"I'm not happy," Mark says, instantly defensive.

And yet it is, a little. There were parts of being around Damien that were good. Not the gaslighting or the forcing him to talk about stuff or the threatening people he loved. But there had been things that were good and some part of his mind had suggested, just for a moment, that it could be good again.

"That's trepidation," he continues, lying. Yeah, Damien was right, he didn't lie well.