Ch. 18 - Are We Still Friends?

                                    

                                          
The room was huge, decorated in an old-fashioned way and cared for in every detail.
A very long table was filled with dishes, food galore, colorful riches and fish, lots of fish.
It must have been a typical dish, maybe Tord wanted to bring me closer to his culture.
Or maybe it was all a fake facade to distract me.
The table was decked out as if a hundred people were to eat, yet there was no one else but me there.
I was sitting at one end of the table, next to me a soldier dressed as a waiter stood silently staring into space.
It felt like a scene from a historical film.
But with no actors, just me sitting at the table playing with gold cutlery to distract myself from the anxiety of the moment.
The tension was palpable, I could hear the silence ringing in my ears.
Then suddenly, just as I was about to give in and ask the soldier for information, a sound of a door in the distance opening made my blood freeze.
Then sound of footsteps, quick, decisive, and finally.
The door in the back of the room opened, and my heart forgot to exist for a moment.
Against the light, the boy's typical horns appeared for a few moments, then disappeared into the shadows as soon as the door was closed behind him.
I summoned to myself all the lucidity and mental preparedness I possessed in my body, it had been since the battle that I had not seen him.
The last memory I have of him is in the distance, on our hill, wounded like a dog as they rushed him away.
I remember being angry, confused, and sad that day.
Betrayed, but pitied by the condition he was in.
Then I had seen him on the news after he had implemented the coup, he had an expression I will never forget.
He was furious with rage, death in his eyes. I didn't recognize him anymore. He looked to me like an evil, dark version of the boy I used to spend afternoons with, snacking under the lemon tree.
I remember that eyes scared me, a lot. Because I knew I was involved with his anger, and I was afraid he wanted to hurt me, and my friends.
Then the first letter.
A glow of hope extinguished immediately by days of disappointment spent waiting for a ghost that never came.
I was attached to Tord, i loved him as a part of my life and then hated him as an enemy,
feared him as a danger and now confront him as an old friend looking for answers.
I don't know what is going to happen, but by now neither he nor I can escape from our complicated and confusing relationship, if things come to an end, they will do so today, once and for all.
The footsteps were closer by now, I forced myself to look up and face that fear I had been dragging until then.
In the shadows his figure was approaching the other side of the table.
I had to keep a composed demeanor.
I didn't want him to see me as weak, even though he probably knew the condition I had survived until now. Moving on to beans and cat food.
At the time, he was probably already watching me from the cameras...
I chased that thought out of my head, reminding myself that he had probably been studying my every behavior for who knows how many years, was not helping me to calm down.
I looked at the empty plate in front of me and the abundance of food he had prepared for me.
I now recognized the type of fish.
So he remembered that I liked cod?