“...I’m sorry for snapping at you before,” Bellicosa said, awkwardly looking to the side after listening to Avida’s story. Of course, Avida had left some of the smaller, less important details out, but had still recounted most of her past over the remains of the mystery meat.
“It’s okay, it was an… overwhelming situation,” Avida replied softly. “I’m just glad you were able to trust me in the end.”
“You’re my partner, first and foremost. I should have trusted you sooner. It won’t happen again,” Bellicosa promised, turning back to look her partner in the eyes.
A comfortable silence fell over the table for a few moments. Even Bambi, who had finished eating, looked to be lost in thought. All of them were processing what they had just learned.
“I’m sorry, too…” Avida muttered after some time. Bellicosa looked up at her partner, confused.
“Sorry for what?”
“For not telling you sooner, for not explaining anything until now, and….” she looked at Bambi, “for knowing and never doing anything about it…”
“I’m not entitled to your past, so don’t worry about that. But, you can’t seriously think any of this is your fault?” Bellicosa questioned. At the same time, Bambi reached over and grabbed Avida’s arm softly.
“No. Not sorry,” the little girl said.
It was the first time she spoke since leaving the lab. Although it was only three words, Avida understood what she was trying to say. She couldn’t help the tears that welled up in her eyes.
“But if it wasn’t for me, you might not have ended up like this! If I had done something sooner-”
“-you would be dead,” Bellicosa finished for her partner. Avida turned to her with her mouth agape.
“You really think you could have gone against the Church? Alone? And done what exactly? You were a teenager. They would have killed you, and you wouldn’t have been there to rescue Bambi,” she finished.
“Are you about to give me some ‘everything happens for a reason’ BS right now? What about all those kids at the orphanage? I knew what was happening to them and I still left anyway. Are you gonna give them the same speech?” Avida asked bitterly.
She thought her friend would be angry at her. Or at least disgusted. Maybe never want to associate with her again. All of that, she could understand. But this? She had sat by as children were experimented on. Murdered. And her friend was looking at her with what? Pity? Understanding? And Bambi. Why wasn’t she afraid? Upset?
“What happened to them was a tragedy. But it wasn’t your fault. It was the Church’s. And it still is,” Belicosa calmly replied. But Avida thought that didn’t make sense.
“Why can’t it be both our faults? Just because I didn’t experiment on them myself, I’m less guilty? I’m no better than Sister Katherine!” she argued.
“Do you hate Sister Katherine?”
The unexpected question caught Avida off-guard.
“What?”
“Do you hate Sister Katherine?” her partner repeated.
“Obviously!”
“Do you hate her because she didn’t save your friends,” Avida was about to agree before Bellicosa spoke the next words, “or because she saved you?”
Avida was once again speechless. That was the last thing she expected to hear. For some reason, her shock turned to outrage. What was Bellicosa trying to get at? Did she think Avida was stupid? That she hadn’t thought about all the possibilities a million times over in her head? That she didn’t know that she was powerless? That didn’t erase the guilt in her heart. It only made it hurt more.
“You’re not a fucking therapist, so stop trying to act like one!” was the last thing Avida said before getting up from the table and disappearing out the door.
Bellicosa sighed as she watched her partner go, feeling slight regret. Maybe she pushed her too far. She just wanted her to understand that it wasn’t her fault and be rid of her dangerous survivor’s guilt mindset. But she should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Even though it had been years, the wounds in Avida’s mind were still fresh. Replaying the conversation in her mind, Bellicosa wished she had been more gentle about it. After a few brief moments of contemplation, she turned to Bambi, who looked anxious.
“Don’t worry, she’s not leaving. She’ll come back after she cools off. Let’s go find somewhere to stay the night, huh?” Bellicosa told the girl with a faint smile.
—
It was nearly dawn when Avida did come back. Bellicosa had gotten a room at a nearby inn since it had gotten quite late. She figured they could all use a good rest after the day they had. It also gave Avida a bit more time to calm down before they started their search for the mystery scientist. Bellicosa knew that with her partner’s skills, it was only a matter of time until she traced their whereabouts back to the inn. So, she waited for her.
Bambi had long since fallen asleep in one of the two twin beds in the room. The poor girl must have been exhausted from the hectic day. Even though the inn was in a shabby part of town and had crappy, uncomfortable mattresses, and she still had the strange contraption hooked up to her, she was out like a light. Bellicosa thought back to the glass tube and the dingy mattress they had found in the girl’s cell and figured this was still probably an improvement for her. Bellicosa herself had stayed in worse places.
Some time later, soft tapping sounded from the room’s door. It was a series of knocks that Bellicosa and her partner had established as a code to alert the other of their identity. Therefore, she didn’t hesitate before getting up to answer it. Sure enough, Avida stood on the other side, looking bashful.
“I’m sorry… again,” she said weakly. Bellicosa just pulled her into the room, closing the door gently behind her before wrapping her partner in a hug.
“You gotta stop apologizing,” the taller one scolded. Avida just sighed into her shoulder before pulling back, her eyes rimmed red and looking like she was about to start crying again any moment now.
“I got mad… that’s totally lame,” Avida laughed quietly. She didn’t want to wake the sleeping girl across the room.
“It happens,” Bellicosa reassured. “I’m sorry if I said something out of line.”
“You did, but… I know you were just trying to help me.”
“It was still mean of me to say,” Bellicosa sighed. “And since you trusted me with all that stuff earlier, I wanna share something with you, too. Since I do trust you. That way we’ll be even.”
“You don’t have to,” Avida shook her head. “That isn’t why I told you all that stuff.”
“I know, but I want to,” Bellicosa said as she sat on the edge of the unoccupied bed. Avida took a seat next to her and listened.
Bellicosa explained how she was originally from an area of the city similar to this one. Her parents were quite poor growing up, and her family couldn’t afford much. Her dad couldn’t work after a while because he was too sick, so her mom worked long hours to be able to support them. Bellicosa always used to fight with other poor kids on the street over food or change from begging. Sometimes they would fight over nothing at all. As she spoke, Bellicosa’s eyes got a faraway look in them, as if she was seeing the past she talked about play out right in front of her.
One day after a scrap with some of the bigger kids (Bellicosa was still quite small then), a man came up to her and asked if she wanted to make money fighting. Of course, being a dumb kid, the young Bellicosa was obviously all for it. He introduced her to a local underground fighting ring. It was mostly adults, but there were a couple of kids like her as well. They would fight, and people would place bets on who they thought would win. Bellicosa started to make decent money from it, and she even began to enjoy the fights, too. Her dad was happy, but her mom worried about where she was getting the money from. She didn’t tell them.
During that time, Bellicosa was the happiest she’d ever been. She felt like she was finally doing something good for her family, and she was having fun. Her mom didn’t have to work as long, and the family got to spend more time together. Even the rich folk and the local authorities were in on the underground ring, placing their fair share of bets. Bellicosa got pretty good at fighting, to the point where she had a bit of a reputation and even had a decent win streak. It felt like nothing could bring her down at that point.
A little while later, she was in the middle of a fight. She was winning, for sure, but she had also taken a few bad hits. But still, she was confident. That was, until a bunch of priests and nuns came flooding down into the makeshift arena, yelling about the place being a ‘sinner’s den’. Someone had snitched to the Church of Solomon, and they couldn’t tolerate it. But really that was just an excuse.
Everyone fled in all directions. It was chaos. Bellicosa tried to run, too, but she was more than a little beaten up by that point so she wasn’t very fast. Eventually she got caught by one of the priests and arrested. By that time, the Church of Solomon had already been granted authority to detain people, and even had their own prisons. Since it was technically illegal, they kept threatening to put the girl in jail. Her mom found out and she was hysterical. She raced down to the Church and begged them to take her instead. She argued that Bellicosa was just a child, so she shouldn’t be punished. The fault should lie with the parents.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
The local Church official was corrupt as hell, so he agreed. He put Bellicosa’s mom in jail instead of her, promising to let her out if Bellicosa paid the exorbitant bail money. He could tell her family was poor and would never be able to afford it. Bellicosa figured he was just cruel and enjoyed seeing people suffer. So, she started working as a mercenary to try to earn the funds to pay her mom’s bail. But she still hasn't even come close. Each time Bellicosa finishes a job, she sends a portion of the money to the corrupt official, hoping that he will treat her mother kindly and remember their promise before she one day sends enough for her mother’s release.
But every time Bellicosa seemed to get close to sending enough money, the man raised the price of the bail. It wasn’t right, but Bellicosa was helpless to do anything about it. Her mother’s life was in his hands. She also knew that the Church had little motivation to actually free her. You might think keeping prisoners used up Church resources, but in actuality, the government supplied the Church funding for each prisoner they had, so they were making more money than they’d lose. Either way, it was a win-win for the Church.
They were extorting money from poor families like Bellicosa’s while simultaneously lining their pockets with government funding. That alone would be enough for a revolt in the eyes of many, but the truth was most people didn’t see it that way. Followers of the Church believed that those who were locked up deserved their fates because they were ‘sinners’. If only it were so easy for everyone to walk the righteous path.
That was why Bellicosa felt no remorse for her job as a mercenary. In a way, she was still making money by fighting, spitting in the face of the Church. This fighting was just slightly more above board. While being a mercenary wasn’t illegal, they do have a guild after all, all the official jobs they take were law-abiding.
Of course, there were those unofficial jobs that involved less than savory details, but those were all taken care of covertly, often posed as totally harmless requests on the surface. The only rule with taking on that kind of work was to be discreet. As long as you didn’t get caught, there was nothing to prove.
Of course, that made the mercenary guild a natural enemy of the Church. All of the unspoken acts didn’t need to be spelled out to be understood. But, mercenaries were nothing if not stubborn. On top of that, wealthy, powerful people and government officials alike never ceased to desire the services of mercenaries, even if they would never admit to it, so the city would likely never be rid of them. They were the blemish on the Church’s otherwise perfect record of control.
Once Bellicosa finished recounting the story of her past and current troubles, the hotel room fell quiet except for the soft, rhythmic breathing of the girl in the other bed. After a while, Avida turned to her partner with a sad gaze that hadn’t even been present when she was telling her own story earlier.
“What about your dad?” she asked.
“He died shortly after my mom was imprisoned,” Bellicosa explained emotionlessly. She had let herself hurt over it enough already.
“...I’m sorry,” Avida whispered.
“Don’t go pitying me now, partner. You’re not any better off,” Bellicosa teased.
It might’ve sounded harsh to an outsider, but it succeeded in making Avida crack a smile. Finally, it felt like the weight in the room had lifted. Getting both of the mercenaries' secrets off of their chests left them in a surprisingly good mood, as though the burden on their shoulders got a little bit lighter that evening.
“Thanks for tellin’ me,” Avida said sincerely.
“You’re welcome. Now let’s focus on the mission at hand. You said you had some ideas of where to look. Do you finally wanna let me know what they are?”
“I figure the lab we got Bambi from has probably been destroyed already, and I don’t wanna risk going back there anyway. But, the lab at my old orphanage is probably still there. We might be able to find some more clues about what the Church is up to and about our mystery woman,” Avida explained.
“I can get behind that, but are you gonna be okay?” her partner asked.
“I’ll manage. You know what they say: it’s best to face your demons head-on, whether it be figuratively or literally,” she joked before adding, “Besides, it’s the most solid lead we have.”
“Alright then, we can head out tomorrow. For now, let’s get some rest,” Bellicosa urged. Avida looked around the room again, as if she was just realizing something.
“Oh, boy! We get to share a bed, just like old times,” she said with a laugh and a wink. Bellicosa rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless.
The two of them laid silently in the darkness of the room for a while, tucked beneath the covers. Only the sound of slow breathing disrupted the quiet, and Bellicosa was nearly about to drift off to sleep before Avida spoke again, so softly she almost didn’t catch it.
“The Church has caused us both so much pain… Whaddaya say, after this job, we take ‘em down?” she whispered. Bellicosa smiled despite herself.
“Sure thing, partner…”
With that, the two mercenaries went to sleep.
—
Avida awoke to the sound of a phone ringing. This time, the phone was on silent, but the way it was violently vibrating on the nightstand was still loud enough to forcefully drag her from the sweet caress of slumber. She reached over and snatched the burner phone without so much as a glance before flipping it open to answer with a groan.
“Do ya have any idea what time it is?”
“Have you made any progress?” Atlas asked instead of answering.
“It hasn’t even been a day. Why are you already pestering us?”
Next to her, Bellicosa began to stir as well. She sat up and rubbed her eyes before giving Avida a knowing glance. Then, she pulled herself out of bed and started getting ready without a word.
“I just wanted to know if you found anything yet. You said you had leads. Don’t forget that this is extremely important,” the man on the other end emphasized.
“Yeah, yeah we got that much after yesterday. Now can you let us have some actual time to find something? That way we can call you for a change,” Avida grumbled.
“Fine, sheesh. It’s just a check-in,” Atlas whined, thoroughly scolded.
“Your spoiled rich kid is really showin’ right now. I swear to the gods, Atlas, if you call us one more time and it’s not an EMERGENCY, the next time I see you I will shove my gun in a place the sun don’t shine.”
“. . .No need to get graphic. Just call me when you have an update, then.”
“That’s the plan,” Avida confirmed before snapping the phone shut.
“Aghhhhhhh sometimes I really can’t stand him,” she groaned into her pillow, voice muffled as Bellicosa came out of the bathroom, looking unphased.
“So, how far is this orphanage of yours?” she asked casually.
Avida sat up to answer. However, just as she opened her mouth, the room seemed to shake and the mirror on the wall cracked. The two looked at each other with wide, panicked eyes.
“What the hell was that?”
“An earthquake?”
Just then, the third person in the room moved. Avida and Bellicosa had assumed Bambi was sleeping all this time, but in that moment, the girl sat up, back facing them. Slowly, the upper half of her body turned around almost unnaturally far, until it seemed like she would snap in half at the waist. When she faced the duo, her eyes were glowing a bright purple, and the mask had slipped off her face, hanging around her neck. Steam rose from where it touched her skin. The thing must have fallen off in her sleep. Bambi wore a wide grin that looked eerily out of place on the somber child’s face.
“That’s freaky!” Avida yelped.
“We need to get the mask back on!” Bellicosa pointed out.
The two mercenaries sprung into action. Bellicosa leaped forward, grabbing Bambi by the shoulders as the child began to let out an inhuman laugh before starting to struggle. Thin cracks began to form on the walls, growing and spreading rapidly. A painting flew off the wall and headed straight for Bellicosa’s head. Avida blocked it, smacking it out of the way before snatching the mask and pulling it back over Bambi’s face. The child looked angry, unleashing a horrible distorted wailing sound, the pillows on the beds exploding into a puff of feathers, before ultimately falling quiet again.
She blinked once, and then it was as though her demeanor entirely changed. The purple was gone from her eyes and she winced in pain, clutching where her waist was now sore from the uncomfortable position she had twisted into. She panted like she was out of breath before freezing and turning to the other two in the room.
“Please… don’t go,” she uttered.
It was the most complete sentence they had heard from her so far. And it was filled with sorrow and fear. Avida rushed to reassure her, crouching before the girl in front of the bed.
“We’re not going anywhere,” she told her as she petted the girl’s hair. “It’s alright. You’re alright.”
Bambi started to cry, a soft and tragic sound that prompted even Bellicosa to move over and start patting her back. She wasn’t as used to comforting children as her partner was, and didn’t feel the same protectiveness, but she wasn’t heartless. The sight of a child crying due to something beyond their control was enough to have her nervously fidgeting.
“It’s okay, kid. It’s okay,” the mercenary said awkwardly.
The trio sat in relative silence for a while, the pair trying to comfort the distressed girl. Suddenly, it was interrupted as there was a banging at the door, someone knocking furiously.
“HEY! OPEN UP! WHAT THE HELL’S GOIN’ ON IN THERE??? IF YOU BROKE SOMETHING, YOU BETTER PAY FOR IT!” came the angry voice.
That sounded a lot like the inn owner. Bambi stopped crying, and the three looked around the room before looking back at each other with matching expressions of worry.
“I don’t wanna pay for this,” Avida whispered, looking pointedly around the now extremely damaged room.
“We’d better go,” Bellicosa agreed.
And so, the group gathered their things and hastily retreated through the window. Luckily they had only stayed on the second floor.
—
It turned out that Avida’s orphanage was not too far, but it wasn’t too close either. It should have taken them about thirty minutes to get there, but they had to lose the inn owner, who chased them down the street shouting and drawing lots of attention. Then, Avida was hungry again and insisted they eat, making the group stop for breakfast. Lastly, there were no buses to the orphanage since it was a little ways outside the city, and they didn’t wanna risk getting into any old taxi for fear that they might tip off authorities about Bambi’s odd appearance.
Thus, they ended up waiting an extra twenty minutes for Avida to call up a driver from the mercenary guild to take them. The drivers from the guild were discreet and only cared about money, so as long as you paid them, they wouldn’t ask any questions and they wouldn’t snitch, either. Since it was the most reliable and safe option, Bellicosa agreed and twenty minutes later, an inconspicuous black vehicle with tinted windows rolled up in front of them to take them to the orphanage. All in all, a thirty minute trip turned into three hours.
When they finally arrived, they were greeted by an unexpected sight. As soon as the car rolled to a stop, Avida hopped out and dashed to the scene. The entire orphanage, which had been made mostly of wood, was gone, seemingly burnt down. Almost nothing remained. Judging by the debris, some time had passed since it happened. It didn’t look fresh, most of the ash blown away and grass beginning to regrow where the building once stood. The old building had been reduced to rubble.
“What happened? It hasn’t been that long…” Avida said in disbelief.
Bellicosa walked past her and began examining the mess, looking for any kind of clues. Meanwhile, Bambi simply held Avida’s hand without a word. It had only been four years since Avida had left the orphanage, but looking at the burnt remains, it felt to her like a lifetime ago. All of the regret and guilt came surging forward at once and she struggled to choke it back. As if sensing it, Bambi gripped her hand tighter.
Although she had left the place on bad terms, and knew that it was secretly responsible for countless horrible crimes, she still felt grief at the sight of it all just… gone. She did still have some fond memories, and at that moment those were the more painful ones as they tumbled to the forefront of her mind. She couldn’t help but glance at the rusted swing set at the far end of the rubble. Its metal poles were bent awkwardly, several of the chains snapped off. The only remaining rubber swing was charred black. It was the swing that Sophia used to sit on.
Avida felt her throat close up at the thought. She wondered if any of the children had made it out alive. Or if they were all reduced to ash, dying in agony in a sea of flames. Avida unconsciously touched one of the burn scars from her childhood, unpleasant and repressed visions swirling to the surface once more. Was this yet another thing that she could have prevented? How soon after she left did this happen?
“I didn’t see any human remains. It’s possible they all made it out alive,” Bellicosa told her partner as she walked back from her brief inspection.
Avida felt some of the pressure on her heart lift at the information. She had let herself become too emotional these days, easily swept up by this and that. If every little thing could drive her to the brink of despair, what was the point of her efforts these past few years? She steeled herself once more with a cough.
“It’s possible we can still find the lab. If it’s anything like the church from before, it could be underground. Let’s search for a hidden entrance,” Avida reasoned. She tried not to think about the past anymore and focus on the mission.
Bellicosa agreed and the two began to scour the remains of the orphanage for any signs of a trap door. Bambi stuck close to Avida’s side, never letting go of her hand as they navigated the debris. The weight of the metal glove was grounding.
About fifteen minutes later, Avida felt a light tug and turned to look. She saw Bambi pointing to a spot a few meters away and moved to inspect closer. Sure enough, under some charred planks was a metal trap door, extremely similar to the one from the church.
“Belli! Over here!” Avida called, waving her partner over.
Bellicosa was at the other end of the rubble conducting her own search, but turned to make her way over. She was about to complain about the use of the nickname before they suddenly heard a new voice, so quiet and uncertain that they almost missed it on the wind.
“...Maggie?”
Avida recognized the voice instantly. How long had it been since she last heard it? And yet, it sounded exactly the same now as it did then. The trio turned their heads to look at the newcomer with varying levels of shock.
There, standing on the solitary dirt road, stood Sister Katherine.