#37

Tennessee could not focus on his work at all. People had gone so far as to seriously suggest he take a day off. He realized he was failing to distinguish between professional and personal matters, but it wasn’t something that could be solved with reason. This was a first. If this had been a contract job rather than a bodyguard job, he surely would have botched it.

He couldn’t go home.

He couldn’t forget Amber—the hollow, distorted, and wounded soul laid bare. He knew he had caused him great shame and pain, but he couldn’t find any other way.

Leaving the situation room, Tennessee discovered dozens of missed calls on his phone. It was David’s number. While David called occasionally, over twenty missed calls was unprecedented.

After a short ring, Elizabeth answered.

As words poured out quickly along with sobbing, Tennessee turned around.

‘Either leave, or give up.’

Those words weren’t just for Amber. It was a homework assignment Tennessee had to solve as well.

“Amber.”

Tennessee called his name. Amber had just woken up. His complexion was pale. Tennessee glanced at the foot sticking out from the edge of the blanket. The left foot was wrapped in bandages, and dark red bloodstains were visible through the gauze.

He saw Amber’s family behind him, but they avoided his gaze. David, who looked as if he wanted to say something, covered his mouth and turned away. He trembled slightly and left the hospital room with reddened eyes. Elizabeth was no different. She followed him with a face clouded by complexity and deep despair.

“How’s your body?”

“I’m okay.”

Amber coughed while speaking. His voice was completely hoarse. Because his head hurt every time he coughed, Amber clutched his forehead.

“What happened?”

Looking at him now, there were small scratches on his face and arms, as if he had taken a bad fall. A heavy silence descended. Tennessee considered pressing him for answers but chose to hold his tongue.

After some time, Amber, who had been drinking water and catching his breath, opened his chapped lips.

“Tennessee.”

Tennessee nodded. It didn’t seem like a simple accident. He vowed that once he found out who it was, he would twist their neck immediately.

“……I saw Mr. Hurston.”

Tennessee frowned, not fully comprehending what Amber had said.

“Hurston? William Hurston?”

“Yes. Here in Chicago.”

Damn it. Tennessee blamed himself. He shouldn’t have left such a clumsy trail. That was Tennessee’s mistake.

If it had been the original him, he would have killed him cleanly.

Initially, Tennessee had headed to Oregon with a rifle, intending to blow his head open in one shot.

It was when he had finished all preparations and Hurston, looking peaceful while reading a book, entered the crosshairs. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Amber suddenly came to mind. Recalling Amber curled up in the bathroom, wrapping his own body and trembling as a child, Tennessee thought that killing him would be too merciful. Hurston deserved to suffer more. So, Tennessee let him live.

However, letting him live in a healthy state was out of the question. Tennessee planned to take his time and torture him slowly. He intended to mercifully end his life only when the man begged for death. To do that, he couldn’t act impulsively. He needed thorough preparation, the right timing, and the leisure to complete the plan.

After going abroad several times, Tennessee finally captured the opportunity upon returning to the US and put his plan into action. He kidnapped Hurston just as the man was getting into a car, oblivious to everything. The rest was not difficult.

First, he cut off his right arm.

He made Hurston, waking from anesthesia in a haze, see his own arm. He repeatedly asked the man, who was screaming through a gag.

‘Do you know why I’m doing this?’

Hurston sobbed, shaking his head.

‘Think carefully.’

Unable to scream properly, Hurston sobbed and pleaded, then suddenly exploded in rage. Then he went back to crying and begging abjectly.

It was three hours later that Amber’s name finally came out of Hurston’s mouth.

Tennessee didn’t stop there. Simply casting him into the abyss wasn’t satisfying. At the very least, his roots had to be permanently embedded in that abyss so he could never emerge. So, Tennessee changed his mind and decided to keep him alive longer.

‘Why are you doing this to me! Why on earth!’

To the screaming Hurston, Tennessee said with a smile.

‘I wonder why? Ask the children you tormented.’

One per generation. Hurston would take in several children and pick only one to alienate. He didn’t want a conflict structure to emerge between himself and the children, so he targeted only one child. The other children, capable of sensing the subtle atmosphere and the difference in affection, gradually distanced themselves from that child, and soon alienation led to bullying, and then to persistent and cruel violence.

Watching the child, lonely and with self-esteem plummeted to the bottom, Hurston wore a pervasive smile. Even knowing that he, Hurston, was the root of everything, he watched with satisfaction as the child reached out to him for the affection they lacked.

Based on Hurston’s experience, he couldn’t refuse the children who reached out after being bullied to their limit. Nothing excited Hurston more than the sight of children’s backs as they eventually walked into the arms of people like Taylor Watson.

And Hurston’s cruel past returned to him like this.

‘I’ll apologize! I’ll apologize, please— please hic, gasp, pleaaase.’

When Tennessee pulled out one more molar, Hurston couldn’t even finish his sentence. It had only been a few hours; it wouldn’t do for him to pretend to repent after gifting Amber such nightmares. Resting his chin on his hand, Tennessee shook his head. It wouldn’t end that easily.

While pulling the remaining molars, the flash of a phone screen entered his vision. Removing his gloves, Tennessee checked the phone. The number wasn’t saved, but the one he had already memorized appeared on the screen.

‘Hello.’

[Can I ask you something?]

It was Amber.

‘Yeah.’

Hurston shrieked in an attempt to get help somehow, but that muffled sound didn’t even penetrate the room. Leaning back with his legs crossed, Tennessee lit a cigarette.

[Tennessee, you’re heterosexual, right?]

Why is he asking this?

He pondered for a moment, but since Amber was still young and curious about everything, Tennessee decided not to think too deeply.

‘No, I’m gay.’

Strictly speaking, Tennessee had no experience with men. He had occasional one-night stands because he had sexual desires, but he didn’t consider himself the type to play promiscuously. However, upon hearing Amber’s question, the thought occurred to him that there was nothing stopping him from doing it with a man.

Despite the answer, there was silence on the other end of the line. Looking at the screen, the call was still active. What’s happening? Just as the question arose, there was a loud thumping sound. It was the sound of Hurston slamming his head hard against the steel table. I’ll have to fix his forehead in place too.

‘I’m hanging up now.’

Putting the phone back in its place, Tennessee took out a new pair of medical gloves.

‘Aaaagh! I’ll apologize to the children, I’ll just apologize! Please! Aaagh!’

‘Don’t even think about going near those kids. Do all your apologizing to me.’

It might be good to brand him. Tennessee gripped the front teeth firmly with pliers. He twisted them in one go.

‘Gwaaaah!’

He twisted and pulled the remaining one in a single motion. Tennessee gave him a moment to fully savor the pain. Hurston wailed.

‘Why are you doing this to me! Why! Who are you, who are you!’

‘I am every little kid you ever watched, touched, hurt, screwed, killed.’

Tennessee decided to keep Hurston alive even longer. Having carved out the time, it would be a waste of his efforts to kill him already.

‘I’ll let you live. Instead, you’ll have to hide well so I can’t see you.’

With that warning, Tennessee released him. As soon as he was freed, Hurston hid, but no matter where he hid, Tennessee found him. He didn’t forget to leave small gifts. Like the breadcrumbs of Hansel and Gretel, they were very small but identifiable markers.

Sometimes it was a bullet; other times, it was a photo taken when he had amputated Hurston’s arm. Every time he saw the gifts placed on a shabby bed or an old sink, Hurston would wail and collapse into sobs. And he struggled desperately just to survive.

The last time he had checked on him was at a homeless shelter somewhere in New York. William Hurston was clumsily injecting heroin into his right forearm with his left arm. Escaping through drugs—that simply wouldn’t do. Tennessee planned to lock him away and kill him once he became more addicted, to the point where he couldn’t survive without the drug. Watching that sight, Tennessee crushed out his cigarette. When was that, exactly?

Movie ‘Hard Candy’