A small development for August is on the way :)

Chapter 35: Time Is Ruthless Part 1

A lifestyle similar to a typical vampire was the first idea that swelled in my head. I was aware she did not want to be bothered when the sun is up and healthy, but with my limited time I had to bargain with the devil. So before I entered Sasara’s home I prayed she wouldn’t toast me. With a steeled heart, I took two mighty steps inside then made sure the door behind me was shut tight to prevent any more sunlight from seeping through. I took a look around. It was as dark as it was inside yesterday.

“Sasara?” I let my voice echo before calling to her again and again.

I wasn't a bravado neither was I a daredevil, but I assumed that she will read my mind first before anything else, so I kept those words in my head as I trudged deeper in the witch's den.

Books, and more books. Her house is a treasure trove of information. As I went deeper, what little light that was guiding me from before slowly whittled down and what greeted me ahead seemed to be an endless hallway of darkness.

By the time I questioned my mentality to proceed further or not, everything around me started to distort. It began with a nausea that caused my knees to feel feeble, followed by an extreme headache that disabled my senses.

In those craziness, I fell to my knees as my surroundings shook, and as if my vision warped, everything around me completely changed. The moment I stood up, I found myself standing in the middle of a forest.

“The hell is this place?”

The trees weren’t as humongous as they were back in the Great Forest, but from where I stood, I could see a certain area continuously struck by purple lightning. The skies and clouds around it were ominously dark, as if a rabid storm was brewing.

Because I did not know where to head to nor did I have a clear idea of what was going on there, I marked that place as my extraction point. Damn that evil witch. I knew it was partially - well, overall - my fault for ignoring her warnings, but what kind of evil burglars did she had in the past for her to set up such a menacing trap?

Nevertheless, there was no time to muse whether this outcome was in purpose or not. A big crowd of skeletons had made their way around me, with rusty a sword and a buckler on each hand. No, they weren’t the type of evil that arose from the ground, but rather, these guys appeared out of nowhere, like magic.

“Shit man, this is the intruder?”

“This kid ain’t even worth our time.”

“You can say that again.”

The skeletons complained one by one. Normally you would think them for such mindless creatures, but each one seemed to have a distinct personality of their own.

I decided to ask, “Well, how about guiding me out of here?”

“Good idea, we wouldn’t want to awaken the lord’s pet,” the nearest skeleton said, reaching out his skeletal hand for a handshake. It was hard to make a go if he was being friendly, because there was nothing to read on his face, but I decided not to think too much about things that time and just accepted his handshake.

Then my curiosity got ahead of me. “Umm, the lord’s pet?”

“Yeah.” he nodded.

If a friendly skeleton wasn’t weird enough, I would expect no less on what lies ahead. However, when a giant shadow flew over us all, I knew it would be catastrophic.

August POV

It happened on that afternoon I was flipping the single gold coin Miss Emily blessed me for the day. I was walking down the streets while glancing solemnly at the sea.

All I had to do was act like an idiot, and Miss Emily was quick to give me what I wanted. In the beginning, I assumed her kindness was because she wanted to garner points, to be on my good side, so that my playful Master - whom I also refer to as a big brother - would use her even more. Used as in a way that it felt deliciously used. Then again, coming from a guy who noticed things on the sidelines, sex had never been their problem.

Maybe it was due to me being around popular guys, like Master and GrandMaster, that the unpopular me obtained this weird ability; this ability to read a girl’s smile. But no. Miss Emily wasn’t the type of lady to plan something atrocious. Thinking about her as such would be looking down on her devotion.

On the other hand, when I imagined how much sensual fun this money could bring me to a red light district, I couldn’t help but smile. A smile that was both lonely and artificial because I knew it would not buy me the feelings I longed to feel. Just like how most words are merely lies these days, there is not a definite way to know when one is expressing the ultimate truth. A simple smile could mean otherwise, and so does a laugh. It all depended on what we felt inside when we see such expressions.

For me, on that time of the day where the sea behind her looked forsaken due to the fading light of the sun, it felt mystique. She was not beautiful in a way that Miss Emily appeared, nor did she possessed a well developed bosom like the housewife that lived across the street, but neither was she as plain looking as Poppie. Something in the middle; I could even say that her features were quite unremarkable for me, at first glance. But there was something about her deep blue eyes, her gaze, and her smile that had such a compelling presence.

Both of my eyes were glued to hers, until the sea breeze came and ruined such a perfect moment. I had no idea what to say or how could I even start introducing myself, but my legs were already driven by curiosity, by my desire to know, and brought me closer. It wasn’t a romantic feeling, certainly not to a lady who seemed like she was older than me by a decade, but rather, I thought she might needed a friend who would listen to her grimace. That was the type of vibe she emitted to me the moment our eyes locked.

But, contrast to my imaginative scenario, she said nothing when I stood beside her and gazed at the sea. While I waited for to speak, for her to acknowledge my presence, I stole a quick glance. Stole, because I did not want her to see.

Now that I was closer, I realized she was younger than I first thought. No older than a girl reaching the end of her teens, at least five to six years older than me. She wore a white loose tunic with long sleeves, so long that her hands were hidden in them. Her stroking hands bumped the band that tied her brown hair down, and they stayed there.

In the end, no matter how long I waited, she still did not talk. Not a single syllable left her mouth that concealed the mysteries of her name, but her expression was more than enough for me to tell what she wanted. So just like her I remained tongue tied and unable to speak.

However, I did something else. Something I wouldn’t expect a stranger would do in our first meeting, and more importantly, not when we hadn’t even exchanged a single greeting.

I smiled as I reached out a hand to her. Mystified, and perhaps intrigued at the same time, she returned a simple smile, still not uttering a single word which, in turn, encompassed us both in riddles. A puzzling and alluring mystery that I couldn’t describe myself. She trusted my crooked smile then she took my hand and began walking down the pier, past the angry seagulls claiming the wooden railings on both ends.

For the first time in my life, I felt my heart pound with a certain hope.

I blamed my excitement that I hadn’t felt it immediately, but the hand I grasped was cold. Indeed, standing near the water for who knows how long, she would feel cold. Just like the cold, bony hands they described of death, that coldness was something I deemed “unnatural”, and so did her silent footsteps on the weathered planks. It wasn’t because she was petite and I was heavy. Yeah, I had to trick myself with that.

By the time my head started working again, I was by myself, walking under the sunless sky. The gem attached on my hammer had been responding like it was mad, telling me that an acquirable spirit was nearby. My instincts did not want me believe such things but, on the other hand, it was the only plausible conclusion I could think of.

“Avenir? In this place?”

After all, who would be attracted to this fat, overgrown belly of mine?