She answered without a second thought and was greeted by a familiar voice she hadn’t heard in a long time.
“Why are you so worried about me? Why did you call me so many times?”
Hearing Bryson’s voice, Hannah was momentarily speechless.
After some time, it appeared the man on the opposite end of the call realized she had no intention of responding and a faint smile could be detected in his tone.
“What’s wrong? Are you angry with me?”
Hannah retorted, “Why would I be mad? I just wanted to know you hadn’t met with some misfortune.”
“I’m not dead.” The voice sounded faint and somewhat weak. Following that, he added, “But it won’t be long.”
Hannah’s grip on the phone tightened. “Where are you now? Are you still in Newfort?”
“Yes… but no.” Leaning against the bed’s headboard, Bryson looked pale. Blood was soaking through the bandage on his abdomen, but he sounded almost carefree. “Since you’re asking, does that mean you want to see me?”
Hannah pressed her lips into a white line, the anger she tamped down threatening to boil over. “Bryson, enough!” she hissed, her voice trembling with a desperate edge. “Don’t throw your life away Like this!”
A rasping chuckle, laced with a chilling edge, slithered from his lips. “Oh? So you do care? Worried I might shuffle off this mortal coil? Wouldn’t that be convenient for you? No more pestering from your devoted shadow.”
“Bryson!” Hannah ground her teeth together, the words clawing their way out from behind gritted teeth. “Where are you? What have you been doing?”
‘s
“Don’t fret, my love,” a low purr emanated from the receiver. “Death won’t claim me just yet. I’ll be back to grace you with my presence, whole and breathing.”
Whole and breathing?
Hannah’s thoughts ran a mile a minute, her fingers white-knuckled around the phone, her chest constricting as if caught in a vice.
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She took a deep breath, steadying her nerves and crafting her tone into something that resembled a rational woman. “Do you have any idea how stupid you are to risk your life like this? I know you’re in danger now. Please just tell me where you are.”
A beat of silence, then a dry cough that scraped against her nerves.
Bryson’s voice, once clear as a mountain stream, was now rough and shadowed. “Of course I know that,” he rasped.
“Then why aren’t you here?” she cried, the dam breaking, her voice raw with fear and frustration. “Are you insane?”
A low sound echoed through the phone. Bryson’s chuckle hung heavy, a wisp of smoke in the face of Hannah’s concern. “Are you fretting over me?” he teased, but his voice lacked its usual spark.
Hannah squeezed her eyes shut, the weight of her worry pressing down.
“Bryson, I’m not joking,” she said, each word a heavy pebble on the line.
His silence was deafening. Then, a flicker of warmth returned to his voice, the smile at the corners of his lips deepening like a blooming rose. “If you’re so worried,” he murmured, “how can I not come back?”
There was a beat of silence then a loud crash rang through the phone.