Double standards

Styx turned and began walking towards the exit.

Kato followed, dropping low as he shimmied along the bookcases, keeping his body flat.

Styx looked at him, “what are you doing.”

“Are you new to this?” Kato looked at her strangely, “I’m being stealthy.”

Styx sighed, “of course you are.”

Kato continued creeping from bookcase to bookcase, darting across when there were gaps in the shelved walls.

Styx walked normally ahead, not even bothering to check her left and right.

Kato shook his head softly, ‘amateur.’

Pushing back the thick, panelled oak door that had brought them here, the pair returned to the hallway.

“Ahh” Kato flinched back, there was someone right ahead of him.

Styx laughed, slightly, “It’s just a picture, we passed them on the way here,”

“A really scary picture,” Kato muttered.

It was of a fat, portly man, with a wicked, imperial moustache. It was only a portrait but the visage exuded authority. Kato shuddered, watching the eyes as they tracked his movements in turn.

“Super scary,” Styx giggled.

Kato mumbled incoherently, ‘can we not be serious even for a moment.’

Stealthily, he continued to creep along the wall, his eyes darting up and down the corridor. His ears twitched slightly, priming to receive even the slightest signals of unexpected company.

“You’re going to really stick out if you keep doing that,” Styx said to him plainly.

“Keep doing what?” Kato asked, confused, ‘was I doing something weird?’

“The whole super, secret, spy thing you’ve got going on,” she threw her hands up, “do you really not see it?”

Kato looked back at her, ‘she must be new, doesn’t understand the procedure’

“Here” he said, “watch me,” he pushed his body flat to the wall, “there is less of me to see now,” he looked back at her, “understand?”

Styx blinked, “but anyone who does see you would immediately know you’re up to no good?”

“Not immediately.”

Styx stared at him, a single eyebrow raised, “how would they not know immediately?”

“Maybe I am checking something on the wall,” Kato retorted.

“Checking what?”

“Wall things, you wouldn’t get it.”

“I wouldn’t get it?”

“No”

“Can we try it my way… please?” She looked up at him, her eyes rounding slightly.

“It’ll blow our cover,” Kato said slowly, ‘does she really not understand?’

“No, it won’t, just be normal, please?” Styx looked at him, her lips trembling slightly.

Kato stared back, his gaze locking with hers, ‘this is just too dangerous to take a risk like that, not when the church is the mark.’ He looked at her for a moment, considering his options, “can’t do it.” He said firmly and resumed shimmying along the hallway that stretched far off into the distance.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“We’re on a bit of a time limit,” she tried, desperately.

Kato shimmied faster.

“You’re being ridiculous!” Styx exclaimed, her hands had returned to their familiar place on her hips, as she looked down at him.

‘Ridiculous she says, I’m a professional, and a good one at that, except for that one time and that other and the one after that…’ Kato’s thoughts trailed off, ‘what was I saying?’ he paused, ‘oh right, she called it ridiculous, that’s absurd.’

Kato looked back to her, “could you keep it down please. I’m trying to maintain a low profile here.”

“You’re…" she hesitated, “are you serious? You stick out like a sore thumb!”

Kato stopped shimmying, “I stick out like a sore thumb? You’re just walking in the middle of the hallway like we are not about to rob the place!”

“Rob the place… rob the place… rob the place.” His words echoed off the ornate walls, filling the surroundings.

“Subtle,” Styx commented dryly, “we are trying to blend into a crowd, not sneak by everyone with all the finesse of someone who once read a spy novel as a child!”

Kato’s face burned, that was where he had learned this technique from and for the most part it had served him well. He was proud with the ease he could shimmy, it was a skill he had perfected through countless hours of dedicated practice.

He cleared his throat lightly, “why didn’t you say so? I have a completely different technique for blending in,” he paused thinking. “Do you have a wig and a fake moustache on you perhaps?”

She looked at him, mouth agape, from the brilliance of his plan, “no.”

“Drat! Will have to do without.” Kato began walking normally by her side.

“A real shame,” Styx lightly sniggered to herself, who had she found?

The pair continued up the hallway, the warmth of the bristled, brown fur giving way to the cold, unforgiving, feel of polished stone. The tapestries and portraits disappeared, replaced by empty stone walls, with the occasional end table dotted with candles.

The iron scent of blood lingered in the air, Kato tensed, “do you smell that?”

“Yeah?” Styx looked at him strangely, “We are in the church. I did say.”

Kato nodded back, ‘don’t let her know you’re not a local.’ His thoughts sped up, he had really been hoping Kray was a one-off figure but apparently all of these practitioners were as crazy as the next. He shuddered, thinking of what sick, blood rituals these people must commit. Perhaps to appease a sick god, or perhaps to feed their own twisted fantasies and desires.

His face remained blank, letting none of his increasingly dark thoughts show. If anyone deserved to be stolen from it was them. He had no issues with stealing from them morally. There were very few people who he would have issues stealing from, he’d done a lot to survive after all and most of it was at the very least morally questionable.

No, these people were the worst of the worst, and he had seen in far more detail than anyone would wish to exactly what they were capable of. When the hooks of the church got into you, you were a dead man, and when they were finished with you, you were hardly recognisable.

He shivered, he had been really hoping that Kray’s church had been a one off, a man gone mad with power abusing them for his own enjoyment who justified his actions on the premise of helping people. Appparently not. They were an infestation.

Styx stopped at a small service entry door, Kato knew this from his great detective skills. The door was slightly more diminutive, there were patches of lighter wood, and it was pitted with small holes, all signs of an unloved entrance for those lower than the high and mighty church. That plus the sign that read ‘service entry’ were a dead giveaway.

Styx handed him a hooded cloth jacket.

‘Where does she keep pulling clothes from?’ Kato looked her up and down but found no bulges other than ones that could be easily explained. It was a mystery.

“Like what you see?” She posed slightly, in a similar, grey hooded cloth jacket, her face was hidden by a long shadow, as she stepped forward.

“You look nice,” Kato muttered awkwardly, ‘what does she want me to say?’

She smiled back at him brightly.

‘Good choice,’ Kato congratulated himself.

“Put it on,” Styx said, “the time for blending in is over.”

‘Super, secret shimmying mode activated!’ Kato exclaimed internally; it was time to put his skills on full display.

“And none of that weird shimmying stuff, we have to be fast,” Styx added after a beat had passed.

Kato was sad, but he didn’t let it show, he was on a mission and more importantly than that he was a professional. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said sharply, slipping the hooded garment overhead.

They pushed through the small service door and entered a derelict arched stone passage that went up in a steep gradient.

Dripping water interrupted the silence, and faded patches of moss grew across the stoned surfaces. Kato shuddered, ‘at least I can see where this moss starts and ends.’

The floor was formed through beaten dirt. Kato wasn’t even sure how that was possible, they shouldn’t be at ground level. Had they really dragged in dirt here just for the service corridors? Their decorations were made of gold! ‘Guess the hardships are only for some.’

Styx and Kato continued upwards coming to another small wooden door. It was much like the last, but instead of the sign demarcating it as a service passage a small circle with a diagonal slash running through it had been engraved.

Kato stepped back.

Styx looked at him, concerned, “Kato?”

“That symbol,” he spoke through shaky breaths, “we should turn back.”

“The symbol?” Styx looked to the door and back to him, that’s just a mark of the church of hardship, I thought you knew them?” She asked, her confusion evident.

“It doesn’t mean plague touched?”

“What? No why would it mean plague touched?” Styx looked at him, genuinely baffled.

‘Kray was insane. Maybe he got it wrong?' A stray thought whispered in Kato’s head, ‘maybe,’ he silently responded.

Before he could stop her, Styx opened the door.

Kato looked on; his body frozen rigid.