"I... won't be answering any questions for now."
"Rhys! Please, right now, some of your fans are hesitating to support you. What can you say about that!?"
"Is what we saw yesterday the real you, Mr. Wilder? Should we expect more violence!?"
Rhys was covering his eyes from all the flashes of light that were drowning him. And although he had been telling the reporters that he did not want to answer any questions for now, he had actually only taken probably less than a dozen steps from the door of the police station.
And of course, Maria noticed exactly that. Rhys's hesitation and uncertainty... they were all an act. Maria already pushed some of the reporters to fully make way for him to walk through, but Rhys did not even take it and even took a step back as he pretended to be disturbed by the flashes of light.
And so, Maria stopped any efforts to escort Rhys out of this chaos and just stood behind him.
"Well, Mr. Wilder..." Maria leaned closer to Rhys and whispered into his ear,
"...This is what you wanted to happen, isn't it? I won't be part of your act any further than this."
"What are you going on about, Ma'am?" Rhys whispered as he continued to avoid the lenses.
"Should we just move through the shadows so we can get you out of here, then?"
"..." Rhys did not really answer and just closed his eyes. This woman, just how perceptive is she, exactly?
"Everyone." And as Maria truly no longer had any plans on pushing the reporters away, Rhys finally removed the hand that was covering his face as he looked at each of the lenses in front of him,
"I am... addressing those who were expecting more from me," Rhys then let out a short but very deep sigh as he shook his head, "I am truly sorry that you have to see any of that. I am not going to make any excuses...
...at that moment, I just wanted to hurt him."
"!!!"
Even with the sun already veiling them from above, the storm that came from everyone's cameras caused everything to just turn white after Rhys's statement — one could not even see him anymore from all the light that showered him.
"What do you mean by that, Mr. Wilder!?"
"Are you saying you were going to kill him!?"
"No," Rhys shook his head again, "I know he could take it. If there is one thing I know, it's how durable us people could really be — I went through it for years."
"What did you go through, Mr. Wilder!? We all heard you whispering to Ben! You said you were burnt and your flesh was torn, is that true!? Some are saying you're just making it up!"
"Let's... not mince words anymore," Rhys forced out a small chuckle, "I'm a Lowborn, and all of you are aware of what that entails. I'm strong now, but not even a year ago, any of you could flick me on the head and I would fly. All of you have seen what happened to me when I was a child... when Sylas West violently murdered my mother right in front of me...
...and then brutalized my sister on top of her corpse."
"...Brutalized?" All the reporters looked at each other as they heard Rhys's words. Of course, they were aware of his story. The entire world may have chosen to forget it, but not them, they were reporters.
...control this situation before it gets worse."
***
"I have already seen the details of your current address, but I did not realize it was truly this small."
"It's smaller now that you're here."
"I am your guest, Katarina. Do not be rude, I even brought all of your boyfriend, singular, back safely."
"He's not my boyfriend!" "Thank you for bailing him out." "You have balls, I like that."
Katarina, Lina, and Ayesha all spoke at the same time, causing Maria to just lean back from her chair and take a sip of her coffee. The five of them were currently seated around Rhys's small table, with Maria's eyes just scanning each nook and cranny of Rhys's apartment.
Unfortunately for Maria, there wasn't that much to inspect or observe as his apartment truly was small. Truly a reflection of Rhys himself, all the juicy stuff is inside.
"From what I know, the two apartments beside this one are owned by both of you, right?" Maria looked at Lina and Katarina, "Why not just break down the walls?"
"Oh, I was actually already planning that with Rhys," Lina was the one to answer, "Privacy isn't really an issue, and with the added space, we can even make space for a bedroom. It'll be even bigger if Kat joins."
"That is not going to happen," Katarina shook her head.
"Well, I guess you're here most of the time anyway," Lina sighed.
"And..." Maria turned to look at Ayesha.
"Oh, I sleep on the couch — the bed if Rhys decides to fuck," Ayesha let out a small chuckle while Maria almost choked on her coffee.
"That's... really alright with you?" Maria squinted her eyes as she stared at Lina.
"Yeah," Lina shrugged, "Like how Explorers need to work in teams to defeat stronger monsters, I... kinda can't defeat Rhys on my own."
"Does that mean... the three of you have done it together?"
"Well..." Lina awkwardly looked at Ayesha, "...Not yet. We're not really that close yet."
"Can we please stop talking about this?" Katarina stood up and lightly slammed her palm on the table, "Why are you here exactly, Maria?"
"Didn't Mr. Wilder tell you?" Maria took another sip of her coffee, "He invited me for dinner."
"It's... one in the afternoon!"
"Well, that's okay..." Maria placed her coffee on the table,
"...We can talk until then, no?"