Folie à Deux [Yandere Guardian x Abused Female Reader]

25. Murphy's pt2.

Eamon was unable to focus on his work no matter how hard he tried. Eventually, he had to tell José that he was taking the afternoon off before he headed out the door. He drove across the city until he was outside the business district and had entered the more red-light district.

Seeing as it was the middle of the afternoon he was able to park very close to the bar which he was going to visit. Stepping out of the car he walked up to the charry red facade. He stood outside the door for several moments, trying to work up the nerve to enter the bar.

While he stood there, debating whether or not he should even try to go in, he was nearly startled out of his skin when the red door of the bar was thrown open and a burly man with a thick curly beard stepped onto the street. The man called over his shoulder "Thank you again for taking him in, I know it was a lot to ask but he had nowhere else to go."

As the bearded man passed by Eamon he caught a strong whiff of pipe tobacco and saltwater. Summoning all the resolution he could he walked to the door that was still swinging closed and slipped through. 

Without any drunken patrons and with some sunlight seeping through the dirty windows made the bar much more inviting than it was at night. Eamon was distracted by the sight of his friend Murphy kneeling on the ground in front of a dark-haired boy who couldn't have been more than ten years old. "Come on lad, don' cry," the barkeep said in a forced gentle tone, looking very uncomfortable. "Ay'll take good care of ya I promise - here how 'bout I make ya a cup o' Irish coffee?"

"What's that?" The young boy asked with a sniffle.

"Well - Why hello Eamon," Murphy shot up in surprise as he saw his old friend standing in the doorway looking troubled. Turning to look at the child he said with a smile, "James, why don' ya run along upstairs, ya can have yar pick o' the three spare bedrooms?"

"Who's the boy Murphy?" Eamon asked once James had disappeared up the narrow staircase that led to the rooms above the bar. "Is he yours?" He added after a moment.

"God no! Can ya imagine me carin' far a kid?" Murphy burst out at the laughable idea before he suddenly bit his lip. He gestured Eamon over to one of the booths by the dirty windows and they sat down. "Nah, he's the great-nephew of an ol' friend o' mine named Salvador, he's been havin' a rough time of it at home. Salvador would have taken him in, but there's barely room far one in the lighthouse where he lives so ay had to step in - but enough of that, what brings ya here Eamon?"

"I-I need your advice - I need help and I don't know who else to turn to," Eamon said, fidgeting as he thought about the flashes he was having with Y/N looking like Ann and the most recent developments that day.

"Yar scarin' me Eamon," Murphy chuckled, but his face showed concern. "This isn't like ya at all. What's goin' on?"

"I-I," Eamon's eyes went wide and he faltered. He backed down at the last moment and changed what he was going to say. "Last time I was here you told me that you had a wife and a daughter but you lost them both, would you tell me what happened?"

"Well, ya are a good friend," he sighed as he looked at his hands, his turn to be uncomfortable. "Just when me and Constance were talkin' about havin' children of our own ay found her. The poor thing was curled up in a crate down at the docks, she looked like a drowned kitten. Ay brought her home and not long after we decided to take her in as our daughter." He began the story, in more detail this time.

"She told us her name was Grace, and even though she was nearly a woman whatever she'd gone through before ay found her made her very meek and timid," His normally smiling eyes became glazed as he stared blankly into the distance. "Things were perfect, the three of us a family, until they weren't."

He shifted where he sat in the wooden booth, his face growing ashen and stormy as Eamon listened, enthralled by the story. "Constance and ay hit a rough point in our marriage, I'll admit that, so I began spending more time with my Grace and..." He looked away in shame, cupping his hand over his mouth. "I started feelin' things that I had no business feelin' towards her."

Eamon felt a jolt travel up his spine at his confession, he never imagined that the cheerful barkeep would harbor a dark past like that, but he didn't say anything not wanting to halt his story.

"Ay fought it as much as ay could, but Constance eventually found out how ay secretly felt and she left in the middle of the night, didn't even leave a note," his face was set into a firm expression but it wavered as though the slightest touch would cause all of his composure to crumble away. "Grace left not long after to start her own life, she never knew how I had come to feel, and I haven't seen either of them since."

He made brief eye contact with Eamon before he looked away in a vain attempt to hide his pained expression. "This was many years ago, but if ay could only go back then ay would make sure that never happened, no matter what ay had to do," his voice quavered with emotion and a touch of desperation. "Ay would do anythin' not to have lost them the way ay did. I've spent years alone knowing that I'm to blame for it all..."

He fixed a forced smile onto his face and straightened his posture, trying to act like everything was fine. "But enough of that, wallowing won't change the past," He sighed, his cheery aura taking over him again, Eamon seeing for the first time how much of a front it was. "Yar the only one I've told about that Eamon, ay just hope it helps with whatever yar strugglin' with."

"It does, more than you know," he replied, shocked to his very core that he'd still managed to get exactly what he wanted from the barkeep. He shivered as he realized how similar they were, and if he didn't find a way to stop his desires he could be looking at a future version of himself across the grimy wood table. I have to stop these feelings, I have to take his advice before it's too late, whatever the cost. "Thank you, Murphy," he said, truly grateful as he stood to shake the man's hand.

A/N

Looks like we got more information about Murphy's backstory, did any of you see that coming?

Until next time I'll see you on the other side

~J. C. Coltt.~