The Truth Exposed

They entered the house together in good spirits. Sally served everyone with slightly overcooked chicken, but she managed to compensate for the crustiness by mixing sauces to create something that both Andreas and Illy fell in love with. The Lamia had natural talent of finding the proper spices and extracting as much as possible from them.

They ate, they laughed, they had a light, lunch conversation. Andreas liked that, it reminded him of his family home all those years ago. Before everything. Before his life took him on this unforgottable and unforgiving journey through Berlin, Milan, London, Manchester, and Barcelona. It all felt to him like it happened ages ago.

After the meal he helped with the clean up, then popped a pain killer pill and decided to go outside again. With ball under his feet, he began to do keep ups, and then proceeded to remind his body how it was to just juggle the ball with all his body, except for hands.

"You look different."

Andreas heard a voice, this time the pleasant one, the one he would like to listen to all the time. But he didn't respond, focusing on the ball.

"It's like... You lost something and you are recovering it right now. It's nice to see you like that."

The ball went out a bit too high, out of Voigt's reach, so instead of trying to recover it, he jumped and sent it to the back of the net with a header. He realized it was a mistake when he was already in the air. The landing was harsher than he anticipated. The pain reminded him why exactly he shouldn't do anything like that.

"Here, take some of those."

The Lamia approached him while holding something. A pill.

"I took one right after lunch." Andreas said while on the ground, trying to massage the muscles right above the knee to ease the pain.

"You can't take more?"

"I shouldn't." He responded.

"Why?"

He sighed. He wasn't in the mood for the unending questions in that moment.

"I'm already taking more than its advised. I'm already on the verge of being addicted to those or building up tolerance to it. Or both, knowing my luck."

She sat, in silence, next to him for the next few minutes. Sally saw his grimace, his pain, she really wanted to help him.

"It's really important to me that you take this pill now. Please." She offered again.

Andreas looked at her, but didn't take it, growing suspicious all of the sudden.

"Why?"

"Because you are in pain." She shrugged.

"But why this pill? Can't I take one from the box? I have one right here, in my pocket."

She didn't respond, just looked down.

"They should be the same, right? There is no reason why your pill would be different than the ones I have in here, right?"

He pressed.

"N... Yes, there is a reason."

She looked up, looking terrified. Andreas had an angry grimace on his face.

"I, umm..."

"Just say it straight. You know that I don't like when someone tries to go around the truth with me." Andreas sighed.

"Your pills won't be helping you much, Andreas. It's like you said, you built up tolerance to them, to the level where they barely do anything for your senses." She began to explain.

"And? I can always switch them to something else."

"And then build up tolerance again and continue to switch over? It's not the solution." She said with pleading voice.

"I don't see why not... Wait, solution..." He raised his hand, and some things started to click in his head.

"Andreas..."

He then realized something. The things that he noticed but kept dismissing ever since meeting her now made perfect sense.

"You did something to this pill."

Andreas didn't ask, just stated.

She didn't respond.

"Sally, talk to me."

"I... I made it." She finally said after a few seconds of silence. "The first time you asked me to get it for you I... I saw that it wouldn't help, and you were in so much pain, so I made a new one, with magic. And it worked, you looked and felt better! So I made more."

Andreas closed his eyes. Pain didn't matter anymore. The random bathroom occurances when they stumbled upon each other were like dust on the wind. Her coming to his bed to warm up paled in comparison to this. For him that was the ultimate invasion of privacy, violation of trust, crossing the border that he always held in highest regard.

"You lied to me."

"I did, but only to make you feel better-"

"You lied to me." He repeated, interrupting her. "Is there anything else you are not telling me, lying to me about, or hiding from me?"

Sally lowered her head again, unable to answer, or even look him in the eyes.

Andreas stood up, and - while limping heavily - headed back home. Just before entering through the doors, he reached towards his pocket, looked at the box and then tossed it on the roof.

Sally was left alone, on the grass. Tears flew down her face, and she regretted absolutely everything in that moment. She wished she could tell him the truth. She wished she could be honest with him all the time, to tell him every little detail of her story. She wished she could tell and show him everything.

She couldn't.