PART TWO

THE GHOST

MINERVA

Webs were always so fascinating. Everything was in place. Everything seemed to belong.‘’That’s her?’’ A charming voice echoed from my room as my eyes were fixated on the spider webs. How peculiar spiders are. Making their homes to other homes so they can trap their own prey. Make a beautiful web to charm them and then…there was a fly flying before it caught up to the silver trap.

‘’She hasn’t spoken yet but’’Someone muttered.’’She doesn’t know that her parents…’’

I cried after I found out. It was reasonable to cry. Even if I remebered nothing of them, If I could not feel hate about who did it. I was crying. They left me.

But there was a blonde man with a silver coat. Getting on his knees and studying me. His hand, grabbed my face slightly, inspecting everything. There was a sudden hint of fear of how charming he was. how easily he could trap anyone.

‘’You will do.’’He said, standing up with a soft smile and harsh eyes.’’Your parents left me with quite a debt but..you will be collateral for it won’t you?’’

‘’What?’’I asked.

‘’Sir she is a child.’’

‘’She will do’’He said again, this one dry.

Nezha was the first person to meet back then. My neck was still in pain as I could not get used to the collar around me. But he did not seem to mind it. As if he stayed years with this. He had one of the most beautiful smiles I had ever seen. So bright like an actual sun. Then there was a strict figure of Ao Bing and the charming Dolia. Everyone was close to me, everyone welcomed me. After hours of crying it felt as million stings got healed with such few smiles.

Me and Nezha were standing above the hall when I first saw her.‘’Who is that?’’I asked Nezha when I saw a tiny girl next to Mammon.

They were both sitting on one of the tables from down to the pub with her having an opened book and him lecturing her about something numb. I could look so clearly from above the plain look on her eyes, the dreadful clothes that she was wearing, and that scar on her face.

‘’Oh’’ Nezha pouted .’’Yeah that’s’’

‘’Nobody important’’ Ao Bing interrupted next to us with disgust.

Nezha argued with a whisper.’’Ao Bing,’’

‘’It is the truth, isn’t it?’’He turned on me with a fake smile.’’She is nobody important really.’’He tilted his hard gaze down.’’Just a stray which Mammon fetched.’’

‘’You are making her sound like an animal.’’ I noticed and returned to that quiet girl. She was on the same page but Mammon kept her eyes at her.

Ao Bing scoffed harshly.’’You will understand soon.’’

And he walked away, letting his long white hair swiftly into the air.

I let out a pout and turned to Nezha.

‘’Is she that bad? It’s just a girl.’’

‘’She is…’’He flexed his fingers.’’Sometimes a lot. But she doesn't mean any harm.’’

I was in the room when I saw her.

‘’Glasses’’ She pointed.

I kept looking at her in the room and saw that she was drawing as next to her there was another book.

‘’Fairy tales?’’I snorted and tried to read the first page.

‘’The girl and the fish…’’ I muttered the title of it.

‘’It’s about a girl falling in love with a fish. So much so that she tries to run away with it. But the fish is an actual monster and eats her alive.’’

For the first time, I heard her speak so many words. But the tone of hers felt..forced, almost fake.

‘’Oh, that’s’’I looked up to the ceiling.’’Sad?’’

The girl scribbled.’’What if it’s not?’’ She asked.’’What if the writer of the story is her father. Her father hated the idea of his daughter falling for a beast and instead of accepting her be in a happy married life, he thought of her as dead?’’

I faced her stunt and looked back at the book.

‘’Why the father?’’

‘’The story says that a girl has a father that loves her very much even the Made Ones were envious of love like this.’’ She moved her coal, creating a round face on the paper.’

‘’Why would a daughter choose so blindly a fish that met once more than her own father? Unless it is written falsely.’’

I snorted while listening to her striking words.

‘’It’s just a story, nothing to be said serious.’’ I closed the book softly.

‘’Well, stories are written for a reason. To be remembered.’’ The doodles of her hand became rougher until she stopped and I could see the face of someone smiling. Smiling bluntly with shadows right behind it.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Strange. That was my thought.

‘’Who is-’’

The door knocked.

The girl closed her sketchbook fast and hid it down on her pillow.

None of us opened the door as Mammon walked in and ignored me. Instead, he turned to her and took her away. He didn’t even try to look at me back.

Looking up at the ceiling again. More spiders.

‘’You put them all in a jar?’’Nezha asked the next day at the bar.

I nodded with a hidden smile behind the books. The jar was still small with few spiders but their webs were becoming silkier.

‘’I might give them some pests’ I muttered.

Dolia and Ao Bing moved right behind me and gauged from disgust. Mostly Dolia.’’Why insects.’’

I tried to speak but Nezha defended me.’’For poison’’He suggested.

Poison? I looked at the books that I was holding as I forgot that one of them was an apothecary book. Poison testers.

I nodded at him and back at Dolia. She rolled her eyes and let a smile back at Ao Bing, clenching her hand tighter around his arm.

‘’I am leaving you in charge’’Ao Bing chuckled to Nezha and played with the top of his hair. Nezha grunted and covered his head. There was his gaze up again with a tint of disgust and he immediately walked away with Dolia.

Intrigued, I looked up, only to see Mammon walking with Mara following him slowly.

Then, she stopped and turned to me, staring at me with her dark empty eyes almost bringing me chills down to the spine.

I saw what Ao Bing meant. She was reckless, she was clumsy in every errand. But that was not all. One time, me and I were at a dead end, with two tall men surrounding us with their pistols.

I tried to shoot with my pocket gun but one of them hit me in the head with the end of his gun. Everything became darkness.

When I woke up, right in front of me was Mara on her knees with a dagger in her hands, stabbing the fallen men. Again and again and again. She did not scream, she did not yell with horror. She was eleven.

When I said that to Nezha he shrugged.’’She is just like that’’He said.

It was not that she was just like that. She could not be just like that. And yet he took care of her. It hit me late of what was truly happening. It all started when I saw Lilitj dragging Nezha away. The fear in his eyes. Everyone had that glint in their eyes. That ‘It could have been me’

It could have been me.

But the girl did not have that glint. As if she wouldn’t be her. She wouldn’t be.

Everyone was close to me. And everyone felt so distant. Yet everyone paid attention to her.

Mammon was looking at her even though Ao Bing was intrigued by her for a peculiar reason.

Why?

I was one of them. Why wouldn’t they look at me? Why would t

I could listen to Nezha screaming, Pete pleading, Arsu grunting. I could see the short figure standing frozen before running away. Someone grabbed me by the neck, trying to pull me back.

‘’Careful with her.’’Ao Bing was judged by the man who was grabbing me.

‘’She has a few needles in her hands’’There was a quick smile from him.

‘’Batard.’’I barked as my neck began to shut down.

‘’I am doing you a favor’’Ao Bing mouthed. ‘’I am doing everyone a favor’’

And everything went black.

My head was in pain. My lungs were heavy and my eyes were almost forced to stay closed. When I managed to open them I could see no spiders on the ceiling. I felt my back being hurt on the flat floor and looked left and right. A kitchen stove, boxes unopened, Dolia facing me. I knew that place. I was in the Garden’s kitchen.

A sudden fear conquered me.

‘’No’’ I shouted standing up and trying to walk it off.

‘’It’s alright’’She shushed me gently and walked to my side.

I shook my head and then I felt how dry my mouth was. Everything returned. People trying to take me and the rest, red eyes, loud noise. Ao bing.

Mara.

The door opened and she appeared with her stupid empty eyes. Her clothes were clean, decent even her hair was well groomed with the pin holding them all.

‘’You stupid girl’’Anger found my soul as I jumped to her side and grabbed her by the collar, pinning her against the wall.

‘’Minerva’’Dolia barked.’’You need to rest.’’

‘’Don’t defend her’’I said and looked at Mara.’’She doesn’t need to be defended.’’

Dolia did not speak after that.

‘’You are upset’’She mouthed.

My mouth twitched, making a wide idiot grin.’’Upset? YOU RAN’’

‘’It is not like-’’

‘’I saw you, I saw you running like a cat, I saw you giving up…’’My hands began to shake.

‘’You let Nezha’’

‘’I saved you’’She tried to explain.

‘’WHY?’’I screamed.’’Why did you save me?’’

She did not respond. Why did I hate her? Why was she like this? Why did she run? Why why why…Her face, her scar, began to twitch.

I let her go. My head was spinning, my eyes were ready to shed tears. No, no tears not now.

‘’You are not like us are you?’’

Mara suddenly darted, touching the pin behind her hair and then stroking her left ear.

After that, Dolia walked out of the room leaving both of us standing silent.

‘’I did run’’She admitted.’’I was…’’

‘’Scared?’’

‘’I needed to buy time,’’ She explained.

‘’Time? Time for what?’’

She sat in one of the boxes and began fidgeting.

‘’I know about Nezha’’She explained.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes‘’Of course you.’’

‘’Would you like me to be upset?’’Mara asked.

‘’A little’’I shrugged and then noticed that my glasses were broken. I pulled them away and noticed a small crack on them.

‘’If Mammon cannot find him then he cannot give him to Lilith.’’

‘’Then what about-’’

‘’Pete is a girl’’She admitted.

WHAT?

‘’Spirits sake Mara,’’ I shouted.

‘’Her name is Petbe and she is in trouble.’’

Mara finally explained the truth.

‘’You know who she is don’t you?’’ I asked Mammon. as I closed the door of his office.

There was a grin coming from him. The one that gives when he wants to cause a scheme and chaos.

‘’And what if I do? Will you tell her?’’

I tried to speak. But he cut me off and walked on my side.

‘’No, you wouldn’t. You saw her as a boy. What do you think a girl like her would people do?’’He cupped my face all so slightly.’’What will she do if you tell her the truth?’’

That last part was unnecessary for me to learn and yet again I saw the guilt in her eyes. She wanted to protect her from the truth. No. No no, she wanted to protect herself from the consequences Only herself. Mara is her father’s daughter, isn’t she?

‘’Alright, so you let Arsu Nezha Pete…’’

‘’Petbe’’She corrected

I cleared my throat.’’Petbe to get kidnapped so you can buy time for anyone to go to the garden..But how did you? And why did you return.’’

Mara crossed her arms and walked on my side.’’Because’’She stalled and looked at me with emptiness in her eyes.’’I can’t do this alone.’’

‘’Do what?’’I spat.

The girl winced.’’Get the job done’’