CHAPTER SIX

After Brian's confession, there was nothing Kevin could do. Brian refused to hear him when he insisted that he was mistaken and continued to sob against him. He could feel the younger man trembling and shaking and hear the spluttered gasps of breathing from his lungs.

"I'm a murderer!" Brian wailed, shaking in Kevin's arms. "I'll go to jail, I'll get the chair!"

"Brian, stop this!" Kevin said, feeling his own body beginning to be submerged in cold fear as it rushed through him. "You are not going to get the chair, that's ridiculous! Nothing is going to happen to you!"

He just hoped his words were true…

It couldn't be true could it? Sweet, gentle Brian could never hurt anybody! But the words of Peters the police officer crept back into his mind. The blood on the floor had not just come from Brian, but from somebody else and they had sustained an awful amount of blood loss. What if Brian had killed someone?

Kevin quickly pushed that thought away. There was no body and therefore Brian could not have murdered anybody.

"Brian, you're not well. You've been unconscious for days and I think you're a little confused," he said. "You need to rest a little."

"B - but… but" Brian protested.

"Shush," Kevin said. "Just be quiet and rest."

He rocked Brian soothingly in his arms but he could still hear the sobs as he cried.

He had thought that Brian's awakening would be a joyous occasion. They had waited for days for news. Brian's mother Jackie had stayed faithfully by her son's side praying for God to save him and bring his sparkling, blue eyes back into the world. When she or Harold weren't with Brian, Kevin had sat by his side, talking to him and begging him to come back to them.

The first sign of improvement had begun yesterday morning when Jackie had said that she'd heard Brian murmuring in his sleep. Since that moment he had been restless, as if trying to find his way out of his slumber land and back into the real world with the people who loved him.

He had never thought such despair and tears would accompany Brian's awakening. Kevin had known that there were matters to be sorted as the police still had found nothing to help them, but he had never imagined Brian would behave like this.

"Brian, your mom is staying at a hotel near here. Why don't I give her a call? She can be here in a few minutes," Kevin suggested.

Brian shook his head furiously. "No!" he said. "No, no, no, no! She'll hate me!"

"Brian! She would never hate you! Never!" Kevin said forcefully.

"B - but I killed…"

"Do you really believe that? Do you think you're the person who could kill another? I don't believe you are and I know that neither does your mom."

Brian sniffed slightly and wiped the tears from his face. "I'm scared," he confessed.

Kevin could feel his own heart crying for Brian. He looked so pale and lost, so vulnerable. Kevin hated to see him like this…

"You don't have to be scared. We're all gonna help you through this."

Kevin sighed slightly and wondered how he was going to break the news to Brian. He was already terrified enough and Kevin did not want him to become even more upset, but he would have to know at some point…

"Brian, the police are waiting to speak to you. You have to tell them what has happened," Kevin said softly.

He felt Brian tense and he heard the rasping as gasps escaped his body. He turned to stare at Kevin his blue eyes round with horror. "No! They'll lock me up!" he wailed.

Kevin could see Brian trembling and feel the shudders that travelled through his body. He had never once seen Brian like this before…

"Brian, you're not a killer!"

"How do you know?" Brian snapped, pulling away from him so sharply it made Kevin jump slightly. "You weren't there, you didn't see it!"

Kevin was stung slightly at Brian's reaction. "No, I didn't see it but I know you and I know you're no murderer!"

Brian did not reply, but Kevin could see that more tears were building up within his innocent blue eyes and threatening to spill out to mark his face with more grubby tear marks any second. He sighed as he placed an arm around him.

"Tell me what happened, Brian," he said. "Tell me everything you went through that night."

Brian wiped his eyes again and then took a deep breath. He stared at Kevin and nodded his head slowly. For a moment he licked his lips, as if wondering where to begin and then he began to retell the events in his trembling voice.

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