The Radcliffe Asylum
“A ll right.” The Pillar gives up, hands in the air. “What do you want me to tell you.”
“Who are my real biological parents? You? Fabiola?”
“I. Don’t. Know.” The Pillar grits his teeth.
“Lying again.”
“Do you think I’d risk my life not telling you, if I knew?” the Pillar says. “Those bullets will drop me dead, and I don’t know of any magic or rituals to bring me back to life from them.”
“So what do you know?”
“Ask me and I’ll try my best.”
“Who are you?”
“Carter Chrysalis Cocoon Pillar.”
“Are you Him?”
The Pillar purses his lips. It’s as if he’s struggling with telling me the truth, trying to swallow it deep into the belly of the whale of secrets he is.
“Tell me!” I shout, my rifle’s tip touching his chest.
The Pillar looks sideways.
“I will not hesitate shooting you.”
“I know,” he says softly.
“Then tell me!” I shout, but then follow my furiousness with a weakened. “Please.”
“I am.” The Pillar looks back at me.
Unconsciously, I lower the rifle. I think the shock is too great to bear. I think I still hoped the Pillar wasn’t who I should have known he was from the first day I suspected his intentions.
“You are?” Tom says. He too, seems surprised, though he’d endorsed the idea from the beginning.
“Tell me more,” I say in a fractured voice.
“Ask me and I will answer you.” The Pillar evades my eyes.
“Did I join Black Chess because of you?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Did you teach me how to kill and hurt people in Wonderland?”
“Yes.”
“How many did we hurt?”
“Can’t remember.”
“Did I do it to get closer to you, to find your weakness?”
“Yes.”
“Did you expose me?”
“At some point, yes.”
“How did you find out?”
“I found out from day one, and I played you.”