Later that night, after Arit was done with her session with Jeanne and she had finally come home, she was lying in Mark's bed with the blankets splayed all over her. She was only wearing very short shorts and a thin spaghetti-strap top that she usually wore to sleep.
She moaned in her sleep as she turned around to wrap her hand around Mark, but she frowned and opened her eyes blearily as she noticed that Mark was not in bed with her.
Arit pushed her upper body off the bed and looked around the room to see if Mark was there, but she was shocked when she noticed that he wasn't. Where was he?
[And that's the game folks -]
Click!
[There's something about this television program that -]
Click!
[Welcome to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire -]
Click!
Arit rubbed her eyes sleepily and walked out of the room as she heard the sound of the television channel being changed over and over again. She walked into the main parlor and she stopped as she saw Mark sitting on the couch in front of the television with his back hunched and a frown on his face.
He was staring at the television, but Arit could tell that he was not interested in whatever was being shown. He never even stayed on a station for more than a minute.
"Hey."
Mark paused in the middle of changing a channel and he turned to look at Arit. Mark was only wearing his sweatpants that he used to sleep, but his hair was a little wet, so Arit guessed that he had just taken his bath again. Mark smiled at Arit as she came closer and sat beside him.
He spoke up while watching her put some strands of her hair behind her ear.
"Sorry. Did I wake you?"
No superhuman would go down without a fight, but the Superhuman Killer was able to kill the superhumans and disappear without a single trace.
This shit ruined Mark's mood completely, and Mark was suddenly not in the mood to sleep anymore. He needed to come up with a way to deal with this before Arit or Talia were hurt. He knew that the Superhuman Killer was after him. There is no doubt about it.
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If he was after Arit or Talia, then the killer would have killed them when he was pretending to be a mailman and Mark would have come back to find their dead bodies.
Just thinking about it was enough to make a new wave of anger rise inside Mark's chest.
No, the Superhuman Killer was definitely after him. There is no doubt about it. And that meant that someone put a bounty on his head. Who the fuck could have done that? Was it Salazar? That was the only person that Mark could think about right now who would want him gone.
Even though Mark and Salazar were not at odds openly, there was definitely enough justification for Salazar to want to kill Mark.
Fuck, Mark hated this shit.
With the way things were going, he would just walk into the NSA and kill that bastard.
"Mark... please don't look like that."
Arit gently caressed the back of Mark's head as she saw his brow furrowing into a mad glare that made her chest tighten in slight fear. Mark quickly relaxed his expression and turned to give Arit a forced smile. He apologized for scaring her and Arit shook her head.
"No, it's fine. I... I don't know what happened really, and I know you're just trying to protect me, but I don't want you to have to force your smiles when you're around me. I want to help you get through this."
Mark's smile disappeared as he leaned back in his seat. Arit was right. He shouldn't be faking his expressions around her. But he couldn't tell her about this. It was too dangerous and he didn't want her to try anything stupid while trying to help him. He would deal with it without involving her or Talia.
"Don't worry, Arit. Just being here with me is plenty. I'll handle it and everything will be fine. I promise."
Arit still looked worried as she ran her hand over Mark's shoulder before moving to give him a hug. Mark was a bit surprised by it at first, but he eventually smiled and accepted it. He tightened the hold more than usual and Arit's eyes changed to yellow as she felt some strain on her body from how tight his hold was. Arit whispered in Mark's ear as she also tightened her hold on him.
"I'm always here for you. I'll always be on your side. Even if the whole world is against you or if you have to fight against a god. Just do what you have to do, Mark. But please... please come back to me. I'm always here, so promise me you'll always come back."