Chapter Ten: Illusions

On her way to the hospital, Claire ran through some thoughts in her head.

I can only hope this works out great. Maybe they'll get along.

Claire rolled her eyes at the last thought.

Who am I kidding? Chris will probably fuck it up as usual without giving Leon a single chance, even though he's such a sweet guy. We'll just have to see, I guess.

Around ten minutes passed before Claire arrived at the hospital. She was able to check back in to visit Leon. Claire peeked her head into the room and saw Leon presumably asleep. Claire stepped into the room and went over to the chair beside Leon's bed delicately. Without her knowledge, Leon was awake the whole time. Leon's eye followed her lazily from the doorway to the seat next to him.

"Hey, there." Leon said soothingly with a charmed smile.

Claire looked over at Leon in surprise.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you?"

"Nah, you didn't. I've been up for a while, now. Just laid here thinking about stuff, bored out of my mind."

They both lightly chuckled. While Claire was away, Leon sparked some questions in his head regarding one of the last images he was able to remember; himself. Leon felt a bit confused from it. He figured it had something to do with the incident.

"Well, you should go back to sleep. Shouldn't be up all night, Leon."

"Mind if I ask you a question, first?" Leon asked softly.

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

Leon started to speak but paused. He felt anxious as his muscles tensed up and his face had worry written all over it. Claire noticed Leon's distress and held his hand gently. She looked him in the eyes and flashed a smile of elegance his way.

"You can tell me anything. If it's anything...bad, I won't judge you. I want you to know that, okay? What's wrong?" Claire spoke with comfort.

Leon took a deep breath.

"Do you...by any chance can possibly tell what this means? Like...Like, you dream of this job, right? You want this job for years, and you finally make it. It becomes a reality. You have a loving family who supports you. You've met someone...great."

The two both grinned warmly at each other from the last comment. Leon continued.

"And despite all this, you see a big reflection of yourself. It just feels...so real. You look at it with a sense of...shock. You look at yourself with a sense of confusion as of course, it being a mirror you get the same reaction in return, but to actually see it...and feel it, it all just feels so bizarre. You begin to ask yourself, 'Is this reality?' Claire, I don't know if this was a sign or what, but...I don't understand it at all. And quite frankly, it scares me."

Leon sighed deeply. He felt like he had removed five hundred pounds of weight off of his chest. Claire took a moment to process what Leon had just said and finally replied.

"Maybe it's the pressure. It brought you great stress, perhaps. I can tell you've always dreamed of a perfect life, and right now everything's going well for you. But you're afraid of messing things up. The reflection of yourself is what you fear of seeing. You want to look happy, you want to be happy. You're probably scared that one day, everything can slip from you. Your job, your family, everything, and you're just left with this big question, 'How?' Maybe you tried too hard, but maybe you didn't try enough. Leon, what you saw was merely caused by the pressure you put on yourself to not ruin things. I want you to feel relaxed. Let things flow in life. Just take one step at a time. You won't see that same reflection you've been seeing if you just slow things down and make the right decisions."

Claire replied in a sensitive, refined tone as she caressed Leon's hand. His heart pounded of exhilaration. Everything Claire said made perfect sense to Leon. The clear sense of affection and care in her voice made Leon feel quite fuzzy on the inside. Claire simply astonished him all around.

"You're right. I...I'll just let things come to me. I shouldn't worry too much." Leon said warmly.

Claire moved her free hand to Leon's forehead and softly moved it up to his hair. Claire started to brush Leon's hair with obvious signs of endearment. For a long while, they were both completely lost in each other's eyes. Suddenly, Claire leaned in close with Leon. Just as she was about to plant a kiss on Leon's lips, she stopped herself. Claire instead settled for a kiss on the cheek. Leon's face turned red immediately and he thought at that point his heart was about explode out of his chest.

"Now, get some sleep. You gotta wake up early in the morning." Claire whispered softly in Leon's ear.

Leon nodded in agreement.

"Right...G-Good night, Claire."

Leon managed to choke out some words, despite being overwhelmed with shock and amazement.

"Night."

Claire still had Leon's hand, even after when he eventually fell asleep. She wasn't ready to let go.

Around the same time on that late night, Xavier was allowed to take a shower over at Rebecca's. Unfortunately for him, there were no spare clothes, so he had to re-wear the same attire. The two sat back down on the couch after Xavier finished his shower.

"Now are you ready to tell me about yourself?" Rebecca asked who seemed rather curious.

"What is there to say? Not like you'll see me again." Xavier scoffed.

"Hey, as a person who cooked you something, allowed you to shower, and stay the night, I think I deserve a little information, don't you think? Now, what's your story?" Rebecca demanded.

Xavier let out a sigh and shook his head.

"Look, it's complicated...and it brings back bad memories. I just...rather not, okay?"

Xavier appeared to be rather upset at that point. Rebecca finally gave up.

"Okay, sorry."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Uh-huh. What's going on?"

"Don't have much to say about myself, either." Rebecca shrugged her shoulders.

"I see." Xavier gave a smirk.

They sat in silence for a long moment. Xavier looked around Rebecca's place and gave several nods of approval. Xavier turned his attention back at Rebecca.

"Hey, I really appreciate you helping me out here. Seriously, you don't know how much this means to me." Xavier gave Rebecca a friendly smile.

"It's nothing. Just for the record, you could've just asked."

"Ask?" Xavier sounded confused.

"Yeah, instead of making up that story. I would've helped regardless."

"I'm sorry. Like I said earlier, when enough people neglect you, you do things you're normally against. I'm just glad I didn't resort to other things..." Xavier said faintly.

"I guess I can understand where you're coming from. Just don't do anything stupid out there."

"Stupid? Pft, never." Xavier chuckled.

The two sat in silence once again for a couple of minutes. Xavier looked down at his feet and directed his eyes to Rebecca.

"Actually...you're right. I should tell you a little about myself. It's the least I can do." Xavier sighed.

"No, no. It's okay. Really don't need to if you feel uncomfortable. It's fine."

"I'll be alright. After all, you're the first person I've actually...interacted with in a while. Actual interaction."

Rebecca nodded as she crossed her legs and folded her arms.

"Go ahead, then."

Xavier made sure to keep eye contact with Rebecca throughout the story. He felt like it was very crucial to do so. Xavier cleared his throat and began to speak slowly.

"When I was born...I uh, didn't have much. Grew up in a single bedroom apartment, really shitty. Karen, my mother was such a sweet person. Even though we had little, she wanted to make the most of our situation. I guess you could say that she was a very optimistic person." Xavier let out a chuckle before he continued.

"And that bastard...Victor. Victor was my father, a poor excuse of one anyway. He claimed that he wanted to raise me to become 'a man', yet he would beat my mother senseless everyday. I'm not sure why besides the fact that he was a deranged lunatic and, their marriage just wasn't working, I guess. For years I lived in a home with this kind of brutal violence going on. When I was twelve, my mother finally couldn't take it anymore, and neither could I. I remember that...my mother was packing up our things. She had enough and tried to leave with me. Where were we gonna go? I had absolutely no clue. Unfortunately for us, Victor found out. They got into a heated argument for an extremely long time, until out of nowhere he cracked her right in the jaw and sent my Mom to the floor. I...I was petrified. And then..."

Xavier paused to take a deep breath. Rebecca uncrossed her legs and scooted over to Xavier. She gently rested her hand on his shoulder.

"Xavier...i-it's okay. You don't have to keep going..."

Rebecca said with great sympathy towards Xavier. However, Xavier kept on with his story.

"Victor just started pummeling her. Stomp after stomp, fierce punch after fierce punch, he didn't stop. Even when she was in a pool of her own blood, pleading to stop, he outright refused. After that, I...I just ran up to him and started punching his back with all my might. But since I wasn't even half his size, it didn't do much but piss him off even more. Victor backhanded the hell out of me, sent me face first to the floor. That evil, vile man went back at it, just beating on my mother. I refused to stand by...I..."

Xavier stopped again once his eyes filled with tears. Rebecca's eyes filled with tears as well and shared strong sorrow for Xavier.

"Please. R-Really, if this...if this isn't making you comfortable...j-just stop."

Rebecca couldn't bare anymore of the pain inside her when she heard Xavier's story, yet she knew it couldn't compare to how he must've felt. Xavier wiped his tears away and spoke softly.

"I-It's okay...I-I'll wrap it up, soon. Well, I...I walked into the kitchen and picked up the sharpest knife I could find. Came back to Victor who was still fucking her up and I yelled at him at the top of my lungs so he would stop. He stopped and looked up at me...and all that man did was laugh in my face. 'Put the knife down, boy. You don't know what to do with it.' That's all he said. Walked up to me...and I didn't even do anything. He smacked me back to the ground and like that, he was gone. Victor left the house. Left us in the house alone on the floor. My mother was so seriously hurt that she...well, passed away. I had to get put in foster home after foster home after that. I heard that my father did get caught and was put in prison for the murder of a wonderful, wonderful woman. But that didn't make things better. My life was already ruined. Fast forward to me now being homeless. I ran away from everything. I felt like I didn't belong anywhere...And well, here I am."

Xavier finally finished his story. Rebecca felt so bad for Xavier that she sobbed in front of him. They both hugged tightly for a long time. Rebecca whispered softly into his ear.

"Y-You can stay...I-I'm so sorry!" Rebecca said through her tears.

"Thank you s-so much!" Xavier replied through tears as well.

Once Rebecca buried her face into Xavier's shoulder, a smile grew discretely on his face. He wasn't surprised of the outcome. After all, he knew things would eventually fall into place.