The Small Cafe was a suitable meeting place. Around them patrons and employees alike moved with a casual urgency, getting things done without destroying the stress-free environ that radiated in the small dining area.
  He had ordered no food or drink; his only refreshment was the small glass of water the waitress had placed before him without asking. He took a sip from it as he looked across the small table at the other seats occupant.
  “I guess I should thank you”. His voice carried heavily in the room’s lighter atmosphere. Its tone carried no emotion, though he purposefully kept his gaze away from his dining partners eyes.
  “What has happened in these past five years is more or less a direct result of what you had done to me. For that, thanks would be in order.” Emotion trickled into his voice, a choked, almost sobbing inflection that made his tone waiver.
  His gaze finally lifted to the other person’s face, the faintest of smile formed on his lips, though it carried no kindness. “You tore me apart, destroyed everything about me I had once thought was invulnerable. And every time I had looked for something solid to rebuild myself upon, you took them away. I was denied comfort, kindness, even safety within your walls.”
  “You knew I had nowhere to go, and you used that to further break me. I can’t remember how many nights I spent crying on my little bedroll on your hardwood floor, knowing that I had to get away, but realizing that I couldn’t.”
  A small chuckle fell from his lips, his smile grew almost angry. “I had liked the thought that you enjoyed breaking me, but I knew better. You hated me, and the only joy you felt was in seeing me so weakened. You can deny it, but looking back I can clearly see the malicious glee as you tore away another wall of my psyche.”
  He let the silence grow between them for a moment, before the tears started forming in his eyes. “What hurts the most about those memories, was that you were right. So much of what you said was true, even before I knew it myself” his voice trembled now.
  “I won’t deny it. I’ve accepted the suffering that happened in your house. It came slowly, the realization that I was a shell of a man, living within a series of lies. You tore those images away, right along with the few good parts of myself.” He took a long, shaking breath, “I realized, laying there curled on your floor, that I had lied to myself. I convinced myself of these lies, and lived with them as truths. In effect, I lied to everyone who ever knew me. I didn’t have those lies to back up on, and you took away what few truths I had. I was nothing under your roof. I knew it and you made sure of it.”
  He finally looked into the other person’s eyes, his gaze solid. “But then something happened.” His gaze grew hard as he regarded his conversation partner “Under all my lie, my deceptions to myself. Even under the few truths of my life. When all those were stolen away, I found strength.”
  Silently he took another drink of his water. “One day, you couldn’t hurt me anymore. I had nothing left for you to take away. My strength came from that. All I had was myself, and myself was the only thing you couldn’t touch.” His face broke into a feral grin “I laughed, those first few days, watching you try to hurt me more. When your attention was elsewhere, I would smile.”
  The tears stopped as swiftly as they came. “I gave you a chance, you know. I had thought maybe this was your goal, to make me see the truth of myself.” He let his hand slide off of the glass, turning his gaze to the faint condensation on his fingers.
“You kept trying to hurt me, to bring me down under you. When you realized you couldn’t hurt me directly, you changed your tactics.” His hand clenched. Those eyes betraying a new emotion, hate.
  “You called my friends, my family. People who had no reason to be contacted save that they knew me. I lost many I considered close because of that move. No matter how hard I tried, the damage was done.” Turning his head away, he sighed.
  The next few words came out as a whisper. “It’s been five years since I managed to get away. I still see that last night under your roof, where you accused me of running away. I knew better, one doesn’t run away to the place they had run away from before. I was going to make things right. I faced my self-created demons.”
  “Five years… and I still lay awake at night, when it’s particularly cold out. I’ve slept on the floor of my apartment, just to remember the pain that made me whole.” He let out a shaking breath. “I wrote a thousand letters, some of them cursing you, others thanking you. Finally I made the call, and scheduled this meeting.”
  “I’m surprised you came, honestly, but I am glad to say these things at last.” He turned, regarding the other with a small smile.
  “I could hate you, but I don’t, because as I found myself with you, I could see past your delusions more and more. You focus so much on what is wrong with everyone else, you fail to see the wounds in yourself. Instead you hide it all under a solid wall of sheer will.” He chuckled, “it’s so akin to my own past I could laugh.”
  Standing slowly, he looked down upon her. “I don’t hate you, but I cannot look upon you long enough to feel pity. So I leave you be, a memory I both relish and despise.”
  Turning, he walked casually out the door, making sure it didn’t slam shut and disturb the silent peace of the Café.