Three, Two, One (321)

I don’t hear anything, so I open the door and peek out.

Ark is still there, sitting on the bed with his head in his hands. “You done lying now?” he asks, slowly lifting his head and looking me in the eyes. He grabs the camera he was using this morning. “Because I need some answers.”

“I don’t have your answers.”

“You don’t even know what I’m asking yet, so how can you know you don’t have what I need?” He stands and I back up, crossing the threshold into the bathroom.

He moves like lightning. His strike has me pushed face first against the wall, both hands behind my back, in less time than it takes me to realize I’ve misjudged him.

“Look,” he growls in my ear. “I’m not used to asking twice, Blue. And people don’t generally lie to me. Because I don’t tolerate it. So tell me about that scar on your neck and I’ll forget the fact that I had to ask you twice. And point me to these people, and I’ll forget the fact that you lied.”

“Or what?” I snarl over my shoulder. “You can’t hurt me.”

“No?”

“No,” I say back with confidence. “You can’t hurt me because I can take it.”

He recoils a little at my words. “You can take what?”

I yank my wrists from his grip and even though a second ago he was holding me so tight it was cutting off the blood flow to my hands, they come away easily. I turn, still pressed against the wall, his body so close his hips are pressed against my own. Our chests rise and fall rapidly from the adrenaline. “Whatever you want to dish out.” I tilt my head up so I can meet his gaze. He is way over six foot tall.

He backs up one step and then turns around and walks out.

I stand there for several minutes, waiting to see if he comes back with a belt, or a cane, or a whip, or a knife.

But he doesn’t.

I walk over to the bed and sit down in the same place where he was while I was taking a shower. His camera rolls over and hits me in the thigh.

I pick it up and turn it on, then push a few buttons until the screen begins to show the photos of this morning.

“That’s mine,” Ark says from the doorway.

“Well,” I say, pointing to the images, “that’s me.”

He covers the distance between us in a few paces and snatches the camera out of my hand. “Mine.”

And then he’s gone again.

I take a deep breath and look out the window as I consider my options. It’s dark and raining again. I check the drawer and the money is gone.

“You asshole!” I yell at the empty doorway. “You took my money.”

I grab my clothes from the bathroom and put them back on and then walk out to the living room to confront him.

But he’s not there. I creep down the hallway to his bedroom and check there too. But nothing.

When I walk back to the living room I see a crack of light from under some metal doors against the far wall.

That’s his office, JD said. Where they edit the films he makes.

I walk quietly over to the door and press my ear against it to listen. I can hear the clicking of a computer keyboard, then the rolling wheels of a chair. Finally soft footsteps as he pads towards the doors. I back away, afraid of being caught. But he doesn’t slide them open. Instead, the lights flick off and then his footsteps retreat. I hear the crack of a beer bottle being opened, and then a sigh.

I slide the doors apart, just enough to peek inside.

There’s a large monitor on the desk sitting on front of a wall of windows. And on the screen are the images he took of me this morning. Of JD and me. And of the three of us out on the terrace. They flip by, hundreds of them, at least. Maybe thousands. I look over at the couch where he’s sitting with a beer propped up on his leg, staring at me.

“You can look at them if you come in here to do it.”

I don’t know how he wants me to respond, so I’m unsure if I want to look at them or run back to JD’s room and hide.

“I’m sorry about that,” Ark says, clearing his throat. “It’s just… JD stopped thinking about her, ya know? It took him so fucking long to stop thinking about her. And now here you are with a clue. And…”

I step into the room.

“And he’s gonna go looking for shit again, I just know it.”

I take another step towards him and Ark pats the space on the couch next to him. “I love these pictures. Come look at them with me.”

I take two more steps, and then I’m within arm’s reach and he slips his hand in mine.

My body shivers from his touch, but I let him pull me the rest of the way, and take a seat as he lets go. My butt is barely perched on the cushion, my hands in my lap, my body on high alert in case he wants to hurt me.

But he doesn’t. He surprises me by scooting away, propping his back against the armrest, and stretching out his legs behind me. They are long and in the way, so now I can’t lean back.

He takes a swig from his beer. “I saw you this morning. God, has it only been one day?” I know what he means. It feels like I’ve been in their house forever. “And answers were the last thing on my mind, Blue. I mean, fuck. I’d given up, just like JD. I gave up a while back, actually. Just accepted that this was the way things were. The way my life was gonna go. But fuck.”

I don’t know what any of that means, but I take that it’s not good by the way he finishes the beer and then throws it across the room, where it lands cleanly in an open-top trash can near the desk. “Get me another one, will you?”