Avarus Invidia (I): A Whole New World

--- Booker H. Freeman ---

“How do I look?” He asked his companion as he showed off the red suit he’d stolen from the lavish apartment they were in.

“You uh, you kind of look like the Smiling Man…” Lydia admitted, a wry grin masking the young woman’s grimace as she looked away from where his arm had regrown all but his hand, an ailment that what bits of magic he knew were able to minimize. “The one in the portrait, I mean not the, uh, monster one.”

“I see…” He couldn’t quite hide the way his eyes darted towards the mangled portrait, more specifically the woman of silver and red sitting next to the faceless man.

(Pride: An intelligent woman, a spark of cunning plan even now.)

(Greed: That suit costs a small fortune. That violin, ten times that.)

(Lust: Speaking, of she can probably play such beautiful music on it.)

(Envy: Not that she’d want to play for us after what we’ve done to her.)

(Gluttony: Look at those eyes, she knows what it means to eat or be eaten.)

(Wrath: That doesn’t change how we’ve hurt her…)

(Sloth: Ugh, let’s just avoid her then. Everything else is too much work.)

(I suppose that is all we can do right now.) He sighed at the voices in his head, all of them having some sort of fascination with the painting.

And so he took one last look at himself in the mirror and thinking (the suit really does compliment my darker skin) before adjusting his glasses and giving his reflection one of his ever present smiles. Something that had not gone away when he killed the Smiling Man.

(Greed: Since we killed him, that means we can just take his title for ourselves.)

(Lust: Yeah, every performer needs a moniker to be remembered!)

(Sloth: We already have those.)

(Envy: The Rabid Red-Eyed Rabbit… Wonder what sins we committed to get that?)

(Gluttony: The kind that make your mouth water.)

(Regardless, it's a starting point for figuring out who we are.) He told his amnesiac self, before turning his attention back to Lydia, and taking note of how she was still wearing her clothes from before. “Nothing here catches your fancy?”

“None of the clothes really fit me.” Lydia shrugged, as she fiddled with the hem of her hoodie. “Besides I’ve already stuffed everything of value into my backpack, though I still haven’t gotten any Sin.”

“Frustrating I’m sure.” Her tone made that much more than apparent. “But at the very least all of this is merely a bonus to our actual prize.”

“Yeah…” The young woman smiled (adorably) as her green eyes darted towards the swirling red portal nearby. “Still can’t believe it’s actually happening… I’ve been dreaming of getting out of Ira Invidia since I got locked in here.”

“Well, then I believe we’ve kept your dream on hold long enough, don’t you?” He grinned as he took a half bow to the portal. “Let’s make the young lady’s dream come true.”

(Pride: And guinea pig her for if the portal is actually safe.)

(Envy: It is. There’s no security beyond everything we’ve already dealt with.)

(Sloth: I really hope not…)

Unaware of these thoughts Lydia gave him one last (dazzling) smile before rushing into it, completely uncaring -or just unaware of- the dangers.

He gave it a moment to see if anything bad would happen before stepping through and after feeling a brief but intense heat across his body, found himself in a room very similar to the one he’d just left.

“Did… did we actually go anywhere?” Lydia asked him as she looked around with a (hideous) frown of confusion.

(Pride: The worst kind.)

(Envy: And we did. Turn around.)

Doing just that he watched the portal snap shut as the voice in his head hit the part of the Spell intended to shut the portal down, and promptly saw what it meant.

“I do believe that is a very different skyline.” He noted as he stepped out onto the balcony and took in their city surroundings.

Ira Invidia had been a delightful hellscape of ruined and burned out buildings sending smoke into the red skies and partially obscuring the massive spell circle in the sky. A lovely view only marred by those dreadful windmill crosses people decided to leave all over the place.

Wherever they were now was very different, as while the buildings were still very distinctly that of a city they were also significantly taller and virtually unmarred skyscrapers that took up much of his view. Though upon stepping outside and looking up he could see that they were still under the encircled star he’d seen in Ira Invidia’s sky, only here the sky behind it was a more greenish hue with violently violet clouds drifting about.

“Ha! We’re really outside…” Lydia laughed, her breath stolen by the -in his opinion (lackluster)- view.

“Yes, it seems that this decor is simply the preferred of our deceased host.” He explained, before examining the spell circle with what bits of magic he retained outside of the voices in his head.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Does that mean this place is going to have a murder basement too? Or a death street?” The young woman asked as she peeked down over the balcony’s edge before letting out a sigh of relief. “Nope no death street.”

“Quite…” He nodded as he began to notice a handful of differences between this circle and the one in Ira Invidia, though he had no idea what they meant on his own.

(Envy: For one there’s not going to be a massive power supply stored in the basement. Instead it seems like this circle has a constant connection to the other and is siphoning power from there. We haven’t put enough of our mind together for me to tell you much else.)

(Shame…)

Deciding it was best to focus on a more positive note he turned back towards his companion who was taking in the sights with an awed sort of look. “Come now. I’m sure it’s a wonderful sight, but don’t you desire a closer look at everything?”

“R-right, heh…” Lydia smiled bashfully as she followed him towards the front door, which unlike their previous abode was not an elevator.

Instead they found themselves in what appeared to be an office building of some sorts, numerous all over forming small rooms that were each filled with a phone, desk, chair, and a mechanical box with a screen on it. What all of these little rooms were notably missing however was-

“Where are all the people?” Lydia asked as they made their way through these small rooms. “I mean an office like this should be filled with people right?”

(Gluttony: It’s all a deception.)

(Lust: Yeah, dress something up just right and everyone will assume what’s here instead of seeing what it really is.)

(Sloth: People are lazy like that.)

“I see, all of this was set up to keep people from investigating deeply enough to find the Smiling Man’s room.” He said, voicing the realization as much for Lydia as himself.

“Okay, a fake office… Well it’s better than covering a building in blood and corpses.” Lydia told him.

“Mm, agree to disagree.” He decided, as he instead noticed a bit of magic subtly singing through the air around him.

(Lust: It doesn’t actually catch the attention. Kind of just blends into the background.)

(Envy: And there is the actual security, it has a perception filter to it. Nothing too invasive but it makes the room look like there’s nothing wrong with it.)

(Then how did Lydia notice something was wrong with it?)

(Lust: Because our song is better than this.)

(Envy: We’re causing some kind of interference. Slowing how fast it can dig into her. Probably wouldn’t work if it was a concentrated push, but for now…)

(Lust: We’ll protect our friends.)

(Greed: Because they’re ours.)

“Finally, an elevator…” Lydia sighed as they came across a set of silver doors with a medium sized welcome mat in front of it.

“Hold on a moment.” He warned, blocking her path as he glared at the welcome mat.

(Envy: And there’s the concentrated push.)

“What’s wrong?” His companion frowned (disgustingly).

Gently he reached down before flipping the mat over to reveal a spell circle on the underside.

“I’m guessing that’s some kind of trap?” Lydia asked, eyeing the mat warily.

(Envy: It is. Easily noticeable however. Wouldn’t work on anyone with even a basic sense of magic, and even then it barely does anything.)

(Gluttony: Another distraction.)

(Sloth: A token effort to protect things. With the other spell it’ll make people think that’s all there is.)

(Gluttony: Leaving them docile as lambs to the slaughter.) His most feral voice growled hungrily, earning a matching one from his stomach in spite of the fact that they’d eaten what rations Lydia had stored in her bag back in the Smiling Man’s home while recuperating.

“A subtle thing, but nothing worth worrying over.” He was sure.

“Right… let’s just get out of here before we find something that is worth worrying about.” Lydia suggested as she clicked a button to call the elevator to them.

“Ooh, we’re on the thirteenth floor.” He realized with a touch of delight.

“Yeah, that feels like where the Smiling Man would be.” Lydia scoffed, with a sort of sardonic humor as the doors opened. “Unlucky thirteen.”

“I don’t know, it’s feeling lucky to me.” He argued as they stepped into the empty elevator. “I mean, if he was using thirteens then the portal was likely on that floor in Ira Invidia as well. Meaning thirteen led us to both freedom and a brand new adventure, and isn’t that lucky, my dear?”

His young companion let out a snort, looking away with an amused grin as she hit the first floor button. “I guess it is.”

As they rode the elevator down, he began to inspect his missing hand knowing that it was likely to be needed soon enough.

“How’s your hand healing?” Lydia questioned, her face crinkling in concern as she caught sight of the wriggling black tendrils that seemed to make up his insides.

(Sloth: We’ll walk it off by nightfall.)

(Gluttony: Faster if we had something to eat… something still moving…)

“Should be healed by day’s end.” He answered, keeping that second thought in mind for if he found someone that looked particularly tasty.

“That’s good.” Lydia nodded. “Was scared he cursed you like with whatever he did to those people back in Ira Invidia. Glad we’re away from that hell hole.”

“As am I.” He smiled, just moments before the doors opened to a lobby of some sort where they found a handful of men in suits standing around with small black boxes next to their ears, their features just as warped as those from Ira Invidia.

(Gluttony: More wannabe predators…)

(Pride: They’re using some sort of communication device…)

(Greed: Which isn’t as important as the fact these are all businessmen. Money makers.)

(Envy: A couple of them are also side-eyeing the kid.)

(Sloth: Dirty street rats stand out in the clean palaces of the rich.)

Of course, if Lydia noticed any of this she ignored it instead running for the front doors with an excited smile and leaving him to chase after her with his long legged walk.

“Booker, look at… everything!” The young girl laughed as she spun on the pavement leading to the building they’d just exited.

“I am.” He assured her with an amused grin as his hand shot out and pulled her out of the street just before a car could hit her. “Though I do believe you should be more careful about where you’re looking.”

“R-right…” Lydia chuckled in embarrassment. “I, uh, yeah… I’ll do that.”

With her mood brought low, and her smile fading -(something that we can’t be having)- he took his own look at their surroundings to try and find something to keep his companion smiling.

“Do you recognize where we are?” Lydia asked him.

“I do not.” Which wasn’t a surprise given how for all intents and purposes he only really remembered the last three(-ish) days. (I’d be more surprised if I recognized anything.)

“Then how are we going to figure out where we are? Ask someone?” Lydia frowned, (which just will not do!)

(Sloth: Don’t bother. That’s just asking to get conned.)

(Pride: Besides, it'll be far more interesting to learn on our own.)

(Lust: Yeah! It’ll be an adventure!)

“Hmm, how about we have some fun with it and wander for a bit?” He suggested, spreading his arms. “See what our new found freedom has left us to explore?”

Lydia gave him an amused smirk, (which is an improvement!) “Yeah, you know what? Why not?”

“Fantastic!” He cheered before spinning on his heel until he faced a random direction. “Then off to adventure!”