Black Widow
©Tobi
Episode 10
“Where are we going Fabian?” Shelby asked as he started the car.
He smiled. “Well, I’m about to kidnap you.” He tea-sed.
“I’m not a fan of kidnapping Fabian and…” She realized he was smiling. “Why are you smiling?”
Fabian chuckled. “You are smiling and you are asking me why I’m smiling, why are you smiling?”
She shook her head
. This was unbelievable. “Wait, your lady is not around is she?”
Fabian grinned while ma-king a sharp turn. “Why would you ask me that?”
“Because, you are becoming the Fabian that I used to know and I don’t know why you have been acting so differently eversince I got back…”
“Yea, I know. I was just dealing with some things, that’s why , and I am here to make it right.”
“Is she around or not Fabian?” She tea-sed further…
‘Okay,okay, she is not.”
“ I knew it.”
He laughed. “I just had to get rid of her so I could bring you here..”
“Where?” Shelby g@sped as she realized where they had come. It was the field they had had their first picnic with Nana
. “Oh my God!” She smiled excitedly. “You remember this place?”
“Yea, I never forgot.” He said in a smoky voice and pu-ll-ed the car to a halt.
She climbe-d out first to breathe in the fresh air that brou-ght her so many beautiful memories of the past. There were pla-yground gadgets everywhere likes swings and the merry-go-rounds. Ever since she got back , she had never tried visiting this place and being here, made her feel exactly the way she had felt those years back.
Fabian c@m£ around with two baskets and brou-ght out a blanket which he spre-ad on the gras-s and they sat on it.
For a while, she was quiet as she recognized the veil. “Isn’t that Nana’s veil?”
“Yea, glad you recognized it.”
Shelby smiled. “Who are you Fabian? One minute you are behaving like you don’t give a $h!t, the next time you are coming up with emotional stuffs…what is the matter with you? Is there something I missed?”
As a reply, Fabian di-pped a hand into one of the baskets and handed her a plate of cookie. “St©p thinking about these things Shelby, go ahead, have a cookie, you will love it.”
Shelby took a de-ep breath and opened the pan, took a cookie and put in her mouth . True, she loved it but still…
“Fabian, what is happening? I nee-d answers. Everything has changed since I got back and a cookie will not give me the answers…”
‘Sh! We will have time for that. Right now, let’s just enjoy this moment okay. Right now, don’t think about anything, just postpone them and be rest as-sured that I will give you all the answers you nee-d.”
Shelby calmed down. “Sure?”
“Yea…”
The next minute , they were both quiet.
“Do you remember this?” He asked. Shelby g@sped and laughed so ha-rd as she saw the stupid pipe she had used as a ring.
“Oh my God Fabian, I’m so going to kill you for keeping that…Give it to me Fabian…”
“Nope.” He stood up, contorted his face somehow, and holding his f!nger out, he said in a sing-song voice. “You are so dumb sometimes, Fabian! Come on, put it on my f!nger, Nana will be the priestess…”
Shelby screamed with laughter as she remembered she had said the exact thing those years ago. quic-kly , she stood up and began to chase him all over the field. “I’m gonna kill you Fabian, I swear, that is so embarras-sing, you just wait for me…”
Finally they both fell to the ground while she climbe-d on t©p of him to tickle him into re-leasing the pipe as they had always done as kids. She was alre-ady on t©p of him che-st to che-st and face to face with her hands wra-pped around his when she paused.
Fabian felt both their hearts beating in sync as she l@yon t©p of him and they just kept staring at each other. She smelt so good and he just wanted to bury his head in her hair , This was the only moment they have been this close and for the first time, he was aware of her feminity. He felt weak un-der whatever femine spell his b©dy was responding to. Her f!nger was around his palm as he held the pipe inbetween his f!ngersti-ghtly. He felt so paralysed un-der their close proximity that his palm opened by themselves ..he thought he felt her bend her head closer to his….even if she was never going to his, it would be fair to k!ssher right…instead she rolled off of him , taking the pipe with her and rolled to his side and finally stood up.
He gro-an ed as she stood up, laughing and waving the pipe at his face while walking back to where they had set their picnic.
“For a moment, I thought you were going to k!ssme?” He confessed.
“Aww, you are too easy. Besides, you have a girlfriend so…k!ssyourself.”
He gro-an ed. What a killjoy!
*** **** ***
It was alre-ady evening and they were now on sitting on the swings. They had spent all the day talking about important and non-important things and now, he knew his time was fast approaching but he was still enjoying himself with her. He didn’t want to spoil things yet.
“How did you meet Laura?” She demanded. They were talking about so many things and now she felt she could finally ask.
Fabian chuckled. “How many questions do you have for me Shel?”
“A whole pack of questionnaire but let’s start with that.”
“Okay, I met her at work.” He replied.
“Okay, so you asked her out or she did?”
Fabian scoffed. “Well, is that really necessary?’
‘Yes Fabian, it is, now answer, you know you owe me all that.”
“Okay, yea, she asked me out.” He replied.
“I knew it. SO you said a ‘yes’ because of what exactly? Because you were afraid if you had said no, she might have stabbe-d you in the heart?”
Fabian shook his head. “No, I actually liked her, that was why I said Yes.”
“plea-se, what could you have possibly liked about her, she is intimid@t!ng, mean and selfish. Always intruding anytime I’m talking with you and everything. It’s like she is afraid you might fall in love with me or something….”
“Well, she knows I care about you and she knows we have a history together.”
That must have t©uçhed her because she smiled, without looking at him and asked. “You do?”
‘Yes, like you don’t know that I care about you Shel?”
She smiled more. ‘Well I don’t know. Maybe if you could say it one more time, I might believe you,” She tea-sed.
Fabian grinned and shifted on his swing, looking directly at her. ‘Well, Shelby, I care so much about you. Do you believe me now?”
She shook her head and laughed. “I will have to think about if I believe you or not.”
Angrily, Fabian pu-ll-ed her, ma-king her swing so high back and forth before finally coming to a st©p.
“Why did you come back here Shelby?” He finally asked.
“Well, you know the reason to that as well. “ She replied.
“I don’t know, maybe you can tell me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, you are trying to do your own back? You are so predictable.”
He laughed. ‘But I’m not, I just want to know. Why? You don’t want to tell me because you are afraid of my girlfriend?” He said on purpose.
Tina stared at him with a ‘how-dare-you-look.’ “I am not afraid of your girlfriend, infact, I think you are more afraid of her.”
“Now you are trying to change the t©pic.”
“I c@m£ back here because..well, maybe I thought….” She paused.
“Spill it, I won’t bite you.”
She ignored him totally. “I missed my dad and I sortta missed you too. That’s it. We were best friends and your calls just st©pped coming in for many years. Each time I asked dad to talk to you, he said you were not around, where were you?”
Fabian was surprised. He never knew she actually kept asking after him even when her dad had told him she had forgotten about him.
“I ..never got your message …” He lied but st©pped. He got everyone of them, he just never replied.
“I left a message each time Fabian, you never returned them and I st©pped. I thought you forgot me…”
“I never forgot you Shelby, how could I? To me, you are everything, you are my sister, my bestfriend my….” His voice trailed off….he shouldn’t make things more difficult. “You are my only family, you are unforgettable.”
“So why did you ask me to go study at all those far away countries when I could have stayed here and be all these things to you Fabian…We promised to always be together. When I finished college at UK, I c@m£ back home. I saw you only one time throu-ght out my stay and you only c@m£ to tell me not to study in the country , where were you all those times, why did you leave all of a sudden again and I didn’t see you again until I left for my Uni at Paris, you left so many holes Fabian, why ? Where were you so far away even whileI was right here? Nana died during my first year in Paris and you didn’t even call me to tell you, now you are saying I am everything to you? Even if you were seeing Laura then, you could have told me something.”
Her tone was getting serious and emotional…
Fabian looked away. She was right but all those times, he had been far away because he was still training to become the killer that he bec@m£. He saw each of her missed calls on his phone but then he was trying to push her away and was surprised when he got a message that she was around, shortly he had escaped to see her. He had only told her one thing, not to spend her Uni in the country but in a far away place and he went back immediately. He was later punished a year later, for escaping the training ground and the punishment was his Red code.
“It wasn’t because of Laura, Shelby, I was away because…because I wanted to protect you.”
“What does that even mean Fabian. plea-se I just nee-d the truth, with the death of Nana and why you ran away and where you went to.
. plea-se.”
Fabian stood up while checking the time on his wristwatch, he cli-cked the bu-tton by the sides to signal to Michael where he was, he would get the beep sound on his phone.
“Why would you nee-d to protect me Fabian, why?”
Shutting his eyes, he knew he couldn’t escape this. “Because..because I care about you and because I love you so much and I had to keep you away from this place.”
He s-en-sed how surprised she was with the way she g@sped and was quiet.
“Fabian, you love me?” She asked again but he was quiet.
“Fabian…’ She called him again, now moving towards him. “I promise I will not judge you. Were you smoking or did you do something terrible? I will forgive you, I promise. I just nee-d the Fabian that I knew back, the one I shared my childhood and my first k!sswith….I know you love me, we have both loved each other since we were kids but I nee-d to know what is happening, you are acting so weird and even though I appreciate you telling me first that you love me, still it feel so wrong as if you are keeping things. plea-se Fabian, make this right if you truly love me.”
Fabian shut his eyes as he opened his mouth to talk, his heart was beating so fast and then , he shut them again. He couldn’t do this. How could he tell her everything just at once? How could he just break all her heart at once?
“I want us back Fabian, I want to take that job that father offered, atleast we can be together and spend time together and….”
Slowly , he turned around towards her and moved so close that they were just inches ap@rt.
“ I am not the Fabian that you used to know…he is long gone, this Fabian is a terrible person and you nee-d to leave this country tonight. I have arranged for your dep@rture with someone, your pas-sports and everything is inside, I s£nt enough money to get you two on your feet and ….” He realized she was looking at him in a confused manner.
“Are you on drugs Fabian or what are you saying? Are you trying to make me change the t©pic? You just said you love me and now you want me to leave the country?”
“Yes Shelby.” He stated, holding her hand. “You are not safe in this place,there are so many things you don’t know.”
“Things like what?”
“Abominable things that you may never believe me.”
“You are scaring me.”
“Good, you nee-d to be scared because it is the truth…” He st©pped and looked at her. Her eyes were wi-de-open and her eyebrows were buried in a frown.
Fabian could feel the panic in his tummy as he held her hand with his hands firmly, he could see her che-st rising and falling as he opened his mouth to say-“I killed Nana.” Slowly, he watched her pu-ll her hands slowly from his grip.