“It is not mine to allow. Noah may mind.”
“I understand.”
He pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it to me.
His wife guided him toward the elevators.
Before the doors opened, Elias turned.
I raised my hand.
He mirrored the gesture, then disappeared inside with his wife still holding on to him.
When I returned to the room, Noah had shut his eyes.
I sat beside the bed.
“Do you want silence?”
“No.”
“How do you feel?”
He took so long to answer that I thought he might have fallen asleep.
“Changed.”
“Better?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s acceptable.”
His right eye opened.
“The dream was worse when I didn’t know what was outside the van.”
I leaned closer. “Tell me.”
“It wasn’t a person. It was just something enormous coming out of the dark.”
He looked toward the doorway Elias had occupied.
“Now it has a face.”
“Does that make it easier?”
“He was afraid too.”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t a monster.” Noah exhaled slowly. “It was a man who lost control.”
The tension around his mouth eased by a fraction.
“I think that’s easier.”
“I hope so.”
