victoria’s brow furrowed as she studied him. He looked so small, so fragile in that moment, a far cry from the confident man she had seen in the mall every day.

“I’m not saying I understand all of this,” she said carefully, her voice steady.

Alistair looked up at her, his eyes wide with a mixture of hope and disbelief. “You... you don’t want to walk away?”

“I’m not saying I’m okay with everything that’s happened,” Victoria said firmly. “But I’m not running, either. Not yet.”

Lucius’s voice suddenly hissed in the back of Alistair’s mind, dark and mocking. She’s just curious. She’ll leave the second she sees what you really are.

Alistair winced, pressing a hand to his temple. “You shouldn’t have to deal with this,” he murmured.

Victoria reached out, her hand hovering in the space between them before she finally placed it gently on his. “Maybe not,” she said softly. “But I want to understand. If you’ll let me.”

The warmth of her touch cut through the noise in his head, silencing Lucius for a fleeting moment. Alistair nodded, his throat tight with emotion.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll tell you everything.”

Alistair leaned back against the seat, his face etched with weariness as he glanced at Victoria. She hadn’t removed her hand from his, and the gesture—small as it was—gave him just enough courage to speak. He closed his eyes for a moment, collecting his thoughts, before beginning.

“Lucius wasn’t always there,” he said quietly. “I mean, I wasn’t born with him. It... it happened later, after something I couldn’t handle on my own.” He exhaled a shuddering breath, running a hand through his hair. “It started when I was a kid.”

Victoria tilted her head, her brows knitting together. “What happened?” she asked softly.

Alistair hesitated, his fingers tapping nervously against the steering wheel. “I grew up in Germany, like I told you. My dad was in the military. Strict, controlling. He wasn’t violent—not the way you’d think—but... he had a way of making you feel like you weren’t good enough. Like you were broken just for making mistakes.” He paused, his jaw tightening. “And then, there was my mom. She tried to protect me, but she couldn’t... not from him, not from the world.”

Victoria’s hand tightened slightly on his, a silent gesture of encouragement. He looked at her for a moment, then continued.

“When I was thirteen, there was this woman—a neighbor. She was a police officer, someone my parents trusted. She...” His voice caught, and he swallowed hard. “She did things to me, Victoria. Things I didn’t understand at the time. I didn’t know how to process it. I thought... I thought I’d done something wrong, that I’d brought it on myself.”

Victoria’s eyes widened, her heart sinking as she listened. She didn’t interrupt, knowing he needed to let it out.

“I tried to tell my parents once,” Alistair said, his voice cracking. “My dad said I was making it up for attention. My mom... she believed me, I think, but she didn’t know how to help. So I buried it. I buried it so deep, I thought I’d never have to deal with it again.”

He stopped, his breathing uneven. Victoria waited patiently, her own emotions swirling. “And that’s when Lucius appeared?” she asked gently.

Alistair nodded, his gaze distant. “At first, I didn’t realize what was happening. There were blackouts—moments I couldn’t remember, things I supposedly said or did but had no memory of. My parents thought I was acting out. But then... then Lucius made himself known.”

He let out a humorless laugh, shaking his head. “The first time I heard his voice, I thought I was going insane. He wasn’t just a voice, though. He was... different. Confident. Angry. He told me he was there to protect me, that he’d keep me safe when I couldn’t protect myself.”

Victoria frowned. “Protect you from what?”

“From everyone,” Alistair replied bitterly. “From the world, from anyone who might hurt me again. And at first, I was grateful. Lucius gave me strength, made me feel invincible. But it didn’t take long to realize that his idea of ‘protection’ was... extreme.”