An evening gone awry

[redford]

Despite his apparent malcontent, John felt it had been the right decision to let go of he boy's arm. There was no way he could be certain that his warning and the woman's scream were connected, no matter how inconvenient the timing was. Had news of the brotherhood set him that far on edge? He doubted it. Jamie had been his first priority in that moment, and though he didn't wish to fight Hayate, he would do so if the shinobi threatened her. He would do the same in the case of the Brotherhood. Truth to tell, he wasn't sure how he felt about the war. John knew that the lavish lifestyles of the nobility was built on a working class that, for lack of a more eloquent term, worked for shit pay, in shit conditions, for shitty people.

Senseless bloodshed was, however, something that John hated, and seemed to be what the Brotherhood was shaping up to be. The frenzy to which people had been whipped, especially in Radasanth, had been troubling. He looked back at Jamie. He wished she would have taken his suggestion to get out of the country to heart, but she had no desire to drift from place to place again. She had found a home in Radasanth, something her violent childhood and most of her subsequent adult life had lacked. John didn’t blame her for wanting to stay, but if she was going to remain in this city, John would be there with her. Besides, he didn’t imagine that the Telgradian would spend time and effort attacking someone who might not even be an enemy. No, Shinou was smarter than that, no matter how misguided his ambitions.

The arm that Hayate grew brought John back from his thoughts as he saw the shinobi leave. It had to be magic, but John did not know what kind or where he drew his power. Clearly, there was more to him than John knew, at least for now. He looked back at Jamie, who still sat, surprisingly calm, considering all of what had just transpired. He spoke.

“I should-”

“Go, John,” she interrupted, the edge of her mouth curling up slightly as she stood and took another sip of water. “They’re playing your song. Besides, I’ll be right behind you.

John grunted. They’d had this discussion enough for John to know it wouldn’t bear any fruit. He didn’t press the issue, and stood up, ambling toward the door.

He passed through to the courtyard, which was large enough and the fog dense enough such that he couldn’t see the other side. Frankly, he wasn’t sure he could see thirty feet in front of him. He walked into the fog several paces, Jamie behind him. Eyes forward, he spied the now-unbalanced silhouette of Hayate, who was barking orders to the city guard. As John arrived, he saw the scene. A few onlookers had arrived, but the spectacle was the young woman on the cobbles at the gawkers’ feet. Her eyes were open, her mouth contorted into a grimace, but the disturbing whiteness of her skin unnerved John even more. John thought that she was simply wearing white clothing, but her entire body, clothing and all, had been drained of color. Everything on her body was a pale white, from her hair right down to the buttons on her dress. A voice broke the murmuring onlookers’ conversation as John drew close.

“Worse…” the voice echoed, it sounded like a gust of wind through trees. The fog seemed to shift, to warp in places, to coalesce and dissipate as it it were alive. The ominous voice returned.

“...She’s bait”

It took less than a heartbeat for John to realize what was going on, and as he did, he turned to Jamie.

“Run, now!” he shouted, pointing back to the restaurant, even the lights barely visible in the unknown miasma. As Jamie turned to flee, she screamed and collapsed to the ground, along with two of the guards standing beside the woman.

“Ah, it makes my spirit soar!” the voice called, and part of the undulating mist before John condensed into the shape of a face. The mouth opened, speaking with that rasping voice again. “Fear! Ah, just rapturous!”

John paid the face no mind as he rushed to Jamie, who whimpered, staring upwards at nothing and writhing on the ground. His panic threatened to overwhelm him as he cradled her, muttering to himself.

“No, no, no, no, no,” the half-giant repeated, checking Jamie’s pulse. A thousand scenarios flashed in his mind, each more vivid and disturbing than the last, and all involving Jamie’s demise. The voice returned, booming deeply inside his mind, yet of the same essence somehow.

And with bigger bait comes bigger prey…..

Jamie’s eyes refocused as John’s gazed into nothing, and he collapsed beside Jamie, still as a stone.