Exhausted beyond belief although all I’ve done was say few lines, I dove straight back into the bed. To my surprise, monster hadn’t followed. Guarding the exit? Great idea, albeit there always were windows. Perhaps he stayed as a reminder to obey. Whatever, I was happy to receive some reprieve as well. Alone time was important. Or so I thought the first minute. My hyperactive mind wasted no time reminding me I was in a bad company.

Someone rapped on the door weakly and then poked light head in. I noticed feathers making way for a cleavage.

“May I come in?” Citrine asked with a specific lilt to her tone.

I raised an eyebrow, but was intrigued enough to say, “Sure.”

She did not miss my gaze and did not hesitate to bring it up, “Thank ya f’loanin’ the gown. ‘Tis very comfy.”

“What’s up?” I set myself up for a you, if I can help it, but Citrine did not deliver. I could have sworn she would have before. There was nothing like a bad puns to relax tense situation, which was often the case with new clients. Was she nervous? Did not seem to be.

“Well,” girl sat down next to me on the bed and leaned to the side, “I wanted t’thank ya fo’ savin’ us.”

“Mm, you’re very welcome.”

Not reading any signs of a brush-off, Citrine leaned her pointy nose forward and kissed me. I had missed the casual shows of affection, so did not turn her down. When she’d made moves for more, I caught her wrists lightly. Her eyes darted down and back up to my face.

“Ya… did not lie ‘bout preferring current Marina,” she stated and I smirked. “Ya’no, she has da biggest crush on least straight man in town, wunder wut he’d say.”

I snorted, for that was hilarious. “No idea, but I’d expect nothing less from such an airhead.”

“Hey, she not so bad!” angry hooker chastised, but then remembered her goal and sweetened the tone again, “Should I invite sum’one else? Dentist?”

I ruffled the feathers under my fingers and wondered if this was why demon hadn’t deigned to come up. Was he hoping I’d do this? Would it be one and the same to him, since all of them were him anyway? Citrine tried to move away and I remembered her question.

“Sure – as long as you think bludgeoning me a little would get you those answers,” I winked at her, although I was rather attached to my last pair of teeth. It was unlikely any creature would be restoring anything on my person again.

“What do you mean?” Citrine asked with veritable puzzlement and then tried to conceal it with come offhand comment, like oh, he’s not too bad, but it was too late. It was clear she did not remember the guy all that well. I pulled the ball of mortification into an embrace. That was a little too forward for a perceived stranger, but I barely cared. She did not seem overly tense, but such was the line of work. Girl’s eyes darted about as if spotting things to pocket. There was a coin by the bedside. It was identical to previous one. I picked it up and found myself smiling.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“This isn’t your room, is it?” she asked eventually, slowly easing back into the agenda of figuring this shit out.

“No. I’m here for exactly as long as you are,” I revealed. Before shrewd streetwalker inquired more about our bizarre circumstances, I ran my own dark schemes, “How are you doing?”

Woman’s gaze snapped to mine as though nobody has ever asked that of her. “I’m good. We’re good. We’re… worried.”

I interceded before that line of thought could transform into a question, “I know it’s hard to believe somebody you don’t know, but it’s all going to be okay.” It was so easy to lie. So hard to believe.

We exchanged several more meaningless lines, but before I could get to questioning what plans they have drafted up in the night, girl was snoring lightly. Whatever those have been, they were thoroughly deliberated. Knowing how painfully limited these experiences are going to be going forward, I joined the dozing, decidedly ripping the stolen moment out of the past.

Wasn’t able to sleep. Was almost thankful when hours later I heard voices coming from the outside. Extradited myself from under the still form and slunk towards the window. Away among the evergreens, men with weapons stood and argued. Dare I say, reluctant to come closer?

Chair creaked.

“What do they want?” I asked without looking. “Besides snooping.”

“Fuel and explosives that I’ve promised in exchange for an acceptable lodging,” monster quietly rumbled. He didn’t need to speak loud to be heard.

“Ah,” I exclaimed, surprised that his social skills weren’t limited to chilling warnings. “And how are we getting those?”

“I can produce substances of equal make-up.”

I shrugged, not bothering to dwell on the loaded prattle. “Shall we get going, then?” I’d hate for the committee to barge in and find walls crawling with all these uninvited guests.

Darting straight out the door in yesterday’s boots, I hadn’t even noticed how monster produced a shopping bag full of sand. Or sugar. Flour? The locals grabbed for their weapons, but seeing as it was just us two, guns remained pointed away. Monster strode ahead anyway, leaving me staring at a bag over his shoulder. He carried it rigidly, unnaturally - as though for the first time. It showed. Perhaps not so much from up front, because conversation ensued and there were no abnormal notes.

One of the group stared at me as though urging to make a verbal mistake, but I knew better. Monster had cautioned someone could decipher words in our speech so I just smiled invitingly until he looked away.

I heard old lady’s name mentioned and poked monster for a translation. “They’re saying the woman would like to visit and feed you again, but is not feeling well. They’d like to come in instead. I said no.”

I butchered my way through handful of picked-up words that ought to have been a thanks towards the generous matron.

“That was fairly good,” monster praised, and the locals seemed to have gotten animated and jolly, too.

I shrugged it off cheekily, “Sucked off a fair amount of foreigners. Something clearly rubbed off on me and wasn’t even white.”

Then, surprise to everybody - the supposed spy discarded his presumed advantage to say something insipid about love, fast learning and language. I nodded appreciatively – if there was a reason to commit an act of treason, getting dick wet was it. A point of view most advantageous to me.

I wasn’t one to turn down a generous offer to get behind enemy lines and into good graces of powers that be, so gasped out with a grin, “Oh my dear sir, are you offering to teach me?”

His wide-eyed buddies elbowed the bilingual idiot whilst glancing over to the statuesque sojourner with mystery powder in his pockets. Monster radiated indifference. Not that any of this was his call anyway.

Me and the blockhead stumbled through another set of barely legible phrases until gunshots put an end to the lively conversation. The curious villagers turned grim and gripped their weapons firmly as though expecting to die. After shouts in the distance, the eyes turned steely as they looked at us with hostility. Vail of agony which I recognised told me why. Somebody snuck out. I cursed.

Snow crunched from all over the place as if everybody and their mom got into action. There were a lot of barrels flailing around.

Through the bare trunks of pines and bushy wintery shrubs, a boy was dragged back to the house by tracking the footprints. I didn’t dare act in fear of making it worse, just gripped monster’s leather jacket and watched. Villagers barged into our lodging and there were more screams from inside. Gunshots still echoed from afar.

I turned to the barrels aimed at us and monster did not let me through. I stammered out words I’ve asked about before just for this occasion. Kids, please, stop. Got shouted at. Shouted back harder.

The parentless gang got thrown out into the front yard. Luckily, the mountain town was not trigger-happy. Nobody else got shot. Even Dentist got apprehended and dragged back here, just with a couple of bruises. I wanted to go and add to them. Perhaps a little later. Entire village was glaring and shouting unhappily.