Nine: The Devil in his eyes

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Silence is the true friend that never betrays.

–Confucius

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2052 Old Germany

“So where do we go from here?”

An awkward silence hung in the air, only punctuated by the raspy breathing of the child in the next room. The two stood in the darkness, facing each other although both peering off into the uncertain night.

“What can we do? We aren’t shrinks, that boy has problems…”

“Angie, we knew that when we agreed to take him in, imagine what that boy has been through, imagine the horrors he’s seen. Of course he has problems, that’s why he’s here. That’s why they are all here.”

She wasn’t sure what to say, her heart reached out to the tender youth, she wanted to embrace him and tell him that it was all going to be okay, that the night would be filled with dreams of childhood innocence, but she knew better. She had seen something, something deep within his soul that had made her squirm. It wasn’t as if she was unaccustomed to having troubled children around, she was a veteran in a certain sense. Besides that, she herself had been a troubled youth once.

“I’m scared of him, Paul… scared of… what’s inside him.”

“What?!” The gaunt man tried to keep his deep voice at a whisper level, but his voice trembled. “What do you mean scared of him? He hasn’t done a thing, Angelina. He’s the victim here, for God’s sake.”

She knew. He didn’t have to remind her. She knew. She had seen it, if but for a moment, she had seen. She knew better than most, she knew what it was like to be the victim of unspeakable violence. Just because she knew what it was like didn’t mean that she knew what to do about it.

“It isn’t him, Paul, it’s not that poor helpless little boy lying in a pool of his own sweat and tears in that room… it’s just… I don’t know, Paul.” Suddenly she had reached the edge, the jagged edge of the abyss where all emotions flowed freely and without hesitation. Her eyes swelled with tears that she could no longer hold back. Folding herself into Paul’s embrace, she surged with a deluge of weeping that she could only keep quiet with the last of her strength.

“What is it that has you so scared?”

Choking back tears and speaking in abbreviated bursts, “I… I looked… into his eyes… Paul… his nightmares… his soul… I could see into them… into … into the darkness… into the… suffering…”

“What did you see?”

“The Devil.”