The boy tenses. His eyes widen slightly as he takes in a sharp breath, but he catches himself looking guilty, and immediately returns to a relaxed position. “What?” he asks.
The man’s eyebrows raise. “We both know you know, so you should choose the right option and tell me now. It’ll save us both the…” he tilts his head slightly and grins, as if he’s reached a conclusion, “the trouble.”
The way he says trouble causes the boy to shiver. He looks down at the goosebumps on his arm. The man follows his eyes, and the boy swears he grins again.
“Sir–”
“Fineas.”
The boy’s eyes shoot up to meet the man’s. “How do you know my name?”
The man chuckles, but Fineas can tell that he’s losing patience.
“It’s better,” the man says slowly, “that I know. Don’t you think? I just want to…” he says, pressing his lips together, considering, “protect her.”
He looks directly at Fineas as he says the last two words.
Judging by his soothing tone, Fineas thinks that the man is trying to talk in a non-threatening way to not appear too intimidating.
He also thinks it’s not working very well.
He swallows. “I admit that I know your daughter, sir. But I swear, I don’t know where she is.”
He looks at the man anxiously, hoping that he’ll believe him now.
“Oh?” says the man.
“Yes,” says Fineas. He suddenly feels very small compared to the man towering over him.
“Huh,” says the man, spinning his keys around his pointer finger. “You don’t have any idea? Not a clue?”
“No, sir,” Fineas says, his eyes glued to the mesmerizing keys, watching them twist around and around. He begins to feel a bit dizzy.
“Are you rolling your eyes at me?”
“No, I was just watching your keys, and-”
The sharpness of his tone cuts like glass. “Please don’t disrespect me like that.”
He figures it’s best not to fight back. “Sorry, sir.”
“Hm.” The man leans forward. He claps Fineas on the shoulder, and looks him directly in the eye.
“If you change your mind,” he says slowly. “You know where I am.” He smiles in an off-putting way.
This aggravates Fineas more than he thought it would.
“I don’t have to change my mind about anything, because I don’t know.” His voice is firm, and he emphasizes the last three words.
The man looks surprised that he would talk to him in that tone.
Good, thinks Fineas. Let him be the one stunned silent for once.
He knows he’ll regret it later, but right now he wants nothing more than to make the man feel something other than authority.
“I think it’s best that you leave now.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to be here any more than you want me here,” he says under his breath.
The man grabs him by the arm, forcing Fineas to face him. “What did you say?”
He wants to take the man’s tactics and hurl them back at him. “Hm? Oh, nothing. You must have been hearing things.”
The grasp on his arm tightens, nails digging into his skin, which begins to hurt him. He winces slightly.
The man looks at his face, then looks down. His face is full of emotion, awareness written across it like a diary. He slowly lets go, clutching his hands around each other.
He nods, as if recovering. “You… you should go.”
“Yeah,” says Fineas hesitantly. He turns toward the man, confusion in his eyes, maybe even concern.
He turns around, walking toward the door. His eyes dart toward the man once more before he walks out.
The second he hears the click of the door behind him like the final beat of a drum, he lets out a sigh of relief. He presses his hands to his heart and shakes his head.
“Never again,” he murmurs. “Never, ever again am I going to enter that house, even if I’m being taken against my will. I’ll fight against it or something.”
He shakes his head again. “Don’t know what’s wrong with him, don’t even know if he knows, but I’m not gonna be around when he figures it out.”
He walks along the cobblestone path to the gate, admiring how it’s built. What a shame, he thinks. Such a nice house wasted on such a terrible man.