Page 71 of Devil May Lie
What a prick.
Refusing to throw a tantrum like he had the last time, Berga forced himself to pick up his device and check the message that had woken him. The message gave him pause.
Someone had spotted Flix in town.
Berga was dialing his number in a heartbeat, impatiently listening to it ring. Just as he was starting to worry there’d be no answer, it connected. “Where are you now?”
There was a light chuckle, and then his best friend's voice came through loud and clear. “Vacation.”
“That is a lie.”
Flix grunted, affirming as much. “If you knew that, why didn’t you come looking for me, hmm?”
A tiny snap of guilt went off inside of Berga, but it was a mere flash in the pan. There and gone in an instant. The list of people who were genuinely important to him was very small, and Flix was at the top of it, but still. Since he’d been left in the dark, it wasn’t like Berga could have done anything.
“Are you okay?” He clicked his tongue, realizing how dumb it was to ask. “Don’t answer that. Obviously, since you answered my call, you are.” He wasn’t dead, in any case.
“Had to get a new multi-slate,” Flix replied.
So, he’d had time to purchase a new device but not immediately contact him? That annoyed Berga to no end.
“Someone spotted you in the city an hour ago. How long have you been back?” How long had Berga wasted his time worrying for nothing, was what he really wanted to know.
“Around three days?”
“Who do I need to liquify?”
“No one.”
“You were injured.” It wouldn’t have taken Flix this long to call if he’d been all right.
“Barely. Seriously. It was honestly pathetic. The only reason I needed to hole up for a bit once I got away was…” Flix left it at that, but Berga understood exactly what he meant.
Some secrets were too dangerous to even be voiced aloud.
Flix had one of those.
“Leaching took that long?” Berga lowered his voice despite the fact he was at home and alone. “Were you on vacation at all?” There came that guilt again, lingering a little bit longer this time around. “For any amount of the time you were gone?”
“I wish,” he grunted.
“I apologize. I should have been more suspicious when Baikal told us.” He was a terrible friend. “You would never leave without telling me.”
“It’s fine,” Flix sounded genuine, “I’m fine.”
“There was news of a forest fire. I knew it was you.” Everyone thought of Flix as the pyromaniac of the Brumal. Berga knew better, but it was best to let people believe what they wanted. Even if it didn’t come from an obsession with watching things burn, they weren’t wrong in their assumptions that Flix and fire typically went hand in hand.
A pesky side effect of his big secret.
“I hope you didn’t bother going to check.”
Of course he had.
“Sorry I didn’t call sooner,” Flix said.
“I was worried.” He’d already lost his sister. He couldn’t lose his best friend too.
“Everything is under control.”