Puri woke up in the middle of the night to a big thump from across the house. Well, in actuality, the thump wasn’t that loud, but Puri’s senses had been trained to be extra sharp, so to her, the thump was loud and clear.
She sat up in her bed and listened, trying to hear if the noise would happen again. She was afraid that someone might be breaking in. She knew that she was just being overly panicky, but even so, she couldn’t help it. Her training in the OAC stuck with her even after all these years.
Puri swung her body over to the side of the bed, slipped on her slippers that she always kept at her bedside, grabbed a lantern, and got up to go see what the noise was. Her rational mind told her that it was nothing, that she shouldn’t worry about it, but she couldn’t help herself.
Foo… I really am becoming an old bagger aren’t I.
Though Puri’s senses still held sharp in her old age, her body was not the same story. For about three years, her body has been breaking down. She wasn’t close to becoming crippled quite yet, if anything she was lucky that her body only began to break down a few years ago when she was 64, but she couldn’t move as quickly for nearly as long as she used to be able to, and she even needed to use a cane occasionally. Her time spent in the OAC definitely took its toll.
Puri grabbed the knife that she always kept at her ankle while sleeping. She then opened the door silently and stepped outside. She purposely designed her door to not creak when it was opened, though every other door did creak. These are two more examples of the sort of anxiety that she developed from being in the OAC.
She walked silently, as she always did, looking for any sign of a break-in. She also kept her ears open for even the faintest noise of footsteps or drawers opening. She heard nothing.
Actually, the house was eerily silent. There wasn’t any wind to be heard outside, and Puri’s old grandfather clock had been broken for about a year up to this point, so of course no noise came from that.
Puri knew that there wasn’t a burglar at this point. If there was, she’d have already heard their footsteps by now. If someone was in her house, then it’d have to be someone from the OAC or another assassin group similar to it. Even knowing this, Puri continued looking around the house. Her conscience wouldn’t allow her to go back to her room and back to sleep until she was absolutely sure.
Puri eventually reached the room where Alec was, and that caused her to think of him. Puri’s impression of Alec was that he was a victim of the cruel part of life, and that he never experienced the good aspects of it like love and happiness. Puri knew that Alec had some extreme trauma based on the fact that his emotions seemed really fucked up. Puri had been around many people with trauma, so she knew what it looked like.
Puri also pitied Alec immensely. In fact, she felt really sad whenever she thought about what little of his past that Puri knew of and what the boy must’ve gone through. Puri wasn’t surprised that Alec was very closed off, cautious, and didn’t want to speak with her, but Puri could tell that very small cracks were beginning to show in his wall.
Outside of Alec’s horrific life, she thought he was a very intelligent boy. Of course, that was a given considering how long he had survived in the slums, even with his eyesight, but even then, Puri thought Alec was exceptional.
Alec also seemed to be innately curious as well as gluttonous. Though, Puri could tell that Alec was exceptionally cold hearted, and didn’t seem to understand other’s emotions nor take them into account.
As for why Puri was essentially keeping Alec as prisoner was because she believed she could at least somewhat amend the wrongs she had done by doing right by Alec. Puri believed she was being selfish by doing this, but she didn’t care.
After searching through the main floor, Puri went up the wooden steps, continuing her search upstairs.
Puri walked past her upstairs storage room and a couple bedrooms, checking inside each of them. She cleaned quite often, so there were almost never rodents or bugs. There wasn’t usually dust either, but the storage room seemed to always manage to become dusty much faster than the other rooms.
There weren’t as many rooms on the second floor compared to the first floor, so it didn’t take her very long to search it.
After Puri searched the entire second floor, she went to the hatch that opened to the cellar and began climbing down the stairs. Unlike the rest of the house, it wasn’t cleaned regularly. She rarely came down here. In fact, the only time she ever came down here was when she was having one of her overly like moments like now.
As Puri slowly moved down into the cellar, she began to have the urge to turn back. She didn’t like coming down here. It was filled with too many bad memories. There were many old antiques and paintings that were there from when Puri was younger. Things that she wanted to get rid of but she just couldn’t bring herself to. That’s why she never came down, because she didn’t want to relive her past.
Even just walking down the steps, memories of her regrets and her ex-husband rose to the forefront of her mind. Images of her happiness in her young years turning into despair and regret into her older years appeared in her mind. She tried her best to push those memories away.
Puri searched through the cellar, but not quite as thoroughly. There were cobwebs, dust, and bugs all over the place. She wouldn’t be surprised if there were mice living down here. The smell was also unpleasant. It’s not like it smelled terrible or anything, but the cellar’s odor was something akin to an old carpet.
While she was searching, she heard loud, fast footsteps on the main floor. Someone was running. Puri immediately went to leave the cellar, running as fast as her old legs could take her. Part of her was actually happy that she could get out of that cellar.
When Puri first heard the noise, she thought that she had actually been correct, that there was someone who broke in, but then she figured that, based on the fact that the footsteps sounded like they were coming from someone small, Alec must’ve somehow broken out of his room. This actually made her even more panicked than if there actually was a burglar.
How could’ve he gotten out?!... No… I must stop him. If he was able to get out of his room, then he might be able to get out of the house. I can’t let him leave.
Puri hurried up the stairs and started to hear a noise that was very familiar to her. It was the sound of someone trying to pick a lock.
Puri could hear that the noise was coming from the front door, so she headed in that direction, even forgetting to close the hatch that led to the cellar.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Puri got to the front door and, as expected, saw Alec trying to pick the lock. Puri still wasn’t sure how he got his hands on something that could pick a lock, and still couldn’t see what he was using.
“Stop!” Puri exclaimed while running toward Alec.
Alec ignored her and still continued to struggle to open the door. Alec seemed to be in a rush and panic, but it wasn’t because Puri called out because Alec was already like that before Puri said anything.
Puri ran up to Alec and grabbed him under his armpits and pulled him away. Puri ended up dropping her lantern in the process.
“No!” he screamed. He began to struggle in Puri’s grip.
In the process of Puri grabbing Alec, he dropped the tool he was using. Puri saw that it was the sewing pin that she left in Alec’s room.
...I thought we were beginning to build a bond.
Puri realized her carelessness—which was a rare thing for her—by leaving the sewing pin in the drawer of the bedside table. However, more than that, she was disappointed that she had misjudged her relationship with Alec. She thought that they had built somewhat of a bond and was sad to see that he jumped at the first potential opportunity to leave.
Alec struggled mightily in Puri’s arms. He kicked and screamed and thrashed about. It was like a child throwing a tantrum, except much more extreme. This was the first time that Puri had seen Alec do something that was befitting of his age.
Alec's struggle proved to be pointless as Puri was too strong. Even though Puri was getting old, she was still stronger than most people her age, and Alec was still just a small child.
“INEEDTOGETOUTINEEDTOGETOUTINEEDTOGETOUT! I CAN’T!” Alec began screaming like he was about to be tortured to death. Puri never expected him to suddenly get like this after spending time with him.
“Please.” Puri said amidst Alec’s yelling, “Stay. Let me do this.”
Puri words didn’t seem to reach Alec, as he continued yelling and thrashing about.
Puri then went from grabbing Alec from under the armpits to hugging him from behind. Tears began to well in her eyes as her next words came out as an emotional whisper in Alec’s ear.
“Пожалуйста. Я вас умоляю,” Puri realized that she accidentally said that in her native language, but she somehow knew that her words would reach Alec.
…However, she was wrong.
Alec didn’t stop to Puri’s words; he didn’t even flinch. He simply kept screaming and trying to escape her grasp and try to get to the door.
Seeing this, Puri realized that the only way she was going to get Alec back into his room was to force him.
“I’m sorry,” she said before pulling the knife of the sheath strapped to her thigh and hitting him with the butt of the dagger, knocking him out cold.
Puri felt Alec’s body go limp and held onto him tighter before he could fall to the floor. Puri felt somewhat ashamed that she knocked the poor boy out just to fulfill her selfish desires, but in her mind, it had to be done.
Puri saw Alec’s face for the first time that night, unconscious of course, and saw that his face was full of tears. At first, Puri didn’t think anything of it, after all it would’ve been normal for him to cry during his outburst, but then Puri turned around. She saw many spots where the wood was slightly damp. Puri thought that this was strange because it didn’t really make sense for Alec to burst into tears before Puri caught him.
This may be some sort of episode due to his PTSD.
Puri wasn’t sure, but she thought up the possibility that rather than Alec planning this the whole time, he might’ve simply had an episode due to past trauma. This wasn’t the first time Puri had seen someone with PTSD have a sudden outburst.
There was also blood running down Alec’s forehead, and a big welt was beginning to form there as well. Puri figured that Alec must have either fell or ran into something pretty hard while frantically running.
There was also a second welt that was beginning to form at the top of his head. This one was from her bashing his head with the butt of her knife. Unlike the welt on his forehead, the one on the top of his head wasn’t bleeding.
Puri turned around with Alec in her arms and saw the lantern that she had dropped. The glass had shattered, and a small fire began to form on the wooden floor. She quickly went over and stomped it out.
That’ll be irritating to clean up.
She was less concerned about how she had to buy a new one and more concerned about how she was going to have to clean it up. She never liked cleaning.
Puri carried Alec back to his room. Unfortunately, her adrenaline was gone, so she was more so dragging him, but she was able to manage.
Puri opened the door to Alec’s new room and laid him on the bed. She also checked the drawer and the rest of the room for anything else that Alec could use to potentially escape. She also made sure the window was locked.
Puri then opened the door to exit before taking a look at Alec once again. She looked at his eyelids, thinking about the pale white irises that lie underneath them. Though his irises were a very similar color to the rest of his eyeball, there was a thin black sort of barrier that separated them. There was also a small tint to Alec’s irises that made them slightly different.
When Puri first saw his eyes, she was surprised. She had never seen someone with irises of that color. Puri figured that Alec had some sort of rare eye disease that Puri had never seen, and her suspicions were indeed confirmed just yesterday. It was clear that he had a hard time seeing by the way he seemed to have to look around whenever he heard you, and his depth perception was clearly off.
Puri couldn’t help but wonder if Alec was insecure about his eyes deep down. In Puri’s opinion, though, Alec’s eyes were pretty.
Puri then shut the door and began walking toward her room. It was still very late, so she figured that she should still go back to sleep. She entered her room and stood at the foot of the bed ready to take her slippers off and lay down, before she seemingly decided against it.
Puri took some yarn from her drawer and began rolling a chair out of her room and down the steps.
She realized that she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep at this point even if she tried, so she decided to head back to Alec’s room and wait there. She thought she’d stay there and wait patiently for Alec to wake up.
Before she went to Alec’s room, though, she took a quick detour first. She first went back to the front entrance to pick up the sewing pin that Alec dropped. Her plan was to sit in a chair to keep herself busy sewing while she waited.
She eventually reached Alec’s room. She decided to open it slightly and to make sure he hadn’t woken up yet just in case.
She opened the door, and just as she expected he was still out cold. Nothing had changed in the few minutes since she had been in the room, which again was to be expected.
Puri then rolled her chair in. She stopped a few feet in front of the bed, sat down, and began quietly knitting a blanket together, the only sound being Alec’s faint breathing.
Knitting was one of Puri’s favorite hobbies. She not only found it as an enjoyable activity to pass the time, but it also alleviated her anxiety. Knitting was something she only learned how to do a few years ago, so it didn’t remind her of ‘the gold ol’ days’---which in her case would be the bad ol’ days—either.
The minutes passed as Puri knitted, and the yarn was slowly resembling a blanket more and more. Under normal circumstances, sitting in a silent room would’ve given Puri a lot of anxiety, and she wouldn’t be able to sit still, but knitting was magical for Puri, and diminished essentially all of that feeling.
I wonder how he’ll be after he wakes up.
Time passed and the amount of light that peaked through the window grew more and more, and a few hours after dawn, still in the early morning, Alec woke up.