Chapter 41: Empty Your Heart
Trenton Schwartz was a middle-aged man with a feeble body and a head that was nearing being bald.
He looked way older than he actually was, causing others to mistake him for a senior citizen.
Klaus didn’t have that issue, as he already knew what Trenton looked like.
He took a seat on the bench, crossed his legs over one another, and locked his fingers while resting his hands on his lap.
Trenton glanced at him with a confused expression, wondering who he was and why he was invading his privacy. But being the gentle-hearted man he was, he left it be and returned his gaze to the natural pool.
They sat in silence for a while, but Trenton couldn’t ignore the masked man’s presence for long.
He turned his head to the left and stared at Klaus. Due to the hat and face mask, he couldn’t even infer what he was thinking or if he was smiling or frowning
One thing was certain, though: this guy was pissing him off.
At the end, he couldn’t help but ask, "What do you want?"
Klaus turned his head to him and continued to stare into his eyes without saying a word.
Trenton met his eyes, and the moment he did, a drop of cold sweat rolled down his face.
For the brief instant at which their eyes met, Trenton felt as though he was looking into something beyond his comprehension.
It was a feeling similar to how Inspector Henry had felt upon meeting eyes with Klaus, and the cause of it was Klaus being in the mental auric layer, far superior to their etheric auric layer.
Klaus shifted his gaze to the pool and asked softly, "What do you think while staring in that pool?"
Trenton followed his gaze and mumbled, his eyes trembling, "I think that it is beautiful...?"
"Is that so?" Klaus mumbled and leaned back on the bench.
"What do you think while staring into it?" Trenton asked Klaus while staring at the pool, not daring to look into his eyes once again.
"I think how joyous it would be to sink my enemies into it. The very thought makes me happier than anything else could," Klaus whispered with a smile, a dark, maddened gleam in his eyes.
Those weren’t his actual thoughts but a mirror to Trenton’s mind.
A dazed look appeared on Trenton’s face. He had imagined the same thing countless times, but he never dared put it into words, and now this stranger had said them without feeling anything, as though he wasn’t talking about murdering people.
His trembling lips parted, and he said, "I... I feel the same."
"Oh?" Klaus sat straight and asked him in a genuinely interested tone, "Who do you want to drown in it?"
Trenton shivered. His mind told him to shut up and leave, but he knew... he knew that if he didn’t say it today, he would never be able to.
Klaus placed a hand on his shoulder and asked softly, "Why are you scared?"
Trenton stopped trembling and looked at him, still not meeting his eyes.
"There is no one but us. You don’t need to be scared."
Klaus jabbed his finger at his heart and muttered, "Empty your heart, Trenton."
’He knows my name... he knows who I am. Yet he wants to hear me say that... why?’
Instead of being troubled by the masked man being aware of his identity, he felt free. He felt that there was no need to hide anymore.
Whether the masked man had ulterior motives no longer mattered. Now, he just wanted to empty his heart.
Trenton’s face twisted, and he mumbled, "Rubin Ferguson."
His anger exploded.
"Rubin Ferguson. That is the bastard I want to drown! No, I don’t just want to drown him."
He grabbed his head, his eyes bloodshot as he continued, "I want to see despair in his eyes! I want him to feel remorse for what he did to my wife! I want him to cry tears of blood as the water steals his breath. I want his last words to be swallowed by the water!"
He dug his fingers into his head and growled, "I hate him. I hate him. I hate. I hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate! I HATE HIM SO MUCH!"
Seeing and hearing his breakdown, a shiver ran down Klaus’s spine, and he questioned himself, ’Did I do the right thing by awakening his anger?’
"Haah... haah..." Trenton huffed loudly, his face red in raw fury, and for the first time in six years, a soft smile on his face.
Trenton leaned back on the bench and mumbled, "I must have scared you..."
He closed his eyes and added, "Thanks a lot for listening to me."
Tears rolled down from the corners of his eyes.
Klaus stared at him.
He had misunderstood one thing. Trenton was resentful of Rubin Ferguson because of what he had done to him and his wife, not because he was some inhumane monster who enjoyed killing people.
A smile creased Klaus’s lips, and he stood up from the bench.
It was time to recruit him.
Feeling him move, Trenton believed that he had left.
But out of nowhere, the masked man presented him with a question: "Do you want revenge?"
Trenton’s eyes shot open, and before him was a hand.
The hand of the masked man who had freed him from his own prison.
"What are you talking ab—"
"If revenge is what you want, take my hand."
Trenton shut his lips and stared at Klaus’s hand for a long while.
Then he slowly straightened himself on the bench and placed both of his hands in Klaus’s hand with tears streaming down his eyes.
"Yes! I want it! I want to see that bastard die. Can you kill him for me?"
Klaus placed his other hand on top of his hands and said, "I won’t kill him for you."
Trenton’s face darkened. He had been stupid to think that someone would do such a thing for him.
But Klaus wasn’t yet done.
"You will kill him yourself, and I will see to it."
’Huh?’
Trenton met his eyes and mumbled in disbelief, "W-Who are you?"
"I am Leo Maker; you can also call me The Maker."