Reiner - His Confession

I wasn’t sure where this conversation was headed but I had feeling that this wasn’t going to turn out as a normal date. A knot formed in the pit of my stomach as I had a strong sense of foreboding. Yesterday, Reiner asked about my mother as well.

“Lucien’s good. He managed to tell you half-truths without directly lying to you and without telling you the whole story either,” Reiner said with a soft laugh.

“Excuse me?” I said, not quite following.

“He’s right. Your mother died in a car, but it wasn’t an accident. He’s also right when he said that she was killed,” Reiner replied.

“Do you…know something about my mother’s death?” I asked hesitantly. That was what his words were leading me to believe.

“You see that bend right there in the road below,” Reiner said as he pointed a finger at the bend in the road.

I knew right away where he was referring to because he had been staring at that spot for a long while now without breaking eye contact with it.

“Yes. What of it?” I asked, urging him to get to the point.

Reiner turned around to face me and for the first time his eyes were on my face instead of that bend in the road below. I gulped at the sight of his dead and emotionless blue eyes. His eyes made me shiver and suddenly I felt very cold and nervous.

“That’s where your mother died,” Reiner said simply like it was no big deal.

…what?

What the hell is he talking about?

“Excuse me?” I said cluelessly.

“Your mother died here after her car was shot. She crashed into that bend in the road, the car caught on fire and after a while it exploded and that killed your mother,” Reiner stated emotionlessly.

I put a hand over my mouth as I squeezed my eyes shut tight. The imagery that I saw from his words was just too much for me to bear. A lump formed in my throat, and I felt like I was about to throw up.

Quickly, I turned away to hide my face from him and so that I wouldn’t have to look at that bend in the road.

“What on earth are you talking about? You know nothing about my mother! Why are you saying these things?!” I cried out loudly.

“You’re right, I don’t know anything about your mother. All I know is how she died,” Reiner stated flatly.

“What are you saying?” I asked in a panic.

“I’m saying that I killed her,” Reiner replied bluntly.

“…huh?” I said, at a loss for words.

My eyes widened in shock. He’s joking, right? This can’t be true. Suddenly my legs felt weak, and I would have collapsed right there onto the floor if Reiner didn’t reach out and held on to both sides of my shoulders.

“Listen Natalia. I told you before that I came here for work. I wasn’t lying. I came here to scout out the best place to snipe a car that would be passing by down that road. I shot the car from here,” Reiner explained calmly.

I could tell from the look on his face that he was dead serious and that he wasn’t lying. Why would he lie about something like this? But then that would mean…that he killed my mother…

In that moment the choice was obvious, I would prefer for Reiner to be a liar than to be my mother’s murderer.

“It…can’t…be…” I whispered and I realized that I was finding it difficult to speak.

My whole body felt heavy and weak. I found it hard to breathe and my chest felt tight. Then even my eyes seemed to have lost its function as my sight blurred and then the world slowly faded into absolute darkness.

The last thing that I remembered from what was supposed to be our date, was the sound of Reiner calling my name…

…

The first thing I realized was the light that I saw through my eyelids. It made me realize that I was somewhere with the lights on. It was all quiet around me and everything felt very still and motionless.

My body felt weak, and it took all my effort to move even my fingers. Slowly, I opened my eyes.

White walls, minimal furniture, IV drips attached to my arm and a narrow bed. Basically, I’ve ended up in the hospital again. Although this time, it was a different hospital than the one that I was in before when I was recovering from the fire incident.

“Natalia…”

A familiar voice called my name softly. I glanced over to the side of the bed and saw Reiner looking down at me with worry.

“R…” I whispered. My voice coming out in a dry croak.

Hurriedly, Reiner fetched me some water in a cup and held it to my lips. Slowly, I drank from the cup obediently. I guess this was the point where the girl was supposed to wake up and lose her memory of what had happened to keep herself sane, or to make it even more dramatic, the girl would lose memory of who this man was and how much he meant to her.

However, that wasn’t what happened in my case at all. My brain felt hazy, and I felt mentally exhausted, but I still remembered everything that happened up until this point. Of course, that included our disastrous date and the fact that Reiner had admitted to killing my mother. It’s funny how I used to fight so hard to get my memories back before but now, I just wanted to forget everything and move on with the time that was left in my life.

Reiner sat back down on the chair next to the hospital bed and I could feel his eyes on me. He didn’t say anything and frankly, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say to him either. Precisely because I wasn’t sure what I wanted, I remained silent as I kept my thoughts and my words to myself.

--To be continued…