Post by Lady Hammer on Apr 8, 2007 17:14:58 GMT -5
V. The Heywood Contract
It was a silent, silent moan. Everyone stood quiet, waiting for it again. Then, all eyes went to the elf, waiting.
“What is it?” Kedo asked, biting on the inside of her lip. Maravandril’s slender fingers began passing by the crates and barrels. Her small steps showed she was just as apprehensive as the watchwoman.
“You’re the elf. What did you hear?” Anna said, repeating the watchwoman’s question.
“I don’t know for sure. I can tell it’s a man, though.”
As the elf’s hand ran past the towers of barrels and crates, she felt the cold wetness of fresh blood. She looked down and her eyes followed the dark trail of red to a slightly disturbed stack of wood cartons. There was another moan.
“Bootmann… come over here! Move these crates out of the way.”
The asylum patient slowly waddled over to where Maravandril was standing, and hefted the wood cartons into the air and tossed them aside in a loud eruption behind him.
“Hey! Get him to quiet down!” Anna shouted in a whisper. “What the hell do you think this is? Someone’s going to hear him!” Maravandril turned around and gave her a sharp look.
Bootmann’s pace slowed. As the crates were tossed aside one by one, Kedo’s eyed wandered to the other corners of the room, and her sight, too, saw a trail of bloodstains. Curiously and quietly, she neared a suspicious tail of white sheet peeking from behind a tall barrel. She kneeled, taking a look behind her to see of the elf or thief caught on to what she was doing, and silently moved the barrel aside. There, bundled in a bloody white sheet, was a short sword covered in the crimson she could only assume to match the blood on the floor.
“Oh my God…!”
Maravandril’s outburst sent the startled watchwoman back a step. Quickly replacing her own sword with the dirtied one, Kedo stood and once more lingered with the others. Then, she gasped.
Phio was on the ground amongst the crates, wrapped in a sheet soaked with his own blood. His helpless, weak stare gazed up at them.
“Bootmann, pick him up!” Maravandril said tersely, nudging the man in the ribs. Almost whimpering, Bootmann scooped Phio into his husky arms. The watchman’s dark brown eyes slightly rolled back as blood dripped from his barely parted lips, dripping down onto floor.
“I-it’s Phio H-Heywood! W-wha… wha-” Kedo stumbled on her words, her heart pounding ferociously, beads of sweat gathering at her temples.
“What happened?” Anna finished for her, looking over Phio’s frame. He couldn’t answer. Meek mumbles came out of his mouth, but he didn’t form any words. He had at least three stab wounds on his body, amidst the cuts and bruises from a terrible fight.
“This is impossible!” Kedo shouted, stepping back and shaking her head. “No! I didn’t think anyone was capable of hurting an ARC man!”
“Well, apparently your little dream has been abolished,” Maravandril said. Her eyes laid on old, dried bloodstains dotting the walls and ground, from long ago. “Many times.” Anna couldn’t stifle her cringe.
“I’ve heard about this… Aeslyn’s told me about the bloodstains before…” Kedo whispered, her jaw agape.
“Who?”
“My sister!” Kedo shouted back. Anna shrugged and rolled her eyes.
“Like I was supposed to know.”
Suddenly, an almost inaudible string of words came from Phio, his head darting back and forth with a feverish sweat.
“Keep him away… keep him away…”
Everything was silent, save for the watchman’s heavy breaths and mumbling. His lip was busted giving way to a stream of scarlet running freely down his chin and neck, and every time he made a sound, a tiny bit of blood crept from his throat and spilled from his mouth. It was enough to make Kedo’s violet eyes water.
“What do you think happened to him?” Anna asked, tearing a wad of cloth from her tan tank top and wrapping it around a wound on the man’s shoulder. Kedo merely shrugged, unable to take her eyes off the helpless Phio.
“I don’t know. I didn’t think this could happen…”
Maravandril stepped forward, craned her neck a bit, and folded her arms.
“Maybe it wasn’t just anyone. Maybe another ARC man hurt him.”
Kedo paused, then violently shook her head.
“Never! Centa would never do that!”
“Well, you can believe your childish innocence all you want. Why else would your sister tell you about all of the bloodstains?” Maravandril then helped Anna tie up Phio’s wounds, ripping pieces from the bottom of her skirt. The watchwoman refused to believe the tale.
“Looks like he might have internal bleeding,” Anna murmured, looking to a deep wound on the man’s hip. The elf nodded solemnly.
“Maybe.”
Moments lingered and sat still as Phio’s body was wrapped in small scraps of tan and olive green cloth, leaving Kedo to sit on her knees, distantly, shivering in anticipation. Belated thoughts from walking into the building were just then flashing through her head. Then, the fight with Eryndale. And that man she called to. Emilio.
“Hey!”
Anna’s exclamation broke the silence. “He’s coughing!” Writhing in pain, Phio choked on the blood caught in his throat, spitting up everywhere, and screaming. Kedo rushed to pin him down. He flailed his arms, yelling at the top of his lungs, coughing and gagging and squirming to get free from the grasp that everyone else now had on him. Quickly, Maravandril clamped her delicate hand over his mouth and met each of the girls’ glances.
“I think someone’s heard us,” she whispered, struggling to keep the watchman under control. Footsteps and creaking from nearby floors shook the basement walls.
“What the hell are we supposed to do?” Anna said, getting annoyed with Phio’s fighting and being rougher with him than was necessary. “We can’t just knock him out and put him back!”
“You’re right --”
“No! No! No more!”
Phio’s screaming became louder as his delirium worsened. Maravandril had finally grown tired of it.
“Bootmann! Come here!” She beckoned for the lumbering man, who came waddling over, tired and bored. “Listen, Bootmann! Heywood wants to play a game! Show him your spoon!” Excited, Bootmann’s beady eyes lit up, and from his fanny-pack he took out a wooden spoon.
“Hurry, get away from him!” Maravandril said, shoving Anna and Kedo in a far corner.
“Hey! Mar, what--”
“Shhh!”
Phio groaned, whimpered and bled profusely while the asylum’s patient dangled the spoon before his face, murmuring simple words that no one could understand. Bootmann rocked the spoon back and forth, gazing intensely into the ARC man’s dilated pupils. Suddenly, he was calm. Silent. Trembling. Kedo could feel something burning inside of him. Something pent up. She watched as he was hypnotized into a quiet stupor. Then, Bootmann asked one, simple question.
“Are you okay?”
“No... no, stop… I didn’t do anything…” Phio whispered, his hands shaking. Sweat ran down his face, mixed in with tears. “I didn’t… no… no! No more! Stop!” He was almost convulsing. “No! Please! Let me help! No!” Sobbing. He rolled over and screamed, and then dry heaved. More blood spilled onto the hard floor. “Don’t hurt me! Stop! Centa!”
“That’s enough!”
Kedo ran and tore Bootmann away from the ARC man.
“Leave him alone! Don’t make him remember!”
Maravandril tentatively placed a hand on the watchwoman’s shoulder.
“It’s okay,” she said. “We’ll do something about this.” Kedo sniffled and helped Bootmann carry the watchman, who was slipping in and out of consciousness as the trance wore off.
“I think someone’s coming,” Anna suddenly said, climbing halfway up the basement ladder. “We should get out of here before we’re cornered.”
They left the basement, Bootmann carrying Phio. Kedo led them through the room Eryndale came through, and finally, a gallery with a staircase. To Anna, it was a shame to let such a gallery go to waste, with weapons, armor, and priceless paintings lining the walls, calling out to her. As everyone was making their way up the staircase, one of the paintings caught Maravandril’s eye.
“I don’t think we have time for this, Mar,” the thief said, grabbing Maravandril’s wrist. She yanked it back.
“Don’t touch me!”
Fuming, Anna stared to the painting. It was an extremely large canvas, on it a white-haired elven maiden. Her lips were turned into a hidden smile, and stunning blue and silver necklaces that matched her eyes dangled around a slender neck. Maravandril’s own eyes were wide.
“What?” Anna asked, crossing her arms.
“That’s my sister.”
At this, Kedo also came rushing over. The bottom of the picture was titled “Fair Lady Kardis, Princess Maiden of Azukas”.
“She doesn’t look a damn like you, Mar,” Anna said, sighing. “Are we ready to go, yet?”
“Wait!” Maravandril snapped, swatting the thief. “I wanna know why there’s a painting of my sister in this place!” Anna narrowed her copper eyes, and took two small bars of metal from her pocket.
“Fine. You gawk, I’ll rob.”
Kedo watched the thief ogle over a large and tall crystalline sword case. Just as everything else was labeled, the sword’s plaque inside read “First Place in Fair Lady Kardis’s Sword Dancing Competition - Centa Jinzaburou”. The sword was tall, curved, hiltless, and a shimmering blue color. Anna was enticed by it. Everything else in the gallery seemed to be Centa’s. Or, at least, every 1st place item. There were a few 2nd place trophies of Phio’s, but everything worth noting was Centa’s, as well as numerous paintings of places the two had been, people they had seen, and of the Fair Lady Kardis. The sound of Anna delicately working the lock on the sword case as she licked her lips in frustration was the only sound in the room.
“Stop that, Anna! Show some respect!”
“Hah!” Anna laughed, ignoring the watchwoman. “I don’t show respect!” Kedo scowled. For a few moments, Anna’s tools vehemently attacked the padlock. And then, there was a crack, and a crash. Glittering shards of glass were scattered across the tiled floor, reflecting an agape Anna. Her mouth formed words, but she made no sound, struck with horror. Perturbed, Kedo took a step back. Around her, Maravandril was screaming at the top of her lungs, also soundless. Bootmann ambled around cluelessly. Everything was deathly quiet. The watchwoman could hear neither her footsteps crunching atop the glass, nor the panic that filled the room.
Anna’s shock soon turned into greed once her fingers fell upon her prize, however. The gleaming sword that had belonged to Centa was now in her hands, and she did little to hide a proud snicker. Then, the silvery blue blade emitted a cold mist, and within seconds, the room became dark and drafty, with a pale fog drooping on the ground. Subjects in paintings quickly fled, and instead the frames depicted dismal scenes, and the fog formed into various apparitions. Faces. Many of them.
And then, there was the ringing of a bell.
Kedo screamed, but no sound came out.
It was a silent, silent moan. Everyone stood quiet, waiting for it again. Then, all eyes went to the elf, waiting.
“What is it?” Kedo asked, biting on the inside of her lip. Maravandril’s slender fingers began passing by the crates and barrels. Her small steps showed she was just as apprehensive as the watchwoman.
“You’re the elf. What did you hear?” Anna said, repeating the watchwoman’s question.
“I don’t know for sure. I can tell it’s a man, though.”
As the elf’s hand ran past the towers of barrels and crates, she felt the cold wetness of fresh blood. She looked down and her eyes followed the dark trail of red to a slightly disturbed stack of wood cartons. There was another moan.
“Bootmann… come over here! Move these crates out of the way.”
The asylum patient slowly waddled over to where Maravandril was standing, and hefted the wood cartons into the air and tossed them aside in a loud eruption behind him.
“Hey! Get him to quiet down!” Anna shouted in a whisper. “What the hell do you think this is? Someone’s going to hear him!” Maravandril turned around and gave her a sharp look.
Bootmann’s pace slowed. As the crates were tossed aside one by one, Kedo’s eyed wandered to the other corners of the room, and her sight, too, saw a trail of bloodstains. Curiously and quietly, she neared a suspicious tail of white sheet peeking from behind a tall barrel. She kneeled, taking a look behind her to see of the elf or thief caught on to what she was doing, and silently moved the barrel aside. There, bundled in a bloody white sheet, was a short sword covered in the crimson she could only assume to match the blood on the floor.
“Oh my God…!”
Maravandril’s outburst sent the startled watchwoman back a step. Quickly replacing her own sword with the dirtied one, Kedo stood and once more lingered with the others. Then, she gasped.
Phio was on the ground amongst the crates, wrapped in a sheet soaked with his own blood. His helpless, weak stare gazed up at them.
“Bootmann, pick him up!” Maravandril said tersely, nudging the man in the ribs. Almost whimpering, Bootmann scooped Phio into his husky arms. The watchman’s dark brown eyes slightly rolled back as blood dripped from his barely parted lips, dripping down onto floor.
“I-it’s Phio H-Heywood! W-wha… wha-” Kedo stumbled on her words, her heart pounding ferociously, beads of sweat gathering at her temples.
“What happened?” Anna finished for her, looking over Phio’s frame. He couldn’t answer. Meek mumbles came out of his mouth, but he didn’t form any words. He had at least three stab wounds on his body, amidst the cuts and bruises from a terrible fight.
“This is impossible!” Kedo shouted, stepping back and shaking her head. “No! I didn’t think anyone was capable of hurting an ARC man!”
“Well, apparently your little dream has been abolished,” Maravandril said. Her eyes laid on old, dried bloodstains dotting the walls and ground, from long ago. “Many times.” Anna couldn’t stifle her cringe.
“I’ve heard about this… Aeslyn’s told me about the bloodstains before…” Kedo whispered, her jaw agape.
“Who?”
“My sister!” Kedo shouted back. Anna shrugged and rolled her eyes.
“Like I was supposed to know.”
Suddenly, an almost inaudible string of words came from Phio, his head darting back and forth with a feverish sweat.
“Keep him away… keep him away…”
Everything was silent, save for the watchman’s heavy breaths and mumbling. His lip was busted giving way to a stream of scarlet running freely down his chin and neck, and every time he made a sound, a tiny bit of blood crept from his throat and spilled from his mouth. It was enough to make Kedo’s violet eyes water.
“What do you think happened to him?” Anna asked, tearing a wad of cloth from her tan tank top and wrapping it around a wound on the man’s shoulder. Kedo merely shrugged, unable to take her eyes off the helpless Phio.
“I don’t know. I didn’t think this could happen…”
Maravandril stepped forward, craned her neck a bit, and folded her arms.
“Maybe it wasn’t just anyone. Maybe another ARC man hurt him.”
Kedo paused, then violently shook her head.
“Never! Centa would never do that!”
“Well, you can believe your childish innocence all you want. Why else would your sister tell you about all of the bloodstains?” Maravandril then helped Anna tie up Phio’s wounds, ripping pieces from the bottom of her skirt. The watchwoman refused to believe the tale.
“Looks like he might have internal bleeding,” Anna murmured, looking to a deep wound on the man’s hip. The elf nodded solemnly.
“Maybe.”
Moments lingered and sat still as Phio’s body was wrapped in small scraps of tan and olive green cloth, leaving Kedo to sit on her knees, distantly, shivering in anticipation. Belated thoughts from walking into the building were just then flashing through her head. Then, the fight with Eryndale. And that man she called to. Emilio.
“Hey!”
Anna’s exclamation broke the silence. “He’s coughing!” Writhing in pain, Phio choked on the blood caught in his throat, spitting up everywhere, and screaming. Kedo rushed to pin him down. He flailed his arms, yelling at the top of his lungs, coughing and gagging and squirming to get free from the grasp that everyone else now had on him. Quickly, Maravandril clamped her delicate hand over his mouth and met each of the girls’ glances.
“I think someone’s heard us,” she whispered, struggling to keep the watchman under control. Footsteps and creaking from nearby floors shook the basement walls.
“What the hell are we supposed to do?” Anna said, getting annoyed with Phio’s fighting and being rougher with him than was necessary. “We can’t just knock him out and put him back!”
“You’re right --”
“No! No! No more!”
Phio’s screaming became louder as his delirium worsened. Maravandril had finally grown tired of it.
“Bootmann! Come here!” She beckoned for the lumbering man, who came waddling over, tired and bored. “Listen, Bootmann! Heywood wants to play a game! Show him your spoon!” Excited, Bootmann’s beady eyes lit up, and from his fanny-pack he took out a wooden spoon.
“Hurry, get away from him!” Maravandril said, shoving Anna and Kedo in a far corner.
“Hey! Mar, what--”
“Shhh!”
Phio groaned, whimpered and bled profusely while the asylum’s patient dangled the spoon before his face, murmuring simple words that no one could understand. Bootmann rocked the spoon back and forth, gazing intensely into the ARC man’s dilated pupils. Suddenly, he was calm. Silent. Trembling. Kedo could feel something burning inside of him. Something pent up. She watched as he was hypnotized into a quiet stupor. Then, Bootmann asked one, simple question.
“Are you okay?”
“No... no, stop… I didn’t do anything…” Phio whispered, his hands shaking. Sweat ran down his face, mixed in with tears. “I didn’t… no… no! No more! Stop!” He was almost convulsing. “No! Please! Let me help! No!” Sobbing. He rolled over and screamed, and then dry heaved. More blood spilled onto the hard floor. “Don’t hurt me! Stop! Centa!”
“That’s enough!”
Kedo ran and tore Bootmann away from the ARC man.
“Leave him alone! Don’t make him remember!”
Maravandril tentatively placed a hand on the watchwoman’s shoulder.
“It’s okay,” she said. “We’ll do something about this.” Kedo sniffled and helped Bootmann carry the watchman, who was slipping in and out of consciousness as the trance wore off.
“I think someone’s coming,” Anna suddenly said, climbing halfway up the basement ladder. “We should get out of here before we’re cornered.”
They left the basement, Bootmann carrying Phio. Kedo led them through the room Eryndale came through, and finally, a gallery with a staircase. To Anna, it was a shame to let such a gallery go to waste, with weapons, armor, and priceless paintings lining the walls, calling out to her. As everyone was making their way up the staircase, one of the paintings caught Maravandril’s eye.
“I don’t think we have time for this, Mar,” the thief said, grabbing Maravandril’s wrist. She yanked it back.
“Don’t touch me!”
Fuming, Anna stared to the painting. It was an extremely large canvas, on it a white-haired elven maiden. Her lips were turned into a hidden smile, and stunning blue and silver necklaces that matched her eyes dangled around a slender neck. Maravandril’s own eyes were wide.
“What?” Anna asked, crossing her arms.
“That’s my sister.”
At this, Kedo also came rushing over. The bottom of the picture was titled “Fair Lady Kardis, Princess Maiden of Azukas”.
“She doesn’t look a damn like you, Mar,” Anna said, sighing. “Are we ready to go, yet?”
“Wait!” Maravandril snapped, swatting the thief. “I wanna know why there’s a painting of my sister in this place!” Anna narrowed her copper eyes, and took two small bars of metal from her pocket.
“Fine. You gawk, I’ll rob.”
Kedo watched the thief ogle over a large and tall crystalline sword case. Just as everything else was labeled, the sword’s plaque inside read “First Place in Fair Lady Kardis’s Sword Dancing Competition - Centa Jinzaburou”. The sword was tall, curved, hiltless, and a shimmering blue color. Anna was enticed by it. Everything else in the gallery seemed to be Centa’s. Or, at least, every 1st place item. There were a few 2nd place trophies of Phio’s, but everything worth noting was Centa’s, as well as numerous paintings of places the two had been, people they had seen, and of the Fair Lady Kardis. The sound of Anna delicately working the lock on the sword case as she licked her lips in frustration was the only sound in the room.
“Stop that, Anna! Show some respect!”
“Hah!” Anna laughed, ignoring the watchwoman. “I don’t show respect!” Kedo scowled. For a few moments, Anna’s tools vehemently attacked the padlock. And then, there was a crack, and a crash. Glittering shards of glass were scattered across the tiled floor, reflecting an agape Anna. Her mouth formed words, but she made no sound, struck with horror. Perturbed, Kedo took a step back. Around her, Maravandril was screaming at the top of her lungs, also soundless. Bootmann ambled around cluelessly. Everything was deathly quiet. The watchwoman could hear neither her footsteps crunching atop the glass, nor the panic that filled the room.
Anna’s shock soon turned into greed once her fingers fell upon her prize, however. The gleaming sword that had belonged to Centa was now in her hands, and she did little to hide a proud snicker. Then, the silvery blue blade emitted a cold mist, and within seconds, the room became dark and drafty, with a pale fog drooping on the ground. Subjects in paintings quickly fled, and instead the frames depicted dismal scenes, and the fog formed into various apparitions. Faces. Many of them.
And then, there was the ringing of a bell.
Kedo screamed, but no sound came out.
