Nicole saw Erikson falling onto the ground seemingly in slow motion. With disbelief in her eyes, she first had her gaze focused on a familiar dagger lodged deep into his back.
A familiar, but cold and detached voice rang in her ears.
‘’Tsk tsk tsk… You really should have gone out with me before all this and we wouldn’t have to experience such accidents.’’
Raising her eyes to the perpetrator, Nicole covered her mouth with her hand.
‘’Larsson what the fuck are you thinking? Have you gone insane?’’
Larsson walked slowly next to the weakly breathing Erikson and removed the dagger from his back. Slightly cleaning it in Erikson's clothes, he spun the dagger nimbly a few times before sheathing it in his waist.
‘’Nope, I have never been more sober in my life. Our jobs in the first place revolve around ‘accidents’ and loss of life so it seems like a natural step to have a side hustle. A working man has gotta look for number one, themselves.’’ Larsson circled around Erikson and kicked him a few times in the gut.
‘’See? This is the fate of the ''hardworking''. You should consider having a side hustle as well, I can introduce you to a well paying employer. Nicole, if you are interested we would still make a pretty darn good team.’’
Hearing Larsson, she could not believe what she was hearing.
The honest, cautious and upright team-mate who she thought could trust her back was now kicking her good friend in the force when he was down.
Grasping tightly onto her battleax, Nicole judged her own chances in a 1v1 combat. Gotdamnit, that fucking weasel still has some fight left in him… If I can make him lower his guard, then…
Deciding on her next course of action, she relaxed and slowly approached Erikson next to Larsson. ‘’What can this…Employer give me that I would even be enticed by? Normal cold hard cash ain’t doing it for me.’’
Larsson’s grin widened noticeably when he heard this.
‘’You should know that as humans we are weak. What my employer can offer is to remove the innate limits of our pre-destined frames and soar above and beyond. Interested yet?’’
Nicole was startled and thought deeply. Admittedly, she was never the brains of the operations, but she could still come up with decent conjectures when she put her head into it.
Breaking limits? That shouldn’t be too common so it’s either the Church or some guildtrash with mad scientists thinking too highly of themselves. Or both?
‘’Let Erikson go and we can discuss some terms. What you really want isn’t me joining up with you so what do you actually want?’’ With some cold sweat pouring on her back, Nicole tried to inch forward bit by bit.
Larsson saw this and laughed with obvious amusement in his voice. ‘’What I want is this.’’
Crouching down, Larsson ripped the tome out of Erikson's hand after a few hard yanks.
Waving the ancient and mysterious tome in front of Nicole’s eyes, Larsson let out a sigh.
‘’Had I known that Mr. Apotheosis would have been so interested in this thing, I would have snatched it as soon as you laid your hands on it. I don’t know why he was so interested in this old thing, but whatever.’’
‘’Maximus, that pretentious old wanker. Trying to be holier than thou while bribing the members of my team?’’ Exasperated, Nicole facepalmed while readying herself to stake it all on one surprise blow.
Larsson shrugged his shoulders and just commented lightly. ‘’That and a few others. It’s not like I have to be someone’s exclusive insider.’’
Nicole gathered all her strength into her feet, ready to pounce, but quickly stopped.
A small puppy with a familiar mug in her snout ran from behind Larsson in a carefree manner.
Larsson, noticing the puppy, felt disgruntled. ‘’Fucking mutt, begone.’’ Raising his feet, he prepared to kick the dog like a football.
Just as Larsson’s foot was about to hit the puppy, he quickly stopped. Feeling an ominous premonition, he finally paid attention to the mug in the puppy's snout.
This fucking mug again? I got scared of a mug? A MUG?
Feeling unsettled, Larsson decided to remove all possible variables, whatever they may be. Unsheathing the knife from its holster, Larsson struck down at the puppy.
Pepi watched the poor man with disdainful eyes full of contempt.
Having gotten instructions from that strange voice, she held complete trust in it. It seems that I will have to wait for revenge another time, but I’ll never say no to some delicious appetizers.
Just as the dagger approached Pepi, the pentagram in the mug shone with eerie red light.
An overwhelming amount of thick, dark substance poured from the mug, enveloping the dagger.
Having no idea what was going on, Larsson panicked.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The dagger seemed to be stuck in a swamp with no way to unstuck it, and the strange black mass of sticky fog seemed like a hungry beast opening its maw.
Larsson urgently tried to escape from the situation, but the shadowy, foggy tendrils coming from the mug persistently clung on to his right hand.
Cold sweat poured from his forehead, and with terror reflecting from his eyes he watched helplessly as the shadow seemed to creep closer by the second.
‘’NICOLE, HELP ME! ERIKSON WAS THE REAL TRAITOR, TRUST ME! FOR OLD TIMES SAKE DON’T LET ME FALL HERE!’’ Terrorstricken, Larsson tried to plead for help with tears in his eyes.
Nicole watched vigilantly at the ever growing shadowy tendrils enveloping Larsson and felt incredulous. Well well well, how the turntables…Serves you right.
Shaking her head, she turned her gaze away from Larsson, pretending to not see his predicament while whistling a catchy tune.
‘’DON’T IGNORE ME BITCH! I SWEAR I WILL LOCK YOU UP IN SOME DARK CELLAR AND KEEP YOU AS MY TOY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IF YOU DON’T GET ME OUT OF HERE.’’ Larsson yelled with spit and madness flying from his mouth and veins in his eyes fully visible, dyeing them crimson red.
Watching the tendrils cover Larsson bit by bit, Nicole straight up ignored him and carefully closed in on Erikson.
Hearing a small and weak breath coming out from him, Nicole felt relieved in her heart and lugged him away from the shadowy tendrils and a small pupper seemingly smiling at Larsson’s predicament.
Turning her back at Larsson, Nicole hesitated slightly but picked up the tome laying next to her feet. What is that old creep trying to find out from this?
As she was walking away, Nicole heard Larsson cursing her and her 19 generations with expressful profanity, she looked behind only to see the shadowy tendril diving directly in Larsson’s mouth, shutting him up forever.
Just as the shouting stopped, a muffled cry and bitter tears were falling from the former team member.
She tried to avoid her gaze to not lose her sleep for the next few months when Larsson’s chest was ripped wide open and a fluffy puppy greedily licked her lips at the sight of mana heart exposed on the outside.
‘’You reap what you sow Larsson… I kinda feel bad for you, but hopefully you won’t be such a dick in your next life.’’ Letting out final goodbyes to her former colleague, Nicole disappeared into the night with unconscious Erikson resting on her petite shoulders.
----------------------------------------
Laying on his sofa, Victor woke up to a warm autumn breeze accompanied by the leaves falling from the trees and rustling on the streets.
Slightly opening his eyes, a warm sunlight made him squint his eyes for a brief moment accompanied by a hearty yawn.
What time is it? I fell asleep like a log yesterday, no idea the couch was so comfy…
Feeling like a new man after a long night’s sleep, he noticed he was sleeping with a blanket he did not remember grabbing. Did Pepi bring me this after I fell asleep?
Sitting up, he bent his waist slightly, only to see a cute, innocent furball in a deep sleep looking content.
What a good doggo she is. If my eyes are not fucking with me, it looks like she has grown a little too. Money well spent Vic!
Carefully standing up without waking Pepi, Victor did his morning routines and finally looked at the clock. Oh shit, it’s almost time to open up…
Feeling slightly happy that he could go on with his normal life, a thought struck him. Why was he all right now? No pain whatsoever or discomfort.
It was just yesterday that he was released from the hospital, but he was already like a new man after a good night’s sleep.
‘’Well I’ll be a monkey's uncle, praise the science!’’ With a joyous exclamation Victor attributed everything to medical technology without further thought.
Pepi woke up at Victor’s quiet yell, and ran excitedly to his feet, jumping up and down with her tail swinging wildly.
‘’Sorry girl for waking you up. I’ll make it up with a good breakfast after I change business clothes so you’ll grow up big and strong.’’ Chuckling lightly, Victor walked towards the kitchen after a quick change of clothes.
Making his signature go-go juice, Victor watched the coffee drip slowly and decided to just flip the door sign into ‘open’.
With a yawn, he walked to the door, flipped the sign and heard the familiar sound of bronze bells jingle fade as he walked back to the kitchen.
‘’A new day, a new adventure. I can feel in my bones that today will be a good day for business.’’
Finishing the sentence, the jingle of the bells seemed louder, and the sound of door opening and closing seemed to agree with the statement he just made.
Victor wiped his sleepy eyes with his back turned to the entrance and gave himself a waking slap. Fixing his posture and adjusting the business clothing, he turned towards the entrance with a practiced sly business smile.
‘’Welcome to the ‘Ages past antique store’, can I be of any assistance to you?’’