Claude stood there frozen as a rock, forced to stare back into William's deep, rich eyes. The military recruiter had just called out Claude's lies, sending half his mind into a frenzy. Sweat dripped down his face in uneven trails, his pounding heart sending tremors through his body. He tried to calm down by taking in a deep breath, cooling his nerves down before he tried to answer the recruiter.
Once Claude felt he had gathered enough composure to speak out, he opened his mouth to try and respond to the military recruiter. But as he tried to speak, no words seemed to come out. Claude closes his mouth again, wipes off the sweat from his face, and tries again, but to no avail.
Upon seeing Claude brutally struggling to simply talk, William steps up to speak again, breaking the silence between them. He puts on a sinister smirk and fluently asks Claude if there was something wrong.
"What's the matter, Mr. Bowman? Can't seem to find your voice?"
William's response would go on to intensify the whirling emotions inside Claude. His heart rate continued to rise, while his breaths became deeper and longer, and his face continued to get drenched in sweat.
"I… I told you, man! I saw… um… nothing! I saw… I saw nothing! I swear!" Claude tries to the best of his abilities to communicate, horrifically failing and stuttering along the way. William had already deduced that his inability to speak corresponds with whether he was being truthful or not. As his patience wore thin, William reluctantly took on a more aggressive approach.
He yanks Claude by his shirt collar and pulls him close. William's face quickly morphed from a sinister smirk to an aggressive frown. He then raises his voice and yells at him, causing Claude's heart rate to climb even further.
"I can tell when someone is lying, Mr. Bowman," William replies. "I have a lot of experience in that department. And from what I can tell, you are one bad, bullshitting liar," he adds.
"So, stop wasting my time, and tell me exactly what happened over there!" he finishes, referring to Scarsdale.
Unable to handle the mounting pressure William put him under, the cowardly side of his mind crumples, temporarily releasing Claude from its shackles. His heart rate immediately slows down back to normal, while his lungs take in more moderate breaths. It felt as if a gigantic weight had been lifted off his shoulders, setting him free.
"Mr. Bowman?" William speaks, sensing a change in tone within Claude. He lets go of his collar and takes a step back. Claude cranks his neck and takes a deep breath. He then opens his mouth and begins to speak clearly once more.
"Well, if you really want to know, I'll tell you." Claude tells William, this time speaking more clearly.
"When I walked through that door, I found 3 demons lurking inside that house," he speaks with a cold tone. "They had completely thrashed the place, stolen everything valuable, and tried to kill me when they found me," he continues.
"Usually, when something like this happens, I run away because I don't want to get hurt," Claude adds a bit of context to his prior behavior before moving forward with the story.
"But on that day, instead of running away like I usually do, did you know what I did?" Claude asks William but answers just before he could get a word out.
"I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and killed them all with my own bare hands," he proclaims.
"And after all was said and done, as their corpses bled out on the floor, right under my feet, I had felt so proud of myself," he confesses to the military recruiter. Claude then suddenly leans in and whispers into his ear.
"I enjoyed it. It felt amazing," he adds. William twitches as a little shiver goes down his spine. Claude then pulls back, takes in a deep breath, and turns his head to the sky to gaze upon the fluffy white clouds in the boundless blue sky.
"You know, I tried to tell you this the first time, but I couldn't get myself to do it," Claude tells William. "Every time I opened my mouth, I had these waves of thoughts that made me doubt myself," he adds.
"It happens to me all the time. Every time a new opportunity presents itself, I always run away from it, just because there was a chance that I could have gotten hurt."
"I don't know why I am like this. I don't know why I am such a spineless, worthless bastard of a man. Maybe it's a part of who I am, and that's probably the reason why. I don't really know if I can change, and at this point, I don't think I can," he speaks in a defeated tone, sulking over his past failures. He then turns away from the sky and looks down at the asphalt ground.
"It might be too late for me," he adds. He then turns his head to William and speaks again.
"Oh, I am sorry for dumping all that on you. You didn't want to listen to that, did you?" He apologizes. William takes a second to process everything he had been told before responding.
"It's alright, Mr. Bowman. I understand what you are going through," William speaks up.
"You do?" Claude inquires, to which William firmly nods.
"Yes. And from what I heard, I don't think you are a coward at all, Mr. Bowman. I think you are a brave man. You just don't know it," he asserts with confidence. Claude raises an eyebrow in skepticism.
"Oh? And why do you think that?" he inquires. William takes in a deep breath, ready to bestow some wisdom on our favorite protagonist.
"Because I was in the same headspace once, right when I was your age," he claims. Claude's other eyebrow raises as William captures his interest.
"Now, unfortunately, I don't have enough time to go into detail, so I am going to make this quick," William starts off.
"Growing up, my mother always used to tell me these three things." As he started telling his story, he raised his hand and put up three fingers.
"Don't get into any fights, don't take any stupid risks, and always prioritize your safety," he states. As William outlined each principle, he put down one finger at a time. Once all three fingers were down, he lowered his hand and continued talking.
"You see, Mr. Bowman, my family used to live in a very bad part of town. The place was riddled with drugs and crime—not an ideal environment for a child to grow up in," he explains the context behind the principles to allow Claude to better understand the situation.
"She taught me those things so I would run away from the moment I saw some shit, because even though it was a bad place, it was the only neighborhood we could afford to live in," William further clarifies.
"And although it did protect me from all sorts of danger, I felt as if I didn't have any control over my life. It was as if I was coasting through an endless ocean, just letting the currents take me wherever they wanted me to go," he states. He then pauses to look Claude in the eyes.
"Sounds familiar, Mr. Bowman?" William throws a little question at Claude, to which he nods.
"Yeah, it does," Claude responds.
"Kind of sounds like my childhood. Although, I did live in a better place. Didn't have all that crime stuff going around," he adds.
"Lucky you," William comments.
"So, what happened? How did you manage to get out of that headspace?" Claude asks William, hoping to get a good answer.
"Fear is a powerful emotion. It traps you mentally behind walls and convinces you that all it is trying to do is to keep you safe. Although a little fear is necessary sometimes, letting it control your life leads to disaster," William starts.
"It acts kind of like a fortress. It protects you from the dangers of the outside world but also traps you inside its cold, unforgiving walls," William continues, trying to explain the concept to Claude with another fun metaphor.
"I used to have a fortress in my head. It was there to protect me from the bad environment I grew up in. Though I felt safe, I also felt unhappy and unsatisfied," William confesses.
"At times, it felt like a prison, meant to keep you inside. But, unlike a prison, the door is wide open, and you can leave whenever you want.
But to do that, you must eliminate the need for the fortress by distancing yourself from the reason you have to stay in it. I left it by leaving the bad neighborhood and joining the army," William finishes.
"Do you get what I am saying?" William asks, wanting to know if Claude was following through with his talk.
"Yeah. You are saying that this all comes from something external," Claude replies. William smiles and nods.
"That's exactly right," William confirms.
"You have already proven to be a brave man. All you need to do is find out what's causing this problem and cut it off from your life," William advises.
"And if it happens to be something environmental as well, then…" William pulls out a card from his pocket and hands it over to Claude.
"Call me. I can make a special arrangement for you," he tells Claude.
"Aw, thanks. But eh…" Claude responds.
"What makes you think I can pull it off?" he asks the military recruiter, still doubting himself. William smirks, walks closer towards Claude, and grabs him by the shoulders.
"Because if you don't, Mr. Bowman, you are going to live a life of misery and sadness. Forever haunted by the fact that you chose to give up greatness, to instead rot in mediocrity," he proclaims. William then turns his head to look at the supermarket entrance before turning it back to Claude's face. He lets go of him and hands a few parting words.
"I think that's your cue to head in," he claims, pointing to the main entrance of the market. Claude turns around and sees an old lady walk out of the doorway with a shopping cart.
"Oh yeah, thanks," Claude extends his gratitude to William. He smiles in return.
"Goodbye, Mr. Bowman. I hope you make the right choice," William tells his goodbyes to Claude and then starts walking away.
"Goodbye! Thanks for the advice!" Claude yells back. As the man walked away, he looked down at the card William had given him earlier.
It was a simple white card, with just William's name and number written down with a black pen. He stares at it for a moment before eventually sliding it into his pocket. He then turns around and starts walking towards the entrance of the supermarket. As he did so, he thought of what William said earlier.
"Would it really be that easy?" he thought to himself, still a little doubtful of William's advice. Claude then exhales sharply, pushing away the thought for now.