Obviously at first, the weight of the words didn’t register. They never do, always opting to carry an air of falsehood. It was for this reason that his lips remained parted without emitting a sound, his eyes forward and unblinking. The only physical feeling that he could experience as silence invaded the air around him and entered his lungs was the feeling of his blood turning to ice. “No, that’s– I don’t even know you.” However upon uttering these words they sounded silly. There was no reason to expect that Theo had known his killer, though he had been walking around with that presumption for a long time; whoever it was that had taken his life away from him had done so because of a personal reason, not as part of some act of petty robbery. Upon this understanding, it was fully within the realm of possibility that this person was being truthful in her words; there was no reason to expect differently, and anyway, he should take her confession at face value, because ignoring it could be potentially fatal. Maybe for the second time in his life, Theo felt his heart stop beating as he stared at the woman before him, and then fear replaced confusion. It didn’t happen slowly, like the turn of tide. No, it was like he was blind-sided by the tackle of a football player. He staggered backward, hands flailing to his sides as though to try and find something to grip, a weapon to hold before him in his defense. This person, this murderer, had done him in once, and she so obviously saw that, with his living breathing presence, the job had not been completed to its goal. There was only one remedy to that, in her eyes, and Theo knew this, he was a field mouse to the eyes of a circling hawk. “I- I’m going to scream,” his hoarse voice would have been useless at such a thing, but nevertheless he didn’t know how else to warn her away. The panic inside him manifested in his voice, shaky, cracking, the whimper of someone begging for their life. “I- I am going to call for the police.”
“please...” what? don’t? don’t scream, theo - stay quiet, now your murderer stands before you. it would have been a HORRIBLE thing to ask ; and it wouldn’t have been fair. he had every right to be frightened of her - every right to scream for help, if he wanted to. “i’m not going to hurt you-” this didn’t seem a good enough offering to the boy who’s heartbeat she could hear fluttering a mile a minute, who’s voice was fit to crack. she raised both hands up, palms out, and she took a step back from him - and then another. enough that she thought would make it obvious that she wasn’t here to attack him. she wasn’t trying to do that, ever again. “i don’t want to hurt you, theo. i...- i don’t want to hurt anyone. ever again.” except for one person, but that MONSTER didn’t count. “please believe me. i never wanted to hurt you.”