Old Chen looked away from the man 'pouring' his heart out in front of them.
Yuche, on the other hand, didn't.
He watched the man's body when he answered, the way his shoulders curled inward and the way his twisted fingers pressed into the road hard enough to scrape skin from knuckle. Pain, shame, memory. All of it looked real.
And that bothered him more than a lie would have.
A lie could be cut open and exposed. The truth was a lot messier to deal with.
Rouxi crossed her arms. "And your arms?"
The man looked down at them like he had forgotten they were attached. "It caught me before I got out. Not all the way. I don't remember much. Teeth. Dirt. Someone pulling me. Maybe I crawled. Maybe the ground threw me up. I woke outside with my hands like this."
His voice cracked on the last word and for a moment, no one spoke.
