Frontier Town Nina's Place

[canisaries]

For a second there, Laura looked like she might believe him, but then...

"I don't know, Andre," she said, adrenaline creeping into her voice, "what does a killer look like? You don't look yourself, is the thing. Maybe if you were some bloke wearing a bloodstained shirt you'd look more the part."

Actually, it would be a raincoat. I'm cleanly like that.

"Look, I'm not gonna put your name in the news—" unless? "—or try and investigate you or prosecute you or whatever. Whatever you did, you did it in another reality, in a different body.

She promised no consequences - none of the legal sort, at least. It reminded Andre of someone...

"I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to die, Andre. Nor will you see a Forlasan court of law for your crimes on other worlds. You must serve penance in other ways."

If two different people said it without knowledge of each other, could it be true?

I have no idea what your motive could possibly have been, maybe I'd even be bloody sympathetic if I knew. But there's no point in going after you for it, so I'm gonna tell you again: be for fucking real with me."

Well, there it was again. Laura demanding honesty. But he couldn't be honest. She wouldn't understand.

And maybe she shouldn't. Maybe no one should, because there wasn't anything to understand. What Andre had done wasn't justice. It was a grisly way to pacify the guilty conscience of a selfish man who had it so well when others suffered.

No, no, what am I thinking? I have found understanding. Odette understood me. Sure, that's only one out of five people who found out understanding, but... it proves that I'm not just insane.

So... what do I do? Tell Laura the truth? Tell another lie that gets the gist across but sounds better (definitely leave out the fucking torture)? Continue to deny things? Refuse to answer entirely? Which option is the best for me? Which option is the best for the Wayfarers?

Andre struggled with the choice until he realized that he'd already waited too long. Surely no innocent man would give such a dead-eyed stare for so long when asked to be honest.

He sighed. He decided on a whim to go for the choice that felt like no real choice at all: half-assing it.

"Fine," he said, "fine." He adjusted his glasses with a hoof and looked away. "You're perceptive, I'll give you that."

He sighed and looked back. "Truth is, I'm not completely innocent. I have done something I'm afraid of getting out. But the situation is complicated. Nuanced. Ben doesn't fully understand it. And, well, I suppose by I must admit I don't have the complete picture, either."

He didn't know, after all, how madly Ben had loved Mike. He didn't know the depth of his sorrow.

"But, Laura, there is something I can say with complete transparency." Andre looked as deep into Laura's eyes as he could, trying to will her to understand his conviction. "I never wanted to hurt Ben."