Ira Invidia (III): Considering Questions And Offers

--- ??? ---

(First and foremost I suppose…)

“Hello, child. It was so terribly rude of you to run off earlier.” He greeted, forgoing his own introduction due to not actually having a name to give at the moment. “Now then, I believe you and I could have quite the intriguing conversation… So long as you know not to run this time?”

The young woman shivered, not answering his mostly rhetorical question as she tried to make herself as small as possible.

“Glad to see you agree.” He grinned, enjoying the way she squirmed as he looked down on her.

(En??: You’re scaring her.)

(Lu??: Don’t be a meanie. Give her a smile and assure her you aren’t going to hurt her.)

(Gr???: Yet.)

(Glu?????: Heh, fear makes the meat taste so sweet…)

(Sl???: Whatever we’re doing, scare her too much and she’ll stab you. Street rats are like that.)

(Lu??: If we want to calm her down, we need to start with something simple and non threatening.)

He considered that for a moment, the girl saying absolutely nothing as he considered her, the only sound coming from her being her frightened breathing. “Come now child, aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”

The girl audibly swallowed, visibly considering whether or not she should lie to him as her face creased in worry before letting out a quiet, “Lydia…”

“Lydia.” He repeated, tasting the name and wondering if the flavor would ignite any memory of his own.

(Pr???: Still can’t recall our name, but I can tell you that Lydia means-) “Noble one, or beautiful one… I wonder which your parents meant for you?” He idly asked, dismissing the more boring meaning of ‘from Lydia’ while not actually expecting an answer to his question.

Not that that stopped him from noticing how the girl flinched at the word ‘parents’. (Interesting…)

“Now then… Lydia, while I may not have been or currently be in the rightest of minds, I am aware of the fact that you took something from me.” He growled, not quite meaning to as he felt the desire to-

(Gr???: Kill her and just steal it back from her corpse already!)

(Glu????: Eat her while we’re at it… She may be more bone than meat, but we haven’t had a proper meal in who knows how long.)

(Lu??: Hey, let’s at least give her a chance to give them back, please?)

(Well since you said please.) He ignored his more violent thoughts as he leaned down at the waist, taking not of just how much taller than her he was before sticking his hand out and kindly requesting, “May I please have my things back?”

He liked to think that the ‘before I take them back’ was best left unsaid, and the fact that she cautiously put something in his hand meant that it was rightly heard.

“This, this is all I got… and the, the Sin from stealing it.” Lydia promised, her voice soft and fearful as she quickly withdrew her hand, almost as if she were afraid he’d bite the hand off.

(Glu?????: We still could.)

Standing back up, he inspected the object she’d returned to him.

Fitting perfectly in his long fingered hand was a silver pocket watch with two rabbits chasing each other on the cover, one with antlers and one without. A number of chains circled and connected the two in an intricate knot that would bind them together forever even as they were both slowly choked to death by the bond.

His thumb traced the chains as he felt a set of emotions he couldn’t quite name.

(Glu?????: Longing…)

(Wr???: Guilt…)

(En??: Regret…)

(Lu??: Love…)

(Sl???: Peace…)

(Pr???: Acceptance…)

(Gr???: Satisfaction.)

More on reflex than anything else, bloodstained fingers gripped the lid of the watch. His index and middle finger pressing down before pulling up and snapping the watch open to reveal the engraving hidden on the other side of its cover

Booker H. Freeman.

You are both the second worst and the

second greatest thing to ever happen to me.

I will always hate and admire you,

Emilia Lafayette.

The watch snapped shut once more, the storm of emotions inside of him far wilder than anything he’d felt in the short time since his awakening. With emotions so complicated that he found himself desperate for anything else to think about.

A shifting brought his attention back to the young woman in front of him, looking like she wasn’t sure if she should flee while he was distracted or stay still in case it angered him once more.

“Thank you, my dear.” He told the girl with no small amount of honesty as he slipped the watch into one of his pockets for now, deciding to deal with those feelings when he was alone and knew more about his situation.

(Lu??: Oh, oh, introduce yourself!)

“Ah, yes! It occurs to me that I’ve yet to introduce myself, Booker H. Freeman at your service.” He informed her as he bowed with both a smile and a theatrical flourish of his hand.

While it wasn’t overly apparent, he could tell by the slight relaxing of the girl’s shoulders that this introduction had done something for her nerves even if he wasn’t quite sure what.

“Now that we’ve put this unfortunate business behind us, perhaps you can help me with another issue plaguing my person?” He asked, taking a step back so that he wasn’t quite looming over the girl any more.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Lydia watched him cautiously, her eyes darting around a bit as she climbed to her feet. “What, what exactly do you need help with?”

“Well as embarrassing as it is to admit, I’m currently missing a few… memories involving the where, why, and hows of how I found myself in that alley earlier.” He explained, keeping the fact that he’d forgotten far more than that to himself.

The girl stared at his face for a moment, more specifically his mouth before asking him if, “Can you, uh, stop smiling?”

“I’d rather not.” He confessed, some instinct telling him that to do so was a terrible mistake.

“Then you, uh, you might be a victim of the Smiling Man?” Lydia offered, looking uncomfortable.

He tilted his head. “You mentioned him before, and those ruffians you fled from called me a Smiler I believe?”

“Yeah, the Smiling Man is a, a Demon that runs around these parts feeding on people and leaving them as little more than smiling husks.” Lydia explained with a shiver. “Though I haven’t heard of any of his victims being able to talk once he’s done with them.”

(Pr???: The question is whether that’s because you’re the exception or the cause? The fact that you don’t doubt her when she calls him a Demon could be a point in either direction.)

(En??: The Beast makes it pretty clear which direction we should be leaning.)

(Glu?????: Smiles are nice, but they don’t matter nearly as much as the hunt, the kill, or the feast.)

“Hmm…” Taking all of that into account, he decided it was best to point out that, “If none of the Smiling Man’s other victims can talk, then there’s no telling if he’s responsible for my memory loss or merely someone who exploited said memory loss.”

“On the uh, bright side, if you’re walking around you should get your memories back once you’re done healing.” Lydia offered with a wry grin of her own.

(Lu??: Aw, she’s trying to give us hope. How cute!)

(Sl???: People like us don’t deserve hope.)

(En??: Everyone deserves hope. The good to get them through the day, and the wicked to make their suffering all the greater.)

(Sl???: Show her your bullet hole. Street rats are made of stern stuff. Might be able to point us towards a back alley doc to get it fixed.)

“A valid point.” He nodded, before parting his hair over the hole in his skull. “Though I’m not sure how long this’ll take to heal.”

Lydia grimaced, but didn’t flinch away as would normally be expected of a child her age. (Told you.) “Yeah, that’s, uh, that looks like you’re still under something… surprised you’re walking around with that… Especially after the Smiling Man got to you.”

“So the two aren’t connected then?” He asked, letting his hair fall since it clearly made the thus far helpful child uncomfortable.

“Not as far as I know, but… I don’t normally go looking for Smilers.” Lydia admitted, looking away as she guiltily brought up the point about robbing his incapacitated corpse.

(Gr???: Still say we should gut her for that.)

(Priorities.) He told himself, before asking the girl if, “Given my little… problem here, I don’t suppose you know where I can find someone nearby to mend this injury of mine?”

“Uh, no…” Lydia frowned, causing his eye to twitch once more. “Healers aren’t common around here… And I haven’t really left Ira Invidia since my… dad brought me here.”

“Now, now. No need to frown just because you can’t help me child. You’ve been plenty of help as you are.” He assured Lydia, getting a weak smile out of the girl. (Better… shame we’ll have to end it.) “In fact, as helpful as you’ve been I can’t help but be curious as to why you felt the need to steal from me during my incapacitated state?”

That got a flinch out of the girl as she refused to meet his eye, instead rubbing at her wrists as she looked at the ground. “Sorry… It’s just… I, I don’t want to be here.”

“Oh, am I such terrible company?” He grinned, knowing that wasn’t what she meant but not having the context behind what she actually meant.

Unexpectedly, the girl glared at him for a moment, “That’s not-!” before flinching once more. “Sorry… I meant, Ira Invidia… I’m not, I’m only here because my dad dragged me here… I don’t believe in that stuff.” Lydia tried to explain as she gestured towards a poster with that windmill insignia or the one beside it bearing before more quietly confessing that, “I’m not a nazi…”

The girl flinched once more at that confession as if she was expecting him to physically lash out at her, only to relax near completely when he didn’t. (Interesting…)

(Pr???: Based on context, Nazi is likely the name of those represented by that idiotic windmill.)

(Wr???: They’ve also hurt her. She’s more scared of them than of a strange man covered in blood cornering her in an alley.)

(Gl?????: Insulting. We’re clearly more intimidating than those maggot filled wretches.)

“Quite right.” He smiled, more to himself than anything though by Lydia’s grateful smile she seemed to think he was encouraging her.

(Sl???: Let her think what she wants as long as it keeps her loyal.)

“Any, uh, anyway you need a lot of Sin to buy your way out of Ira Invidia.” Lydia continued to elaborate. “It’s cheaper because I’m still young but if I can’t get the Sin in another year or two… It might as well be impossible after that.”

“I see… So I’m guessing my exit from this place will be ‘impossible’ as you put it.” He guessed with a tilt of his head, fairly certain that just because something was impossible to the girl didn’t mean it was impossible for him.

(Pr???: It really doesn’t.)

“Maybe?” Lydia grimaced once more. (That’s such an annoying habit…) “Um, you’re uh, you’re not from Ira Invidia, right? I mean I don’t think you are but…”

“No I’m not.” He answered, fairly certain that if he was he’d have killed more people and burned down any building clinging to those annoying symbols.

(Wr???: We’d have burned them all alive.)

(En??: Needless to say, you’re not here because you live here.)

(Glu?????: Though this wouldn’t make the worst hunting ground with all the prey wandering about.)

Lydia smiled, (looking much better) as she told him, “Then you should be able to buy your way over the wall… I think…”

“But we’ll need a decent amount of… Sin,” He was assuming that was the local currency based on what she’d said, “to get anything done.”

“Uh, we?” Lydia asked, looking like she was once more ready to flee. An extreme shift from her previous countenance to say the least. (I wonder why?)

(Sl???: She’s scared we’re going to take the Sin she’s saved up already. Losing what little they have is the greatest fear of all street rats.)

(Gr???: An option for quick funds, but probably not the most profitable in the long term. As much information as she’s given it might be better to make her work off that debt of hers.)

(Pr???: Yes, a source of information would be invaluable given the current lack of memories.)

“Look, you uh, you seem like a nice enough guy but there is no us… I, I felt bad for stealing your watch, that’s the only reason I’m helping you now.” Lydia lied, not bringing up her blatant fear of him after how easily he’d tracked her down. “And as is, I’m thinking we’re just about even on that.”

(Gr???: Regardless, she’s not going to go anywhere with you unless you can offer her something she wants. Only idiots work for free after all.)

(The question is what to offer her?)

(Lu??: Ooh, ooh! We can offer to be her best friend forever!)

(Wr???: She’s hurt and scared. The honorable thing would be to aid her.)

(En??: Or we can teach her how to help herself. Give her the power to fight her own battles without us.)

(Glu?????: Hmm, rats are predators to some creatures. Might be entertaining to teach her she doesn’t have to be a scavenger.)

(Sl???: Both of those options are too much work. All we need to do is take her with us when we leave and she’ll be ours for no extra work.)

(Pr???: Yes, she’ll merely be a tool to our goals. No need to become too invested in her.)

(Lu??: Or, we can become super invested and work our magic a bit.)

(Gr???: Doubt she’d say no if we do that, but the question is if it’s worth the price.)

(What do you mean?)

(En??: You’ve got more tricks than just the Beast, if you want you can draw on them but you’ll need to be careful lest they turn you into a slave to your own power.)

(Lu??: Oh, don’t scare him like that. This is just us giving our offer a little more razzle dazzle to get her to say yes.)

(En??: Addiction is always a slippery slope with consequences we can’t see.)

(Glu????: Better to indulge while you can, rather than waste your life on regrets.)

(Pr???: Philosophies aside, you need to make a decision. You might think faster than most but time is still passing for the girl.)

His mind snapped into focus as he looked at Lydia as the girl began to creep away from him.

(Gr???: Don’t let her run.)

“Stop.” He said, causing the girl to freeze in place as he offered her a hand and a smile full of teeth. “Tell me child, how would you like to make a deal?”