"Grayson!" Indi screamed.
Grayson jumped out of bed and ran to the guest room where Indi had been staying since her attack. He saw a silhouette standing in the darkness and quickly hit the light switch. The room lit up and he sighed in relief that it was Ryo standing there.
"Sorry, I've never been in your house. I saw a bed and thought it was your bedroom," Ryo smiled at Indi. "You must be Indi. I didn't mean to scare you. I don't know what Grayson has told you about me."
"You're the hyena," Indi said.
"You've heard of me," Ryo laughed. "Grayson, do you have my money?"
"This way," Grayson said.
Ryo followed Grayson into the bedroom where he took out an envelope from a drawer and handed it to her. She looked at the money in it and put it in her purse.
"Is he...?" He asked.
"Gone? Dead? Eaten?" She asked.
He nodded while blowing out his breath.
"Yes, yes, no," she said.
"No?" He asked.
"My hyenas don't eat human flesh. They only kill when I tell them too. They got antelope today. It's their favorite. They earned it after taking down such a big man," she said.
Once again he just nodded. He didn't know what to say. He knew Baron was dead but he didn't need to know what she had done with his body.
"Anything else you need my help for?" She asked.
"Not today," he answered.
"I'll leave again," she said. "Look, Grayson, I understand why you left my world. We're some cold-hearted assholes in that world. I won't blame you if I never hear from you again but it was good seeing you after all these years."
She turned around and walked towards the bedroom door.
"If you weren't in that world, I would ask you out in a heartbeat," he said.
She turned her head and looked at him.
"I know that you know. I was bad at hiding it. You always knew how I felt about you but you never said anything," he said.
"Because you don't belong in my world. You never did. I always knew I only had you on borrowed time," she said.
"And thus my point stands," he said. "If you weren't part of that world, I would ask you out in a heartbeat."
"What makes you think I would go out with you?" She asked.
She grinned at him and turned her head away from him. He watched her leave his bedroom and heard her footsteps disappear down the hallway and out of his house. She left the same way she had entered. He didn't follow to tell her goodbye. That would be too hard. Their final goodbye had been inside this room. He would never reach out to her again.
"Are you okay?" Indi asked.
He looked up and saw his friend standing in the open door. Her face still looked bad but she was slowly healing.
"I'm okay," he said. "At least as okay as I can be in the given situation."
She rushed into his arms and hugged him tight. He placed his arms around her too and felt the warmth of her embrace.
"Thank you," she said.
"No, thank you," he said. "I needed to see her again to say goodbye. Back then I left without a word. I needed to see her one last time to explain. I didn't even have to say much. She already knew. Of course she fucking knew. She knows everything."
He laughed and looked down at her.
"She's a smart one," she said.
"She is," he said.
"And a good one despite it all," she said. "Don't feel sad about letting her go. Be happy that you got to know her."