Demons in the Mirror - Chapter 114

“Move.” The guard shoved Kiaran into an interrogation room harshly. The teen barely reacted to his surroundings and staggered forward to the room as the door slammed close behind him.

The grey walls surrounded them as if they were there to suffocate whoever went inside. The only lamp was attached to the ceiling, right above the table in the middle of the room.

With handcuffs on his wrists, Kiaran made his way to the chair that was facing the two-way mirror. He moved the chair back a little and took a seat, waiting just like he always did.

Then the door opened, revealing a familiar blond with his usual uniform. Some of his hair dropped down on his left eye, covering it slightly.

Valerian made his way to the chair in front of Kiaran, eyeing how horrible his sworn enemy looked today. His black hair that was messy looked even messier. He couldn’t even call it messy from how chaotic it looked.

The bags under his eyes and the dark circle were too obvious. Kiaran did not even care to put up with his usual mask, only eerily stared at his own reflection on the mirror.

‘Here to say goodbye, police boy?’

That was what Kiaran was supposed to say in Valerian’s mind. But instead, the mercenary stared hollowly at the two-way mirror behind the lieutenant, not saying a single word out of his mouth despite the fact that he was getting beheaded tomorrow.

Valerian’s green eyes twitched slightly, trying to put up with the unusually awkward atmosphere between them.

“So, what’s your plan now? Disappearing suddenly? Clowned yourself?” He tried to lighten the atmosphere by giving a small joke, and he did a really bad job at it. Because usually, this was Kiaran’s job.

Kiaran still did not answer. There was a slight silence between them that was used to be lively and full of bickering.

Valerian found out that he did not like this mercenary.

“Your death sentence is tomorrow.” He tried to search for another topic. To be honest, he also did not know why he came here today, asking for the higher-ups to let him meet with the mercenary one last time.

He probably just wanted to say goodbye. Valerian tried to kill him before too, so he thought this was fine.

The blindfolded man was true to his words that day, though. He really helped him to catch the mercenary.

The blond shoved the uneasy feeling in his heart and ignored it.

“Thanks to you, I finally finished my two-year-long mission to catch you.” He continued. Was the air always this suffocating?

“So you really don’t have any plan, right?” Valerian did not know why he asked that. Maybe he was making sure.

However, he did not know what he was making sure of. The slight hope that Kiaran had a plan or the hope that he wouldn’t so Valerian could finally rest and the criminal finally gone from the city.

Kiaran finally looked at him. The fading ocean colour of his eyes stared right into the forest eyes. Valerian finally caught the man’s attention, yet the usual bravely that the blond had every time he had to face the mercenary just disappeared.

He realized that Kiaran had always joked and teased him around. He never looked at him with those two empty and piercing eyes. Maybe that was the reason why Valerian had the courage to face him in the first place.

“I’m here just to make sure.” Valerian coughed awkwardly, trying to divert his gaze from Kiaran’s blue eyes for a moment. “-So you’re not going to screw everything again like you usually do. It’ll be a hassle if-”

“I don’t.” Kiaran cut him off coldly, uninterestedly kept burning his gaze on him.

“So, are you done?” The sudden statement from the mercenary caught Valerian off guard.

Valerian blinked and scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, yeah.”

“Okay.” Kiaran suddenly stood up, causing Valerian to quickly move his hand to the gun in his pocket.

He dropped his gaze down to Valerian, standing right in front of the door. “Then can I leave now?”

That moment, Valerian realized that the usual mercenary had died alongside the mute murderer. It was as if the person in front of him was just wearing the same face as his sworn enemy.

Valerian also realized that he also had won their usual dance with each other.

Somehow, it did not feel as good as he imagined it to be.

✵✵✵✵✵✵

Valerian sighed and brushed his hair back, letting some of his locks cascade down to his left eye. When Kiaran finally left, he had frozen in his seat, staring dumbfoundedly at the closed door.

Different kinds of thoughts and doubts fought within him to the point that he could not even focus on any of them.

The sound of the door opening broke his jumbled thoughts off. His green eyes glinted under the dim light as he caught a man in his late forties getting inside the room, holding two cups of coffee.

“Congratulation, lieutenant. That was such a unique sight to see. Sworn enemies were meeting with each other for the last time.” He sang, offering the cup to Valerian by putting it down in front of the blond. The man quickly sat where Kiaran was sitting previously.

“You can finally relax now, huh? You are such a hard-working kid, just like your parents.” He complimented, smiling knowingly at Valerian. The latter slightly smiled back and took the cup of coffee from the table.

“It was so heroic of you to let that damn criminal bury his dead brother. To think that they were brothers really threw me off.” He shook the coffee in his hand, unknowingly receiving a cold stare from Valerian.

“How can someone use a 16-year-old as a weapon.” He clicked his tongue and shook his head disapprovingly.

“Haha.” Valerian awkwardly put up with the man’s bullshit and gripped the cup harder.

That man used Valerian back in the day, forcing him to graduate early instead of hearing what the blond had to say. Valerian wanted to go to school just like everybody else, and yet this man used him as a weapon for the city.

He even met someone who could compete with his brain back in the day. He was only nine years old when he finally made a real friend. He lost contact with him, and his friend’s face had become blurry.

He wished that his friend would wait for him. Instead, he was chained with all the things that he had to do without even letting him choose what he wanted to do.

To think that someone would say something about using a 16-year-old as a weapon and yet that man was the same person who forced Valerian to be a lieutenant and hunted down the mercenary at 16-year-old was bizarre.

Though Valerian finally made peace with his situation and devoted his life to the city. But the man in front of him was the reason why sometimes Valerian wished that he could be a criminal and slit his throat off.

Valerian gave one last smile at the man before standing up and leaving the room with a leftover irritation. He threw the cup of coffee away into the trash, making some of the liquid come out of the trash bin.

✵✵✵✵✵✵

Valerian had just arrived in front of his house and opened the front door just to meet Aster sitting silently in front of the television that was talking about the mercenary’s death sentence.

Aster’s green eyes looked so much like the mercenary’s, though Kiaran was way more hollow as if darkness overflowed within his ocean eyes.

The news changed into Axel’s face and quickly back to the topic of his death. Theories on how his death occurred suddenly appeared, making Valerian hurriedly run to Aster’s side.

The older snatched the remote and turned off the tv in a hurry. Aster did not move an inch or even blink. He still kept staring at the television’s dark screen. Valerian cautiously sat beside Aster, looking at his little brother with apologetic eyes.

“So the mercenary is going to die too?” Aster suddenly began without diverting his gaze away from the screen.

Valerian closed his eyes and sighed. “Yes.”

The older blond reached his hand to Aster’s shoulder. “Are you oka-”

“You’re going to let yourself lose him like I lost Axel?” Aster suddenly moved his head to meet with his brother’s eyes, making the said brother’s reaching hand stop in the middle.

“It’s different. He’s a criminal.” Valerian answered and retreated his hand slowly. “-A high one.”

“And so does Axel.” Aster retorted back. His dirty blond hair looked like he hadn’t taken a shower for a week.

“But he is not my friend. I’ve been trying to catch him for two years.” Valerian sighed again and put away the remote in his hand. He was about to open his mouth and continue to find more reason but Aster suddenly stood up, turning his back on him.

“Okay. If you say so.”

Aster did not even try to argue back how he usually did. The boy just walked away toward his room.

Before the boy vanished from Valerian’s vision, he stopped for a moment. “And for your information, Val.” He began, slightly looking back at his brother. “-Axel was not my friend too.”

“Until I realized it too late.”

Then Aster left, leaving Valerian haunted with the words that he had just uttered.