Chapter 18: Honeymoon (3)

1.

I don’t feel scared.

I don’t feel in danger.

I don’t feel anxious.

I don’t feel sad nor happy.

I don’t feel strange nor normal.

I don’t feel angry nor calm.

“Sorry I just had to drop this guy off.”

I chuck the head onto the floor, it rolls down and rolls past the ginger girl.

She sighs.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a specimen like that??? That’s such a mean thing to do!”

I keep walking forward, what am I feeling? What’s the point of any of this? Seriously.

“Sorry.” I shrug; the sounds of my footsteps are unsettlingly loud in this dead city.

“All good, so I take it you want to save little miss manipulator?”

“Guess so.”

“You don’t seem very invested in this whole thing.”

“Guess not.”

The second henchman she had following her around arrives behind her, waiting for orders.

“Okay boy, I want you to go all out and hurt this person okay? Not too much that he breaks mentally, I still want him to not hate me after all, just stall until we can finish the circle! Aight byeeeee!”

She turns to me “hey no hard feelings right? This is just business.” She runs off into the alleyway and I’m stuck looking directly at the man in front of me.

There would be a zero chance of winning in an open space like this, I only have a knife and a dream.

“Urghhhhhh.” I walk forward, slowly turning it into a run, the man in front of me stays stilllike a mannequin.

I gain literally nothing from fighting this guy. As soon as I make a right turn to run past him he side steps and reverse haymakers my body into a wall.

Holy shit that's him going all out?? He is so fast!

The building I was hit into was made of white concrete, so naturally my body broke first.

Before I have time to snap back into place he bull rushes me into the wall, flinging me through the building

This building was unreasonably nice, it had golden plated furniture with half eaten food on the table, what looked like a kings feast that was in the middle of being eaten, like everyone disappeared mid dinner.

I forgot this was the rich part of town.

Rubble falls from the hole my body made and falls on top of the man, it doesn’t even dent him, he is stronger and more durable than the other guy I killed.

If the last guy was a bull this guy was a rhino.

I just need to lose him, then circle back.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Currently my body is on the other side of the room, embedded into a bookshelf, “A guide to poverty” a black leather book on the floor by Imogen Abel, does she just write about anything? She most definitely was a writer before the snow came.Why is this book even here? Isn't this a house full of rich people?

I grab the book and chuck it at the man, this does nothing except fuel my hate for literature. He continues to run towards me with a weird robotic efficiency, like he is taking those orders to his very soul.

My bones make a snapping sound as I stand up, I manoeuvre out of the way and he crashes into the bookshelf.

“Clumsy” I thought, sadly my thinking was cut short by the man punting me in the stomach, he moves unnecessarily fast for such a bulky decomposing man.

For a moment I feel like I'm flying in the air, peaceful, like a bird who's wings just got unclipped.

Of course a bird who has never flown before is bound to crash and die, that's why I hit the sink in the kitchen with a sickening thud.

I cough out “Its always with the back injuries!! Why are back injuries so common?”

Come to think of it, my dad always complained about his back before the snow came, maybe we are just born with bad backs?

My disks slip back into place and I look around, and I see it, what I was hoping to see, blue glistening snow, a spice you put in cool drink to make it super refreshing, I used it to melt the crystal, now I can use it to melt him.

As long as it dissolves in cold water it's not dangerous, buuut.

I smash the container open and spread it all over my hands, before the man can pummel me again, I turn the sink on and steamy water comes out.

Thank god for plumbing systems, hot water really is a commodity.

The powder on my hands begin popping and becoming a sticky liquid that melts through skin and muscle, sticking to my bones.

I wonder why they have this spice everywhere, really seems dangerous for kids, but I'm sure other people would say the same thing about bleach in the modern world.

As the man runs towards me I jump with my arms outstretched and give him a nice overhead hug.

Instantly his shoulders dissolve, along with the neck, I held on tight as he tried to shake me off, the muscle connecting his bones must've burnt quickly because I was left with a head connected to a spine and a body that was motionless by my feet.

Urgh my suit is ruined, I hope the tailor is done by now, I need some indestructible clothes or something.

I walk out holding the spine of the man, dragging his head onto the street and into the alleyway.

“Sorry I broke another one” I chuck it over.

The sight I saw in the alleyway was one that confused me.

Lily in the middle of a crimson red circle, candles lit around her with a masked woman in a dark robe painting the floor with intricate patterns, sort of a satanist circle.

“You told me you could buy more time.” the robed woman said in an unusually calm manner, her voice sounded soothing.

“Yeah I thought I could, can we bargain Z? How abouts, we take lily and thennnn... what do you want?”

“I want my sister to talk to me.”

“Done! Your sister Amelia? Ohhh boy she is a sad one, did you know she locked herself in her room after hearing of your news? What a wonderful sight to see her hear of how much of a hero you were in the outer circle bar, her own little monster being paraded in the outer circle streets.”

That makes complete sense, the outer circle marvelled at me, calling me a hero while the inner circle called me a monster, she would be hearing about me everywhere. Naturally if you hate the person people are revering you'd lock yourself up to no longer hear of such things.

“so what can you even do to help?”

“oh you’re actually considering this? I thought lily meant something to you, why else would you be fighting tooth and nail to save her? Quite literally tooth and nails you've lost.” she giggles at her joke.

“What can you do to help with my relationship with Amelia. Answer.”

“Uhmmm... we can trap her in here, right?” she looks back at the robed woman, she nods her head a few times.

That wont help a thing, she would still see me as a monster, something that took the appearance of her brother, and I'm starting to think I'm not even her brother.

How could I be? I am nothing like my memories said I am, in my memories before the snow I was rude to anybody but my sister, I was selfish and trying my hardest to get away from my family. I got my mom and dad killed my complaining too loud, I killed our parents, why does she like that version of me more than this version of me?

“Nah I'm good” I grab the knife from my pocket and slice my arm, spilling blood all over the intricate circle “ohhhh nooo. My bad.”

I take a swing at the ginger girl, she efficiently moves the side and puts me in a headlock.

“that was childish, but cleverly annoying, hey masky, can we finish this or are we screwed? Did he mess it up?”

In my fading vision I see the girl in the robe stand up “screwed I'm afraid. Let's go.”

I'm pushed to a wall, all I can see is the face of the ginger girl, her skin is unnatural, the makeup doing little to conceal her rotting skin. She seems to notice im staring.

“oh you think we are the bad guys because I look evil huh?” she wipes at her face, causing the makeup to come off, showing that her skin is indeed decomposing.

“You have Lily to blame for this predicament I'm in, but I don't blame you, you are just another victim, although why you would try so hard to save someone you don't care about is beyond me.”

Why had I tried so hard? If she died the marriage would be dissolved and I could go back to Immy's mansion.

“you aren't invested in any of this are you? You pretend to be, but you clearly still stuck in that cabin correct?”

“How. How do you know about the cab-”

“I saw you, as I said I'm from the wild. Your mind is in the cabin but your body is here, I wish you luck on finding a purpose, mine is revenge. Byeee.”

Instantly she disappears, sound blasts through my ears, the sound of ambient noise and chattering, all the blood is gone along with the candles, the masked girl is gone too, the only thing left in the alley is me and a sleeping Lily on the floor.

I look out to the streets and see people again, walking like nothing happened.

What an interesting blessing. 'm guessing the ginger girl has a blessing to control dead bodies? And if I'm not mistaken she took control of herself. But what did that ritual circle have anything to do with this?

Who cares.

“urghhhhh” I walk over to lily and pick her up, she looks so peaceful, while I was getting pummelled into a pulp, she was just being sleeping beauty.

I walk outside, my clothes are tattered, but I'm not covered in blood, so at least I won't draw too much attention.

People start to surround me, right... I forgot I'm a big deal. They hurl insults as I run through the crowds, carrying lily in my arms.

KNOCK KNOCK.

On the front door it said the place was closed for ‘personal reasons’ but it’s clear it’s just because Lily ordered a ton of clothing.

People gathered around me, but wouldn’t get too close, they probably considered me powerful as well, if they wanted, they could rip me apart and take lily, I'm lucky blessed people are usually so scary.

“WHAT!?”

The door opens, Theo looks tired and angry.

I walk through the door, still holding Lily in my arms.

“I’ll explain, just give me a moment.”

I walk down the hallway into the tailors room, I laid Lily on a shoe changing seat, it was big enough for her to sleep on.

“So? Care to explain why Lily is out cold? Did you roofie her or something?”

What. No?

“Just... give me a moment, I need a mental breather...”

“Okay... want a drink?”

“Something strong.”

“Anything in mind?”

“Do I look like I know about liquor?”

“You look like you've grown older and a lot more traumatized, so yeah you do look like you'd know all about liquor. Also, dark hair suits you, when did you get it dyed? You couldve gotten it dyed here you know.”

What?

End of chapter 18